sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

Ferries are an extension of the highway system

Re: “End the fake independence of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries,” editorial, Oct. 13.

The phoney sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ corporation ought to be put back where it belongs, as a part of the Ministry of Transportation.

Ferries are an extension of the provincial road system.

Yes, there will be outrage expressed from the CEO and other managers who are compensated by salary packages of $400,000 to $500,000, as if there was any real corporate independence.

Such nonsense must be changed back to reality.

Robert Leonard

Mayne Island

Several ideas for making sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries better

Re: “End the fake independence of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries,” editorial, Oct. 13.

I wholeheartedly agree. I’m wondering if British Columbians would turn operation of toll bridges on our paved highways over to private corporations and allow for a part-time employee model in the same fashion as we have at moment on our ferries?

Of course not … as it would then be “Oh, the Coquihalla is closed today because part-time workers Mary and Peter didn’t show up.”

I’m sure that this government has the legislation written and sitting on the minister’s desk to do what they have known has to be done for some time.

It should be tabled in legislature for debate.

And when the CEO walks the plank and takes the board of Directors with him, there should be no severance pay. They continue to fail at their job of providing a reliable service to the travelling public. They should be terminated for cause.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries should return to provincial government control as soon as possible.

Institute a sunset clause. Build ferries in British Columbia and not Poland. Make employees full-time and build pride in their contributions. Put all travellers on a reservation system that includes forfeit of fee if they fail to show up!

Just do it!

Jim Bennett

Qualicum Beach

Ferry reconfiguration has given us higher costs

Re: “End the fake independence of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries,” editorial, Oct. 13.

The editorial is correct. Over the 20 years since its reconfiguration from a Crown corporation to a privately held (by the provincial government) company, the province has paid millions of dollars annually in excess borrowing costs.

Some conservatively estimate it at more than $500 million.

When it was a Crown corporation, the entity borrowed funds to finance capital improvements at preferential government rates. This is because governments, due to their stability, enjoy lower borrowing rates than corporations.

So where did the excess $500 million go?

To institutional bond-holders worldwide, of course. And to add insult to injury, these bonds were not available for purchase by the people of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

Lesley Ewing

Oak Bay

Accountability? Sorry, that ship has sailed

Re: “End the fake independence of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries,” editorial, Oct. 13.

The editorial was right on the money until the last paragraph, where it referenced the notion of “accountability” for its problems.

In the public sector, especially at the lofty level where executives and ministers interact, accountability skipped town quite some time ago.

Dare I say it “caught the last ferry out”?

Michel Murray

Saanich

Consolidate terminals and build bridges

Re: “End the fake independence of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries,” editorial, Oct. 13.

I agree that sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries is part of the provincial transportation network and nothing more than an extension of the highway system.

What is confounding is information I have from long time senior Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure staffers who have retired early or fled to “greener pastures” due to the politics and their influence that exist within the ministry.

Case in point are the examples of current and former provincial politicians who live on smaller islands and ensure that NIMBY trumps efficiency and common sense.

Sheila Malcolmson was one of several provincial politicians, with Claire Trevena (the former minister) being another.

I have drawn to the attention of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries and the past and current ministers of the opportunities to obtain efficiencies and consolidate economies of scale, by linking islands to Vancouver island by bridges where feasible, cost effective and greener from a greenhouse gas emissions perspective: Gabriola to Vancouver Island via Mudge Island, Denman to Fanny Bay /Deep Bay, and Campbell River to Quadra Island.

Similarly, the Duke Point ferry terminal could be expanded to incorporate Gabriola traffic and Horseshoe Bay traffic, freeing up valuable land to redevelopment in the Nanaimo foreshore, and consolidating staff and infrastructure use for efficiency of scale as well as traffic movement.

If this were the Ministry of Transportation for the Province of Alberta, we’d have both a great ferry service, and an excellent road system.

But this province lacks both, with its lack of focus on transportation evident on a two-lane Trans sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ highway corridor, an inefficient roadway system in both Vancouver and Victoria regional districts.

Brian Smith

Ladysmith

Put ferry management back where it belongs

Re: “End the fake independence of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries,” editorial, Oct. 13.

Yes, end this sham quasi-independent ­corporate masquerade with its inflated executive salaries and chronic staff shortages.

Put sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries back where it belongs: under direct ministerial control as part of our essential provincial transportation system.

David Bouvier

Gabriola Island

Give ferry discounts to Island residents

The residents on the Vancouver Island and the other islands should get a discounted fare, as they have no other choice.

Tourists have the choice.

California residents get discounts in many places including Disneyland, and Disneyland is not even on the list of important things.

Many places around the world gives discounts to locals.

We are stranded on the Island. Taking the ferry is the only most inexpensive option.

For Islanders there should be discounts.

Mike B. Purewal

Victoria

Going elsewhere for care to reduce wait times

Re: “Unbearable severe pain: Victoria woman opts for private hip surgery rather than wait,” Oct. 15.

Should a patient choose to pay for medical treatment, what business of the government is it to stop her?

Big brother does not prevent us from sending children to private schools, or where we vacation. This lady has placed a priority on getting her joint replaced, rather than spending her financial resources on a new car or similar.

By doing so, she has reduced the waiting time for those on the public list. sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ sends patients to Bellingham and uses contract nurses, so why not save taxes and let private clinics open?

Malcolm Berry

Nanaimo

Our comfort zones are important to us

Re: “Repeating climate truth until it sinks in,” commentary, Oct. 14.

It seems David Suzuki is sad and frustrated. Apparently, he hasn’t been able to cure fellow countrymen of their “folly.” After many decades of trying to inform the public about climate change, the truth hasn’t sunk in.

We’re no further along in changing behaviour and resolving the accelerating climate crisis.

However, Suzuki does touch on the main reason we’re no further along. He acknowledges that “our folly is that many of us have become so accustomed to comfortable, energy-intensive lives that we resist change;” despite the fact it “threatens our existence.”

So, if that’s true, what do we do? More protests? More marches? More blockades? More corporate condemnation? And after we’ve briefly stepped out of our comfort zones and done our part, we return to our comfortable energy-intensive lives? How’s that working so far?

Perhaps this is where the saying “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” should be a wakeup call.

Apparently it hasn’t occurred to those looking for a cure, that when given a choice, people prefer comfort rather than living lives that are less comfortable.

Ken Dwernychuk

Esquimalt

We need to get past immediate gratification

I stand with David Suzuki! We need to keep squeaking (i.e. we need to get the grease — you know, the squeaky wheel?)! We need to think about the future and not just about immediate gratification.

Because that is the problem. Too many people turn away from the solution because they fear change.

We are so used to our creature comforts that we shy away from the hard decisions. We tell ourselves it is not our problem or that we can’t do anything about it. Not true. That is just a way to justify our reluctance to address the problem.

There are solutions. There are other options and Suzuki mentions them. Man/woman up and support “A” future!

Dawn Devereaux

Victoria

Youth will lose hope without climate action

Re: “Repeating climate truth until it sinks in,” commentary, Oct. 14.

David Suzuki’s comments align with my own perspective. As a retired educator and grandparent of three grandchildren, I’m too often confronted by the negative perspective on how society is not accepting of the lifestyle changes required to lower our greenhouse gas emissions and prevent the global heating crises we are experiencing on a regular basis.

European countries are using sustainable alternative energy technologies such as solar energy combined with agriculture; offshore wind power is proliferating throughout Europe, Asia and even in the United States; tidal energy, deep ocean current and even lake currents and river current energy technologies are in Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia; geothermal energy is considered possible throughout the world; wave energy is being used in Israel, Spain and the U.S.; biomass is available in Scandinavia to power their ships.

But what is sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ doing to avail ourselves of these clean renewable energy systems?

Virtually nothing is happening as our children and grandchildren become co-opted by the fossil fuel industries’ advertisements and realize that we Canadians are going in the wrong direction in contributing ever more fossil fuels for burning in Asia and other Third World countries for the greed of the fossil fuel industries’ profitability.

Our children and grandchildren are becoming depressed at seeing the negative effects of the world’s climate change and feelings of helplessness that they can only march in protest against the cutting of old growth forests, or the continuing disrespect shown to First Nations peoples when mining, oil and gas and coal industries receive the go-ahead to projects that only make our world a worse place to live.

Without a change in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½’s direction of clean electrification throughout our country, Canadian youth will only lose hope.

Rafe Sunshine

Victoria

Use energy efficiency to drive public action

Re: “Repeating climate truth until it sinks in,” commentary, Oct. 14.

David Suzuki makes some excellent points regarding using more renewable energy, using energy efficiently and stopping destruction of green spaces. In and of themselves, all worthwhile and beneficial to society.

But achieving these goals does not require complete allegiance to the so-called “climate truth” or the legacy narrative that CO2 from burning fossil fuels creates an unstable climate. And it does not require a rapid ending of fossil fuel use.

Many scientists have concerns over the politicization of climate science and stifling of true scientific debate. For example, Suzuki, the media and many others refer to wildfires, floods and droughts as evidence that human fossil fuel burning is causing the earth’s climate to change dramatically.

But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) itself reports that it has “low confidence in direction of change” for all of these events.

A September 2023 rigorous analysis by the Government of Norway of global temperature variations and CO2 concentration data concludes, “the results imply that the effect of man-made CO2 emissions does not appear to be sufficiently strong to cause systematic changes in the pattern of the temperature fluctuations. In other words, our analysis indicates that with the current level of knowledge, it seems impossible to determine how much of the temperature increase is due to emissions of CO2.”

Perhaps there is a better approach to encourage the public to reduce pollution and use energy more efficiently than the current climate activists’ and politicians’ alarmism strategy which may be based on inadequate science.

Fred Kardel

Nanaimo

We are idling more in constricted streets

Saanich has successfully turned a perfectly good major thoroughfare into a parking lot!

The redesign of Tillicum Road, and by default Lampson Road, is a mess. Thanks to the added bike lanes, that have very little use, both streets have turned into a parking lot.

Not only for the rush hour, which will be horrendous, but throughout the day.

We preach that we don’t want idling cars and they continue to redesign roads that cause gridlock hence idling.

Remember, motor vehicles are not going away.

Donald Weston

Victoria

SEND US YOUR LETTERS

• Email: [email protected]

• Mail: Letters to the editor, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ V9A 6X5

• Aim for no more than 250 words; subject to editing for length and clarity. Provide your contact information; it will not be published. Avoid sending your letter as an email attachment.