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July/August 2006 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Moose mystery Feature: Century club Feature: Honey Ranchers The Inside Story Editor’s Notebook Reverberations Explorer À la carte Mosaic

Train Troubles

It’s a pleasure to read an article, ("Long Train Running," CG March/April 2006) that is at once so informative and so well-written. Mr. Conway, being fully familiar with the industry, the company, and the environment about which he writes, has provided a description of the Cheakamus Canyon accident which goes far beyond anything that could be done by someone who is bound by his employment. The article points out the problem with the leanest-possible-operation theory - that in the long run the problems caused by insufficient staff and overextended equipment may well cost more than the savings apparently to be had. As well, although it isn’t mentioned, the axiom that a company or an industry can’t be expected to objectively police itself is amply demonstrated. Nonetheless, railways are utterly indispensable for the movement of freight and will become more so as petroleum supplies peak and dwindle. They are to be commended for trying to improve their capacity and safety, but one hopes that as a general rule the latter should come first.

Also – the illustrations are stunning!

Peter Lacey
Manitoba, Ont.

Branding a Barbarian

I enjoyed the article "Dad the Barbarian", CG Mar/Apr 2006. I follow with quizzical interest the phenomenon of entertainers becoming spokespersons for "causes of the day" such as the seal hunt and world hunger, amongst others. My question regarding the actions of McCartney, Bardot, Anderson and Bono is: who elected these people? The answer is nobody. Via the entertainment industry and the grace of God, they have each amassed a fortune so large, they don’t know what to do with it so they march into the limelight, egos fore and photographers aft, and proceed to wag their fingers and lecture people who lead real lives. The actions of McCartney are particularly hypocritical because, if he glanced casually into his own British backyard, he would see the well-heeled aristocracy riding off into their fox hunts which can produce, coincidentally enough, a bloody carcass. Perhaps Sir Paul doesn’t wish to tread on the toes of those who have bestown upon him such a prodigious title.

Peter Bishop
Mississauga, Ont.

Critics of the future

I really enjoyed your article ("Futureville," CG May/June 2006) on Vancouver as a sustainable city in the May/June 2006 issue and I would like to learn more about some of the background. In particular, you cite an article on the last page under "Suburbia’s health hazards" from 2004 that links sprawl with arthritis, digestive disorders and other chronic health conditions. Could you give me the title of that article and what journal it is in since I would like to read it and learn more.

Gregory Butler

Excellent article on Vancouver and its quest for sustainability. The city is a beautiful place to live and all people of the Lower Mainland are proud of it. I do have to side with some of the critics though on its long term prospects.

Sustainability is built on several pillars.

The Economic pillar of Vancouver is not the office towers and information companies. It is the Port and the city has not done a good job of protecting it. I manage a large grain terminal in East Vancouver.  We are having difficulty finding suppliers of goods and services such as machine shops and industrial supply. All our traditional suppliers are moving outside Vancouver. Recently we went out to tender for supply of machine components and most of the bidders were in Chilliwack and Abbotsford. Ten years ago they were in east Vancouver. The cost of housing is pushing the majority of people outside of the city and my employees commute from as far away as Mission. Commuter trains go by our facility everyday but transit is not laid out to deliver people to industry. To top it off the tax burden is obscene.
 
The Social pillar is also not too solid. The cost of housing and the lack of renewal in the downtown east side for people with high school education has resulted in a mess. Even pro-social laws like Employment Equity have a negative effect because the target groups do not represent the people needing help in East Vancouver.  The only hopeful sign I see for the downtown east side is not development but the chance that decriminalization of the drug trade may occur.  It’s a mess and we are wasting millions of tax dollars.  
 
On the Environmental side it appears excellent and it is pretty good. I do find a lack of common sense in the legislation that has been set up. When an industry or business does anything now we have to go through a long procedure with specific requirements that have to be met. This means that a small maintenance type project on a shoreline ends up costing $300,000 instead of $50,000 and actually can have more of a negative effect on the environment.
 
Finally I can say that I fully expect to have to retire elsewhere and that my children will not be able to afford to live here in the future.  That to me is the real answer to whether Vancouver has achieved a sustainable city.

Gerald Dickie
BScF, MBA
Vancouver, B.C.

I found Charles Montgomery’s article very interesting and encouraging.  As I read through it one question kept coming to mind and remains unanswered.  When I moved to Vancouver 25 years ago I had heard the City had a bylaw in place preventing construction of new buildings over a certain height in the West End, or what Montgomery calls "Vancouver’s downtown peninsula," the same location for what he calls the "the greatest urban experiment since the 1950’s." If there was such a bylaw in place, I believe that it was due to the frequency of subterranean earthquakes, particularly in that area, and the risk of another "big one" within the next six hundred years. I’m guessing that, if there was such a bylaw in place,  it must have been relaxed or eliminated perhaps for or after Expo 86, since that seems to be when new towers started to go up; perhaps also because of the nebulous 600 year window. I’m wondering if that issue has been addressed by earthquake "resistant" construction of some kind and if the City feels confident that earthquake response systems now in place would adequately address the needs created in earthquake emergency for the present and future population living and/or working in the West End.

Alice Laniel
Vancouver, B.C.

Room for hockey

How can Canadian Geographic ("A la carte," May/June 2006) claim the building of an NHL arena in Ottawa was a "short-sighted development blunder"?  My "sustainable" city of the future will always have room for hockey!

Rob Fisher
Ottawa, Ont.

A hero’s guilt

The story "Supermom versus the polar bear" in CG’s May/June 2006 issue was most interesting. She and her children are very lucky to still be alive. But the story does raise some interesting questions:

Were all those rifles used to kill the bear registered under the Firearms Act? Did those using them have the necessary permits? Did they have to unlock their gun cabinets and get the bullets from a separate storage area before taking action? Have they since been investigated by the RCMP?

Don Currie
North Vancouver, B.C.

Last call for the spotted owl

I simply wanted to thank you for the article "Last call for the spotted owl", (CG May/June 2006).
  
I have been talking of the same issue for a while now and am glad that there will be more awareness on the urgency of this beautiful bird.

Nikita Chitnis

I just finished reading your article "Last call for the spotted owl" in CG’s May/June 2006 issue.  I live in an area which was described as a spotted owl habitat, and I have made friends with four of the owls that I am sending you a picture of.  I have a very interesting story with these owls, who return to see us each year.  I have looked through owl identification books and have  found them to resemble the spotted owl  more than any others, my only confusion is in their "call"  they don’t whoot, they have a whistle sound and respond to me when I return the call.  Anyway, I would appreciate your passing this picture on to somebody who can identify my friendly owls, I hope it is clear enough, if not , they are frequently at our deck watching us have dinner, so I can always get more pictures!

Karen Campbell

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