Many thanks to our Mayor and members of Council regarding their professionalism shown during the public meeting as well as their positive vote for the Gateway Project following the meeting held recently at SHOAL Centre. We recognized many of our Sidney residents who are in favour of the project, sitting quietly for over 4 hours among the “sky is falling” people.
Also, we thank the gentleman from Victoria Airport Authority who explained the safety rules & regulations in place, contradicting misinformation given at the meeting about flights in & out of the Airport.
We must say we were appalled by the loud disrespect shown to our Mayor and Council by many speakers as well as some of the audience and this was, obviously, before the vote at the end of the evening.
A resounding yes to the Gateway Project! We all win; Sidney, North Saanich residents and business people as well! Over 200 new permanent jobs, a lot of young families moving here, (which we desperately need to revitalize Sidney), the choice of shopping at a few new stores (if they offer what we want & don’t just duplicate what we already have in Sidney).
Our economy will grow and most importantly to many residents, a new & beautiful pedestrian overpass - at no cost to us - will enable scooters, walkers and the like to go back and forth to it.
We are hoping that business building owners in Sidney will now be encouraged to lower their extravagant rents which are continuing to drive many businesses out of Sidney, so that present businesses can stay while others will move into the many vacant buildings.
Lorraine Jennings and Ed Hartigan, Sidney