Last year, The City of Burnaby approved a development project by Bosa Properties located at Kathleen Avenue and Kemp Street in Burnaby, BC, Canada. The site of the impending development is situated on an urban forest, a sensitive ecosystem containing Western Red Cedars, Oak, Mountain Ash, Rhododendron, and several fruit trees. Bosa Properties wishes to clear-cut and decimate this sensitive ecosystem in order to build what they are touting as a 'green' tower.

Amidst a climate crisis and a housing crisis, it is unethical to destroy a sensitive ecosystem in order to appease the ultra-rich. Bosa is only wanting to build a tower at Kathleen Avenue because they don't want social housing units in their luxury tower at their Central Park House project. In other words, their rich clients who will live at Central Park House don't want to live in the same building as poor people. It is unethical, seeing as Central Park House is the only exception that was made to new policy which states all new development projects must include social housing units.

Bosa must halt the Kathleen Avenue project and turn Kathleen Forest into a public park, a protected urban forest. Bosa owns a parking lot directly across the street from the impending Kathleen Avenue project, which Bosa plans to develop one day. I suggest not building the tower at Kathleen and reworking their plans to accommodate another tower or more units in whatever project Bosa has planned for the parking lot space (which is three times the size of Kathleen Forest.) The City of Burnaby must be given the property at Kathleen Forest, in order to insure its protection into the future. The Government of Canada must review the funds given to the project, to be in accordance with climate crisis mitigation efforts as well as addressing the housing crisis. If humans do not have a suitable natural environment, we will not survive the crisis at hand. Every tree counts, every urban forest matters.