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B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon will reveal this afternoon the housing targets for the first 10 municipalities selected for the so-called “naughty” list.
Kahlon announced in May a lit of 10 municipalities that must meet provincial housing targets or risk having the province force through higher density. Kahlon has said the targets being announced today would include not only the number of units, but also the type, including townhomes, condos and single family homes.
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The municipalities are: Abbotsford, Delta, Kamloops, Port Moody, Saanich, Vancouver, Victoria and the districts of North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Oak Bay.
The list include those that have welcomed some measure of density, such as Victoria and Vancouver, and those more historically resistant to it, such as Oak Bay and the District of North Vancouver.
The announcement is taking place at 2 p.m. in Saanich, alongside Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock. (Follow this story for updates.)
Saanich’s planning department has had a reputation among developers as being mired in red tape, adding months to a building permit process that some municipalities are doing within weeks.
Murdock has promised to speed up building approvals for multi-family homes and rental units.
The first 10 municipalities were selected using a weighted index based on factors that include urgency of housing need, projected population growth, land availability and housing affordability.
The Housing Supply Act, passed during the spring legislative session, sets housing targets for municipalities using a carrot-and-stick approach. The carrot for municipalities that meet those targets comes in the form of funding for amenities, such as parks, bike lanes and recreation centres. For those that don’t meet the targets, the stick is the threat of being overruled by the province, which has the power to rezone entire neighbourhoods to create more density.
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Some mayors, including, District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little, have blasted the province for setting housing targets but not following through with funding for infrastructure to support record population growth, including new bridges, roads, schools and hospitals.
Several Metro Vancouver mayors brought up this issue last week during the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference and Kahlon responded by saying he’s pressing Ottawa to tie housing funding to immigration numbers.
More to come …
Stay up to date with the latest news on provincial affairs: Click here to read more stories from Katie DeRosa.
kderosa@postmedia.com
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