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AND FRANKLY: Housing unchallenged as top municipal election issue in B.C.

Residents, businesses, politicians divided on severity of the problem
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Every time there’s an election, no matter what level of government it involves, there is a big issue which tends to overshadow all the others.

In the municipal election which is now underway, that issue is housing. It’s not transportation or policing, or stadiums or roads. It is not which slate has endorsed which candidate, or which candidates split from the slate they so heartily endorsed four years ago. It is housing – plain and simple.

It is the pressing issue in many B.C. municipalities – certainly in Surrey, White Rock and Delta. It is particularly important in B.C. communities which have seen housing purchase costs rise by 50 per cent or more since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit.

It is also a key issue because of the continuing increase in homelessness, and because of soaring rents. Federal plans to bring in 400,000 immigrants each year, with probably 25 per cent or more of them coming to B.C., also can’t be ignored. Where will all these new immigrants live, and how will it affect people who already live here?

A recent Mustel Group poll is quite revealing on this subject. This particular poll is of more interest than most, because it surveyed three distinct groups of people – 500 members of the public, 180 members of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, and 65 current or potential members of local councils, including mayor, councillors and candidates in the upcoming election.

The divergence of the answers from the various groups is very revealing. It clearly shows that elected officials are nowhere close to understanding how critical this issue is to their constituents.

Seventy-one per cent of the members of the public surveyed believe that the quality of life and the cost of living will worsen over the next four years. Half of them are considering leaving the region altogether, while 36 per cent of business owners said they are considering leaving the region as well due to high costs.

Meanwhile politicians, the purveyors of some of those ever-increasing costs through property taxation, development cost charges, permit fees, transit taxes and many other charges, don’t see a problem. More than 60 per cent of them do not believe increased costs and lack of affordable housing is a major challenge. Just 39 per cent of them believe quality of life and cost of living will worsen over the next four years.

Mustel Group president Evi Mustel says, “Affordable housing is the key issue in this election.”

Candidates for mayor and council in Surrey, where affordable housing is badly needed, will pivot when asked about the issue and say the provincial and federal governments need to do more. Help from provincial and federal treasuries is welcome. However, there is no shortage of things local governments can do.

They can start by fast-tracking building permits, subdivision applications and rezoning. They can look at their fees, and perhaps even reduce them – something that is unheard of at the local government level.

In both Surrey and White Rock, they can also look at applications to tear down more affordable rental stock and replace it with high- or medium-rises and ask the question: “Where will all these tenants go, and what will they have to pay in rent?”

In Burnaby, Mayor Mike Hurley asked that question in the 2018 election when he challenged and defeated longtime incumbent mayor Derek Corrigan, who seemed oblivious to the many Metrotown-area residents being displaced. Burnaby set up a Mayor’s Task Force on Community Housing to ask what actions it could undertake to protect and boost affordable housing. It is now taking some concrete steps. Similar moves need to be made here.

Interestingly, Hurley has already won the 2022 election for Burnaby mayor. He was unopposed in his bid for a second term.

Frank Bucholtz writes twice a month for Black Press Media