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Where’s the evidence on Saanich dogs?

We are still waiting for evidence that there is a significant problem with pets in Saanich parks.

According to Saanich’s own studies, there are about 12 complaints a year about off-leash dogs (hardly a crisis justifying a $10 million solution), but they have provided no evidence demonstrating that off-leash dogs cause environmental damage, despite repeatedly clinging to this claim. Instead, Saanich council would rather divide the community and spout outrageous statements such as PKOLS being one of the most ecological sensitive areas in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½.

To be clear — we all love PKOLS, which is why we want to find a way to both enjoy and protect it, but as has been the case all through this process, council has provided no evidence to back up these claims.

Saanich citizens deserve and expect good governance. This isn’t the land of Donald Trump where you can just toss out some blatant falsehood in some embarrassing attempt to justify your position and expect it to be believed.

Such action demeans council and the citizens they serve, further undermining the lack of credibility council already has on this issue.

If council wants to reduce recreation opportunities for citizens and spend millions of dollars to do it, we should see compelling evidence why this should be so. Yet we have seen nothing. Council members have already shown their propensity to raise taxes and spend money on frivolous items, and their conduct on this issue is only increasing scrutiny of council’s poor priorities.

Citizens are not pleased.

Robert Watson

Victoria

Ill-informed opinions from two councillors

Re: “Pandora homeless encampment needs 24/7 bathroom; councillors,” Oct. 24.

The article included ill-informed/naive comments by Victoria councillors Dave Thompson and Krista Loughton (neither of whom have to live in this chaotic area) that made those of us who live on the 1000 block of Pandora laugh/cry.

The reality is that the “campers” who set up on both the 900 block and our median on the 1000 block simply wander onto our or adjacent properties to “relieve” themselves, night and day.

I and my neighbours agree with concerns expressed by Grant McKenzie and Julian Daly, both of Our Place, about “entrenching” the Pandora encampments.

Our Place is not now and never has been imagined as a forever home for these troubled and challenged people.

Carole Small

Victoria

Even more degrading than porta-potties

Speaking of degrading and dehumanizing experiences, consider the plight of the unhoused in virtually every community in British Columbia.

Many do not even have access to porta-potties such as those recently described as “degrading and dehumanizing” by a sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ building trades member.

Those who follow the news know there are scores of disabled people, seniors, and even employed folks who no longer have homes through no fault of their own.

Unsheltered, they fall easy prey to theft and violence, and are also vulnerable to lose what health they have from high stress, weather extremes and lack of access to sanitation facilities.

Many of us would be outraged if dogs were left in such conditions. Every major religion tells us to help the poor and needy.

Surely it is high time for all levels of government to collaborate and quickly create safe warming/cooling sites, toilets, showers, laundry and washing facilities for all who are unhoused, in every community.

Of course this is the most temporary of solutions, when what is needed is housing, but it speaks volumes that even this does not yet exist.

The horrendous problem of homelessness only continues to grow. Urgent, large-scale action is needed now.

If we treat the unhoused as less than human, we dehumanize ourselves as well. The ability to feel compassion for others is one of the qualities that sets us apart from animals.

Grace Golightly

Duncan

Adrian Raeside, volunteer to help run sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries

My wife and I are fed up with Raeside’s cartoons bashing sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries. Our ferry system is the largest in North America, second largest in the world, with the best safety record.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries covers 25 routes, not just Vancouver Island to the mainland, carrying 22 million passengers and eight million vehicles annually.

Raeside’s continual criticism is the equivalent of patient constantly bashing their doctor because they are unable to cure their cold.

Maybe Raeside should volunteer for the board of directors of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries to see if he could do a better job of managing this large system who are doing their very best under trying circumstances and annual increases of people wishing to travel.

Antony O. Merry

Sidney

Those micro-suites are suitable these days

Re: “Government created the housing mess we are in,”commentary, Oct. 25.

While I don’t disagree with the overall spirit of the Michael Thiel’s point, he caught my attention when he said downtown microsuites “have limited attraction for long-term tenancy whether as owners or tenants.”

This may have been true in the past, but I doubt that’s true now.

The whole motivation for the new regulations is to address the serious housing crisis unfolding here (and all over sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and the United States, for that matter). We need more rental units, full stop.

When average one-bedroom rentals approach, or exceed, $2,000 a month, I think you’ll find that people who balked at the idea of living in a microsuite a few years ago are far more open to the idea now, so long as it comes with a realistic rental price.

Would such an accommodation be profitable? Landlords are certainly interested in that part of the equation. If current taxes and fees make such units unattractive to for-profit investors, then local governments can change that.

Or, let the government or non-profits buy them, and rent them out at cost. Government purchase is particularly attractive, since presumably they could eliminate taxes and red tape other agencies would otherwise incur.

We then have the problem of ensuring proper maintenance, but we are in a housing crisis, and while complicated, such problems are not insurmountable.

Thiel’s argument rests entirely on the profitability of downtown microsuites, and the assumption that no-one wants to live long-term in such accommodation.

But times have changed, and the demand is now there. It is up to the government to either assist in making these units profitable, or to step in and make them work as not-for-profit housing.

Either way, the new regulations are a step in the right direction.

Robert Thorndyke

Oak Bay

Federal debt load soared under Justin Trudeau

Context is important equates the similarity of our country’s debt load between prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper. Harper was a piker compared to Trudeau.

Harper ran a deficit during the financial melt down (2008-09, $55.6 billion). Trudeau ran a deficit during the Covid lockdowns (2021-22, $90.2 billion).

The difference is Harper brought us back to balance and Trudeau has not. There is no plan and no possibility of balance until 2035?!

Trudeau’s famous quip was that the budget would balance itself. Not. Crippling interest payments on our country’s debt will plague our children for decades to come.

Here is the real context. The entire federal debt load in 2015 was $612 billion. Under Trudeau during the past eight years it has doubled to $1.22 trillion.

Patrick Skillings

Victoria

Transportation network should be improved

Over the past two weeks, guests from out of town have faced the challenge of getting to the airport from downtown Victoria. While attempting to assist them I learned the YYJ shuttle no longer operates, and further that there is no direct sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Transit or Wilson bus to or from YYJ.

Cab fare to or from YYJ ranges from $50 to $75! And that explains the queue of Yellow Cabs at YYJ.

One guest from Toronto via Nanaimo booked a bus to arrive downtown on a Sunday at 7:45 p.m. There was no online or phone messaging to confirm that her bus would disembark at the Douglas Street bus “terminals” (717-721 Douglas St. Earlier that day, I found “Closed” signs on all terminal doors. Efforts to confirm this arrival on behalf of her safety were fruitless.

The following day this guest was booked to return home on an evening flight to Toronto. As I am a cautious elder re: driving highways after dark, I needed to drive her to YYJ while we still had daylight, and later learned her flight was delayed until 11 p.m.

The previous week my daughter from Tucson needed to get to YYJ for her return, fortunately a mid-day booking

Is this how Victoria welcomes guests? My family and friends were profoundly inconvenienced by a failure of YYJ and the capital region to enable and ensure safe, convenient, comfortable and affordable visits. And this in addition to my son from Seattle unable to use sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Ferries the previous weekend to return home. He took the Coho, requiring him to be at the depot by 2:30 for a 4:30 departure.

Victoria could benefit from a comprehensive and reliable travel network.

Mary Louise Meadow

Oak Bay

Family services office acted in bad faith

After reading of the man sentenced to a year in prison for his actions at the Aboriginal Family Services office, I feel sympathy. My wife and I had dealings with that office some years ago.

We were lied to by case workers and supervisors when a grandchild was apprehended, and in reports to the court after participating in what we thought was an unbiased process.

Our grandchild was taken from his father and kept from his entire family for three years, until we realized that the ministry was acting in the worst of bad faith and hired a lawyer.

Thirty thousand dollars later we had him back, along with an outright contempt for the antisocial workers who we dealt with.

We met many other families faced with the same treatment from a bureaucracy that has more First Nations children in custody today than they did during the bad old days of residential schools.

I suspect the only reason we got our grandson back was that I had the money to hire a good lawyer. Most of their victims do not.

We can preach about truth and reconciliation until the sun burns out, but until the stolen children are returned we are spewing nonsense, and nobody is fooled.

In the meantime, when the latest victim of ministry indifference is eligible for parole we are more than willing to attend the hearing and discuss how that particular office earns the contempt it deserves.

There may be mitigating circumstances.

David Lowther

Mesachie Lake

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