Greens urge P.E.I. housing minister to expropriate Evergreen Village
CBC
The P.E.I. Greens are urging government to expropriate the Evergreen Village property in Summerside, and help the residents who fear the loss of their homes.
In question period Thursday, Green Leader Matt MacFarlane asked Housing Minister Cory Deagle whether government would expropriate the Summerside mobile home park, considering negotiations to purchase it have allegedly fallen apart.
Deagle said it's not that simple.
"I can’t just go into a privately-owned park and fix all of these things," he said to MacFarlane.
"You could imagine who I would have coming to me looking to do this right across the Island. The owner is responsible for upkeeping this. I know the residents have appealed to IRAC. I hope that they’re successful because we don’t want to see anyone lose their home. "
MacFarlane disagreed with the notion that Deagle can't just "fix" everything.
"Expropriation is an option for this property to give these people the peace of mind," he said. "You can expropriate at fair market value so you don’t have to pay the millions of dollars that you’re referring to."
The residents of the mobile home park received eviction notices for the second time now, and have previously described the situation as an "emotional gut punch."
There are about 57 families in the community, which is owned by landlord Clifford McQuaid. The private land has a private water system and privately maintained roads, separate from the City of Summerside. Residents first learned that McQuaid planned to sell the land last year.
McQuaid previously told CBC News that the park is no longer financially viable due to rising expenses and rents that aren’t covering his costs.
After question period, Deagle told reporters government has been trying to help negotiate a purchase of the property to an unnamed third-party he called a "community organization."
Expropriation is an option, but not one he wants to do, he said.
"Expropriation would be a very, very last resort. I guess I can say that everything is always on the table, however that would also involve government owning the trailer park at the end of the day," Deagle told CBC News.
"What we have is a landlord who's holding government hostage, saying 'I have 57 families I am going to evict if you don't give me the money that I want for my trailer park'… That is not how we operate. We can't have landlords holding government hostage with families like this."
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