Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.With BC’s ongoing eruptions over aboriginal title on private property, disputed pipelines, industrial development bans, ballooning debt and other crises, a revolt by municipal governments over top-down housing policies almost flies under the radar.Premier David Eby brushed aside concerns raised by 15 Metro Vancouver mayors in a letter calling for the repeal of housing policies that impose blanket property rezoning to allow multi-family. Provincial laws also dictate targets for new housing construction and require more up-zoning for transit-serviced neighbourhoods.Allowing multi-unit housing on single-family lots has a surface appeal. It makes use of existing streets and services. It was sold as “missing middle” housing in cities like Victoria, where high land costs produced an abundance of tiny condos and single-family homes became million-dollar assets out of reach of families..WAGNER: Pierre Trudeau’s separation of God from government.Urban mayors are feeling the heat from monster houses springing up in traditional neighbourhoods, with local elections now less than a year away. They say increasing housing stock is not that simple.“Province-wide mandates do not reflect the local planning frameworks, geographic characteristics or market realities,” the mayors’ letter states. “In many areas, small-scale multi-unit housing is not financially viable, has triggered land speculation and has been disruptive to neighbourhood cohesiveness.”Not to mention the parking problems.BC mayors will have noticed what just happened in Calgary, where a new council was elected to dismantle the city’s blanket zoning rules. The policy was apparently poisonous to the incumbents who brought it in.Here in BC, mayors plead with their constituents to recognize that local councils didn’t vote for this; it was imposed by the NDP government. But that distinction tends to get lost in local elections.Province-wide rezoning came in three years ago, along with another NDP mandate, which the mayors refer to as “housing target orders.” Individual municipalities are issued new-build housing quotas to meet, forcing them to approve projects without public hearings.“While Metro Vancouver member jurisdictions are approving projects representing thousands of units of housing, the permits to commence that construction are waiting for better financial conditions and improved consumer confidence before progressing,” the mayors wrote..And this statement of the blindingly obvious was apparently necessary on the Left Coast: “Local governments cannot compel developers to initiate construction.”Eby’s government has congratulated itself for a downward trend in rental rates and increased vacancy. Other factors in reducing buyer and renter demand include thousands of people moving out of BC, mostly to Alberta. Some are losing their jobs; others can find work but can’t afford a place to live near that work. Some now fear that fee-simple property may not be a safe investment in BCThe NDP government has also congratulated itself for the seventh anniversary of one of its earliest housing interventions, the “Speculation and Vacancy Tax.” The rate for foreign owners goes up from 2 to 3% for 2026, and the rate for Canadian citizens and permanent residents doubles to 1%, to recover more revenue from what has become a huge bureaucracy.BC’s finance ministry now tracks income reported inside and outside Canada when charging the empty-homes SVT, and requires annual declarations from all property owners that their home is occupied for at least half the year. Canada Post carriers in BC will soon be bending under the weight of thousands of letters compelling every property owner to mail back or log on to swear their state of occupancy..AICHELE: Christians celebrate the birth of their saviour, while the Architects of AI birth a wire mother.There is an SVT credit program too, now doubled to $4,000 for BC residents who don’t qualify for one of the more than 20 exemptions. If you can actually vote in BC, they’ll probably find a way to help you out.The Trudeau government was keen on copying big, progressive-sounding ideas pioneered in BC, and this was one of them. The federal “Underused Housing Tax” took effect in 2022, also aimed quietly and discreetly at non-resident, non-Canadian property owners.It was cancelled in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget, following the too-visible retail carbon tax into the recycling bin of history. The short-lived UHT was found to be “costly to administer,” and redundant on top of a federal foreign buyers ban.Tom Fletcher has covered B.C. politics and business as a journalist since 1984.tomfletcherbc@gmail.comX: @tomfletcherbc
