Dear editor
An open letter to Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan:
I am writing to you today with housing on my mind. As you are no doubt aware, we now have a new federal government here in Canada. So it is probably a good time to consider the housing opportunities that are available to you and the renters of Burnaby who you represent. As you may recall, Prime Minister Trudeau, in his platform, said that he wanted to have “a national action plan on housing that would produce affordable safe housing for Canadians at all income levels.” This is to be financed out of his $20 billion pledge to provide social infrastructure. Therefore, it would appear an ideal time for you to reconsider your current housing strategy here.
For a moment think, about the renters in this town who live in three- or four-storey buildings, wondering if theirs will be the next building chosen for rezoning, demolition, and reconstructed as a luxury condo development (a.k.a. demovictions). This gentrification has always been a wrong approach for an NDPer like yourself. I say this as a lifelong NDPer myself. Rather than make life easy for big developers to further enrich themselves here, you would do better to take a look at Kennedy Stewart’s private member’s bill M-547. It is a good affordable housing plan, it is a real NDP document. Notice how newly elected Burnaby South MP Mr. Stewart affirms that access to safe, adequate housing is a fundamental right of all Canadians, as guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. And Mr. Stewart goes on to recommend that this basic housing should not “compromise an individual’s basic needs, including food, clothing, health care and education.”
In so many words, Mr. Stewart is saying social housing. But somehow you don’t get it. Why don’t you pick up the phone and give the new prime minister a call? Here in Burnaby we need fairly priced basic housing as much as any city in Canada.
For some reason, instead of trying to help lower-income citizens with housing needs, you pretend they aren’t here. Not everyone can afford luxury condos. But instead of you and your elected group using your powerful one-party council to enact standards of maintenance legislation to protect renters from landlords who allow their premises to deteriorate as they wait for a gigantic payday after demoviction, instead of helping lower- and moderate-income renters, you put Burnaby on the map as one of the most facile and compliant cities in the entire Lower Mainland.
The proof is freely available in New Homes and Red Tape, the Fraser Institute study that came out on Aug. 25. Regarding regulatory costs per new dwelling unit, it shows that Abbotsford levied the lowest price to developers: only$14,357 per dwelling unit. Following in second place is Maple Ridge, which charges $17,500 per dwelling unit. Burnaby was close behind in friendliness to big developers, charging only $17,542 per dwelling unit. However, dollar for dollar and unit for unit, the City of Burnaby allows the developer to make far more money than the other two cities, owing to the value of real estate here.
So perhaps it is time for you to begin governing like the good NDPer I still want to believe you are. It’s up to you. But sooner than later a new political group is going to rise up in this town and challenge you and the BCA where you are most vulnerable, on your left flank. Please take my advice.
Ric Erb, co-chair A.C.O.R.N. Burnaby
