B.C. should fund audio books for province’s blind citizens
I can only imagine the emotional turmoil being felt by Taeshim Youn, who is legally blind, in learning that she will lose her access to an online audio book library at the end of the month.
Think about all the money the provincial government wastes on endless debates over pipelines and housing for the homeless that our premier promised to settle promptly.
B.C., along with Manitoba and Nunavut, are the only provinces not to fund a service for those with sight loss.
Shame on the B.C. politicians who have not acted on behalf of the 240 users with vision loss without access to the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) as their library does not provide funding.
Michele Thorsteinson, Vancouver
Manitoba needs geoscience too
As a retired Manitoba exploration geologist and physical scientist, I read the recent op-ed arguing that the need for geoscientific studies are needed now more than ever. It was an excellent commentary. It’s unfortunate that Manitoba does not have such a program as it certainly has the mineral potential with regards to lithium, cobalt and graphite deposits for the manufacturing of lithium ion-cobalt batteries for the electric vehicles industry.
Robin Gibson, Coquitlam
Electoral reform needed
Within the next 10 months, B.C. will have a third and final referendum on electoral reform. During that time, I’m sure we will be bombarded with information extolling both the virtues and evils of the current first-past-the-post versus proportional representation systems.
Years of FPTP has created a disproportionate imbalance of power, such as in 2001 when the Liberals won 97 per cent of the seats with only 57 per cent of the vote. Our democracy is further eroded when parties refuse to allow MLAs a free and open vote, reflective of the constituents. We then have an autocracy that leads to abuse of power and scandal. Let’s vote for real democracy in November.
Robert Brown, Cranbrook
Wise to discover what works
One of your writers incorrectly equated bridge tolling to road pricing.
The purpose of the former is to pay for bridges; the latter is to discourage driving.
If you’ve driven anywhere in the Lower Mainland, you would have to agree something has to be done to minimize the current number and exponential growth in the number of vehicles on our roads. Other cities are dealing with traffic congestion in various ways. Looking at what works in those cities is an intelligent course of action.
Bill Richardson, West Vancouver
Norwegians are laughing
In his Sunday op-ed, David Orchard outlined how well Norway has done socially and economically by staying out of the European Union.
It is useful to then reflect on how truly uninformed and hilarious U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement is about wanting more people to emigrate to his country from Norway. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Life Satisfaction Index, Norway ranks No. 1 in the world while the U.S. ranks No. 15 out of 38 countries.
Who would believe for a second that Norwegians would want to leave a country that provides its citizens with free university education, child care and dental care for everyone under the age of 18, that has almost no homelessness, one tenth of U.S. crime, and is debt and deficit free, to live in a country that is in a state of social and political chaos and offers none of these quality-of-life benefits to its people?
Trump’s proclamation must have given Norwegians a huge laugh.
Ray Arnold, Richmond