Re: proposed changes to Saanich’s unrelated occupancy limits. To say I am “gobsmacked” this amendment is being put forward now after COVID-19 and the consistent advice respecting social distancing, especially with people you don’t know, is putting it mildly.
How can it be possible that increasing the permissible number of unrelated people with no commonality contribute to public health?
Just think of the epidemiological nightmare of having to trace back the contacts of “housemates” with no commonality or history? “Oh, they were just here for a couple of months. I don’t know much about them. I think they are in Vancouver. Sorry don’t know where they are right now.”
Not to mention that given the effects of the COVID virus on the economy, the bylaw amendment is unlikely not needed at this juncture.
This is in addition to the myriad of concerns raised by various community associations and individuals over the past several months. The reaction against this amendment has been expansive and clearly opposed by the majority of submissions.
It seems that council’s decisions are overall driven by a widely shared set of “inclusionary” beliefs accepted as gospel that ignore, dismiss or minimize the expressed concerns of the electorate as evidenced to date. Inclusionary as long as you agree with me, that is. No small bit of irony here.
Brian Green
Saanich