As the eviction date looms for the seven Jasperites who are being asked to vacate their Bonhomme Street homes by their property manager because they’re not compliant with Parks zoning regulations, the owner of the property - Toby Reiner - is waiting for the October court date where he hopes the judge will “throw it out” or re-zone the land to R3, which would allow for a multi-dwelling house.

“Lets face it - if people need a place to stay, what should I do?” he said.

Reiner, who has lived in Jasper since 1959, said he feels sorry for the tenants of his property, but feels the whole situation is “unfair”.

“I feel sorry for these guys, there is nothing I can do,” he said.

“What aggravates me most is it is so unfair from Parks Canada... why are they picking on me?”

When Reiner purchased the two properties in 1994, there was only one house that sat on the two parcels of land, so he knocked it down and built the two duplexes that are there today.
Clearly frustrated by the building regulations he had to comply with when building these two properties, Reiner admits that the original plan did not have the basement suites in them the way they are today.

“They weren’t basement suites when I had the houses built and when they inspected them,” he said, “they weren’t suites as they are now with the stove and the fridge and the double sink - this is the big issue.”

According to Reiner, the solution to the problem is to simply re-zone the land.

“Where the problem really starts is that they are zoned R2 (duplex dwelling district) and they should be zoned R3 (multi-dwelling district) and Parks will not re-zone them, and I don’t know what the reason is,” he said.

During an interview last week, Joe Polisuk development officer for Parks Canada, said that a “curious wrinkle” in this case was that the sustainability plan that is currently being written may result in a change in zoning for the building.

No matter what happens in the future, the land where Reiner’s houses sit is zoned R2 and even he admits, “there (are) two suites upstairs... and then there is the basement suites.”
Well aware of the zoning regulations, Reiner feels its unfair to target his suite as there are plenty more in town.

“They know that they have another 40 basement suites, but they’re not doing anything about them, so why me?” Reiner asked.

“The Government says it’s illegal, but look, they only go in after the people when there is a complaint,” he said circling Polisuk’s quote in last week’s Fitzhugh that stated Parks only inspect suites when consent is needed, or if a complaint is made.

“Like Joe said, they’re only checking on suites where there is a complaint. I’m getting discriminated because there was (someone who complained)? That’s not fair you know,” he said, “When that goes to court that Judge should throw that out, because that’s discrimination against me.”

“Why don’t they make it so they go to all the basement suites and acknowledge there is a suite?” he asked.

Despite the zoning requirements of the houses, because the stoves are placed into the houses after construction it creates a fire hazard as the smoke has nowhere to go.

“What should I do?” asked Reiner adding that, if needed, he would “put a hood in the vent in there” to make the suite meet fire code.

Regardless of Reiner’s willingness to make changes to the suite, because they’re on R2 zoned land he can only have two suites in each house.

However, Reiner said that even if he was to renovate the basement suites and rent them as part of the unit upstairs, his tenants would still be unhappy.

“I could do one simple thing,” he said, “I could take all the stuff out that they want me to take out, I could do everything they want me to and rent it for the same money.”

“They’re not going to like that, they’ve already said that,” he added, “I don’t blame them.”

Even with Reiner’s strong opposition to Parks regulations, the seven tenants of the houses will still be left homeless during the hardest time of year to find a home in Jasper.