Most cities trailing behind housing targets as B.C. reveals next slate of goals

The City of Victoria is seen from above.

In the months since the province gave orders to 10 B.C. municipalities to build more homes, most are trailing behind on their housing targets, according to the housing ministry.

The province says more than 4,000 net new homes have been built since it announced the first slate of housing targets last September, requiring a total of 60,103 new units be completed in five years.

Based on each city’s six-month progress report, the province gave a shout out to Victoria and Port Moody for showing “significant progress” toward their goals.

Officials singled out Delta, Oak Bay and West Vancouver for “not making as much progress as expected.”

“These municipalities are encouraged to expedite their processes and comply with the new requirements to ensure that housing is being built where it's needed,” the housing ministry wrote in a Wednesday news release. “Compliance measures may be taken if satisfactory progress is not made by the time annual progress reports are made.”

According to the province’s summary of the six-month reports, Oak Bay has built just 12.5 per cent of its housing target for year one—or seven units.

Victoria, meanwhile, has exceeded its one-year goal, completing 753 net new units, just under 100 more than its requirement of 659.

Port Moody and the District of North Vancouver are also more than half way to their target after six months. The rest of the 10 cities on what some have called the “housing naughty list” have so far fallen behind on their requirements.

The province notes it considers more than just the number of net new units built when assessing how the municipalities are doing, including new policies and strategies that can get more homes built in the future.

The first 10 communities given housing targets were handed five-year and one-year goals. A list of the cities’ progress toward their one-year target, and the total they must build in the next five years, follows below.

• Victoria – 114 per cent of 659 units; 4,902 units
• Port Moody – 90 per cent of 231 units; 1,694 units
• District of North Vancouver – 78 per cent of 499 units; 2,838 units
• Kamloops – 45 per cent of 679 units; 4,236 units
• Saanich – 44 per cent of 440 units; 4,610 units
• Abbotsford – 39 per cent of 1,022 units; 7,240 units
• Vancouver – 31 per cent of 5,202 units; 28,900 units
• Delta – 22 per cent of 514 units; 3,607 units
• District of West Vancouver – 18 per cent of 220 units; 1,432 units
• Oak Bay—12.5 per cent of 56 units; 664 units

"People in B.C. are seeing more homes being built in their communities as municipalities progress toward achieving their housing targets," said Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s housing minister, in a statement Wednesday. "We are, as a province, starting to see progress with record levels of housing starts in 2023 and we are on pace to meet or exceed that level in 2024.”

Some mayors have bristled against the province’s housing orders, accusing the government of finger-pointing when the municipalities are already doing everything they can to build housing. Kahlon has argued the Housing Supply Act is more about aligning goals between the levels of government and insists that the legislation is not a “naughty list” because some cities are doing well, while others need a push.

More housing targets revealed

The province also unveiled five-year housing targets for 10 more municipalities on Wednesday. The second slate of 20 cities subject to the Housing Supply Act was announced in April. The province says it will hand out targets to the remaining 10 sometime this summer.

The targets include:

• Central Saanich - 588 units
• Chilliwack - 4,594 units
• City of North Vancouver - 3,320 units
• Esquimalt - 754 units
• Kelowna - 8,774 units
• Maple Ridge - 3,954 units
• Nanaimo - 4,703 units
• Sidney - 468 units
• Surrey - 27,256 units
• White Rock - 1,067 units

The other cities that will receive targets are Colwood, City of Langley, Mission, New Westminster, North Cowichan, North Saanich, Port Coquitlam, Prince George, View Royal and West Kelowna, though the exact numbers have not been released yet.