Dear Editor,

A true test of livability in any region dotted with urban settlement - such as Haida Gwaii - is the amenity of affordable, accessible and reliable public transportation. This place gets a mark of D-, despite the fact of multimillennial habitation and one and a half centuries of European-style infrastructural build-up.

It hurts to live in a milieu where it’s an unending struggle to travel between one community and the next - as someone who doesn’t operate a motor vehicle and in fact, has depended on public transportation over six decades. Haida Gwaii has a markedly diminished air about it - despite its “greener-than-thou” attitude. Surely four thousand plus souls deserve a “B.C. Transit” franchise?

How ‘bout it?

Rèal Saint Laurent

Mennonite colony