CERB recipients who won’t return to work
I have heard that some workers are refusing to return to work in order to continue receiving CERB payments.
Should this be so? I don’t think so.
Perhaps employers should advise the government when a former staff member is offered their job back and refuses. Then, the CERB payments should cease.
Linda Romain
Saanich
Food trucks will hurt downtown restaurants
Once again Victoria’s mayor and council are taking great pride in their newest initiative — this time to close Government Street to motor traffic between Fort and View.
The primary objective is to enhance the welfare of downtown businesses. But one of the features of this new plan is to provide spaces for 17 food trucks.
How is that going to help downtown restaurants? The ones who both collect and pay taxes as well as employ a large number of people who have been out of work since the beginning of March.
Yes, it’s a shame that these food trucks, which are normally staffed by one or two people, will not have their usual access to festivals and events. But to offer up the downtown restaurants as a sacrifice to them only makes sense to Victoria’s mayor and council.
Don Chalmers
Sidney
Oak Bay Lodge idea will never happen
Re: “Time for Oak Bay to step up for homeless,” letter, June 11.
The letter-writer proposing that Oak Bay Lodge become a residence for the homeless is living in a fantasy world. It will never happen.
The happily privileged punters of one of Victoria’s cleanest, most beautiful and unchanged districts will not let it come to be.
Can anyone imagine the pristine streets between Oak Bay High School and Willows Elementary (the Lodge is close to both schools), strewn with stolen shopping carts full of empty beer cans? Can anyone imagine Willows Beach scattered with syringes and needles? Can anyone imagine a huge increase in property crime in Oak Bay?
It will never happen.
C. Scott Stofer
Victoria
Some realities of shopping locally
Re: “Amazon delivers knockout to local retailers,” Jack Knox, June 11.
Yes, we would all love to shop locally for everything, but here are some realities to mix in with Jack Knox’s humour.
Firstly, many of us from the West Shore and farther afield do not go into Victoria every day to jobs, so to do so is a real commute (with associated greenhouse-gas effects).
Secondly, many of the products I have bought online were from necessity: the furnace filters in a size that Home Depot did not carry; the special flags that were not available at the downtown store; some valve core extensions that I found locally but in limited quantity, and the books by a British author that no one locally seemed to carry.
Yes, I could have spent considerably more time going to or phoning every local business to search out these products, but felt disinclined to do so when their websites were virtually useless to determine if they sell such products.
Add in the problems of trying to park in the downtown core and the preponderance of bike lanes that resulted in me getting a warning for making a right turn on red, and the definition of “local” for me is anything in the West Shore centre, or north in Duncan.
Les Swain
Malahat
Consider consequences of supporting Amazon
Consider the consequences. What is a community without local businesses? Empty streets, limited employment and a decreased tax base for local governments to supply services that help keep our communities clean and safe.
Obviously, the fewer paying taxes leads to one of two things, increased taxes or decreased services.
Reputable reports abound on the working conditions at Amazon. Low wages, long hours and no benefits, to name a few. Likewise on their business practices, such as selling products at a loss to force their competition out of business, or offering counterfeit products to unwary consumers.
When there is only Amazon to buy from, there will still be those of us who would prefer to buy clothing that we know fits and other products that aren’t shoddy imitations.
Also, there are those who believe employees deserve a living wage, safe and healthy working conditions, and an opportunity to pay into benefit and pension plans. It seems unfair when those of us who have or had those opportunities are unwilling to support that for others.
There is a saying about communities: “when everyone does well, everyone does well.” Maybe we should consider the consequences when we believe we are saving ourselves a few dollars, especially to purchase something we want rather than need.
Janice Davis
Oak Bay
Redirecting funds could help police
Re: “Defunding the police: How it could work, but what do we lose?,” June 10.
I read with great sadness that Police Chief Del Manak was not welcome at the protest in Centennial Square, even out of uniform and even though he is a person of colour who experiences prejudice here in Victoria when people don’t know who he is.
I long for everyone’s story to be heard with compassion. I once had a police officer thank me for being polite to him after he gave me a speeding ticket. It made me wonder about the kind of abuse he had to endure on a daily basis.
I was heartened by the front-page story about calls to redirect public funds to health and social services so the police do not have to deal with issues that are not law enforcement.
We will only start to resolve our social problems when we look at the underlying causes of poverty, mental health and lack of community.
Author Brené Brown says love and belonging are irreducible needs of human beings. Desperation and loneliness lead to despair and violence.
I hope our community, province and country will sustain and build on this opportunity to find new ways to make sure everyone has the basic necessities of life, including a feeling of safety, respect and support.
Betty Doherty
Saanich
Science can be a fickle authority
The magic word in COVID debates is “science.” But does the debater who asserts “I only rely on scientific data and peer reviewed studies” have the last word? If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that science is sometimes a fickle authority.
Some examples are: mask versus no-mask, surfaces versus aerosols, and asymptomatic spreaders.
When masks were in short supply for first responders, we were told, on good authority, not to bother wearing one. They didn’t do much good anyway, and might contribute to virus spread if we touched the mask to adjust it.
Then U.S. President Donald Trump’s refusal to wear one suddenly turned the tide of opinion. Not wearing a mask was the height of irresponsibility.
We were told to sanitize surfaces. Then opinion swung to transmission by aerosols primarily.
We were further told that spread of the virus by asymptomatic carriers was a big concern, but that theory was brought into question, and then that questioning was partially withdrawn.
The bottom line is that science can change, and a lot of science is really competing theory, swayed by economic and political motives.
It is especially true with a novel virus like COVID-19 in the politically charged environment we find ourselves in.
K.R. Lynch
Victoria
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