Opinion

The Peninsula News Review is vitally important to our community, so it is vitally important that local media presents both sides of stories.

Contrary to Premier John Horgan’s whining, there is nothing “profound” about the cost of fixing up the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway. No, the real transportation money pits are the George Massey Tunnel replacement ($4 billion), the Broadway subway ($2.83 billion) and the possible Langley Skytrain line (which may come in at as much as $4.5 billion).

Spend some time helping others in your community

Two recent online surveys were created by the municipality of Saanich, claiming to be Cadboro Bay community surveys designed to help the district draft the community’s future design through an updated local area plan. The latest offered even more densification than before, potentially all the way to Telegraph Road, and was open to anyone in the world to fill out, as many times as they wanted; without any working verification process in place to determine who they were or where they were from.

The Saanich Heritage Passport was a resident/volunteer-driven project. The Saanich Heritage Foundation volunteers along with the Arts, Culture and Heritage volunteer group did all the work on this project. Tax dollars were not ‘wasted’ on this initiative to support arts and heritage in Saanich. We are always welcoming new volunteers if you are interested.

I read with a wince the curmudgeonly opinion of lifelong Saanich resident Lorne Pednault-Peasland. I took from his letter that since he knows all about heritage properties in our city, the rest of us shouldn’t bother learning about them as well.

About 140,000 birds a year have been estimated to fall prey to domestic cats in Poland each year.

Too much fertilizer can make it more difficult for plants to absorb nutrients

Langford council’s continued rejection of our lone progressive councillor’s motions on important issues like tree protection and code of conduct is reminiscent of my experience in the 1990s, when I served six years as a municipal councillor in Parksville.

By Murray Rankin