Letters

I find it disappointing to see that the Braefoot building issue is such a reversal of what governments should be doing. During the 1970-80s when I was in charge of community development in the city of Calgary we successfully turned municipal recreation facilities including swimming pools, hockey arenas and more over to community organizations. These community organizations ran no end of recreation programs and community services as well as the municipality could do.

I have been a member of Coast Capital Credit Union from almost its ‘original’ inception. I have experienced its growth from a community-based and member-focused organization to a corporate entity seemingly more concerned about its growth as a financial institution then its service to its members.

To be a Victoria city councillor, not only do you not have to live in Victoria, or own property or a business in Victoria, but you don’t even have to attend meetings in Victoria. You can just Zoom from afar and get paid by direct deposit, while in the meantime making decisions on how to spend local taxpayers’ money, impede the flow of vehicle traffic, and approve so-called public art that makes national news for all the wrong reasons.

As a low-income senior, I appreciate the monthly $300 COVID Crisis Grant from our B.C. government that has definitely helped me with the extra costs of surviving this pandemic.

The Oak Bay News recently published a letter written by Jan Mears regarding secondary suites. In that letter, she listed things that she thinks are wrong with Oak Bay’s secondary accommodation bylaws and spoke in favour of secondary suites.

I am quite frankly gobsmacked. I am a recently retired nurse/nurse educator who has a full appreciation of the risks involved in the current pandemic. For Coun. Kahakauwila to be defending her recent trip to Cabo San Lucas for a wedding is beyond the pall on so many levels.

COVID has negatively affected citizens’ ability to deal with governments, businesses and institutions: communications are reduced to anonymously answered emails and impossible phone wait times. What a gift to those entities choosing to be unaccountable to those they serve.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano – a healthy mind in a healthy body. It’s the motto of numerous athletic clubs and educational institutions around the world. It’s the theory that physical exercise is an essential part of mental and psychological well-being. As a runner and a physician I know that it is true and, intuitively, I believe, so do most of you. But let’s be guided by the science.

In her letter, Ms. Mears list three reasons why she supports regulation of secondary suites in Oak Bay: safety for tenants, present lack of legitimately required municipal revenue (and the ongoing related servicing costs), and to provide “missing middle housing” assuming it can be done with “gentle” but not “over” densification.

B.C. Building Trades women’s group endorses NDP’s move