Dear Duncan mayor and council, and Prime Minister Mark Carney:
Our city's plan for a Cairnsmore-Government roundabout appears to be a case of misdirected priorities.
Surely Duncan council and our federal government have better, more pressing issues to address than spending a whopping $2.65 million of taxpayers' dollars on yet another Cowichan Valley roundabout.
Details were posted on the Cowichan Citizen’s Sept. 26, 2025 website.
Prime Minister Carney, please deny Duncan’s council’s $2.1-million grant request for this non-essential project.
It could take months of gridlock to install, and still arguably not move traffic any faster than the busy intersection’s familiar lights curbing speeding now.
Safety-wise, when driving Cowichan's overabundance of roundabouts, it’s clear many motorists still do not understand what a yield sign means. Roundabout accidents have, will and do happen, thankfully at slower speeds.
Perhaps if our Cairnsmore-Government intersection was inordinately accident-prone, a calming roundabout could be mulled, along with a public-spending referendum.
But for this purse of precious coins — after observing Duncan’s bike-lane morass, and core-park make-over — we urge our cash-needy council, plus our debt-laden Parliament, to review their higher-priority lists and curb this questionable roundabout.
Yours in traffic-safety priorities,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan
