I am frustrated at Prime Minister Mark Carney’s fighting “Canada strong” talk and then not even collecting the first billion-dollar digital services tax that had been in the works for years, telling the population that it was in the interests of a good trade deal with the U.S.
What did we get in return for this? 35% tariffs from President Donald Trump. We have had continuous proof from Trump that he will not remove tariffs and will not negotiate fairly.
Carney rolled over like a lap dog over this and in the presser in the Oval Office hardly was given the chance to speak at all. This is recent history and Canadian experience of Trump and his regime.
Carney badly misjudged the situation. Canada could have been several billion dollars richer and then cancelled the digital services tax.
If he had done that, having collected the first instalment of the tax it would have been interesting to have seen Trump’s reaction. I surmise a 35% tariff would not have been the response.
Diana Atkin
Victoria
Two letters in the Times Colonist caught my attention.
One was the suggestion to move the Our Place building and services elsewhere. Where do you think they can move to? Nobody wants the folks who need their services in their backyard.
The second item was regarding involuntary treatment, that it does not work. Of course it does not work when you send clients back into the same old environment.
Everyone must appreciate we are talking about human beings who have suffered abuse from early childhood, discrimination, lack of proper housing, lack of sufficient health, mental and addiction services long term.
You cannot treat someone and discharge them back into their old neighbourhood, without proper housing and support. That just dooms them to failure.
If you read reports from Our Place Society about the number of clients they have helped to lead healthier lives, return to school, return to work, you would appreciate the value of their services.
So, until we do the serious work of increasing the number of health workers, supportive housing and donating to Our Place to help them continue to do the amazing work they do, circumstances on Yates and Pandora will not change. You are just sweeping the issue under the rug if you don’t take proper and appropriate action.
Ann Maffey
Saanich
Once again we see the selfishness of dog owners: After an acrimonious public consulting process that lasted months, the current compromise on dogs in Mount Douglas Park was reached.
Barely has the ink dried on the bylaws implementing that compromise, and dog owners are pushing for more space for their exclusive use, despite already having 10 per cent of the space just for them, and with the rest of the park accessible for them and their pets.
Under no circumstances should more space be given to dog owners in Mount Doug Park for dogs to destroy. If we were truly concerned about Mount Doug as a nature sanctuary, we would follow the science and ban dogs.
However, there’s more to this than just selfish dog owners. As population density is increased, the amount of park space per person shrinks, something the housing-density advocates seem blissfully unaware of.
Unless significant investments are made in the park systems across all municipalities, as more people live in these areas, the conflicts for park space will worsen, be it everyone who wants to use parks as intended vs. dog owners needing space to exercise dogs, pickleball players desperately trying to find court space and disrupting existing park setups, or any number of other park space conflicts we see in the news.
If the province wishes to push a density agenda, it needs to fund amenities like parks that must be improved alongside increased housing density.
Garrett Therrien
Victoria
Re: “Six new electric buses set to go into service in Greater Victoria on Monday,” June 26.
So, B.C. Transit, run on public funds, won’t reveal what these new electric buses cost. Those costs must be outrageous.
That $420 line item on my house taxes for B.C. Transit is clear as day, for a service I never use.
The waste at transit appears to be enormous.
A Freedom of Information Act request seems appropriate at this time.
Dan Andrews
Colwood
Re: “Falling productivity creates a grim job market,” editorial, June 27.
Our stagnant productivity is not a problem. It may be a blessing for the world, including us Canadians.
The problem is the inequitable distribution of our wealth, which likely contributes to social unrest, lack of trust and empathy, health issues, and lack of engagement in the political process and maintenance of democratic values.
We have the basic abilities and resources to lead contented lives, regardless of U.S. President Donald Trump’s war of economics. And beyond all that, if we are to avoid a severe collapse of society and population levels in the near future, what the world needs is much less “stuff” and material ambition, and any technological advancement to be limited to those reducing and sequestering carbon emissions.
Glynne Evans
Saanich
With the collapse of the post-war global order, Canada scrambles to redefine itself on the world stage. Mostly this is about trade and military buildup. But there’s a critical factor that’s been absent from news cycles, and that’s our role to fill the chasm left by the United States’ abandonment of global development.
Too often foreign assistance is met with platitudes about spending the money here, and our needs come first. But this simplistic notion is blind to the fact, as we’ve seen all too clearly in the past few years, that Canada doesn’t exist in a self-sufficient vacuum.
What happens around the world has a direct impact on our economy and indeed our very health. Helping the development of emerging countries into robust trading partners, with stable democratic leadership and the capacity to fight emerging diseases, is to our own benefit.
The alternative is to push these states into the arms of hostile regimes.
Along with a greater military presence in the world, it’s critical that Canada also adopts a greater humanitarian stance through foreign assistance.
Nathaniel Poole
Victoria
Re: “Drivers still breaking roundabout rules,” column, July 4.
Driver stupidity is bad enough, and driver sense of entitlement is bad enough, but when both are combined, it must be tough for John Ducker to exercise the civility and restraint he does when he writes about it.
As he noted in his Driving column, the gumball rally at the so-called roundabout at Cook and Southgate is a classic example.
But here’s a suggestion: Let’s get the engineering geniuses who designed the McTavish/YYJ Bowl of spaghetti roundabouts to put two double cloverleafs at the Cook/Southgate junction.
Then like in the Kingston Trio’s MTA song from 1959, we’d see family members throwing sandwiches to the helplessly lost drivers each lunchtime.
Or maybe forget that and just cheap out and have traffic signals put in there, synchronized red just like every other one in town. Anyway, this is just my roundabout way of saying how much I enjoy Ducker’s common-sense perspectives each week.
John Gawthrop
Victoria
Am I the only one that sees the irony when American politicians complain about wildfire smoke from Canada while burning almost half a billion tons of coal every year in power plants?
Martin Hill
Sooke
I’m sure its inevitable that Victoria gets a name change for cultural sensitivity reasons. I have a suggestion to avoid all the hard-to-understand spellings full of numbers and symbols.
Given the crime news of the last year and recently, can we just get it over with and call Victoria, Stabtown?
It just has a nice ring to it and represents the new version of our city so well.
C. Scott Stofer
Gabriola
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