The Ministry of Transportation and Transit’s plan to widen the highway at Goldstream Park has received little profile in the media, although the impact will be huge.
The $162-million project will widen the road in order to install cement barriers in the middle. Supposedly this is to increase safety, but the bollards installed a few years ago are quite effective in reducing speed through that area. The only accident after putting in the bollards was due to a driver’s poor judgment, nothing to do with the road.
The impact of this project is enormous — cutting down more than 700 trees and sinking concrete footings into the salmon-spawning river. The salmon might never come back.
Currently, it is at the stage of consultation with the W̱SÁNEĆ people, but in spite of that the ministry has let a contract to start the preliminary work. This project is a waste of money and will do irreparable harm to the environment and to the relationship with the W̱SÁNEĆ people. I’m pleading with the minister to reconsider and shelve the project.
Pieta VanDyke
Saanichton
I’ve just finished readingThe Haves and Have-Yachtsby Evan Osnos.
Osnos claims there are 800 billionaires in the United States now. While Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have always thought that it’s important to use a large portion of their money to help other people, it seems many of the newer wealthiest people spend their time simply finding ways to make more and more money and preserve what they already have from being taxed.
Twenty years ago, the CEO of a company would traditionally make anywhere from 20 to 50 times what the front-line worker in his company would take home. These days, a CEO will make at least 350 times more than his employee.
If workers around the world are pleading for a living wage and improved working conditions — well — we wouldn’t want to interfere with that bottom line now, would we?
In 2024, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, had $400 billion. (Mind you, he has since lost a bit because various share prices have fallen. Awwww, poor guy!)
He puts most of the money he earns back into investments with his companies — Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and xAl — although, to be fair, he has donated shares of his companies to charities on occasion. For fun, he enjoys playing video games.
Recently, Musk helped elect Donald Trump as the U.S. president. After he was elected, Trump proceeded to appoint a total of 13 billionaires to his administration. In 2024, it seems the ultra-rich have taken control of the American government. Do you doubt they might be expecting a return for their support?
E. Jean Jenkins
Saanich
Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon has recently stated in interviews that there are now only 19 people living on Pandora Avenue from a high of about 100. He says the rest of the population has moved into the city’s housing network.
The minister does not live in Victoria and likely doesn’t stroll around the downtown Victoria core.
The population that moved on from Pandora is now camping throughout the city in entrances to shops, parking lots, under awnings and openly on sidewalks.
If the minister thinks the problem has improved, he is wrong.
We have read many letters to the editor of theTimes Colonistrecently from citizens of Victoria, Saanich and surrounding municipalities as well as tourists who are dismayed and afraid of the public disorder on the streets and sidewalks of downtown Victoria.
Message to politicians: Please do not paint a picture of progress while our city is still deteriorating; shops are closing and visitors who come are shocked and saddened at the state of our city. And please take bold and immediate action.
Ian Munroe
Victoria
Re: “Woss man sent by taxi to Victoria hospital — a $2,148 round-trip fare,” June 18.
So what?
If Island Health deems it responsible to pay for a taxi from Woss (I know the place well), then so be it. I don’t get Nigel Poulton’s raising a fuss. I think it’s responsible to hire a professional for this service rather than expecting some family member or friend to make that drive. Remember that Woss is pretty remote.
Art Farquharson
Victoria and Alert Bay
There is much to agree with those who urge shipbuilding in B.C. However, as no domestic shipbuilder made ferry bids when called for, one cannot blame the industry, which is currently working to capacity (a good thing).
But rather than contract a Chinese builder, which no doubt has subsidies from a government often unfriendly to Canada, why not choose one from any of the many builders among our friends around the world (European, South Korean, etc.)?
One must also keep in mind the distinct possibility (probability?) that China could invade Taiwan, a Canada-friendly country that we would no doubt fully support. China could then be termed an enemy with whom our trading relationships might be severed.
How, then, would we get maintenance support for those ferries that were built there? Even if a conflict did not occur, B.C. Ferries might be somewhat dependent on the maintenance and engineering support of a country that has already shown an unfriendly streak toward Canada that could flare up again (personnel detention, canola embargo, elections interference, etc.).
In my view, any dependence on China is a serious vulnerability that must be avoided.
Stanley Brygadyr
Saanich
Dog owners could create their own park
Re: “Throw a bone to Saanich dog owners,” letter, June 18.
Here’s a thought: How about the dog owners and enthusiasts pool their own resources, buy whatever property that they see fit and operate their own dog park?
Leave taxpayers out of it. Perhaps they could charge a fee per visit.
Ken Allen
Colwood
I read with amusement letters and commentary about climate change and what to do about it. I can state categorically that climate heating was irreversibly put into effect quite some time ago and cannot now be reversed.
Even if some people wanted to stop the warming, there are several billion who have either never heard of it or couldn’t care less and have better things to do with their lives.
Expansion of the water in the oceans due to warming will submerge most of the major cities of the world and heat will eliminate crops and most vegetation. A few small peaks in the Arctic and a large area in Antarctica will remain habitable and will be clung to by a very few people watching over their heavily defended patch of vegetables.
So, how about life on the ocean waves, calling in at the upper floors of the Empire State Building to get your heads of lettuce? How jolly!
But what if, or rather when, your luxury liner’s engine blows a gasket, or whatever it is that modern engines need to keep them working. What then? There is nowhere left to provide a replacement and you are helpless, to be blown on shore.
Why am I making such outrageous statements? What do I know that others apparently don’t? The answer is mathematics and the difference between linear and exponential. You have no idea what that means? Lucky you.
It means that if every human being on Earth were to change their lifestyle to vegetarian, it would be totally insufficient to reverse climate warming.
The good thing is that these changes are going to take a century or more, so there is no point in worrying about it.
Get yourself a big diesel truck; buy speculative stocks, not gold; climb Everest.
No regrets — we as a species have had a good run since descending from the trees and no other species can claim to have initiated a new geological era, actually a new “eon.”
Wasn’t there an old song that went: “Don’t worry, be happy.”
Joe Harvey
Oak Bay
I have followed with great interest the brouhaha surrounding the alternative approval process currently being employed by Saanich to borrow an inordinate amount of money at great cost to their present and future taxpayers.
The process itself appears to be divisive, contentious and flawed. In order to quell any thoughts of impropriety, I am assuming that when the elector response forms are tallied it will be under independent supervision, just as ballots would be scrutinized in an election. Anything less would not serve the public interest.
Barbara Knight
Saanich
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