Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley has the first real controversy of his short tenure and – surprise! - it involves housing.
Welcome to elected office, Mr. Mayor.
It all started after the names of the mayor’s task force on housing were revealed. The group Stop Demovictions Burnaby staged a protest before Monday night’s council meeting, saying it was filled with “enemy” developers.
This, to me, is not the reason to be worried about the task force.
First, some background.
The new 15-member committee is pretty developer-heavy, including Beau Jarvis of Wesgroup Properties, Brian McCauley of Concert Properties, Mike Bosa of Solterra Developments and Anne McMullin of the Urban Development Institute. That last one is a lobby group for builders and developers.
It also includes Paul Holden of the Burnaby Board of Trade, which makes total sense because they have a stake in the community as well and have been proactive in voicing concerns about the housing crisis.
But according to the protest, no developers should even be on the committee. That’s an interesting and arguable point. Developers do have a lot more self-interest than regular folks. And the UDI, especially, should be asked to drop out because it’s a professional lobby group – there’s too much self-interest baggage there.
But the protesters’ conspiracy theories about the committee being some sort of “mystery” – their words – is hogwash.
The committee is also full of people looking for good housing solutions for all people.
ACORN activist Murray Martin, who has led many rallies outside city hall in recent years, is a member. Paul Kershaw of Generation Squeeze, Thom Armstrong of the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C, Patrick Buchannon of the New Chelsea Society, Kari Michaels of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union and Daniel Tetrault of the Burnaby Teachers’ Association are also members.
The one thing it’s really missing are some Metrotown renters, the people who have suffered the most from demovictions.
But, overall, the committee seems solid.
Except for its chair.
Hurley told the NOW earlier this week that Coun. Pietro Calendino was off the public safety committee and would now chair the housing task force.
Gulp.
Calendino’s impatient temperament for opposing opinions should disqualify him from chairing any committee – especially one like this. But beyond that is the fact he’s part of the Burnaby Citizens Association team that presided over the city as the housing crisis grew worse and worse.
The BCA has been far too cozy with developers. They all sat by as renters lost their homes, shrugging their shoulders and refusing to look for innovative solutions to the crisis. It was only during the election campaign – one in which they knew their mayor was in deep trouble – that they finally started talking about making changes to deal with the crisis.
I don’t think any BCA council member should go anywhere near a housing task force. Talk about baggage. I know that won’t happen because they were re-elected and Hurley wants to build bridges, but that’s my real problem with the task force.
I hope people on the task force are open with Calendino about the damage that’s been done. I hope he listens with open ears. I hope something positive comes out of all of this. It’s a steep hill to climb and I’ll believe it when I see it.
At least the process has been started.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44
