WHAT’S NEXT? THE MANDATE LETTERS … 

After the election and last week’s release of Ministerial Mandates, what’s next for the provincial government? With the Throne Speech scheduled for February 18th and Budget Day on March 4th, we’ve reviewed the mandate letters to identify potential directions and upcoming legislation.

A brief overview of Premier Eby’s Cabinet:

• Total NDP caucus: 47 members, and every elected MLA got a formal caucus position
• 22 ministries established with 22 Ministers
• 14 Parliamentary Secretaries and 4 Ministers of State
• Remaining MLAs are Premier, Deputy Premier, House Leader, Deputy House Leader
• Speaker of the House, Deputy Speaker of the House, Caucus Chair, Deputy Caucus Chair, Government Whip, Deputy Government Whip and Deputy Chair, Committee of the Whole

In the mandate letters, Premier Eby continues to focus on central strategic themes introduced during his previous term:

• Grow the economy by creating good jobs across BC…. to attract investments in both new and traditional sectors …. bring certainty for business, security for workers and general the wealth needed to support the essential services British Columbians rely on.
• Reduce costs for families including helping people access homes they can afford through support for first-time homebuyers, increasing supply of rental housing stock, and stronger measures to crack down on housing speculation.
• Strengthen health care
• Make our neighborhoods and communities safer
• Our commitment to take action on climate change remains foundational and will be key to a healthy and prosperous BC for future generations.
• Underlying all this work is our partnership with Indigenous peoples. Advancing reconciliation, implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Act and working in partnership with First Nations right-holders to advance shared interests.

For your reference, below is a list of the Ministries whose policies can impact our industry, along with specific mandates related to housing:

• Honourable Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs
  • Work with Minister of Finance to review all existing Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs programs and initiatives to ensure programs are efficient and remain relevant to delivering afford housing, growing the economy and helping keep costs low for BCers.
  • Work to make homeownership a reality for more BCers.
  • Increase the supply of rental, coop and non-market housing. Identify under-sued capital that can be leveraged to construct new purpose-build rental housing across the program. Work with the Minister of Citizens Services to identify potential uses for surplus government real estate assets in a way that supports our overall housing and economic development goals.
  • Support tenants with interventions that deliver affordability and a high quality of living without compromising rental housing supply or rental housing standards.
  • Work with Minister of Finance to remove barriers to the construction of small scale multi unit housing (SSMUH) across the province.
  • Work with homebuilders to address barriers to new home construction in the current capital and interest rate environment
  • Work across ministries to expedite permits required for new housing construction
  • Work with local governments to achieve housing targets and address concerns related to infrastructure
  • Continue work with the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation on standardized modular housing design.
• Honourable Brittny Anderson, Minister of State for Local Governments and Rural Communities
  • Work with Ministerial colleagues to address issues proactively and ensure that local government advice informs government initiatives.
• Honourable Adrian Dix, Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions
  • Review all existing Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions programs and initiatives to ensure programs remain relevant, are efficient, grow the economy and help keep costs low for BCers.
  • Develop ways to ensure costs for energy remain low for people, including through access to home energy retrofits and innovative technology solutions.
  • Work with BC Hydro, First Nations, and the renewable power industry through frequent competitive calls for power to increase and diversity BC’s generation of electricity as the economy continues to grow.
  • Work with relevant Ministries, First Nations, other governments, project proponents and key stakeholders to dramatically accelerate permit approval for clean and low-carbon energy infrastructure across the province while preserving our world-leading environmental standards.
• Honourable Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks
  • Support BC’s energy transition and climate targets by directing the Environmental Assessment Office to proceed with the exemption of wind power from Environmental Assessment Act provisions. Further, exempt other relevant classes of projects from environmental assessment where the assessment is duplicative, delays projects with environmental advantages, or offers only limited value while impeding projects that will benefit the province as a whole.
• Honourable Brenda Bailey, Minister of Finance
  • Work with the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs to:
    • Support the construction of new purpose-built rental housing by exploring new models for capitalizing the construction of purpose built rental buildings
    • Remove barriers to financing small scale multi unit density
    • Eliminate taxes that could prevent or impair the transfer of land for the purpose of developing affordable housing
• Honourable Christine Boyle, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation
  • Build partnerships that advance reconciliation in measurable ways and creates tangible benefits for First Nations and British Columbians, such as building more affordable housing, generating clean energy, creating good jobs and protecting our environment.
• Honourable Anne Kang, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills
  • Work with the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs to ensure that post-secondary institutions that have identified opportunities in relation to using housing as an economic development tool are supported in delivering that housing urgently.
  • Work with the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs to enable privately owned new purpose build rental buildings that, if partnered with a public post-secondary institution, receive special provision under the Rental Tenancy Act to be exclusively for students registered at that institution.
• Honourable Mike Farnworth, Minister of Transportation and Transit
  • Support improvements in BC’s road infrastructure balanced with integrated transit opportunities to ensure that people can get home and to work faster, and goods can get to market for efficiently in our province.
  • Work with the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs to identify and champion transit-orientated development sites with local governments, stakeholders, and the private sector in order to maximize success of this initiative.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Overall, the provincial government’s focus remains on growing the economy, improving affordability for families, strengthening health care, and making communities safer. Climate action and advancing reconciliation are foundational priorities.

The mandate letters indicate that all Ministers are tasked with reviewing their programs to ensure they are relevant, efficient, and responsive to the needs of residents. This may be an opportunity for HAVAN and its members to provide valuable feedback on new housing legislation and the challenges (and successes) of its implementation across the region. What are the barriers? Where can efficiencies be made? It’s clear that Premier Eby is listening to local governments and homebuilders, and perhaps recognizing that more needs to be done.

With the integration of two key ministries under his portfolio, Minister Ravi Kahlon received one of the longest mandate letters, focusing heavily on increasing homeownership opportunities, boosting non-market and purpose-built rental housing supply, advancing small-scale multi-unit housing (SSMUH), expediting permits, meeting housing targets, and standardizing modular housing design.

One of the mandates specifically tasked him with working directly with, “… homebuilders to address barriers to new home construction in the current capital and interest rate environment. Looking at the crisis of housing delivery in this region, which has a multitude of causes including municipal charges, could this mean new financial incentives for homebuilders or a roll-back of existing barriers?  Some good news — there seems to be an appetite amongst some municipalities to reframe the current DCC payment scheme, which we have been pushing with local government, and so we could potentially see an upcoming change as a result of this mandate.

HAVAN together with CHBA BC will continue advocating with Minister Kahlon on the industry’s challenges and what the next four years hold for a sector impacted by ongoing policy changes, fees, and inconsistent application of policies across the 21 municipalities in Metro Vancouver. The mandate letters seem to suggest the provincial government is open to meaningful dialogue with the homebuilding community. Will this lead to real change? Time will tell, but we’ll keep members informed on our actions in this space, as well as our weekly Government Relations Update.

HAVAN continues to work with CHBA BC and CHBA to advocate for all levels of government to work together to address the challenges of the housing industry including zoning restrictions, density limits, and NIMBYism.

Looking to stay up-to-date on Metro Vancouver’s residential housing industry? Sign up for Wendy’s weekly Monday Morning Briefing and other HAVAN emails here.

QUICK BITES … 

• As per an article in Sightline: UBCM estimates that in BC over $24 billion in core infrastructure alone needs to be replaced within the next ten years, citing the Metro Vancouver regional government recognized this in a recent report on the topic, and found that public infrastructure costs for apartments were five to nine times cheaper than for houses, measured on a per capita or per unit basis, stating  “it is critical to permit and facilitate higher-density and more cost-effective forms of development in urban/developed areas … where public infrastructure investments can be best utilized.” Municipalities failing to do so are, according to the report, “encouraging inefficient growth patterns… [which] are costly not only from an environmental and social point of view, but also from a municipal finance perspective.”One can only hope the newly defined role For Ravi Kahlon as the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs will bring the necessary authority to cut through the debate on infrastructure costs, ensuring it isn’t used as a shield against development. A balanced approach to infrastructure and growth is critical to overcoming NIMBYism and fostering the housing solutions we desperately need.
• But of course, it is not just about infrastructure and zoning – it is as much about the cost of delivery, too. As per an op-ed by Brad Jones, Chief Development Officer at Wesgroup Properties in Real Estate Magazine, ‘The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) says that we need to build 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to restore affordability to 2004 levels. If successful, that would mean that a newly built 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom condo in downtown Vancouver would sell for $620,000 instead of the $1.5-million that it currently does. But here’s the reality: even if land were free and developers waived their profits, that condo would still cost more than $1-million to build.‘ Brad breaks down the sobering numbers with suggestions to help address the cost of delivery crisis our industry faces.
• Presales challenges are predicted to extend into 2025 as per MLA Canada reported by Storeys – ‘For developers, buyer uncertainty from 2024 is also expected to be carried over into 2025 … This will likely have an impact on the feasibility of larger-scale concrete towers, MLA Canada says, as those projects are more reliant on investors than smaller projects…Looking ahead to 2025, the road remains challenging. Developers continue to face high costs, regulatory uncertainty, and slower presales. Many are opting to delay launches as the market absorbs existing resale, assignment, and standing inventory ‘ The article by Storeys breaks down the pre-sale data.
  • 👉 Hear more at Legends! Brittany Reimer, Executive VP and Managing Director, MLA Canada and MLA Fraser Valley is one of this year’s HAVAN Legends of Housing: Trailblazers’ panelists, taking place this Thursday.
• The Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes is seeking public input for review of a proposed change to the 2020 National Model Codes, setting a maximum indoor air temperature for new dwelling units for Parts 1, 6, and 9 buildings.