Toronto-based Realstar Management has “every right” to evict the 161 families that call Christie Point home and build an upscale high-rise. At least that is what the Mayor of View Royal had to say at the municipality’s recent council meeting (Christie Point plan grilled in View Royal, Gazette, Jan. 20).
But legal rights aside, what about ethical responsibility? Do we want to live in a community that turns a blind eye to the eviction of an 88 year-old from her home of 20-plus years into a rental market that is sitting at 0.5 per cent vacancy?
Why not follow in Vancouver’s footsteps and create our own Tenant Relocation and Protection Guidelines? If our mayor is not willing to stand up and negotiate with ‘big business’ on behalf of the very residents he has been entrusted to speak for, it will be the developers who get to decide who calls View Royal home.
Michelle Wright
View Royal