Oak Bay’s mayor says he’s optimistic the provincial housing advisor appointed to his municipality will be fair and reasonable in his approach, after the housing minister suggested the municipality may “need an independent person to come in” to look at ways to get the district closer to the housing target set by the province.
On Jan. 30, the ministry appointed James Ridge to the advisor role, along with a team of at least one other person which mayor Kevin Murdoch described as a secondary advisor.
"I think that the people who are being selected are very professional and capable,” Murdoch told CFAX 1070 yesterday (Feb. 3), noting that the province is asking the advisor team to identify any problems as part of their role.
“I think the people involved are probably going to do their best. I don’t think the province is looking at this as a truly independent model.”
The advisor is tasked to review the current approach to housing production in the municipality and make recommendations to help increase the number of new units, as suggested by housing minister Ravi Kahlon’s announcement post on X.
Kahlon put the district on notice this appointment of an advisor was a possibility after Oak Bay saw the completion of 16 new construction builds in 2024, which fell short of the province’s 56-unit target for the municipality.
After being notified of this possibility, Oak Bay sent a letter to the ministry on Jan. 15. In that letter, mayor Kevin Murdoch suggested a housing advisor would not be all that helpful. He instead requested the ministry look at alternatives like funding a staff position.
After the advisor was appointed, Murdoch signalled optimism about the situation. Yet, he also described issues with merging the approach to infill housing started at the municipal level with the province’s standardized approach.
“That started for us just about six years ago. So we had two concurrent tracks on this—the secondary suites which we got finished and also the infill housing that was more complicated process. And that was 80 per cent done when the province brought in their approach, which was to have the fourplex universally applied across the province. So that basically stopped our process, and we waited until the province announced of what they were requiring us to do, and we’ve implemented that program now.”
Roughly six months in to implementing the provincial rules, Murdoch said his municipality is in a strange spot with the province measuring completed builds, which he suggested potentially does not reflect the time it takes to implement new policy.
During this conversation on CFAX 1070 this week, Murdoch also commented on the developer involved in a specific triplex variance application on St. Patrick Street. Council reviewed the application on Jan. 27, ultimately deciding to ask the applicant to bring the proposal back with changes.
On Oak Bay’s development tracker, the application contact was listed as Kahlon Developments. The company’s website suggests Kahlon Developments is owned by Sunny Kahlon.
“My understanding is the development company that was asking for the variance was—is owned by Ravi Kahlon’s brother Sunny,” Murdoch said.
“That being said, I don’t think there is any automatic conflict of interest here,” he added.
In an emailed statement, the housing ministry told CFAX 1070 Sunny Kahlon is the housing minister’s brother and said there is no professional relationship between the province, the housing minister and the company in question. The ministry also confirmed the housing minister reported the existence of his brother’s company to the Office of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner in 2022.
“The Office has since reviewed the matter and found no concerns,” the statement said. “The Commissioner oversees the annual Members’ public disclosure process, where each Member must disclose broadly, their own their spouse and their children’s financial information. Members’ Public Disclosure Statements are available on the Legislative Assembly of BC’s website.”
Murdoch suggested the process for reviewing housing issues in the municipality is robust and focuses on the content of the application.
“Our job as a council is not to look at the personalities involved, it’s really looking at the merits of the land use application in front of us because frankly that building will be there for another hundred years long after the people involved are long gone.”
CFAX 1070 has asked Sunny Kahlon for comment and has not received a response.
Hear Murdoch's full conversation on CFAX 1070 with Adam Stirling this week (Feb. 3):Update: Feb. 7, 2025
During Murdoch's appearence on CFAX 1070 on Feb. 3, he suggested the variance request for the St Patricks Street site was potentially similar to a separate letter Oak Bay received from the ministry of housing about the district’s rules.
Murdoch said on Feb. 3: “the variances being asked for were actually the same as another letter we received from the minister specifically asking about height and setbacks and whether or not we should revisit those. That being said, I don’t think there is any automatic conflict of interest here."
In a new statement (Feb. 6), the ministry told CFAX 1070 the site standards including height and setback, are province-wide recommendations, and are not specific to Oak Bay. The letter requesting reconsideration went to 21 communities at the same time in January, with the same recommendation of site standards, the ministry said.
The ministry has shared a copy of the letter with CFAX 1070. The ministry also shared a list of the communities which received the same letter, including Colwood, Nanaimo, Sidney, North Saanich, View Royal and others.
The first paragraph of the letter focuses on urging the municipality in question to ensure zoning bylaws are compliant with Bill 44 and consider applicable guidelines under section 582. The second paragraph suggests consistent zoning parameters across municipalities which enable small-scale multi-unit housing is important for addressing the housing crisis.
The third paragraph focuses on the potential benefits of flexible site standards.
The letter says: “we know from the experience of other jurisdictions, and from consultation with both planners, and builders, that flexible site standards including setbacks, building height, lot coverage and parking requirements will help to encourage development and increased housing supply…. For zones where 3 to 6 units are permitted, allowing 3 storey buildings and building heights of 11 meters will support the development of houses that are large enough for families.”
The fourth paragraph encourages the municipality to minimize parking requirements, along with form and character development permit requirements. The last two paragraphs discusses the province’s take on the overall issue of housing and the context of provincial site standards.
Another update CFAX 1070 has learned about this story involves the change of the “applicant contact” name on the Oak Bay development tracker, which no longer lists Kahlon Developments. It currently lists Chunpreet Hayre, who seems to be the owner of the site.
The mayor’s office shared a statement on this from Murdoch with CFAX 1070 today (Feb. 7), that Hayre is the owner/applicant for the St Patrick Street site. The statement suggests the development tracker sometimes lists the contractor and sometimes lists the owner of the site.
“In this case, while Kahlon Developments was the listed contractor on the submitted form (that’s how their name was included), the application contact should have been the owner Mr. Hayre, and not the contractor, Kahlon Developments,” the statement reads.
CFAX 1070 has reached out to Hayre for comment and will update our coverage as we learn more. More to come.
Update: Feb. 12, 2025
On CFAX 1070 today, housing minister Ravi Kahlon commented on concerns raised about his actions involving Oak Bay after the district council sent a variance application for a St. Patrick’s Street development—which the minister’s brother’s company was contracted to build—back to the applicant for further tuning.
Kahlon suggested the Conservative Party of BC is attempting to smear his reputation without knowing the facts.
“If they had taken it to the conflict commissioner, they would find out what I already found out from the conflict commissioner, which is that there is no conflict here,” he said.
“This is not the first time they’ve tried this. Every single time they have, it has gone to the conflict commissioner, and it has been cleared.”
Kahlon said he’s had no contact with his brother’s company. He also reiterated that his brother’s company was contracted to build the development for the person who applied for the variance at St Patrick’s Street and was not the owner of the property who was applying for the variance.
He said it was a disappointing situation, and he plans to continue focusing on issues that matter like the tariff response and pressure on housing without being distracted by what he described as tomfoolery.