community and housing

There will be nothing left but an empty hollow shell. My guess is the realtors don't really care about this, no matter how much they might argue the opposite - they make a lot of money selling more expensive houses to more and more affluent people from Calgary and Europe. So long as those folk are streaming in and giving them big commissions, it's hard to put other values ahead of the hard buck.

Seriously, how many local realtors have proclaimed that they are "for" the locals, and how many people who own houses here - even if they've been here for decades - aren't pleased to line their pockets with the extra tens of thousands that the last 5 years or so has brought to them? How many people haven't cashed in their vacant lots to people from out of town who want to "invest" here with housing that local youngsters can't hope to afford?

Back in the year 2000 or so, people were being taunted with "Buy in Fernie, the new Whistler, don't you wish you'd invested there when you could?". This was an ad that was up at Lake Louise ski resort, I remember it well.

There are vested interests that only care about the value of the property and in pushing it up, even to the extent of hyping Fernie for their own gains. I don't see what can be done while that capitalist attitude still holds supreme among those who can - the realtors and the marketers who push Fernie so much that the hype outweighs the reality now so much.

I'm gutted to see locals leaving and as a "foreigner" I'm embarrassed by what's happened to Fernie. I started coming here a decade ago purely because it was a haven away from the tourists and the moneymakers. Now it's getting just like everywhere else. I didn't want to buy in Whistler and live in a Whistler-like community of emptiness. If I did, I'd have bought there instead. Wherever possible I still support local businesses and always endeavour to buy local and employ local Fernie-based contractors if I need stuff doing.

Part of me hopes that the whole "hyped up Fernie" thing crashes so that the town can get back to being just the local community that it was back before 'the boom'. I think Fernie would do much better in that atmosphere than in the dangerous place it's becoming - somewhere that beyond the months of December->March sees fewer and fewer people able to be here and to live here.

In England we've now got areas in towns where you're simply not allowed to buy property unless you've lived in the vicinity since birth. It seems quite extreme. Fernie I think could do with having some zones that are reserved for people who've been brought up here so that more and more local youngsters don't have to leave in search of affordable property elsewhere.

Sorry bub, we have something here called freedom of movement. It is what makes Canada a great country. We can move anywhere we like and open any business we like, anywhere in the country.
Cheers,
A Free Canadian.

As a "free" canadian I do wish we would impose some sort of bylaw to empower the locals who live here.....limiting the greed and self interest that seems to have run free over this community the last few years.......

...a free Canadian whose interests lies in community

Obviously I don't believe you know what freedom is all about. Hmm, bylaws on where you can live and what you can do. Sounds real free to me... What makes a "local"?

please don't stray from the topic on to what makes a local , start a new thread if you like ....don't deviate from the topic raised, What makes a local would be great new topic!

I've chosen to ignore the housing situation in Fernie for the past couple of years. I wasn't too screwed over by it, I had managed to buy a mobile home just before even they went through the roof. Of course I would have liked to upgrade to a house in a few years, but the real estate prices beat me in my race to the finish. I sold my place, thinking I would find a way to upgrade none the less. Turns out the money I got back will now roughly afford me...a down payment on a mobile home. Some upgrade.
I've done my time here. Helping the businesses I've worked for stay afloat. Pulling through the 3/4 of the year, known as the downtime, for years and years. Accepting wages far less than the worth of my effort. Watching part-timers take a paycheck and disappear. I stay positive and push through. The perception that there is money in Fernie is false. Its more like Fernie is a novelty item being passed back and forth in other places, where the money stays. $300,000 in Calgary turns in to $400,000 in London that turns in to $500,000 in Vancouver. And as of late, by corporations to scoop up the tourist money to build their next store. I drive around in May and feel like I this entire town is mine, nobody in site. Only to realize that nothing about this town is mine. The worst part of all is knowing that I can go out there blindly to the rest of the world, work hard, do what I need to and succeed to come back and give everything I've earned just for my own little piece of home. I always thought home was where you could always go when you had nothing else left. Not here. Not anymore.

This is not a circumstance unique to Fernie. It's happening all over BC and Alberta. Many small Kootenay towns have seen similar or higher housing increases than Fernie. Nakusp, Kaslo, Rossland, Revelstoke, Nelson, even [cough] Trail. Property assessments in some rural areas have increased more than in towns. People sell and new folks move in. It happens everywhere. It's not a net loss of "community assets".

I think you do need to define what you mean by a "local". How many years does one need to live here before they are local? 5 years? 10 years? all of their lives? Or perhaps a local is someone that spends the majority of their time here? I know some long time residents that spend the winter months in Arizona or Mexico. Are they considered locals?

I'm not too sure what the point of your posting is. We know there's a problem with affordable housing. But I don't agree with the implication that property owners don't contribute to the community as much as non-owners.

A LITTLE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH PERHAPS?

I have to agree with Mtnrat - bylaws to limit freedom are not the answer. Like it or not, we live in a market-driven economy. Isn't the answer that we need to improve "locals" ability to afford to stay, (while making sure they want to)?

Short term this means better wages, and longer term, we need to ensure our kids have the education and other tools that will help them compete for desirable housing.

Better wages will come about when businesses operating in Fernie do well. Education etc. is for another discussion.

I don't want to be negative about foreign-owned businesses as
I'll bet that most of them bring more money into Fernie than they take out. Without them most businesses would probably suffer greatly.

That said, the best chance of seeing wage rises is for locally-owned businesses to prosper. When they turn a profit, the owner might renovate his house, buy a snowmobile, etc. And if anyone would, they would shop local.

As money is re-spent in the local economy, other businesses get busier and more profitable. Staff becomes scarce and businesses will increase wages to hold on to them or to attract them. Others may decide that the reward of going out on their own is now worth the risk. Wages rise across the board.

Having foreign-owned businesses do well and re-invest elsewhere is fine too. It will just have much less impact on wages and will only aggravate the problem by bringing in more people to compete for housing.

well said simon......

the answer is not a bylaw I agree, but Fernie as we see it today will not survive on good moral standing alone.