Critical thinking is an afterthought with pool
Isn’t the teaching of critical thought fundamental to attending university? Clearly there was no critical thinking used at the University of Victoria in the decision to close McKinnon Pool.
There was also no critical thinking used when UVic continued the requirement of booking times to use the pool. In fact no critical thinking was required, simply acknowledging that the requirement to do so had long been outdated.
And therein likely lies a large portion of the cause of reduced usage of the pool (critical thinking not required, but common sense surely).
The cost of $1.5 million for repairs is a trifle in an operating budget such as that of UVic. Perhaps declaring a couple of faculty and staff redundancies would free up some dollars.
As someone else mentioned, maintenance of the pool, as with maintenance everywhere at the university, should be budgeted annually. So maybe, after their inattention to this matter, UVic just needs to eat the $1.5 million and get on with it.
I.M. McLaws
Victoria
No sympathy for masked protesters
Re: “Pro-Palestinian protesters vacate encampment at UVic,” July 23.
The essence of civil disobedience is accepting the penalty, thereby eliciting public sympathy.
If you have to wear a mask to do what you think is right, you’re wrong.
Ian Cameron
Brentwood Bay
Tail might have been lost to another whale
I fully agree with the likely probability that we humans may have been responsible for the loss of the whale’s tail by either entanglement or ship propeller.
However, can we rule out an alternative explanation that the whale’s tail might have been nipped off by a large killer whale? Orcas are known to prey upon other whales.
David M. Bird, PhD
Emeritus Professor, Wildlife Biology, McGill University
North Saanich
Single-occupancy vehicle usage on the Malahat
Re: “ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ communities with more frequent and affordable transit,” commentary, July 18.
The organization, Better Island Transit, proposes an increase in transit service frequency between Duncan and Victoria is a sound proposal to avert spending hundreds of millions of dollars widening through Goldstream River and Park.
More importantly it gives many of those living in the Cowichan Valley and Greater Victoria an affordable alternative travel option that’s much needed.
Given the recent provincial government decree for the Cowichan Valley to increase housing, there needs to be solid transportation options available before any further new developments.
One of the improvements missing in the proposal to make a more frequent transit option available is the creation of a continuous rapid bus lane from West Shore Parkway to McKenzie Avenue on the Trans-ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Highway.
I hope the provincial transportation planners can reverse their plans to funnel more vehicles through the Malahat. The current plan will only create more transportation congestion and cause more complete road closures due to accidents.
A study, Relationship Between Traffic Volume and Accident Frequency, showed that accident frequencies increase at a higher rate with a higher increase in traffic volumes. I am certain planners wouldn’t want their current plan to cause higher rates of accidents in this corridor.
Let’s get on with creating a transportation transit option that will reduce single occupancy vehicle usage through the Duncan-Victoria corridor. Enough stalling.
Phil Le Good
Cobble Hill
We should use rail line as a road alternative
Re: “ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ communities with more frequent and affordable transit,” commentary, July 18.
It’s baffling to my transit advocacy friends and me that Todd Litman, president of Better Island Transit, continues to push buses as the only viable alternative for non-drivers to travel on Vancouver Island when we have an under-used publicly owned 289-kilometre rail corridor that connects every major city and town from Victoria to Courtenay and Port Alberni right under our noses.
The Island Rail Corridor is the key that unlocks Better Island Transit for everyone because it already has its own dedicated right of way separated from highways. Buses sit in congestion just like cars and trucks unless expensive dedicated lanes are built, taking road space, or future road space, from drivers.
Not only would the railway move people that shouldn’t, can’t, or don’t want to drive, but it would also generate revenue by moving freight as well. Everyone on a train is completely off the highway; it’s really a no brainer.
Just like publicly owned highways and roads, publicly owned railways provide infrastructure for private and public operators to operate on.
Even now Southern Rail of Vancouver Island moves freight in Nanaimo and Alberni Pacific Railway operates their tourist train in Port Alberni on the line.
A South Island Transportation study suggests that Mill Bay to Victoria by highway will be a 2½ hour commute by 2038 and it’s already awful during the morning and evening commute.
Trying to hammer buses through congestion by adding more buses to the congestion makes no sense. Using a completely separate rail corridor makes all the sense in the world.
Warren Skaalrud
Shawnigan Lake
Significant problems with Rustad health plans
Conservative Leader John Rustad asserts that this is not a two-tiered for-profit health-care system that he is proposing.
All you do is show your Medical Services Plan card. There will be no extra billing or charges required. Easy, and if that works as promised then all is good.
However, there are two significant elephants in this room.
The first is that there are simply not enough health-care workers to offset the current shortages to fill an alternative private delivery system. Given some of the current obsolete training requirements (physician candidates required to have an undergraduate degree to enter our medical schools is one example) and the other that health-care colleges continue to hang on to obstacles to licensing, it will be a decade or more to get this model functioning as envisioned.
Second, if indeed it were feasible, it would only take a couple of years of MSP-funded private care service before it evolves into a two-tiered system that will not be covered by the MSP.
This is a business model that will require increased feeding, referred to as “profit.” Rustad’s proposal is the thin edge of a wedge that has been, up until now, challenged and avoided.
Let us hope these new private clinics will have signs that inform those wanting health-care services that “all our providers are vaccinated.”
Some of us will not want to be in proximity of those who might be carriers of infectious diseases in a health-care setting.
John Stevenson
Victoria
A quick lesson in compound interest
Re: “Property taxes are cause for concern,” letter, July 13.
Many people don’t understand how percentages work.
The letter states that Victoria “property taxes increased 10% this year” when the actual increase was 7.93%.
If your taxes in 2023 before any grants were $4,000, a 7.93% increase would be $4,317.20 in 2024. If you’re a senior and qualify for $845 in grants, you’d have paid $3,155 last year and $3,472.20 this year, an increase of 10.05%.
The 7.93% is on your actual taxes, not what you paid after any grants.
Confused yet? The letter also says that taxes are projected to increase a further 53% over the next five years for “an effective run rate” of more than 10% a year.
Council said that they needed an approximate increase of 53%. This means that, five years from now, your tax bill could be about 53% more than this year.
Council originally wanted an increase of 8.3% this year; 8.3% compounded annually over five years would equal about 49% total.
A 53% total increase in five years would be about 8.5% compounded annually. In other words, your taxes would increase about 8.5% annually to achieve a 53% increase in five years.
If you don’t understand this, I suggest you Google “compound interest.”
I don’t mean to argue either way here regarding tax increases; I just wanted to set the numbers straight.
Stephen Pierrot
Saanich
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