After we pay our high property taxes in the west Juan de Fuca — most of which are taxes to maintain the Capital Regional District (CRD) — Saanich and the CRD then tell us that, in our Juan de Fuca region, urban sprawl is the biggest problem.
Because I live in that Juan de Fuca area, I see the problem as being: no gas station, grocery store, school, doctor, jobs, cell phone coverage, proper Internet, no public access to public transit, a minimum of policing and no tourist accommodation for tourism.
Urban sprawl is a Saanich problem, out in Saanich. So, what’s with the finger pointing?
Saanich should deal with its own business, at home in Saanich, and should also take a good hard look at its paranoia and illusions of grandeur problem, along with its denial problem, as in, denial of there being real problems facing the residents of west Juan de Fuca.
This type of denial is proving expensive in terms of human welfare and quality of life in this region — the west Juan de Fuca.
A Saanich councillor recently, indirectly implied in the Sooke News Mirror, that economic improvements in the west Juan de Fuca might increase road traffic in Saanich, and thereby increase its municipal costs.
Maybe it is a brand new mega-mall that Saanich just allowed built on Saanich Road and Hwy. 1, that is causing an increase in traffic?
Using forums and public rallying, by he CRD, with outsiders who are not directly linked to our region, to solve perceived or imaginary problems, is causing the real problems in the west Juan de Fuca, to be completely ignored.
N.E. McNab
Shirley
