How should the province encourage more housing development in the municipalities? – Vote

Photo: The contribution

On either side of the political spectrum, Pierre Poilievre (left) and David Eby (right) both want municipalities to get out of the way and approve more housing development.

The hopes of federal conservative leadership Pierre Poilievre, BC NDP housing minister David Eby and a UBCO professor of economics are all on the same page.

Municipalities and NIMBYs must get out of the way and let developers build homes.

Poilievre has focused much of the first part of its campaign on affordable housing, claiming that local governments are “gatekeepers” who “block building permits, delay construction and add development taxes that limit the supply” of new housing.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Eby said earlier this year that municipalities are simply not approving enough housing, “the status quo is not acceptable.”

Eby has already said the province plans to consider taking the final decision-making authority for housing permits out of the hands of local governments.

In a recent interview with Castanet News, UBCO associate professor of economics Ross Hickey suggested that affordability will continue to deteriorate outside major centers because “we are not going to build housing fast enough.”

“100 years ago, one did not have to go to a citizens’ assembly to get permission to build an apartment building,” he said. “You got City Hall to approve it, and you built it.”

“Now you have to get the local residents to sign the project, and the local residents typically do not want that. It’s a problem.”

The city of Kelowna’s recently adopted official community plan, which will lead the city’s growth until 2040, says that 25,300 housing units must be built in that time to accommodate an expected 45,000 more inhabitants.

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