B.C. ministry singles out Oak Bay, West Vancouver for not meeting housing targets

British Columbia's housing minister says he has sent letters to two municipalities that have fallen well short of one-year housing targets announced by the province in September 2023. 

Ravi Kahlon says the District of Oak Bay and District of West Vancouver have not come close to reaching the objectives announced for 10 municipalities last year, and letters sent Tuesday say ministry staff will be following up with them over the next 30 days for more information.

Kahlon says if there doesn't appear to be a pathway to progress, he has the option to bring in a special adviser or make changes to municipal bylaws or processes to make the approval of housing easier. 

"We're trying to make sure that local governments have cut their red tape, [that] they're creating processes which makes it easy for housing to be built and not putting in barriers after they've approved it to make those housings not viable."

On The Coast10:13West Vancouver mayor responds to B.C. housing minister's latest letter

West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager responds to B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon's latest efforts to get his district to meet the province's housing targets. Amy Bell is our guest host.

He says the province asked Oak Bay to build 56 homes and only 16 were built. West Vancouver had 58 homes built, but was meant to hit 220. 

'This is just theatre,' says West Vancouver mayor

West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager has been critical of the province's approach. 

"This is just theatre," he said.

He feels his community has streamlined the process for housing builds.

"We now turn around building permits in under six weeks. Good luck finding another community that does that," Sager said.

"So you know, Mr. Minister, let's get together and have an intelligent discussion."

Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch has also questioned the province's monitored targets, saying he previously told Kahlon that they expected to fall short of their goal. 

"If they're coming in as an additional resource, they can do a lot of good. If they're coming in to ask for yet more reports to explain why we aren't meeting our targets, that would make it very difficult to meet our targets," he said.

Kahlon said the mayor didn't talk to him about a shortfall, "but maybe in council they deliberated on the fact that they wouldn't be able to reach their goal."

The housing minister noted that municipalities near West Vancouver and Oak Bay – the District of North Vancouver and Victoria, respectively – managed to meet or exceed targets.

"Those are not easy decisions within communities, but they were doing the work to make it happen and we expect West Vancouver and Oak Bay to do the same amount of work."

Kahlon said he also sent written notifications to the City of Kamloops and the City of Abbotsford, both of which reached no more than two-thirds of their targets. The letters to them, Kahlon said, were "slightly different" than the ones received by West Vancouver and Oak Bay.