by George H. Brookman
It is fair to say that for the large majority of Canadians, the purchase of a house is likely the single largest investment they will ever make. Interestingly, the second largest investment might well be a car, and the significant difference is that we buy a home assuming that it will rise in value and provide a certain level of security for our senior years. A car, on the other hand is something we buy knowing full well that the value of it will reduce from the original price to something close to zero after ten years.
We also prepare ourselves for old age by investing in stocks, bonds, and other securities, and we hope, as we do so, that these too will rise in value, so that we can maintain a certain lifestyle in what are referred to as the Golden Years. Whether we are buying a house or investing in stocks there are rules of the game that go with any major investment. We trust that companies listed on the major exchanges, operate their businesses in a law-abiding fashion, and there are serious penalties waiting for managers and directors who break or stretch the rules. The public has little sympathy for companies that deceive their shareholders or change the rules of the game after they have put their hard-earned cash into these stocks and in Canada, we count on contractual law to keep our investments safe and on track.
Many years ago, I recall being told that there are countries in the world, where the contract you sign is not worth as much as a contract in North America. We knew that in certain nations, if a contract is not working out to the satisfaction of one party, that party might very well tear up the agreement and walk away with no remorse and even less retribution. Breaking or changing the terms of a contract should be something that is strictly forbidden and we can see in our courts every day, the results of two parties disagreeing on the terms of their contract.
When you buy a house, you also rely on the terms of the contract to know that you are making a good decision. There are codes to determine the quality of the materials used in the construction, there are real estate contracts to clearly show the terms of your purchase or the payments on your mortgage, and there are clear rules and guidelines about the district that your house is located within. None of us want to buy a house and discover later that the house next door is being used as a butcher shop, a funeral parlour, abattoir, or even a yard to store livestock or old cars. You expect that the house you buy will at the very least fit into the neighbourhood and that you will be able to rely on the rules under which you bought the house to remain the same at least until you and your neighbours collectively decide to change them.
Except right now in Calgary. Suddenly, zoning and the controls on our communities have come under attack. Suddenly, it is not you and your neighbours who are able to determine what your street will be like, whether you have a street of single houses or multifamily houses, or how tall they might be or even how many cars your neighbours might have. Suddenly the standards that you relied on when you made this major investment and have relied on as the years went by are no longer certain and may well be changed by a City Council that has a whole new agenda that only they have decided on.
When did we as citizens decide that a group of people, most of whom you have never met, sitting in City Hall, suddenly get to say, “We don’t care what the zoning rules were when you bought your house, we know better, and we are changing them.” When did we turn over the responsibility for our biggest single investment to a group that thinks that even though we might have invested many decades in our community, we must be prepared to change it all to solve their housing crisis.
There is something fundamentally wrong with the way the game is being played right now. Someone is trying to change the rules in the third quarter. The role of Council, in addition to the business of police, fire, parks etc., is in no small way to include the protection of our investments as citizens. The rules should not and therefore cannot be changed at the whim of eight or nine people without regard for the history and the security that we have counted on to protect our investment. Your house is not your car, your house should stand the test of time, and you should not be forced to change without the consent of you and all of your neighbours. No one was elected to turn on the voters and this City Council must stand up and work for the people who elected them and no one else.
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