Earlier this week, fresh off last fall’s election, Premier David Eby provided each of his new cabinet ministers with a mandate letter, outlining their priorities and what they should aim to achieve under their respective provincial ministry.
Amid a poor economic climate, a growing budget deficit for the provincial government, and the looming threat of US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on all Canadian imports, the mandate letters appear to emphasize an economic focus, including those addressed to Ravi Kahlon, the BC Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs.
“In order to protect key services that British Columbians rely on, work with the Minister of Finance to review all existing Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs programs and initiatives to ensure programs are efficient and remain relevant to delivering affordable housing, growing the economy, and helping keep costs low for British Columbians,” wrote Eby in his letter to Kahlon, emphasizing the need for an all-hands on deck effort to “grow the economy by creating good jobs across the province.”
“This is important in the context of the current Provincial budget constraints, the current capital environment and cost environment for homebuilders, and the threat of American tariffs,” added the Premier.
The action list of items essentially directs the Minister to continue where he left off from last term, further advancing and improving on initiatives, policies, and strategies that are already well underway.
This includes removing financial barriers to the construction of small-scale multi-unit housing, working with homebuilders to address challenges to new home construction in the current capital and interest rate environment, working to expedite permits required for new housing construction, and supporting rental housing tenants with interventions that “deliver affordability and a high quality of living without compromising rental housing supply or rental housing standards.”
Some items focus on improving homeownership opportunities for more people, specifically support for first-time homebuyers. During the election campaign, the BC NDP promised to expand a new program that initially covers 40% of the home price for first-time homebuyers, with such homebuyers covering 60% of their unit’s price initially and the remaining 40% due when they sell or after 25 years. This program would be available to 25,000 first-time homebuyers.
Other supply-related efforts would focus on increasing new rental housing, co-op housing, and non-market housing, such as identifying “under-used capital that can be leveraged” to build more secured purpose-built rental housing, and identifying potential uses of surplus provincially-owned land to support overall housing and economic development goals.
Interventionist initiatives would include “stronger measures to crack down on housing speculation.” The BC NDP included an election promise of increasing the speculation tax for both foreign and domestic owners starting in 2025. As well, a previously promised 20% home flipping tax went into effect at the start of January 2025.
Some of the items also appear to aim to address any gaps or unintended second order effects of the provincial government’s recent strategies.
The Minister will “work with small-scale landlords to identify interventions that will support them with establishing new rental units, including improving their ability to deal with the issues of non-payment of rent, crime, or property destruction.”
Over the past two years, various municipal governments across BC have pushed back on some of the provincial government’s new housing-related legislation over concerns that the increased population and density would overwhelm existing community services and infrastructure. In response, the Premier directed the Minister to “work with local governments to achieve housing targets and address concerns related to infrastructure.”
When it comes to addressing the homelessness, mental health, and addictions crisis, there would be a cross-ministerial effort to “move people living in encampments inside before encampments can become entrenched.”
Access to addictions treatment, supportive housing, and complex care housing would also be improved, but at the same time there would also be an effort to “make our neighbourhoods and communities safer by working with law enforcement and social agencies to address street disorder, crack down on organized crime, and do all we can to ensure repeat offenders stay behind bars.”