West Vancouver mayor Mark Sager called Kahlon’s singling out of the two municipalities as “theatre.”
B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon announced Thursday he is appointing advisers for West Vancouver and Oak Bay after the two municipalities failed to come close to building the number of units they were required to under B.C. law.
“If you talk to the leadership of those communities, they say, we’re doing great, everything is fantastic,” Kahlon told Postmedia. “When you see the data come back, you realize that it’s not and they’re significantly off of where they need to be.”
West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager and Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch disagree and say they are building housing as quickly as they can. Sager called Kahlon’s singling out of the two municipalities “theatre.”
In December, Kahlon revealed that while West Vancouver had been expected to build 220 homes between September 2023 and September 2024 as part of the province’s five year housing targets for select municipalities, it had built 56. Oak Bay was to build 58 units but only completed 16.
Letters to West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager and Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch outline policy areas the advisers will be reviewing, with the option for the province to change municipal policy unilaterally if necessary.
In West Vancouver, Kahlon said the adviser’s focus will be on reviewing zoning bylaws for small-scale multi-unit housing and projects council has rejected. He also wants a review of the Taylor Way area plan with a view toward developing housing around transit.
In Oak Bay, the housing minister wants to know why a proposal for 40 units of rental housing at Carnarvon Park was rejected and whether the community’s process for negotiating amenity funding with developers is serving as a barrier to project proposals.
“The adviser will go in, have a look, give us independent advice on what the challenge is,” said Kahlon.
“They may come back and say things are great, but that’s the value of having someone with experience, with lots of knowledge in the space to go in and identify both the positives and the challenges and then bring it back to us, so we can think about the next steps.”
For West Vancouver, Capilano University instructor Ron Mattiussi will be the adviser. Mattiussi has served as the director of planning and chief administrative officer for the City of Kelowna.
In Oak Bay, the adviser will be James Ridge, who has previously served as the deputy chief administrative officer for the City of Vancouver and the chief administrative officer for both Burlington, Ontario, and the District of North Vancouver.
The two municipalities were not the only ones who failed to reach targets imposed by the province. Only three out the 10 municipalities initially included under B.C.’s Housing Supply Act were able to meet their first-year targets.
Victoria, Delta and the District of North Vancouver were the only ones to surpass their target. Vancouver reached 80 per cent of its target, Saanich hit 77 per cent and Port Moody hit 73 per cent.
Kamloops and Abbotsford were slightly further behind, with the Interior city hitting 66 per cent of its target, while the largest community in the Fraser Valley reached 59 per cent.
West Vancouver and Oak Bay were unique, Kahlon said, in how far they were from reaching the target. Neither hit 30 per cent of its goal.
Murdoch said Kahlon’s move to appoint a special adviser wasn’t entirely unexpected as the housing minister warned it was a possibility in December.
The mayor accused the province of turning “fairly standard planning and regulatory pieces” such as the development of bylaws for amenity cost charges, which allow local governments to charge developers fees to support community development, into “unevenly applied political pieces.”
He also said several of the priorities outlined by Kahlon were not included in the initial letter sent to Oak Bay in December, including that the province wants to work with Oak Bay to build more supportive housing.
Sager said that despite being the subject of frequent criticism from Kahlon, the housing minister hasn’t had a meeting with him since being given the portfolio in 2022.
He also disputed the minister’s claims that West Vancouver has been turning down housing projects, pointing to the Cypress Village development that will bring 3,700 new housing units.
“When are we going to have an opportunity to sit down together to talk about the various projects which we are waiting on,” Sager asked of Kahlon.
“Maybe through this adviser, you will get the message that West Vancouver is trying to work with you to create housing that is needed.”
He said the district has been waiting on B.C. Housing to help develop new housing on the site of a former seniors building along the Capilano River and that the Baptist Housing Society is waiting on funding for their redevelopment of the Inglewood Care Centre.
Conservative housing critic Linda Hepner said one of the key problems with the province’s approach has been the sheer lack of consultation with municipalities.
She said the NDP should continue to expect resistance to its housing policies until communities are actually given a proper seat at the table.
“Do I think there’s a need for the housing, don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely in favour of that,” said Hepner.
“There’s a natural conversation that could be had. I just don’t think we’ve ever had that conversation, and I don’t think that forcing it on communities is the answer. I think that you have to have, not only consultation with the municipal governments, but you have to have consultation to allow the public to have a say as well.”