Mayor’s decisions are as variable as the weather
Re: City considering snow readiness plan, July 26.
I seem to recall our venerable Mayor Gregor Robertson, in response to the city’s terrible response to last winter’s snow, saying that it was a one-off — i.e., one of those once-in-a-century events.
Now, in typical knee-jerk fashion, Vancouver City Hall is going all-out in the snow-clearing department at considerable cost to taxpayers. It appears there’s one thing more unpredictable than the weather; the mayor’s shifting words and variable decisions.
Charles Leduc, Vancouver
Rising costs for owners, too
Re: Rent increases are a burden, Letters, Aug. 1, Letter-writer Eve Carr, complaining about how unfair it is that owners keep increasing rents, is living in a bubble. The renter doesn’t see the increases in property taxes, utilities, garbage/recycling pickup, elevator maintenance, pest control, landscaping and general repairs and maintenance costs of maintaining a building. (Painting, carpet, appliance replacement and remediation work that needs to be done with each move out).
Even we homeowners have regular increases each year that come with maintaining the home we have bought. Why would any renter think they can just move in and live without any increases or contribute to those costs and leave it all to the landlord to absorb?
Alex Graham, Vancouver
Trudeau weak on Venezuela
Re: Venezuelan vote rocked by violence, July 31.
Our mumbling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t said much about the new dictatorship in Venezuela. While U.S. President Donald Trump has already taken decisive action against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, our PM has just returned home from a photo-op in Williams Lake three weeks after the fire and evacuation. When asked about Canada’s action on Venezuela it was the usual, ‘Um it is something we are looking at ... um ... and um, some announcements could be made,’ (in this millennium?)
Heaven forbid the Liberals would want to interrupt the ongoing import of 760,000 barrels of oil daily on the East Coast. Guess the tankers from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are of no concern regarding oil leakage or pose any threat to the many whale pods on the East Coast and the St. Lawrence River.
Yet, for some reason, unlike the East Coast, shipping of oil off the coast of B.C. is a threat to the climate-changers, First Nations, the whales, the birds, Gregor Robertson, John Horgan and Andrew Weaver and requires that the federal government ban any tanker traffic off the B.C. coast.
When Trudeau and Horgan turn B.C. into a have-not province, forcing East Coast provinces to pay equalization, watch Trudeau change the rules to ensure the West is screwed again.
Ron Hyde, Richmond
Petronas likely kept quiet
Re: NDP is hostile to industry, Letters, Aug. 2. Letter-writer Brock Bishop claiming Petronas cancelled its project because of the NDP is editorial malpractice. Petronas delayed the decision so it wouldn’t hurt the Liberals’ election chances. Talk to any LNG economist and they’ll say the decision was made before the election. Edward P. Fox, Surrey