MDs could make more doing just about anything
What is wrong with this picture?
My family doctor (yes, I am very lucky to have one) spent years getting specialized training. Now in practice he has huge overheads to keep his office open.
The Medical Services Plan of sa国际传媒 pays him a mere $32 for a 15-minute consult plus at least that much time again to fill out all their required forms and reports.
Meanwhile, just down the street, a chiropractor charges $55 for a 15-minute visit with one-tenth or less of the overhead costs.
Just a block away, our cat Rupert gets me to pay, on his behalf, $99 for a 10-minute consultation with his vet.
Our doctors in sa国际传媒 could make a better living doing just about anything other than doctoring. Is it any wonder we have a shortage?
Bob Etheridge
Central Saanich
Missing middle is a debacle in the making
How is it fair, reasonable, democratic or consistent with good governance to see a proposal that will have huge consequences for the City of Victoria rammed through by a lame-duck mayor and council weeks before their term is ended?
Half of the councillors don’t even live in Victoria, and the mayor and many council members are leaving.
This on top of the fact that public engagement has been minimal and the timeline compressed for an idea that they call a pilot project even though it will be implemented city-wide.
John Binsted
Victoria
Yes, cyclists pay for infrastructure
A recent letter said cyclists are not paying their way — but this is how misinformation is spread. Repeat it often enough and it becomes the truth.
The gas tax pays for highways, which few cyclists use. Municipal transportation infrastructure, roads, bike lanes, sidewalks are largely funded by property taxes.
House taxes are based on the worth of your property, not on how many cars are in your driveway. Or whether you drive every metre of your day or choose to mainly ride a bike or walk/bus as your transportation choice.
As such, cyclists and pedestrians have been subsidizing municipal roads for car drivers for decades. The attitude that cyclist are not paying their way just feeds into the vitriol against cyclists.
In the end it boils down to convenience for car driver or safety for cyclist.
Andrea Gleichauf
Saanich
Regulate behaviour through licensing
Re: “Bicycle riders have cars, have jobs, pay taxes,” letter, Aug. 30.
The proposed argument that cyclists need not pay taxes because “99% of us also own cars” is somewhat disingenuous, to say the least.
The logic falls apart easily when extended to the next step: Owners of multiple conveyances should only pay taxes on one? Which one, the least expensive or the most?
Also, many so-called “bicycles” are motorized in some way and therefore should be taxed as motor vehicles under the law.
Then there are the motorized skateboards, scooters and other conveyances that share the roads and pathways, which are technically “motor vehicles.” Why should we not insist on licensing them all?
Finally, one of the better ways to control poor behaviour is to regulate all behaviour, using the potential of penalties to encourage responsible use of the space.
It works in sports, it works on the roads, it should therefore logically be extended to bicycles. Licensing and the chance you could lose that licence would go a long way to regulate the behaviour of those who feel riding a bicycle is a right that allows them the freedom to behave as they see fit.
K.M. Frye
Saanich
Seniors are getting just $3 a month more
I laughed out loud when I read the comparison of seniors already getting what the BCGEU members want. Cost of living raises for seniors at 1.2% equates to us getting an extra $3 a month when we get it.
I’m sure the BCGEU members will get more than $3 more. Stop comparing apples to oranges. It’s insulting to our intelligence.
Carol Dunsmuir
Victoria
Rescue local animals before bringing more
Please rescue the rescued before trying to bring more dogs into our country. The Victoria Humane Society is overwhelmed with dogs and cats being turned in, now that most of COVID has passed and people are returning to work. People got the animals during the pandemic for company, but now don’t want to put in the time and effort to train the animals to be on their own while they go back to work.
So they are given back to the shelters. To me that is cruel.
It would be nice to be able to rescue all the poor uncared for animals of the world, but why not rescue our own first?
Most of them are probably from another country originally, brought in by foreign rescue organizations.
Jan Cook
Saanich
Dangerous distractions hurt climate-change fight
We are dangerously distracted by our industries, political leaders and our own desire for immediate gratification. And this is being somewhat enabled by many in the science community who fear we will give up hope and climate action if we know the full extent to which feedback loops in global warming are more rapidly likely to cause unlivable conditions for so many.
Large influential bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for example, are complicit in this.
We must condemn our industries for proposing ridiculously insufficient taxpayer-supported non-solutions that further their profits, such as capture of methane emissions at extraction or refining sites and sequestering underground, or using fossil fuel energy to attempt Direct Air Capture, and sequestration, at massive expense for minuscule result.
Meanwhile, politicians divert us with half measures in adaptation and social justice that will not solve the greatest social injustice of all, which will affect all of us, but the disadvantaged first and most severely, namely, climate change and all the stresses in food, water and heat that will likely be upon us in 15 years rather than 50, or 50 rather than 78.
Regrettably, we must adopt well-thought-out geoengineering, such as the placement of solar shields at Lagrange one, a gravitationally neutral zone between Earth and Sun, to reduce the power of the sun, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions switching to solar to prevent further ocean acidification and death of a food source of billions.
Glynne Evans
Saanich
Why is sa国际传媒 missing the LNG opportunity?
The recent visit to sa国际传媒 by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz highlights a baffling blindness by the Canadian government to the huge opportunity of exporting LNG to Europe.
Scholz and many other European leaders are desperate to find alternative energy sources to Russian oil and gas. sa国际传媒 has more than two trillion cubic metres of proven reserves of natural gas that could help European countries out of their looming energy crisis and stave off reactivating old coal-fired electricity plants.
But Prime Minister Trudeau basically rebuffed Scholz. Not a smart move for helping European allies.
But even dumber is preventing sa国际传媒 from earning millions of dollars a day from LNG exports. Just think what that income could do to fund health care, affordable housing and myriad other benefits for all Canadians.
It’s mind-boggling and infuriating this government is throwing away such a tremendous economic opportunity. If the federal government can’t change its mind on LNG, maybe it’s time to change the government.
Steve Housser
Shawnigan Lake
SEND US YOUR LETTERS
• Email: [email protected]
• Mail: Letters to the editor, sa国际传媒, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, sa国际传媒 V9A 6X5
• Submissions should be 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.
