Shipping industry working for the future
Re: “Zim Kingston shows need to regulate cargo vessels,” commentary, Dec. 11.
Dr. Jeremy Caradonna expressed significant frustration about the lack of transparency and regulation of shipping in sa国际传媒. As he has dedicated his professional career as a researcher at UVic and policy professional in the provincial government, I do not doubt his concern or commitment.
Notwithstanding, his commentary on shipping does not pass a litmus test for being fact-based. For clarification:
Shipping companies do not operate recklessly because they carry robust insurance policies. Marine insurers typically place significantly more constraints on operators than do international or national regulations.
Shipping is highly technical, and climate-change mitigation is absolutely front and centre as it relates to operations and underwriting.
These ships carry cargo worth tens of million of dollars and their clients demand safe, sustainable and predictable service. Even one container lost is one too many.
The vessel slowdowns for endangered killer whales had a 90 per cent participation rate this year. The marine industry implemented this and signed a five-year conservation agreement with the federal government to do more each year — the agreement was a first of its kind in sa国际传媒 and receives international recognition for its success.
Decarbonizing marine shipping is going to be a challenge, but not impossible. Innovation happening right here in British Columbia includes electrification, biofuels, methanol, LNG and new partnerships that will transform commercial relationships and operating practices.
sa国际传媒 is also progressing change internationally and at home through its COP26 commitment to Green Shipping Corridors under the Clydebank Declaration.
As someone who lives in Victoria, I also want to protect it for future generations. We must work collaboratively to find short-term and longer-term actions that make a difference.
Solutions must be based in facts, science, knowledge and traditional knowledge.
Robert Lewis-Manning, president
Chamber of Shipping
Victoria
How bad can it get? Our history tells us
When the topic of past plagues and epidemics comes up — as it has in recent letters to the editor — British Columbians do not have to reach back to the Black Death in the 14th century to illustrate how bad things can get.
In the early 1780s, smallpox that originated in Mexico swept through central and western North America.
Scholars estimate that as much as 90 per cent of the Coast Salish population of Puget Sound and the southern Strait of Georgia died — a death rate much higher than that of the Black Death.
When Capt. George Vancouver and his ships arrived a decade later they found what appeared to be an empty land of deserted villages, skeletal remains and a few pockmarked survivors. Oral history accounts tell a similar story.
This, of course, was long before the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia were established, so there were no settlers here. It was even before there was a fur trade: the first trading post in what is now sa国际传媒 was not established until the middle of the first decade of the 19th century — more than 20 years after the epidemic.
Nor was this the only one. Smallpox and other diseases were recurrent visitors in sa国际传媒, wreaking havoc among the affected First Nations.
Scholars estimate that in 1862, for example, the death rate from the smallpox that arrived from California was in excess of 50 per cent — not as high as in the 1780s, but comparable to the 14th-century bubonic plague and equally devastating.
In accounts by travellers through infected regions a year later, the descriptions are heartbreaking.
So we do not need to look to Europe over six centuries ago to find examples worse than COVID.
It happened right here.
Hamar Foster, professor emeritus
University of Victoria
A chance to warm up at a local store
After having dilated pupils after an eye exam, I waited two hours in the cold for a taxi on a Friday evening.
Too dark to walk home, at 82 years of age.
Famous Nails on Hillside let me warm up in their cosy atmosphere. I want to thank them for their kindness, good will and hospitality.
Another business refused to let me in to warm myself.
My family in Sooke did come, as soon as they could, to rescue me.
Thanks to them for making me get a cell phone.
Marty Ball
Victoria
Proposed new building should conform to plan
In her Nov. 28 blog post, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps says:
“One proposed rental apartment building at 1475 Fort St. has been sent back to staff three times because the neighbours nearby don’t want to lose their privacy. The new building would be approximately 30 feet away from their homes.”
Loss of privacy is only one issue, and even it is downplayed by the mayor. Occupants of the proposed building will have clear sight lines into several bedrooms, and the building’s mass will blot out most of the sky from several units.
Loss of urban forest is another. The developer plans to clear cut most if not all of 11 existing trees, some of which are more than 40 feet tall, and are on the Protected Tree Survey.
They want to do this in order to provide underground parking that extends right to the edge of the site. If allowed, this will also affect mature trees on other properties bordering the site, whose roots extend onto the site.
The developer offers to replace the big trees with some saplings in planters. The total biomass of the new trees — even when they are full grown — is unlikely to be as much as even one of the mature maples lost.
Neighbours have never opposed a new building; they have just asked that it conform to the existing bylaws and community plan.
Caspar Davis
Victoria
Madoff has a history of backing modern design
Re: “Look to the future with new buildings,” letter, Dec. 11.
It would seem that the author of the letter has no familiarity with Pamela Madoff’s extensive support of contemporary design for new buildings, both when she was on council and subsequently, as a member of the city’s Advisory Design Panel.
Madoff’s recent commentary was critical of the current design because it ignores context when it is in an area of Victoria’s downtown that demands an elegant and sensitive design; one that responds to context.
To suggest her letter was proposing a design that was “a copy or reproduction of something from the 1800s” simply shows a lack of understanding of Madoff’s commentary.
Marilyn Palmer
Oak Bay
Standard design needed for crosswalks
How many more pedestrians will be killed in a crosswalk before our provincial government rectifies the situation by creating standard criteria for all crosswalks?
Saanich is under the microscope at the moment after the recent tragedy, and Port Alberni has hired consultants to try to fathom what is going on with all these crosswalk fatalities.
In another province, all crosswalks are the same. Upon approach, first sign states: “Crosswalk ahead.”
Prior to the crosswalk is a very large, white X painted on the asphalt. Another sign just prior to the crosswalk states: “No Passing.”
The actual crossing has the usual signage plus the stripes on the road. There is also a light overhead.
On the post where the pedestrian begins their passage, there is a plaque that states: “Stop, Look and Point.”
To this I would add: “Make eye contact.”
We are all hearing the phrase “in a marked crosswalk” attached to the news. How about “inadequately marked crosswalk” to be more accurate.
Gord Byers
Nanaimo
Keep traffic on main thoroughfares
It is with great sadness that we hear about another young person getting hit at a busy crosswalk.
Perhaps one approach would be to maintain several important and established main thoroughfares, such as Shelbourne and McKenzie, where busy traffic has up to four clear lanes to transit across the region.
Recently, the City of Victoria and Saanich seem, however, to have bought into the false narrative that if we reduce these main arteries to single lanes, that the cars would just “disappear.”
What actually happens is the traffic is diverted to side and neighbourhood streets, ill-equipped or designed to handle the extra burden, and where there are more schools and crosswalks.
How many more accidents on these side roads need to happen before the city engineers wake up and maintain key transportation corridors?
Richard Dewey
Gordon Head
Museum changes are incomprehensible
I went to the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum and, despite having been there countless times over the decades, still found it absolutely superb. Its third-floor presentations are engaging, entertaining and educational.
Indeed, I noticed visitors from about ages seven to 70 enjoying themselves, unlike I’ve seen and felt at other such institutions around the world.
There is a balanced mix of First Nations and other cultures, and of old history and more recent acquisitions. The details, down to the sounds coming from the Sly Dog Inn, are enthralling.
Why anyone would want to tamper with this proven success — an award-winning museum with captivating galleries that obviously appeal to the public while educating them — is entirely incomprehensible to me.
Colin Gardiner
North Saanich
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