In a tight B.C. election campaign, according to pollsters, some communities say the B.C. NDP is at risk of losing votes in orange-leaning neighbourhoods where there has been distaste over prescriptive Victoria-led housing legislation.
It’s a central theme emerging from the election, where David Eby’s bold and numerous pieces of legislation brought in less than two years as premier are being viewed as overreach by some voters, a top-down approach to solving some of the province’s most serious problems such as housing.
The theme is playing out in neighbourhoods like Brentwood Park in the riding of Burnaby North, currently held by the NDP’s Janet Routledge.
Homeowners and neighbours of around 500 homes are hoping to use historic covenants on their properties to block density under the province’s Bill 47 and Bill 44.
Bill 47 allows small apartment buildings in single-family home neighbourhoods close to transit hubs. Bill 44 had all municipalities in B.C. abolish single-family home zoning to allow multiplexes on the lots.
“It’s our homes. It’s our properties, it’s also the anchor of our security,” said Edward Pereira, a Brentwood North resident.
Affordability is a top election issue across B.C. Chad Pawson takes a look at how municipalities feel about the solutions proposed by the various parties.
Burnaby North was wrested back by the NDP in 2017 from the then-B.C. Liberals who held it from 2001. Before that, it had been an NDP bastion for 35 years.
Pereira says it’s possible voters in the neighbourhood will support a change of government because of displeasure over the NDP’s bills. They worry the forced density could change the face of their neighbourhood forever.
“This legislation has come in too fast, too heavy-handed, too top-down for it to be without mistake,” he said.
A year ago, the NDP announced it would move forward with bold housing legislation to drastically speed up and deliver housing for people getting left behind in the province. A key pillar of the multifaceted Homes for People Action plan was the zoning changes.
Ravi Kahlon, the housing minister at the time, acknowledged the move might not be universally popular but was needed to take action over the province’s housing crisis.
Going into the election, the NDP said its plans were starting to bear fruit, with thousands of homes completed or now under construction, but there has been unhappiness in places like Burnaby, Surrey, Coquitlam and West Vancouver, where the NDP could potentially pick up a seat with the incumbent MLA running as an independent.
The B.C. government has given the district of West Vancouver an ultimatum to pass bylaws within a month to allow multi-unit buildings on single-family and duplex lots.
West Vancouver reluctantly changed its bylaws to meet the multiplex zoning mandate, under the threat of a ministerial order.
Karin Kirkpatrick, who is looking to regain the riding, but as an Independent, following B.C. United’s suspension of its campaign, said transportation and health care are the main issues in the riding along with the future of housing, specifically density.
She hopes to ride dissatisfaction with the NDP’s policies to an electoral win.
“There’s now a huge backlash against what people are seeing as property rights being taken away from them, being pushed to do things in their communities that they’re not having a say in,” she said.
There’s also concern in Coquitlam, where local officials have been progressive in adding density, especially around transit hubs.
The NDP bill calling for the same upended the local approach, according to one councillor.
Coun. Craig Hodge says Bill 47 limits the city’s ability to negotiate with developers for amenity fees over density.
“With the new legislation, that density has just been given to the developers for free, and so we’re now concerned how that new growth that’s coming to Coquitlam is going to be supported,” said Hodge, who is critical of the province’s one-size fits all approach.
Work with, not against cities, say Conservatives
The B.C. Conservatives have picked up on the displeasure and are promising to repeal Bill 44 as part of its “Get B.C. Building” plan.
“We will work with cities, not against them, to build the housing B.C. needs,” said the party on its website, which does not provide a financial plan for its ideas.
The Conservatives do support multiplexes in communities, but instead of enforcing it with legislation, they will use $1 billion in an annual fund as a financial incentive for “viable multiplexes” in municipalities on at least two-thirds of residential land.
NDP candidates in ridings in play over this issue say they are working hard to communicate their party’s multifaceted Homes for People action plan.
It’s touted as being worth $19 billion over 10 years. The province said in July that since 2017, it has delivered or begun delivery of 80,000 homes.
“I think people in general are really happy with the efforts our government has made to tackle housing,” said Jodie Wickens, the B.C. NDP candidate for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain about what she’s hearing on doorsteps.
Wickens won the riding in a 2016 byelection before losing in the 2017 election to the B.C. Liberals by just 87 votes. Fin Donnelly, who is not running again, won Coquitlam-Burke Mountain back for the NDP in 2020 with 56 per cent of the vote.
Wickens said the housing crisis is a difficult problem to solve, but it can’t be done quickly and through populist promises, that the Conservatives have been accused of making by the other parties in the race.
“In general, change can be hard at times right?” said Wickens about the NDP’s solutions to the housing crisis.