I was appalled to read the remarks attributed to former ICF chair, Jack Peake, in which he castigates anyone not sharing his vision of a restored (E&N) rail service on the island as “lacking in vision.”
Thank you Mayor Teunis Westbroek for supporting the sensible proposal by FORT-VI to convert the railbed into a multi-use trail. It is the height of arrogance by Mr. Peake to disparage anyone whose ideas happen to differ from his own. FORT-VI’s vision has far more practicality than the pipe-dream of restored passenger rail service (at huge public expense).
As for the hoary old blather about reduced pollution from all those saved car journeys and the huge increase in tourism, dream on! If Mr. Peake is aware of investors waiting, why the continued push to spend public money. It serves only to prove the old adage that there is nothing easier to spend than somebody else’s money.
The idea of spending tens of millions of our money to rebuild the railbed and launch rail services is about as practical as Donald Trump’s farcical wall along the Mexican border.
David Croot
Qualicum Beach