Letters to The Vancouver Sun, Feb. 29, 2020: Refreshing, balanced perspective on rentals in city
Credit to Author: Carolyn Soltau| Date: Sat, 29 Feb 2020 02:00:08 +0000
Re: Discount offers hardly making Metro’s rental market more affordable
Thank you, Vancouver Sun, for finally giving space to a refreshing, balanced perspective on rentals in the city with Joanne Lee-Young’s report on affordable housing: Discount rental offers no real deal. Council and city planners are well advised by Beau Jarvis, chairman of the Urban Development Institute, to pay attention to the West End market of new rentals that few can afford before they start creating hundreds more with their ill-conceived MIHRPP program and proposed off-the-shelf spot zonings.
They should also pay attention to the families living downtown, and in the Olympic Village and Cambie village who cannot get spaces in local schools for their kindergarten children. Don’t forget the amenities required when increasing densification to make neighbourhoods livable. Take heed of these early warnings.
We need our politicians to be creative, look around the world for examples of successful densification. There are many. Consult with neighbourhoods, get some good data, create the right kind of affordable housing, and plan for the long-term.
Janet Buckle, Vancouver
I am retired now, but for most of my working life, I was a teacher. I was also, and remain, an avid canoe-tripper. So, I think we have a couple of things in common. As well, we both understand the problems that Indigenous people have had to, and continue to, endure in this country.
I know that politics is a complex business to be involved in. I also believe that you are committed to reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous people.
I mentioned that I was a teacher. For the last couple of decades of my teaching career, I taught in the Mohawk community of Kanehsatake. I began teaching there in 1990, when the “Oka Crisis” ended. I saw first-hand the trauma that the people of Kanehsatake endured. I also saw the chasm that had been created between the Mohawks and their non-Indigenous neighbours.
I am afraid that Canada seems set to repeat the mistakes of the past. The quest for riches (jobs and the economy) trumping the rights of native people. Please do not allow the peddlers of intolerance to define your actions. The Conservative politicians who are not so subtly rousing up their “base” are trying to undo the reconciliation that you and your government have been attempting to promote.
As I am sure you realize, the only way out of this impasse is through direct dialogue between the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en and you. This will only happen if you withdraw the RCMP completely from their territory. Only then will all the protesters in the rest of the country stand down.
I was so impressed with you when you referred to the Two Row Wampum as the path to reconcile Indigenous governance with federal policies. I hope to see you handle this crisis in the spirit of the Two Row Wampum.
Gerry (Otsinata) O’Toole, Chemainus
Re: Adrian Dix: Medical assistance in dying: Compassion and balance put patients first
Bravo to Adrian Dix for his clear words in support of everyone’s right to choose a medically assisted death. However, the continued exemption for faith-based facilities betrays these laudable commitments. The B.C. government provides nearly $1 billion to religious health-care facilities and permits them to operate under a different set of rules than secular public and non-profit providers. Patients are forced to go elsewhere if they want to exercise their right to an assisted death, as well as an abortion or contraception. These forced transfers undermine the entire premise of a dignified death. Funding these sectarian facilities would appear to be irreconcilable with the “duty of religious neutrality” set out by the Supreme Court of Canada. So, while we are glad to see the minister’s commitment to patient choice, there is still a long way to go to ensuring every British Columbian can exercise that choice.
Ian Bushfield, executive director, B.C. Humanist Association
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