YOUR LETTERS Hart unsafe

I have lived in Prince George my entire life. The Hart Highway has always stirred up mixed feelings between people, some love it, some hate it.

I love the Hart, with its affordable housing, clean air, bigger yards and down-to-Earth awesome people. You will also find poor drainage, not enough lighting and unfriendly walking trails.

I have a 16-year-old daughter that catches the city bus to Kelly Road secondary school as our house is not in the catchment for the school bus. She has called me at work on more than one occasion because it’s not safe for her to cross the highway to catch the city bus and it’s so dark that drivers cannot see her trying to cross.

I can’t be the only resident with this issue.

All along the Hart Highway are small pockets of residential, and all of them use the same bus route that we all do. No enclosures off the side of the highway, no sidewalks, just a post on the side of the very dark and underlit highway with a speed limit of 70 km/h that no one obeys. There is one underground crossing for students to cross safely, located beside the Hart Highway elementary school that is now closed down.

The trails along the highway are right beside the highway with not even a concrete barrier to protect pedestrians from an out-of-control car. The last uphill corner before the Hart Mall is so dark that it’s next to impossible to see the road let alone children.

Now I know given all the construction in the area that we are indeed apart of the City of Prince George. I am certain I don’t have to tell the City of Prince George that the safety of children is critical and can not be ignored in any area of our city. I work in an industry where safety is taken very seriously and our employees can and do refuse all unsafe work.

The speed on the highway makes any incident a probable fatality. I guess it’s a good thing we don’t teach our children to work at the same safety standards we do.

Dianna Young, Prince George their fair share of taxes by using offshore accounts. Ordinary Canadians are rightfully outraged, but they need to know that our own federal government has being doing the same for years.

Official Development Assistance is the money that countries contribute to help the world’s poorest get at least some kind of help. It’s like the taxes we pay to assist the poor, disabled and sick in our own communities, but ODA recognizes that those needs don’t end at borders.

But for years now Canada has been cheating on its taxes. Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Canada contributes far less than most other developed nations. Despite being close to the top economically, our contributions are second from the bottom.

Canada is like the guy with a massive house, a BMW in the garage and a condo in Mexico, and claims poverty on his tax forms while his less well-off neighbours pay their fair share. No wonder the federal government seems reluctant to pursue the rich dodging taxes – when it comes to ODA, Canada too is a deadbeat. Tracy Koebel

Victoria