Two municipal governments have been put on the provincial government’s “naughty” list for their current trajectory of not creating enough new housing supply.
Just before Christmas, BC Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon sent two municipal governments a letter to formally inform them that they have fallen well short of their legislated annual housing targets under the Housing Supply Act, and that the provincial government is ready to escalate the issue with a provincially appointed adviser.
Both the District of West Vancouver and the District of Oak Bay were included in the original September 2023 list of the first 10 cities to receive their respective five-year annual housing targets through 2028. These targets go beyond approvals — they mandate net new housing completions.
Now that the first year of these targets has passed, both West Vancouver and Oak Bay have fallen short of their relatively modest first-year goals, according to Kahlon. And more importantly, they show no indication of altering their trajectory for the remainder of the five-year target period.
The first-year target for West Vancouver was to achieve 220 newly completed homes, but they only achieved 58. For Oak Bay, they achieved 16 of the 56 newly completed homes.
“We have communities that are on track. We have communities that are making some progress, but not quite there, and then unfortunately we have a couple of communities that are just way off track, and in this case, District of Oak Bay and West Vancouver are dramatically off the track of what we targeted,” Kahlon told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview on Wednesday.
If the first-year targets were challenging for these cities to meet, the difficulty will only increase in the remaining years of the five-year targets.
By 2028, West Vancouver is required to push 1,432 net new homes to completion, with incremental cumulative gains of 462 in the second year, 738 in the third year, and 1,057 in the fourth year.
At the end of the five-year period, Oak Bay has been directed to catalyze a total of 664 net new home completions, with cumulative gains of 138 in the second year, 258 in the third year, and 429 in the fourth year.
On Tuesday, Kahlon sent letters to West Vancouver and Oak Bay, notifying them that within the next 30 days (by mid-January 2025), their municipal governments must provide the provincial government with detailed explanations for falling behind on their housing targets. They are also asked to outline plans to catch up and provide additional context on the challenges they face.
Depending on the responses provided by these municipal governments, Kahlon may decide to appoint a provincial adviser for each municipality. These advisers would work closely with the municipal governments to help them meet their housing targets and address any obstacles they face in achieving the required net new housing completions.
Kahlon told Daily Hive Urbanized that if a provincial adviser is appointed, he hopes the municipal governments will work collaboratively to effectively address their housing target shortfall. Otherwise, he may be compelled to intervene and exercise provincial powers to amend the policies and bylaws of the municipal governments in question to ensure housing targets are met.
“At this point, I do have to make a decision on whether I step in and make changes myself to review past decisions, and review something in place that enables more housing options,” said Kahlon.
“In the legislation, I have the ability to change bylaws to make adjustments in local government rules to enable housing. I don’t want to be the one that does these things, but when you’re in a housing crisis and people are struggling to find housing, we need to get to a place where we get decisions made and made quicker.”
The Minister pointed out that reports from the District of West Vancouver reveal that over 80% of their municipal staff live outside the North Shore due to the lack of suitable and affordable housing closer to their workplaces. A similar trend is seen among staff at Lions Gate Hospital and other major businesses on the North Shore, which is having a significant impact on the local economy.
He also highlighted that the similarly sized neighbouring District of North Vancouver managed to achieve nearly 10 times the first-year housing target of West Vancouver, underscoring the disparity in progress.
The District of North Vancouver achieved 500 net new housing completions in its first year, surpassing the provincial target of 499 for the same period.
“The reality is that if all communities do a little bit, some communities don’t have to do all of it. And nothing is more infuriating to local governments that are making very difficult decisions to improve housing than having other neighbourhoods and communities say we don’t want any. And so everyone has to do their part, and I’ll be working to make sure that happens,” Kahlon told Daily Hive Urbanized.
In mid-August 2024, after initially rejecting the measures in late-May 2024, the West Vancouver District Council reluctantly approved bylaws that aligned with the provincial government’s small-scale multi-family housing legislation, affecting a total of 313 lots. This decision came after warnings from Kahlon that, if the municipal government did not implement the changes voluntarily, the provincial government would intervene, including prescribing specific building regulations and stipulations.
In early December 2024, the City of Burnaby also saw its City Council approve the necessary bylaws to ensure it complies with the provincial government’s transit-oriented development legislation. This came after months of resistance, as City Council had previously opposed the mandated policies. There were also warnings that the provincial government could step in and make the necessary changes to the municipal bylaws on behalf of the City if City Council did not act.
A total of 47 municipal governments are under the Housing Supply Act, but the provincial government has been rolling out the legislated new housing targets in increments of 10 cities.
The first batch of 10 cities in September 2023 also included the City of Vancouver, which fell short of the first-year target of 5,202 net new homes by 1,059 units. However, Vancouver’s municipal government forecasts this is merely a slow start, with the pace expected to greatly accelerate over the coming years. In fact, the City of Vancouver expects it will far exceed the five-year provincially legislated targets set for the city through 2028.
In June 2024, the provincial government released the five-year provincially legislated targets for the second batch of 10 cities, including the City of Surrey.