The NDP’s decision to force a ‘housing solution’ upon residents’ personal property is a step too far – whether it's confiscation of golf courses, ruining perfectly functioning neighbourhoods, building on parks, forcing multiple housing units adjacent to transportation routes or restricting the use of our very own property – they are all futile.
B.C. will never be able to accommodate the flood of people the federal government has invited – we are already overstretched and simply do not have the resources – human or financial – but we do have space and it is not in the cities, not in Oak Bay nor any other built-up area. It's in the non-urban areas. The NDP housing approach is not surreptitious; it’s cleverly pitting urban neighbour against neighbour. No one wants densification. The NDP are diverting attention away from their lack of effective policies. Housing cannot and will not magically appear.
Let’s be clear. The so-called housing crisis needs to be defined. Are society’s expectations to own a house simply out of step and unrealistic now that we are removed from boom years after the Second World War when home ownership was promoted to ‘goose’ the economy? Yes, shelter is a right under our outdated Charter; home ownership is not a right. We need definitive research, studies and surveys on who is un-housed and what kind of housing is needed, not anecdotal, nor “I want”, nor subsidized housing, nor media hype, nor a handy election topic. Apart from unfortunate street people, just where are the homeless, how many are there, where are they now? Obviously expectations need to be adjusted, we all can’t expect the same or better standard of living that our parents had.
Let’s understand the housing problem, then devise solutions. The NDP’s approaches, such as funding 40% of home ownership through yet more government borrowing will only result in a greater influx of population, compounding the existing problem.
Rick Lee
Oak Bay
