B.C. mayors and councillors gather in Vancouver to talk housing, other thorny issues

Mayors, councilors, and experts of various stripes are in Vancouver for the annual convention of the Union of BC Municipalities, where they’re discussing thorny issues ranging from the housing crunch to the toxic drug crisis to public safety and natural disasters. 

It’s also their annual opportunity to sit down with provincial cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats, which makes this year unusual. With a provincial election next month, there’s no guarantee any of those ministers will be able to follow up on issues discussed, and the governing party may very well change, too.

“We see an election year as an opportunity to really push our key messaging,” said Trish Mandewo, UBCM president. “We are going to all parties and saying, ‘share with us, what is your plan going forward?’”

The association is asking for $650 million annually to maintain infrastructure in their communities, plus a share of property tax and carbon tax revenues to offset costs downloaded to municipalities in recent years.

There are some 2,000 delegates, including stakeholder groups and various agencies, holding seminars and information sessions as well as networking and voting on formal resolutions to government.

“Getting together, debating resolution that they’ve brought forward throughout the year, as well for them to connect and just find out what’s working in their communities and share with their colleagues in attending so many educational workshops as well,” said Mandewo, describing the purpose of the annual gathering.

Housing dominates convention

One of the first sessions was titled “What’s next for housing?” and saw hundreds of attendees take in presentations and a panel discussion by an economist, Generation Squeeze, the Co-Op Housing Federation of BC and the BC Homebuilders’ Association.

“We should expect interest rats to drop sharply,” said Bryan Yu, Central 1 Credit Union’s chief economist, who described “near-recession conditions” in home sales since prices are simply too high for most people to afford.

UBC professor and Generation Squeeze founder, Paul Kershaw pointed out “we live in the province that’s at the epicentre of Canada’s challenge with generational fairness” and that no governments are doing an adequate job of measuring housing inflation.

He also advocated for a strategy to “intentionally stall” housing prices, applauding the NDP’s push for multiplex zoning across the province, which some communities have fought. https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canada-has-addiction-to-high-housing-prices-researcher-1.6561677

The BC Homebuilders’ Association cited the pandemic, wildfire mitigation, electrification and repeated changes to building codes among the factors that are making home construction challenging, but acknowledged the stagnant market was also a major factor in new home building.

“We have this weird thing where (we say) ‘industry, build homes’ but no one can afford them,” said Terri McConnachie, Canadian homebuilders. “There’s a lot of competing priorities in all the things and all they do is add additional cost, add additional confusion.”

Thom Armstrong, CEO of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC noted that surveys show housing is a key election issue for 90 per cent of British Columbians, and that he thinks “the public getting to the point where they’re tired of the blame game and want every level of government to put aside those turf differences and co-operate to deliver.” 

Many sessions on the agenda

With 161 municipalities, plus electoral areas for sparsely populated areas, British Columbia’s leaders in local government have diverse needs and issues.

But big cities like Vancouver and Surrey also have a lot in common with smaller communities like Nelson and Fort St. John, where affordability and the toxic drug crisis are perennial challenges.

Rural healthcare access, the resource sector, climate change, wildfire planning and response, and public safety all feature heavily in the sessions and clinics scheduled throughout the week.

On Thursday, premier David Eby will address delegates, with the leaders of the BC Green and BC Conservatives have their turn on Friday.