I am dismayed by the tone adopted by residents protesting VisionQuest's transition house on Pratt Road. These people are not just Vision Quest's neighbours, they are mine.
They are also the same people who demanded we vote "no" for restructure, demanded legislation to keep Wal-Mart from locating on the Coast, and are still demanding crosswalks near Cedar Grove Elementary School. They are a very demanding bunch.
Elphinstone is a rural residential area, where people should be able to continue their healing in an orderly process of transition to the community, with support from their neighbours and families - not vilification or demonization. They have been truthful about their problems and forthright in addressing them.
VisionQuest has a legal right to have its facility located in Elphinstone. A speaker at the Elphinstone Electors' Association meeting June 10 stated that Davis Bay, Wilson Creek and Sechelt had all turned the VisionQuest transition house away. In fact, Sechelt (of which Davis Bay and Wilson Creek are part) is a municipality with specific bylaws which may have precluded such a facility locating there.
Elphinstone could have similar bylaws in place, along with crosswalks by the school, if it were a municipality. But then those wanting more bylaws and municipal amenities would have to have voted for restructure, instead of opting for (in Area E director Lorne Lewis' words) "the simple life with few bylaws, low taxes and one less layer of government."
Celia Fisher, Gibsons
