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We should put all the level crossings to work

The powers that be must bring the E&N back to life. Failing to do so will make the bureaucrats who mandated lights and barriers at all the level crossings look ridiculous.

Hold it; that ship has sailed.

Richard Savard

Esquimalt

Ordinary people need to be heard

Re: “Most people want climate action. We need to speak up,” commentary, July 13.

In the past, I used my propane fireplace as a source of heat and a “mood lifter” on dark, rainy west coast nights.

With the climate crisis, I now use my propane fireplace only as a back-up if the electric heat fails during the cold weather. As a result, I burn much less than half the propane I used to.

I just received a notice from a large Canadian propane supplier that my propane tank rental will increase significantly because I am not burning enough propane. In other words, burn more propane or pay a penalty.

This is unprecedented and infuriating on two levels.

Never have I heard of a company that penalizes a customer for not using enough of their product. What makes the situation far worse is that their product contributes to the climate crisis.

David Suzuki is correct. We need politicians who have the intelligence and courage to see and act beyond the next election cycle so we can build a better future for our children.

This will not happen until enough “ordinary people” speak up and make it extremely difficult for large polluting corporations to influence government policy.

Graeme Gardiner

Sidney

Trudeau photo worth thousand hollow words

I’m not sure if I want to laugh or cry at photos of our prime minister at the NATO meetings. Whenever there’s a photo op with world figures, Justin Trudeau always seems to be front and centre in the picture frame.

Yet sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ hasn’t fulfilled the two per cent defence spending benchmark required of NATO members.

Our spending ranks about sixth — from the bottom. Yes, other NATO countries also are laggards yet have any stooped, as sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ did, to push for an expanded definition of what can be considered “defence spending”?

Perhaps then, its meagre defence spending would increase without actually spending even a loonie more — really?

The photos of Trudeau in Vilnius reminded me of a photo of Donald Trump, who was sure to be included in a celebrity fundraising photo-op although he hadn’t contributed anything to the fundraising event. Nice!

It seems then a picture really is worth a thousand words, a thousand hollow words.

Gordon Zawaski

Parksville

Infrastructure work is harming orcas

The first sightings of the new orca calves were in waters off the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ coast a little over two weeks ago. These births, now confirmed to be a female (L-127) and a male (L-126), bring enormous hope for their endangered population.

However, new calves also embody the fragility of this population. The mortality rate of Southern Resident calves is 50 per cent in their first year, but J-59 has beaten the odds and is into her second year of life.

Hope now also rests with her, which is reflected in the name she was just granted: Sxwyeqólh, which fittingly means “Reason for Hope Child.”

For those who admire these endangered whales so much, it’s sad to keep discovering that they have greater risks on the Canadian side of the Salish Sea.

We are failing to implement additional distance and noise protections that keep pace with Washington state, while we approve projects, like Roberts Bank Terminal 2, that will alter critical habitat for these orcas.

Somehow the federal government considers it “justifiable” for this mega-marine infrastructure project to inflict irreversible harm to the remaining 75 endangered Southern Resident orcas.

With only 27 females capable of reproducing, calves are the hope for the population to avert functional extinction that could potentially happen in my lifetime.

But if these waters are already unsafe for these orcas, and even more so for calves, what’s their future when we keep developing these waters without due regard for the species that depend on them?

Lucero González Ruiz

Biodiversity lead

Georgia Strait Alliance

Why won’t Oak Bay support bike lanes?

I happily took part in the second Oak Bay Critical Mass bike ride.

We demand immediate action on safe bike lanes for all ages and abilities throughout Oak Bay, particularly leading to UVic, schools, and shopping amenities on Oak Bay Avenue.

This is not about “cyclists.” It is about public safety for everyone, including those who commute through Oak Bay to get to UVic or shopping. It is also about a climate emergency that has touched just about everyone in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, with friends or friends of friends losing their homes and livelihoods to fires and floods. The last thing we need is more car dependence.

Oak Bay’s infamous obstruction of safe, dedicated bike lanes results in perfectly avoidable death and injury to bikers, walkers and motorists. This inaction also prevents would-be bike riders from adopting cycling because it is too dangerous.

If Oak Bay cannot fall in line with surrounding jurisdictions such as Victoria and Saanich who have modernized their transportation networks at an alarming pace, will the council members state publicly exactly is standing in their way?

Do they — like their provincial and federal colleagues — have any connections to the fossil fuel industry that the public should know about? It makes you wonder.

Anne Hansen

Victoria

A contradiction in cycling response

In a response to calls for safer cycling in Oak Bay, Coun. Hazel Braithwaite said that she must consider the “general interest of everybody.”

At the same time, she says that full-time bike lanes aren’t desirable because residents on Henderson Road might need overflow parking from time to time. Quite a contradiction there.

Sarah Starkweather

Oak Bay

Pushing dinner time later into the evening

Recently the City of Victoria extended paid parking hours to 8 p.m. from 6 p.m.

Unfortunately the entire downtown core, where most of Victoria’s dining choices are, has only a 90-minute maximum for parking meters.

Therefore you can no longer legally drive downtown for dinner unless you either wait until after 6:30 to arrive, or get up part way through your meal to move your car. Didn’t anyone at the town hall think that people might want to spend more than 90 minutes on a nice meal out? How about making that possible by extending the length of parking you can buy in the evenings.

Yes, you can reload the meter from your phone, but that’s not actually allowed (whether it’s policed or not I am unsure).

So do you really want to worry about not only the $5.25 you had to pay to fill the meter, but a potential costly ticket if they do actually fine you for re-metering?

6:30 is the new dinner time in Victoria if you’ve got the extra cash for the meter, but if you just want a meal without a surcharge, better wait until 8.

Hugh Wainman-Wood

Victoria

Cruise ships should use cleaner fuels

Re: “New cruise-ship pollution rules leave gaps, critics say,” July 9.

It was distressing to learn that Transport sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has given cruise ships free rein to continue dumping highly acidic, scrubber waste water into “some of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s most sensitive coastlines.” This toxic scrubber waste will continue to flow into sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s coastal waters, including the Salish Sea, impacting all forms of ocean life in our region — including critical food sources for salmon, sharks and whales.

It’s particularly disturbing, because this dangerous dumping could be avoided if cruise ships stopped burning dirty, high sulphur fuels.

Numerous ports around the world are calling for an end to scrubber pollution, including Vancouver and Seattle. The Prince Rupert Port Authority does not permit scrubber use in their harbour.

Why hasn’t the Greater Victoria Harbor Authority publicly advocated for an end to the releasing of toxic scrubber waste in our waters?

Transport sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s new pollution rules leave more than “gaps.” They leave our waters vulnerable to dangerous toxic dumping.

Next time you gaze in awe at the floating hotels docked in James Bay, think about what’s going on under the water. And about urging the Liberal government, and Transport sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, to require cruise ships to use cleaner fuels.

Ira Shorr

Victoria

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