No wonder there’s no money
Re: Columnist Michael Smyth’s math on teacher salaries.
I have yet see a roll back at the top of B.C.’s education system and probably never will. It’s still amazing that those claiming to have no money are all making excessive salaries. Some of the expense accounts of top bureaucrats are greater than the salary of a support worker.
The 210 people in our school district being paid $75,000 or more have wages up to $145,000 a year. Most are in the $89,000 to $ 99,000 range.
As far as expense accounts go, the secretary treasurer had $47,000, the director of instruction charged $22,000, the music supervisor got $16,000, the district administrator received $13,000 … and on and on it went.
We are also building a new board office this year instead of a new playground that is to be removed from our elementary school, they are closing our adult-education access centre and cutting janitors.
Trustees who get about $10,000 a year for 10 or 15 meetings will be receiving a 19-per-cent increase. I imagine their expenses will also rise.
Maybe Michael Smyth might want to redo his math.
Robert Fitzpatrick, Sicamous
Stop appointed senators
Our nation’s leaders appear to be powerless in dealing with the problems facing our Senate.
Can it be reformed? Abolished? Constitutionally transformed? It may take years, decades or even longer to arrive at a consensus and action to resolve this dilemma.
New members to the Senate are appointed by the sitting prime minister. One answer to the dilemma would be to have prime ministers stop appointing new senators. In a few years there would be no more senators.
Hey, no Senate!
This suggestion is so politically naive that it would probably work.
Ken Wotherspoon, Hope
Mayor wants public input when it suits him
Czar Gregor Robertson wants pipeline witnesses questioned. He states the National Energy Board’s decision to “sideline public input fosters distrust and undercuts the entire review process.”
Really? Mayor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver party are experts at sidelining public input. Where was the public input when the park board shamefully tried to evict long-serving members of the community centres?
No public input for the failed attempt to ram a bike lane through Kitsilano Beach Park.
In the closing of Point Grey Road, the public input came mostly from the residents who lived there and Robertson moved near there shortly after. But we are assured he recused himself from voting.
Now, regarding a referendum on the aquarium and the captivity of whales and dolphins he states, “I don’t think it’s constructive to drag everyone into a big debate about this.
This mayor only wants public input when he likes what he hears.
Cherryl Katnich, Maple Ridge
Foreign licences are a problem
I went to Lansdowne Centre to pay a bill and while walking out to my van in the parking lot I watched a lady in a BMW try to get into a space next to my vehicle.
I stood back and watched as she scraped my van while trying to park. When she parked, I showed her what she did to my van.
The lady could not speak English and when I asked for her drivers licence and insurance she had no idea what I was asking for.
She called her daughter who arrived to help. The BMW driver only had a drivers licence from Taiwan, yet her address was on Francis Road. I checked her insurance decal, which was good until October 2014, meaning she that renewed her insurance in October with no B.C. drivers licence.
This lady clearly could not park if her life depended on it. How can she be allowed to drive?
B.C. kids have to go through various progressions these days before they can drive yet we honour drivers licences from other countries when clearly they are not competent to drive?
Something is really wrong here. I’m afraid it will take someone getting hurt before any changes are made.
Bryan Wilson, Vancouver
What about breeding program
I find it interesting that those who are so adamant that the Vancouver Aquarium is doing such a great job would ignore the fact that three beluga whales are on breeding loan to SeaWorld.
Renting out a cetacean womb and profiting from it is not acceptable or educational.
It is also interesting that the dolphin rescued from Japan existed in a Japanese aquarium for 10 years before being sold to the Vancouver Aquarium.
Merrell Gerber, Vancouver
Let dogs run free
Although I don’t own at dog at the moment, I am opposed to any reduction in the public spaces where dog owners can take their four-legged children to run and play.
Dogs pose few problems for the community, unlike delinquent youth I read about every week.
Leslie Benisz, Vancouver
The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@theprovince.com. Letters to the editor can be sent to provletters@theprovince.com.
