An additional 20 municipal governments across British Columbia have been named by the provincial government to comply with the new Housing Supply Act.
Last week, the provincial government announced an expanded list of cities that will be required to meet annual and cumulative new housing supply quotas for the next five years.
This new batch of cities includes seven municipalities within Metro Vancouver, including BC’s second most populated city of Surrey, as well as Langley City, New Westminster, North Vancouver City, Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, and White Rock.
Jurisdictions in the Fraser Valley that are part of this second list include Chilliwack and Mission.
“We are addressing the housing crisis with our municipal partners so thousands more affordable homes can be built for people who need them,” said BC Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing, in a statement. “Our goal for the next 20 communities is to build on the work they are already doing while they continue to implement the recent provincial legislative changes. This group includes communities that are doing well on housing and some that need to do more.”
The next 20 priority municipalities identified to receive housing targets are (Metro Vancouver municipalities are bolded and italicized):
- Central Saanich
- Chilliwack
- Colwood
- Esquimalt
- Kelowna
- City of Langley
- Maple Ridge
- Mission
- Nanaimo
- New Westminster
- North Cowichan
- North Saanich
- City of North Vancouver
- Port Coquitlam
- Prince George
- Sidney
- Surrey
- View Royal
- West Kelowna
- White Rock
In determining each municipal jurisdiction’s quotas, the provincial government will now go through a similar process with these 20 additional cities as it did with the first 10 cities. These quotas are new additional homes that municipal governments must catalyze — not merely approve.
The provincial government will announce the housing targets for each municipal government in Summer 2024, which will bring the total number of cities under the Housing Supply Act to 30.
The housing targets for each of the first 10 cities under the Housing Supply Act were announced in September 2023. Over five years, between October 2023 and September 2028, the City of Vancouver’s target alone accounts for nearly half of the combined total of 60,123 units all 10 cities are required to achieve. BC’s largest municipality has been ordered to catalyze 28,900 homes.
The provincial government has indicated it is looking to have a final total of 47 municipal governments under the Housing Supply Act, which means further rounds would determine the quotas for the remaining 17 cities.