The past half-decade has been a strange one for housing in British Columbia. After almost two decades of underproduction, municipal bureaucratic foot-dragging and a general failure to plan for future growth, affordability issues continue to worsen despite ongoing media fixation and an endless stream of governmental promises, plans, proclamations, policies, podium pontifications and proactive pronouncements.

The writ has yet to drop, but it’s expected British Columbians will once more take to the polls on Saturday, October 19, 2024. While housing and provincial affordability are top-of-mind issues, it’s the shift in public polling that’s particularly fascinating in the lead-up.

Two contender parties: Far-left and far-right

The destabilization started with B.C.’s Liberal Party rebranding in April 2023 into the ambiguously named B.C. United, which resonated with precisely no one. Perhaps this is because it makes them sound more like they should be playing against Manchester United rather than dealing with politics.

But the real story is the upstart Conservative Party of B.C. which has usurped much of the former Liberal following and is now practically equal in polling support to the in-power NDP (New Democratic Party) that once commanded a majority lead. This essentially means that in the coming B.C. election, the two contender parties are either a far-left or far-right option. Quite the ideological showdown in the making. 

What got us here?

B.C. is governed by a two-term progressive NDP government. When former housing minister David Eby took the reins from then-Premier John Horgan (who stepped down due to health issues), a notable shift was immediately enacted.

Eby came at housing policy extremely aggressively. Like or dislike the NDP, there is little argument that Eby arrived well-qualified to tackle the issues. Aside from ample ministerial and attorney general experience, he spent the early years of his career working with the PIVOT Legal Society, a Downtown Eastside non-profit that provides legal advocacy for the impoverished, and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

This was a case of a leader ascending to power with a hands-on background and the will to enact immediate steps to contain supply and affordability challenges paired with rampant drug issues and homelessness. What has transpired over his 22 months in power thus far is a litany of aggressive policies. Municipal housing targets, major rezoning, outlawing of short-term rentals and strengthened tenancy rights, to name but a few. 

B.C.’s housing system changes’ billion-dollar consequences should create heavy burden of responsibility

If there’s a notable criticism of Premier Eby leading into the election (and it’s one that will dog him in the months to come), it’s that he has ruled with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Repeatedly, this administration has acted more like a non-profit activist than a balanced government. Often over-focused on certain demographics while negatively portraying others, ignoring mayors and city councils concerned by the dictated pace of development and lack of matching infrastructure funding, protecting tenants with heavy-handed measures while ignoring the needs of the perceived privileged landlords — who are often just struggling families with a rental suite, not faceless corporations.

In short, it’s a complex housing ecosystem in B.C. and it needs to be navigated with extreme caution. Any change can have billion-dollar consequences, and that should create a heavy burden of responsibility. I don’t see enough of that burden with this government and that concerns me. 

So, what do we need going forward? 

Actual collaboration

If we’re going to take all the rhetoric out of the housing crisis and get down to actually building solutions, then the issue requires the proper resources to tackle it. Whatever party takes power, they need to establish a Permanent Housing Roundtable immediately made up of 12 or so carefully chosen policy experts selected from across the housing continuum of market, non-market and Indigenous housing.

Let’s dwell for a minute on who is currently drafting our legislation. As it currently stands, both federally and provincially, a collection of policy analysts staff the respective housing ministries. These are people transferred in either fresh from post-secondary graduate programs or shuffled over from other ministries with little on-the-ground experience. The reality at both the federal and provincial levels is that these staffers are not nearly equipped with the knowledge to tackle the size of the issues under analysis. And the policy we are seeing is reflective of that. The ideas often have merit but the execution is littered with problems.

The only successful path forward is to gather a well-stocked working group of those with years of experience drawn from housing policy work in the private and non-profit sectors to work in collaboration with the government. This would add significant bench strength to the policy teams and would avail the opportunity to pressure-test new legislation before it’s announced for unforeseen consequences. 

Significant tax reform

Housing in B.C. has so many taxes heaped upon it that we need Robin Hood to rescue us. The review and repeal of some of the taxation overburdening the B.C. buyer since 2016 could immediately and significantly lower the cost of housing, as a huge percentage of the cost of housing is pure taxation. For example, the Property Transfer Tax was initially a wealth tax for the top 5.0 per cent of sales but now applies to virtually everyone. There is also the lack of transparency around how taxes are used, as most of it disappears into “general revenues”. 

In addition, significant focus needs to be placed on investor incentivization. This government doesn’t seem to distinguish between “speculative investment”, which they demonize, and all other categories of investment, which our economy is highly dependent upon. Furthermore, they need to stop using developers as a piggybank. Developers are not the solution to every municipal budget shortcoming that crops up amid supply expansion. 

Provincial trades education to offset immigration

It has frequently been said that high immigration numbers are necessary to import the skilled tradespeople needed to expand housing supply across the province. The Feds, however, have begun reining back record-high immigration as its causal effect on national housing pressures becomes more and more apparent.

The government’s Labour Market Outlook estimates about 65,000 openings over the next 10 years in the construction sector, with 55,000 necessary just to offset retirements. To tackle these issues, B.C. can set about incentivizing the next generation of skilled trades labourers in the province — start offsetting tuition costs, offering high school feeder programs, initiating recruitment campaigns for youth, expanding facilities at the B.C. Institute of Technology, etc. 

There is real job opportunity in B.C.’s housing trade sector for years to come. Why not focus on getting new graduates into these programs and upping trade graduate numbers ten-fold over the next decade? 

Foreign buyer ban exemptions

The Foreign Buyer Ban was a slick-sounding federal policy implemented in January 2023 that had very little statistical impact on anything. A major add-on negative for B.C. is that several ski hills (which happen to be incorporated as municipalities) all got captured in this ban.

Ski hills are a critical part of the B.C. tourism sector, already struggling to recover from a multi-year COVID-19 shutdown and then a terrible 2024 season. Now, to protect housing supply, foreign investors can’t invest in ski condominiums? The incumbent provincial government needs to prioritize working with the federal government to get this sorted ASAP in advance of the next ski season. 

Axe the rescission period

Allowing buyers three days to back out of a potential home purchase they have willfully entered into was and continues to be a bad idea. As adults, we all understand the responsibility that comes with purchasing property, and back-out clauses already exist in pre-defined categories. 

The rescission mechanism was put in place to overly coddle the buyer, treating them as ignorant innocents in a competitive market. What it neglects to account for is the symbiotic relationship between buyer and seller. These are intertwined roles, and once a house sells, the seller, in turn, typically becomes a buyer. Allowing “I changed my mind” back-outs of offers with no particular justification is a heavily disruptive tool that causes more harm than good. 

Short-term rental exemptions

Over-focus on housing supply at the cost of the regional economy is not well-thought-out policy. Tourism is still recovering post-COVID-19. Our wine regions are hurting. Multiple ski regions are beaten down by unintended foreign homebuyer bans. And now short-term rental stock is stomped out for theoretical transformation to permanent rental stock?

The data isn’t agreeing and hotels across the province have never cost more. Post-election, the government needs to start working out a litany of exemptions based on season, region, zoning and support of critical sectors such as remote medical workers, people travelling for medical care, film industry employees and students. 

Looking ahead

Regardless of who wins this election, B.C. can solve the challenges before it. To do so, it’s high time partisan politics were extracted from housing policy.

Let’s gather the smartest policy minds in the province. Let’s craft public-private collaboration. Let’s work together. And let’s get this done.

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