Vic West residents have received a postcard from the City of Victoria stating that the Point Ellice Bridge will be closed for four months (no start date provided) to eastbound traffic (cyclists excepted) on a 24/7 basis.

This, after frequent closures on Bridge and Bay streets the past few months have caused gridlocks in the area.

Emergency vehicles are major users of this bridge. Only a few years ago, major repairs were done on the bridge.

The most logical conclusion is that this closure is an expansion of the city’s war on cars.

Their first phase was to make downtown a scary place to visit.

Their second phase was to build protected bike lanes, which required narrowing or elimination of some vehicle lanes.

Now, the third phase. What will they do next?

Kenneth Mintz

Victoria

Re: “Five years into safe supply, we’re still waiting for answers,” commentary, Sept. 13.

Claire Rattée, Opposition critic for mental health and addictions, lamented that it’s been “five years since the NDP government began expanding what it calls ‘safe supply’ and yet they can’t tell us how many overdose deaths or new cases of opioid use disorder the pilot project has prevented.”

It has been almost 30 years since the federal government enacted the so-called “Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,” with promises of a “balanced approach,” with equal emphasis on the “four pillars” of law enforcement, prevention, treatment and harm reduction.

However, the bulk of federal and provincial spending has gone to drug law enforcement, followed by treatment, prevention and lastly harm reduction, a fraction of which funds what the government calls “prescribed alternatives to the unregulated drug supply.”

Yet no one can tell us how much drug law enforcement has cost, what collateral damage it has caused or what it has accomplished.

I think Rattée is barking up the wrong pillar.

Matthew M. Elrod

Victoria

As someone who actively participated in the North Saanich Official Community Plan review process over the past six years, I have witnessed firsthand how a very small but vocal group of “radical........

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