Re: Healthy environment should be universal right (News, Dec. 19).
If mayor and council are serious, I invite them, and also the editor of Victoria News, by way of this open letter, to come and sit on my back deck next year when the cruise ship fumes are blowing around my house. Then they will know what some of us in James Bay are forced to contend with.
I have several times invited Greater Victoria Harbour Authority executive or board members to come to my home and see how bad the fumes can be, but they have not responded. When I wrote to former mayor Dean Fortin, he advised me, despite the existence of a bylaw that prohibits toxic emissions from harbour activities, that my concerns were not the responsibility of the city.
However if the new mayor is willing to accept my invitation, and is serious about addressing local environmental concerns, she may respond to me through Coun. Ben Isitt.
Ruth Magnusson, James Bay
