River District needs a better daycare plan
How is it that the City of Vancouver can put a daycare in a parkade but they can’t find a suitable site to put a promised daycare in the new 52-hectare River District?
Instead, city planners want to build a daycare on nearby West Fraserlands’ only large grass field, a much-needed green space that has been operating as a park for more than 20 years.
I hope that the folks living down by the river demand that Mayor Gregor Robertson and company put the daycare in Wesgroup’s emerging community because if they can’t make it work on that sprawling parcel, what are they going to do for childcare in other, smaller developments, such as the Jericho Lands, Pearson-Dogwood, Little Mountain, Oakridge, etc.?
Rob Howatson, Vancouver
Sewers already full
So let me understand this, the City of Vancouver, in its effort to become “the greenest city, inside and out,” wants residents to start flushing dog poop down their toilets.
Our sewage-treatment plants are already stretched beyond capacity, often only able to offer primary treatment of human waste before flushing it into our waterways, where it ultimately ends up in our oceans and on our beaches.
People of Vancouver, how do you feel about this suggestion of throwing dog waste directly into our waters and onto our beaches in an effort to help keep Vancouver in the green, as in money?
John Taylor, Vancouver
Classes always existed
Tom Parkin’s column Wednesday is evidence of the saying, “there’s nothing new under the sun.” From the beginning of human existence, there has been class division.
The first cavemen had a leader. There is a myriad of reasons for this and creating more and bigger government solutions is not the answer. Squashing entrepreneurship and innovation isn’t either.
It is curious that social democrats rant against private enterprise and individually earned wealth but always seek ways to get some of it.
Cherryl Katnich, Maple Ridge
Pot isn’t a medicine
Marijuana is not a recognized medicine by any legitimate medical association in any country on the planet.
Dispensing marijuana has no quality control, no standardized composition or dosage for specific medical conditions. It has no prescribing information nor are there any high-quality scientific studies that establish its effectiveness or long-term safety. No such studies exist and therefore pot dispensaries are just pot shops run by under-qualified individuals.
Pamela McColl, Vancouver
Let industry pay Clark
Those who argue that Premier Christy Clark’s $195,000 salary is inadequate make a reasonable point. For services rendered, she should receive at least as much as any top-level CEO employed in B.C.’s energy industry and her wages and benefits should be provided directly by the private sector.
Taxpayers would thereby be relieved of any financial burden and having a new paymaster would make quite clear who Clark actually works for.
Larry Kazdan, Vancouver
Boards are redundant
It’s bewildering that we even have school boards when you consider that if they make a decision contrary to what is dictated by the Education Ministry they are overruled and a decision is imposed.
We may as well do away with the boards and just appoint representatives from the ministry to manage the school districts.
The current system of yearly budget confrontation is unproductive and a waste of money that could be better spent on students.
Art Green, Hope
The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@theprovince.com. Letters to the editor can be sent to provletters@theprovince.com.
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