Victoria council and a chance for a reset
The City of Victoria is the heart of the region. Many of us living outside the city鈥檚 boundaries are very sympathetic to what residents are facing with the decisions and activities of their split council.
Looking in from the outside, council鈥檚 slate of activists is doing residents a disservice by using its numbers to force poor decisions through council. The result is adverse consequences for residents and the reputation of the city.
The byelection Saturday is an opportunity for electors to bring immediate change to council. Imagine the ninth seat filled by a qualified, well-informed, thoughtful, and open-minded individual. One whose judgement and decision-making respects taxpayers and responds to the best interests of all residents.
A reset at the council table is possible. A better-governed city would follow.
Bill Wellburn
Saanich
A higher turnout? Well, we will see
Rare is the election held in sa国际传媒 two weeks before Christmas with a lockdown order and a travel ban in place.
This means that most of the Victorian snowbirds are still here, with time on their hands, and lots to ponder.
The pundits might therefore predict an increased turnout at the polls. We鈥檒l see on Saturday.
Christopher Causton
Victoria
Decline of public safety in Victoria
Recently while on a run and crossing the street in morning rush-hour traffic, a person suffering a mental health or drug-related episode attempted to attack me.
Firstly, I would like to thank the elderly man and vehicle driver who were prepared to intervene and allow my getaway to safety.
Secondly, I would like to thank the Victoria Police Department who responded quickly with action, a personalized and compassionate response and support for a traumatizing experience.
As a lifelong resident of Victoria, I am deeply saddened that the downtown core continues to deteriorate as poor decisions pile up in the pandemic.
How unfortunate that there is a slate dominating the decisions of city council on many issues and overriding the voices of councillors with experience and sound judgment.
I can鈥檛 imagine the suggestion to defund the police will help to address public safety, now a priority issue.
Should we also consider defunding council?
Lisa Arora
Victoria
Welfare, disability rates are too low
The NDP government has decided to punish the poor by reducing the $300 increase to welfare and disability rates to $150, and then eliminating the $150 on March 31, 2021.
People on disability and welfare have been unable to receive CERB and other benefits collected for months by those who had waged work.
This reduction and suspension comes at a time when increases to welfare and disability rates are long overdue. Rates should be doubled or tripled, not reduced to their pre-COVID levels.
The $300 increase was making a difference. People on disability and welfare could actually get to the end of the month and still buy food.
People receiving welfare or disability will be eligible for the new sa国际传媒 Recovery Benefit, but that is a one-time payment.
It won鈥檛 help people whose long-term poverty level income makes life impossible to afford. It will provide good optics for three months and cost millions to administer.
Those millions could pay for a permanent increase in welfare and disability rates.
Judy Lightwater
Victoria
Stay with the program until Jan. 8
Re: 鈥淎re we sad? Yes, but Family Day is going to be great,鈥� Jack Knox, Dec. 9.
I鈥檓 a responsible citizen. I just declined a well-spaced outdoor meeting of only three people and a spaced walk with a friend.
I comply with all current COVID regulations and recommendations, except for a careful plan to reconnect physically with a toddler grandchild.
There were several valid reasons why in this case an exception was warranted. A requirement of babysitting was not one of them.
I woke early with that undeniable niggly feeling of vague guilt. And then I read Jack Knox鈥檚 column advocating for compliance with all restrictions until Jan. 8.
The plan to play with the grandchild is cancelled and the fantasy of maybe Christmas dinner with his family, ended.
Ah, the power of rationalization in the hands of even thoughtful, well-intentioned people!
Thanks, Jack, for helping me get back with the program before it鈥檚 too late.
Christine Anderson
Oak Bay
Victoria could learn from Cobble Hill
Re: 鈥淲ho is looking out for Victoria鈥檚 taxpayers?鈥� commentary, Dec. 9.
I suggest Victoria use Cobble Hill as an example in answering the question asked by the retired sa国际传媒 staff writer.
A number of years ago a group of concerned people organized CHAT, meaning Cobble Hill Action of Taxpayers.
They are dedicated people and I can assure you they sure as hell monitor exactly where all our tax dollars are being spent by our district. They are not afraid to speak up if they see abuses.
Come on Victoria, get with it and try and catch up to little old Cobble Hill.
John Walker
Cobble Hill
Stop bending rules, make the pandemic pass
Count me among those who are sad about not seeing family on Christmas Day.
Hard as it will be, we must all make that sacrifice so that we can gather with loved ones sooner rather than later.
The more of us that bend the rules, the longer we will feel lonely and alone. Let鈥檚 all commit, people!
Alanna Wrean
Victoria
Vaccinate seniors after everyone else
Am I the only one who feels that the COVID-19 vaccinations should be given to health-care workers, first responders and all other essential services first?
Our young vital people and their families should definitely be next and we seniors at the very last.
Ye,s I am a senior, and I feel very strongly that we should not be vaccinated until everyone else has been. Please reconsider the plans to vaccinate seniors first.
Sheree Dooner
Saanich
Affordable rentals are needed on Cook Street
Re: 鈥淐ity needs a balanced ecosystem of housing,鈥� commentary, Dec. 9.
Aragon Properties鈥� development manager鈥檚 letter seems to have missed the key component as to why Victoria council ended up in a 4-4 tie, temporarily ending that development in Cook Street Village.
Wasn鈥檛 it about affordable rental housing? The project hoped to build 48 condos. The average price in core Victoria for condos currently stands at $517,000 鈥� in existing older buildings.
Aragon has never indicated what their new units would sell for. One could assume for 鈥渟tate of the art鈥� new condos it could be for much much more. What average family can afford $600,000 to $800,000?
Besides, Cook Street Village doesn鈥檛 necessarily need new high-end condos. That huge proposed development (covering more than one-third of a city block) would have been like an elephant in a china shop.
Back to the drawing board with something that are affordable rentals and fits into the ambiance of the Village.
John Vanden Heuvel
Cook Street Village
City鈥檚 youth passes were a good deal
Re: 鈥淲ho is looking out for Victoria鈥檚 taxpayers?鈥�, commentary, Dec. 9.
Bill Cleverley complains that under Victoria鈥檚 Youth Pass program, 鈥渢housands of passes鈥� purchased by the city 鈥渨ent unused.鈥�
Clearly, he doesn鈥檛 understand how the pricing system for the program works. The city negotiated a bulk purchase agreement with sa国际传媒 Transit, under which it paid only one-quarter of the normal price for each transit pass.
The city was given this highly discounted price per pass precisely because both parties knew that, like any universal program, not everyone would use the passes being provided.
While the pandemic has impacted transit ridership, just as it has impacted so much else, the Youth Pass program was working well before that.
Under its bulk purchase agreement with sa国际传媒 Transit, the city purchased 7,200 passes at $11.25 per pass per month, for a total of $81,000 per month.
The city issued an average of 2,367 youth passes per month over the winter, so yes, 鈥渢housands of passes went unused.鈥�
However, if instead the city had just purchased the 2,367 passes actually issued at the full cost of $45 per pass, it would have cost $106,515 per month for those passes, $25,000 more each month that what the city paid under the agreement.
Rob Maxwell
Victoria
Do not ridicule student councils
Re: 鈥淲ho is looking out for Victoria鈥檚 taxpayers?鈥�, commentary, Dec. 9.
In his excellent column bemoaning the incompetence of Victoria鈥檚 city council, Bill Cleverley says it 鈥渉as long been operating more like a university student council than a serious level of government.鈥�
While his criticism of council鈥檚 performance is justified, his implied ridicule of university student councils is misinformed.
After a 40-year career in higher education administration (15 of them as president of two Canadian universities) I have witnessed the operations of numerous student councils, and I can confirm that the vast majority of them have provided responsible and enlightened governance within their jurisdictions.
Likening their behaviour to that of Victoria鈥檃 misguided municipal leaders does a serious injustice to post-secondary student councillors, whose stewardship remains vital to the continued success of our universities.
Robin Farquhar
Victoria
Effective rapid tests are needed, and soon
Re: 鈥淭o improve residents鈥� lives, we need rapid testing at care homes,鈥� commentary, Dec. 4.
I was pleased at last to see a health-care professional espouse the use of rapid COVID-19 tests for long term care facilities.
But Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix must stop downplaying the role of rapid tests in order to deal with our COVID-19 tragedies . They need to step up the acquisition of rapid tests so that not only does every single health-care worker in the province access rapid tests, but the workers must access them on a frequent basis, probably a test every few days.
In addition, we should get in line with companies generating over-the-counter rapid tests for use by any citizen in the province. In fact, let the province fund the purchase and distribution of successful rapid tests. Make residents of long-term facilities, and seniors, a high priority for such tests.
Our current minuscule access to vaccines will not deter infections in the province in either the short or long term. It will be many months into 2021 before average sa国际传媒 residents will be in a position to receive a vaccine, so infections will continue to spread, with sometimes devastating results.
Rapid tests are fast and do not require sophisticated lab tests. Although not perfect they are certainly acceptable to determine infections among the general population. A far better option than waiting for vaccines to have a broad effect.
What is good enough for airlines, hockey players and film studios, to name a few, should be good enough for those residents of the province who want access to such tests.
I suggest we stop patting ourselves on the back with regard to vaccines, and get on with the challenge of obtaining effective rapid tests, and the sooner the better.
H.J. Rice
Saanich
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鈥� Mail: Letters to the editor, sa国际传媒, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, sa国际传媒 V9A 6X5
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