Executive Committee Regular Meeting Addendum

Extracted text (beginning)

Executive Committee
Addendum
 

Date:February 23, 2022
Time:9:00 am
Location:Islands Trust Victoria Boardroom
200-1627 Fort Street, Victoria, BC
Pages
8.EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PROJECTS
8.2.Executive Committee Initiated
8.2.3.Local Planning Services
8.2.3.1.     Minister Announcement of Upcoming Changes on  Housing
Approvals - BRF
2 - 3

Islands Trust Briefing Page 1 
 
 
 
 
BRIEFING 
 
 
To: Executive Committee  For the Meeting of: February 23, 2022 
     
From: David Marlor, Director, Local 
Planning Services 
 Date Prepared: February 22, 2022 
     
SUBJECT:
  
Minister Announcement of Upcoming Changes on Housing Approvals 
 
 
PURPOSE: To brief the Executive Committee on a recent announcement from the Minister of Housing 
regarding potential removal of some local government regulatory powers in relation to provision of 
housing. 
 
BACKGROUND:  
On February 21, 2022 two news sources, The Vancouver Sun and Castanet.com (appendix 1), ran a 
report indicating that BC cities were being put on notice that the Province plans to remove some 
housing approval powers from local governments. No details were provided on what those changes 
would be, and the local governments to which they would apply. 
The announcement is likely in response to a report (Opening Doors: Unlocking Housing supply for 
Affordability: final Report of the Canada-British Columbia Expert panel on the Future of Housing supply 
and affordability (appendix 2)) commissioned by the Province that was released on June 17, 2021.  The 
task assigned to the panel was to: 
examine housing trends for rental and homeownership, exploring options to allow British 
Columbians to have further access to housing that they need and can afford. Our goal, as we see 
it, is to develop comprehensive policy recommendations on how to improve affordability by 
increasing the supply of market and non-market housing, whether for rent or for 
homeownership. 
The panel outlined five “calls to action”: 
• Creating a planning framework that proactively encourages housing.   (page 26 – 7 
recommendations) 
• Reforming fees on property development.   Page 29 – 4 recommendations) 
• Expanding the supply of community and affordable housing.(Page 32 – 5 recommendations) 
• Improving coordination among and within all orders of government  (Page 35 – 4 
recommendations) 
• Ensuring more equitable treatment of renters and homeowners.  (Page 37 – 3 recommendations) 
There are a total of 23 recommendations. While the news articles did not indicate what type of 
regulatory changes we could expect, clues to them can be found in the recommendation on the pages in 
the report identified above.  
The Province has not indicated whether it will be releasing a white paper on the subject for comment (as 
it did with Riparian Area Regulation amendments) or will simply introduce the regulatory changes as a 
Bill without further consultation (as it has recently done with post-pandemic amendments).   
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