Opinion

In a letter in the Jan. 12 edition of the Saanich News under the heading, “CMA deserves blame for doctor shortage,” John Harris writes, “Doctors and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) have done their best to make a medical degree both expensive and very difficult to get.”

I presume the RBCM board is now just relieved to begin packing up the third floor and be done with that phase of our very European history. They should be rethinking this move as it was not done by consulting folks who pay to see our full history at the museum - the good and the bad.

Re: “Off-street parking added to impending secondary suite policy.” It’s pretty pathetic when, in the middle of a climate emergency that recently incinerated or flooded half our province, our municipal officials are obsessing over the housing and comfort of automobiles.

I’m not sure there’s anything to celebrate about the news that Greater Victoria posted near-record real estate sales last year, as the title of the article in your Jan 12 issue seems to imply. The only people celebrating these high sales figures are the real estate agents who profited from the high sales volume and the huge increase in prices we saw last year.

Kudos to Coun. Dubow for his leadership on Victoria council by presenting a motion to verbally and financially support the legal challenge to Quebec’s Bill 21.

Arguments that increasing density is the solution to providing workforce housing on the Saanich Peninsula are overly simplistic and will only pit neighbours against development proposals.

Yes - global supply chains are challenged. What I find most frustrating, is that I, a mere mortal British Columbian, can and have ordered in quantity with ease: N95 masks from Toronto and rapid antigen tests from Alberta, and yet the B.C. government – which promotes itself as unique, going it alone, mavericks of sorts – appears challenged to meet the demand of health-care professionals, teachers, parents, let alone, B.C. residents.

I do not take anything away from the importance of the pandemic and the difficulties in dealing with it. Unfortunately, there are other things that need dealing with such as a health care system in chaos.

In response to the recent letter presenting venomous views on the unvaccinated accessing the health-care system, these words are a good example of the hatred that has been promoted towards the unvaccinated since last summer. Lumping the unvaccinated into a group of uneducated, selfish, anti-vax bullies because of a few people behaving badly at a rally is offensive. I suspect even vaccinated people have behaved badly at rallies before.

Liberals promised to rework online harms legislation within 100 days of Parliament’s Nov. 22 return