Sun letters: Surrey Police Service and RCMP officers deserve clarity about their futures

As a Surrey resident, I appeal for a binding police referendum to solve this intractable conflict. Surrey Police Service Chief Norm Lipinski is right that this has dragged on too long. Our Surrey Police and RCMP officers and families deserve clarity about their futures. We especially need to know who is refusing to sign the confidentiality agreement and slowing any resolution. Coun. Linda Annis, who has called for a referendum, has already signed the confidentiality agreement.

Why do the provincial NDP seem reluctant to let us choose? It was, after all, a referendum in 1950 that gave us the Surrey RCMP, replacing our Surrey Municipal Force. If Surrey residents are not allowed a choice by Mayor Brenda Locke and the NDP, we will remember this in the next mayoralty and provincial elections.

Only a referendum can break this political logjam.

Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, Surrey

Prices are determined by both supply and demand

Re: The promise and pitfalls of upzoning and ‘missing middle’ housing policies

I appreciated reporter Katie DeRosa’s article on upzoning plus “missing middle” housing plans currently underway in B.C. She was well-informed about the challenges regarding this ongoing housing supply process.

However, prices of anything are determined by the two conditions of supply and demand. Reducing the number of people coming to B.C. would have an equal or even greater impact on housing prices than increasing supply. I’m surprised that the high annual immigration rates imposed by Ottawa are so often left out of the conversation.

Scott MacEachern, Vancouver

Older job seekers aren’t being given a chance

Re: Labour shortages aren’t being driven by lack of highly skilled workers

As a 60-year-old woman, I can attest to the fact that employers do not say, “Sorry, you’re too old/too experienced.” They either ignore your job applications entirely, or employ computer algorithms to do it for them.

I was born and raised in B.C. with post-secondary training. For the past 20 years, since retraining at the age of 40, I have known that “labour shortages haven’t been driven by a lack of highly skilled workers.”

There are many women (and men) over the age of 40 who want to work at jobs they qualify for, but who aren’t being given the chance.

Even the federal government prioritizes the employment of people between the ages of 15 and 35 through subsidized youth-oriented work programs, especially in the summer months. However, there aren’t any employment programs targeted to people over 35.

Unfortunately, Canada is no country for old (wo)men.

A.S. Cameron, Vancouver

Can we really afford another public inquiry? 

What have previous government public inquiries achieved besides producing hundreds of pages of non-binding recommendations that took months to arrive at and costing millions in taxpayers dollars? The recent inquiry into the use of the emergencies act to deal with the Ottawa “freedom convoy” protests in 2022 did not provide any sense of reassurance that something similar could be properly dealt with in the future. Here in B.C., our “money laundering” inquiry ended up being pretty much a huge waste of time and public money.

Public inquiries rarely yield concrete results, while giving a false sense of oversight and responsibility. In the meantime, the issues they purport to address usually persist unimpeded because they haven’t been tackled head on, which is exactly what former Gov.-Gen. David Johnston is trying to accomplish in his role as “special rapporteur” on election foreign interference.

In the meantime, while federal opposition parties turn this serious matter into an overtly political controversy, the suspected meddling foreign entities can only be laughing at how easy it is to disturb Canadian politics, and may well be planning their next manoeuvres.
Can we really afford to waste our time on another useless public inquiry?

Charles Leduc, Vancouver