Vaughn Palmer: Court of Appeal rejected provincial law aimed to prevent further challenges to the supportive housing project
VICTORIA — Premier David Eby vowed this week to impose supportive housing projects in “every neighbourhood,” never mind a court decision overturning the NDP government effort to expedite one such project in Kitsilano.
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“I mean this is frustrating,” Eby told reporters when asked about the B.C. Court of Appeal decision that delayed a proposed 129-unit project for residents with mental-health and drug-addiction problems.
“Everybody in B.C. knows there’s a housing crisis. They see the people in the streets. They see that providing affordable housing with supports for people is part of the response to this.
“This is a project that we funded, I think now four years ago, still trying to get a shovel in the ground because of endless process.”
The court did not rule on the merits of the project, which would be on Arbutus Street between 7th and 8th. Rather it overturned a provincial law that was deliberately crafted to block any further challenges to the Arbutus project by the Kitsilano Coalition for Children and Family Safety.
The three-member panel of judges ruled unanimously that the province had violated the Constitution by denying the public’s right to go to court and by deeming the project to be approved never mind what a court might say.
Considering that the highest court in the province found the NDP government had violated the Constitution and trampled the rights of the public, one might have expected a show of contrition from a premier who formerly headed the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
But that is not Eby’s way. He knows best, and never more so than when challenged over one of his projects and programs.
Instead of admitting the court had a point, he’s on the lookout for a workaround.
“The lawyers are having a look about what to do next,” the premier told reporters Tuesday. “But the court did set out a path for us to be able to move ahead on this.”
The province could seek leave to take the Dec. 23 Court of Appeal judgment to the Supreme Court of Canada. It could again try to use legislation to head off further challenges by the Kitsilano coalition.
Or it could let the coalition proceed with its plan to seek a judicial review of what it regards as the city’s flawed approval of a flawed project.
The coalition maintains it is not opposed to social housing projects, only that this one is the wrong project in the wrong place.
“The project, as proposed, would have placed 129 units of low-barrier supportive housing, including an in-house drug consumption room, a mere 17 metres from an elementary school with 450 children, a successful women’s recovery home, and a toddler park,” it argued in a news release celebrating the Court of Appeal decision.
When I reported that passage on Dec. 28, B.C. Housing wrote to say that the coalition was in error.
“The building does not include an ‘in-house drug consumption room’ or a public safe-consumption site,” the government’s housing agency complained.
“There will be a medical room and two consultation rooms in the building. The rooms are intended for practitioners and mobile service providers to support tenants with medical, harm reduction, counselling and other supports that may be required.”
However the Court of Appeal judgment acknowledged several concerns that were raised about the city’s public hearing into the Arbutus project.
“Questions regarding the possibility of safe-injection sites on the property were answered in the negative, but further questioning elicited that B.C. Housing would be providing supervised injection services to tenants,” the court noted.
The city and the province had concluded a memorandum of understanding for funding the Arbutus project and four others. The memorandum was not included in the package of material provided to the public before the hearing. Yet it appeared that if the city did anything other than approve the project “as is,” the provincial funding would be lost.
“In the coalition’s view, some of the terms … were misrepresented at the hearing. Other questions asked by attendees were shut down and according to the coalition’s pleading, its members were prevented from making their full submissions.”
Those concerns suggest at least some basis for revisiting the project.
But Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon has expressed doubts that the coalition would accept “any type of housing for vulnerable people in the neighbourhood.”
However the New Democrats decide to proceed on Arbutus, Eby leaves no doubt that they will be driving hard to build similar projects there and elsewhere.
“What is not up for discussion is that there will be affordable social housing in that neighbourhood,” he declared. “We will ensure that every neighbourhood and every community does its part in terms of responding to the housing crisis.”
“We’re going to listen to communities,” he added. “That’s an important thing for us to do. But one of the things we’ve also committed to do is to actually get the housing built.”
He’ll listen all right. Just so long as at the end of the day, everyone agrees to do it his way.