Letters May 29: Play nice; think of others; WorkSafe investing
Amid the pandemic, please play nice
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in people being grumpy, rude and downright nasty. Drivers run red lights and stop signs, people in stores get all upset if you invade their space.
Everyone, CHILL! Please play nice.
Bennett Guinn
Victoria
Think of others, wear a mask.
We laud our frontline workers with well-deserved accolades, yet, we enter enclosed spaces without mouth and nose protection. Get with the program, people. Think of others beside yourself for a change.
Wear a mask!
Steve Hoffman
Victoria
A request for space along sidewalks
With six-foot distancing, if you stop, stand or sit on or near a sidewalk, you are effectively blocking it for everyone else.
If you need to look at your all-important phone, watch your dog pee or poop, or speak to someone in person, please move at least four feet away from the sidewalk. If speaking with someone, please both stand at least four feet away from the walk, parallel to it and on the same side.
Paired walkers please break to single file when approaching and passing others. If walkers need to move onto the street when passing, if possible, it should be the walkers facing oncoming vehicle traffic who should move onto the street.
Dog walkers, please realize that if you and Fido are both on the sidewalk you effectively block the whole walkway. Please keep Fido on leash and off the sidewalk when passing others.
Joggers and runners, please remember that sidewalks are not your personal training track and everyone needs to move over to provide that six-foot distance. When passing walkers from behind, please run ahead a fair distance before cutting back in.
Brian Rossnagel
James Bay
Long-term care a scary proposition
Every morning I trudge up the hill to the Beacon Hill flagpole, muttering to myself: “you can’t catch me!” It’s not COVID-19 that scares me. It is long- term care. I am 91.
It’s fine for Premier John Horgan to say the horrors reported by army recruits in Quebec don’t happen here. Tell that to families who can’t visit their loved ones. Or talk to families of the 22 seniors who have died of COVID-19 in Langley Lodge.
This pandemic might have scared a few politicians, but it has also uncovered the shortage of staff and lack of proper care, which leads to unnecessary deaths in care homes.
I gather that nobody cares how you die when you get to be 90. We’re just a nuisance. How to change this? First, stop companies and their shareholders from profiting from helpless seniors. No more homes for profit. Second, strongly enforce the rules and inspect without notice. Three, give power to the families of those in care, with regular meetings and facilities for families to complain to the authorities and be heard.
This takes time and the concern from all of us because the older you get, the less opportunity you will have to complain. The home may look like a gorgeous hotel, but what is the ratio of care worker to patient? And if it is a place for profit, find out when they hold the next annual meeting, demand a financial statement, stand up and say your piece. And take the local press with you.
Meanwhile, I’m off to the top of Beacon Hill. Catch me if you can!
Alison Acker
Victoria
Release WorkSafe review to the public
Re: “WorkSafe B.C. loses billions on stocks, wiping out funds for protective gear,” May 24.
There may be more to be concerned about than the enormous financial losses at WorkSafe B.C.
One can’t help but wonder if the announcement is an attempt to avoid other WorkSafe problems.
For more than six months, Labour Minister Harry Bains has sat on the most recent review of WorkSafe by Janet Patterson, not releasing it to the public.
How explosive were her findings?
Beyond WorkSafe’s problems, the concern is even greater as I understand the B.C. Investment Management Corp. made the investments. They invest on behalf of many pension funds.
Do the losses extend to the pensions of thousands of pensioners too?
Norm Ryder
Central Saanich
Why is public money in stock market?
Labour Minister Harry Bains said WorkSafe B.C.’s surplus was wavering between $2 billion and $3 billion.
It is almost all gone due to the severe stock market correction, as the money was invested in stocks, according to the minister.
Given that the market regained a substantial part of the losses, bringing the correction to a 16 per cent loss of capital, why is the surplus “almost all gone,” instead of being left with 84 per cent of its funds?
It brings two questions to mind. Firstly, was it a junior clerk in the office doing the investing?
Secondly, what was public money, with no long-term investment horizon, doing in the stock market?
I trust there will be a thorough audit of this sad affair.
Vince Devries
Ladysmith
Public pays price for WorkSafe’s mistakes
I don’t get it. WorkSafe, ICBC etc., generate their money from the typical worker like you and me.
We pay our premiums to WorkSafe. We pay our insurance on our vehicles to ICBC.
We are not investing this money for someone to play with in high-risk stocks.
WorkSafe says it lost almost all its $3-billion surplus, but the stock market didn’t go down that much. Will our premiums go up due to these huge loses?
And a few years ago, ICBC had huge surpluses but decided to give employees huge bonuses instead of lowering insurance rates.
WorkSafe has lost its surplus and can’t afford to help businesses buy the protective equipment required to get restarted.
They need to use the money we pay for what it is intended for.
The people in charge invest in the stock market and pay themselves huge bonuses when things go well but when they lose who pays?
The working men and women, as usual.
Rob Grant
Langford
Grateful for Canada’s handling of pandemic
Re: “Canada’s handling of epidemic doesn’t make sense,” commentary, May 27.
Comparing Canada’s actions to Sweden is what really “doesn’t make sense.” Although Sweden has one of the world’s best health-care systems for all, the COVID-19 death rate there is 32 per cent higher than in the U.S! Without Sweden’s exemplary health care, I’m sure the death toll would be much higher.
Perhaps the writer’s story would be different if he had contracted the virus, unwittingly infected people throughout the multiple locations travelled, then finally ended up in a U.S. hospital. I am grateful for Canada’s actions during this pandemic and have no sympathy for anyone having to quarantine for free.
Marcia Foote
Victoria
No sympathy for quarantined traveller
Canada’s public health professionals are learning a great deal from the COVID-19 experience about protecting us during pandemics. They will no doubt learn more with increased hindsight.
We can be thankful that our politicians and the public are listening, adjusting, and respecting.
Not so, the writer. A retired physician, he indulges in a bucket-list road trip through one of the least regulated countries in the pandemic.
He arrives back in Canada on the other side of the country from his residence with no place to stay and is offended by his treatment. New Brunswick authorities put him up in a hotel, complete with food, laundry service and medical oversight to ensure his and everyone else’s safety. All at public expense. His biggest problems seems to be a boring diet and lack of exercise.
New Brunswick has one of the lowest per capita COVID-19 cases in Canada despite sitting between two provinces with among the highest. Not a place to sneer at precautions.
It is also a province that can ill-afford to pay for the writer’s reckless entitlement but does so for his and other’s welfare. And what does he do while in quarantine? Lodges a complaint.
Vince Nealis
Victoria
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