B.C.'s housing minister isn't ruling out appointing a provincial advisor to help Oak Bay reach its housing targets after the municipality's mayor released a letter suggesting an advisor wouldn't be all that helpful.
Ravi Khalon suggested today that each of the communities lagging behind on meeting their provincial housing targets puts more pressure on the rest of its region. Oak Bay was one of the communities the minister has previously put on notice after 16 units completed construction in the district during 2024, falling short of the province’s 56-unit target.
“The fundamental issue here is that Oak Bay delivered 16 units of housing last year, and if you compare that to Victoria which was just under 1,500, Saanich that was around 340—16 housing units. I did get a chance to hear the mayor, and he seems to think everything is fine, things are great,” Khalon said, adding that despite missing its target of 440 new units for this year, the District of Saanich is on the path to reaching its targets.
The housing minister ultimately said he is still planning to comb through the letter from Oak Bay before making a final decision, but noted his concerns with some of mayor’s recent comments.
“Listening to the mayor’s comments yesterday around not having faith in the targets, and not having faith—and believing Oak Bay is doing fantastic, I think in his commentary he made the case already.”
Khalon was on CFAX 1070 with Al Ferraby this morning (Jan. 16).
Mayor Kevin Murdoch said Oak Bay is making progress on new builds, and he’s not exactly sure how a provincial advisor would help with the challenges the district is facing.
“They use words like ‘we’re going to review past, present and future housing policy, etcetera,’ which sounds like a lot of work for our staff to write reports for the province again when we actually have real work to do,” Murdoch said.
He said he wanted to make sure the province knew what his district has done so far, and what resources would be helpful from the province
He released the letter to the housing ministry yesterday (Jan. 15), which describes ongoing developments in the district which may not have been captured in the province’s count of net new units. For example, there are 70 newly approved units which are not yet built.
Ultimately the letter said a “provincial advisor would not be as helpful as additional resources to support Oak Bay such as funding a staff position or assisting UVic with their development planning process.”
Murdoch was on CFAX 1070 with Adam Stirling yesterday (Jan. 16).