Opinion

I write to comment on Jane Skrypnek’s article (Dec 1) on slow COVID contact tracing in schools. Kudos to the ladies who are actually doing something, but why on earth would the B.C. government treat schools differently from workplaces?

The media is reporting Saanich council is hiring an interim CAO now, with the eventual selection of a permanent CAO made by next November’s new council, so one year away, minimum.

I would like to respond to the president of the Victoria Regional Pickleball Association’s letter Nov. 24 asking neighbours of Tolmie Park to work with her to press Saanich to develop new pickleball courts to replace the ones at Tolmie. She acknowledged that pickleball is noisy and these courts are too close to the neighbours. She said she was seeking a compromise.

Thank you for printing the letter from Tyler Ponsford of Nanaimo in regards to using the old E&N rail line to help solve the Malahat situation.

In response to the letter “Dogs out of control on Cadboro Bay” in the Dec. 1 Saanich News. The letter highlights the “far too common” occurrences of witnessing dogs running, shaking water, sniffing, licking, and even charging and jumping.

Stan Bartlett compares the $4.09 million that the City of Victoria plans to spend on road renewal in 2022 with the $13 million cost of the city’s bike lane network. This is misleading for a number of reasons. While the $4 million for roads is an annual amount, the $13 million is being spent over several years, and it follows many decades where governments at all levels invested hundreds of millions of dollars on roads in Victoria while spending next to nothing on cycling infrastructure.

Re: The letter, Mayor Young’s vision for Langford has paid off. There is little doubt that Mayor Young put Langford on the map. It would have been nice to have seen him do it with class and respect.

As I hear how British Columbians in places like Merritt, Hope and Abbotsford went spontaneously to the aid of flood-threatened folks, I wonder how COVID management might go if government treated it from now on as a similar ‘natural’ event.

Re: Dec. 3 Letter - Mayor Young’s vision for Langford has paid off.

The headline says: Federal, provincial and territorial governments aren’t moving fast enough to get health-care workers and hospitals the resources they need, says Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association.