A new federal-provincial housing package meant to ease pressure on British Columbia’s stalled development sector is getting a cautious reception from some local leaders, who say the plan leaves major questions unanswered.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and B.C. Premier David Eby announced last week that Ottawa and Victoria would spend $3.2 billion over 10 years to reduce development charges on multi-unit housing and use financing tools to help convert more than 2,200 empty condo units. The proposal has been welcomed by construction and development interests, while opposition politicians have criticized it as a developer “bailout.”
For municipalities, the picture is more complicated. Local governments could benefit if lower fees help get homes built and if vacant units are put to use. But mayors quoted by CBC News said they still do not know enough about the program to assess what it will mean for city budgets, housing supply or local infrastructure planning.
“In the absence of clear guidance, there are rumours abound and I’m hoping that we get some clear guidance of what this actually means for local government,” City of Langley Mayor Nathan Pachal said.
Concerns over what the money does not fund
One concern is that the package does not directly build new non-market housing, the deeply subsidized or rent-geared-to-income homes that municipalities generally cannot finance at scale on their own.
Pachal and New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone both pointed to the province’s decision, months earlier, to pause or cancel $1.4 billion in Community Housing Fund investments that were largely aimed at non-profit housing projects. Johnstone said market housing still matters, but argued senior governments need to return to a larger role in building non-market homes.
The second concern is municipal finance. In Metro Vancouver, development cost charges have been a central tool for paying for infrastructure needed as communities grow. Reducing those charges may help projects move ahead and ease a short-term political dispute over how much developers should pay, but the mayors said it does not create a lasting revenue source for local governments.
Pachal described the proposal as another version of short-term senior-government help that does not resolve what he called a longstanding local-government funding problem.
Details are still pending
B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle defended the package while acknowledging it is not a substitute for stable long-term funding. She told CBC News the plan responds to pressure from local governments and industry, and said the province has made significant investments in non-market housing while recognizing more is needed.
Boyle also said program design and funding questions are still being worked through with the federal government, including how the conversion of empty condo units would operate.
Those details are not expected until the fall, CBC reported. That timing leaves municipal leaders heading toward local elections without a clear sense of how one of the province’s most consequential housing measures will work in practice.
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