Re: Suite dwellers critical to community life, (Oak Bay News Letters April 11)
A proponent of secondary suites said in a letter that there are hundreds of secondary suites in Oak Bay. The letter writer then used the figure of 1,800 secondary suites to postulate the financial benefit that suite dwellers are bringing into this district
The writer also said that in the context of the discussion about secondary suites, we should stop disinformation.
The fact is that there is simply no evidence of the number of suites that are being illegally occupied in Oak Bay.
Lance Finch, a former Chief Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court, said the following at convocation of UVic graduates in 2015.
“Good policy is essential to good government. … Objective empirical evidence is the only sure foundation of sound public policy… Canada has a reputation of developing policy solutions based on scientifically established facts …”
The use of unfounded estimates is unacceptable in the development of sound public policy, and would not be the proper exercise of good governance in our district.
I agree that we should stop disinformation about secondary suites, and I suggest that refraining from saying anything about the number of illegal suites in Oak Bay would be a good start.
Bruce Filan
Oak Bay
