A commentary by the vice-president of the non-profit Homes for Living.

The Quadra-McKenzie plan meeting at Saanich council on July 7 is a prime example of how our system of public input is fundamentally broken. It doesn’t adequately capture public opinion, leads to anger about feeling unheard, and frequently makes our cities worse.

But we can do better.

I’ve lived on the South Island since I was two, and I’m the vice-president of Homes for Living. We’re a non-profit housing advocacy group working to make housing more affordable for renters and primary homeowners.

We are entirely volunteer-driven and have (despite accusations from some attendees at meetings like these) never taken a dime of developer funding. We do what we do because we’re passionate about solving the housing crisis, not to serve someone else’s agenda.

On July 7, Saanich council held a meeting to determine next steps for the Quadra-McKenzie plan, which calls for greater density, more frequent transit and improved pedestrian safety. It went poorly.

Opponents of the plan have grown increasingly irate at its contents, and this anger has boiled over many times across countless meetings,........

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