It is hard to believe that Saanich council is considering legal public consumption of alcohol in parks. This is a very bad idea for the following reasons:
The parks should be enjoyed by everyone, including people who don’t want to be around alcohol, myself included.
There are a large number of people with addiction problems for whom the sight and smell of alcohol is a trigger to use. Right now the people in this group who are in recovery programs must go to virtual meetings and get less support than when we don’t have a pandemic to deal with.
Children should see that adults can have fun in the park without alcohol.
People who drink are more likely to litter the parks with cans and broken bottles.
Hopefully people don’t drive to the park where families are and then drive home. I hope MADD has been informed of this plan. We don’t need people drinking and driving where children should be able to play, worry free.
I do hope kinder heads prevail in Saanich council.
Dave Connell
Saanich