Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the District of Oak Bay has a month to convince him he doesn’t have to appoint an adviser to help them meet their housing targets.
Oak Bay has completed only 16 of the 56 units required under new provincial targets.
The District of West Vancouver received similar notice from Kahlon, who said both municipalities need to convince him they have made enough progress on achieving housing targets.
Kahlon said affected municipalities have had a year to hit the first of five housing targets. Some are doing well, and others are making progress, he said.
“Then you’ve got Oak Bay and West Vancouver, which are way off track and obviously have raised some concerns as far as meeting their goals,” said Kahlon. “Oak Bay’s target is 56 — 56 units. We’re not asking Oak Bay to solve all the problems in a housing crisis. We’re asking them to do just a little bit more than what they’ve normally done so that every community is doing their part.
“And for Oak Bay to come and say they only have staff capacity to approve 16 housing units is quite frankly a real challenge for us, especially when we’re asking neighbouring communities to do much more.”
The City of Victoria is well ahead of the pace needed to hit its five-year housing target of building just over 4,900 homes. Victoria has handed out occupancy permits for 1,477 net new units this year, exceeding the first-year target of 659 new homes.
Saanich will fall short of housing targets this year, but says it has laid the groundwork to allow it to meet the mark in 2025. The district’s provincially required housing-target progress report showed it handed over occupancy permits for 338 units between Oct. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024.
The target was 440 in the first year and 4,610 net new units to be completed in five years.
Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch said his district’s shortfall should not come as a surprise, as they told the minister a year ago that they would not meet the target.
Murdoch said because housing units are only counted once completed, the homes that could be counted would have had to be in the pipeline already when the targets were set. “We just simply did not have housing units in the pipeline that would be completed by this time this year.”
Murdoch said the district would welcome the addition of an adviser, and asked the province for one to be appointed a year ago, as they could have used the added resource. “They declined, so my faith they’re actually wanting to help is somewhat limited.”
Murdoch said while it’s true that Oak Bay is short 40 units, Vancouver is more than 1,000 units short, while Abbotsford is more than 400 short.
“If the province really wanted to move the needle on housing units, they wouldn’t be focusing resources on the smallest community,” he said.
Murdoch said he’s optimistic that when the province reviews what Oak Bay has done over the year, an adviser will not be necessary.
“Our council and the staff have been working very hard to actually bring these housing changes to the community. It’s been an all-out effort and it’ll continue to be in the next years,” he said. “We’re not pushing back on this at all.”
In an interview, Kahlon said over the next month, the ministry will work with Oak Bay, looking for indicators that the district has made progress.
If it hasn’t, the minister might appoint an adviser who can look through previous decisions, bylaws and processes and make recommendations on how to address the problem, he said.
“I’ll be taking the advice of an adviser, if one is appointed, very seriously,” he said. “Fundamentally, what we’re trying to do here is to ensure that there’s housing available for people.”
Sooke is the only municipality in the province to reject the provincially required bylaw changes that would allow small-scale multi-unit housing on single-family lots.
Kahlon said the ministry is consulting legal counsel on what the next steps will be.
The province brought in legislation last year that requires local governments to allow more housing options, such as triplexes, townhomes, secondary suites in single-family dwellings, garden suites and laneway homes, including increased density on lots currently zoned for single-family or duplex homes.
Local governments were required to pass bylaw changes by June 30, 2024, unless granted an extension. Sooke received an extension to Dec. 16.
That deadline passed but the new bylaws didn’t.
“Every other community in the province has changed the rules to allow for this type of housing where infrastructure exists, and they’ve decided that they wanted to be the only ones. We’ll take the next steps accordingly there,” Kahlon said.
