EDITORIAL – Doerkson’s pledge to ditch housing quotas is a welcome move

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

FORCING HOUSING QUOTAS on municipalities was always a really bad idea. The BC Conservatives have promised to do away with them, and it will be a major favour to local governments.

The NDP brought in legislation in 2023 giving the provincial government authority to make municipalities allow up to six units on single-family detached lots, and mandated housing quotas on many municipalities via a weird collection of algorithms.

Kamloops was one of the cities given those quotas. The quota here was 4,236 units. The public’s ability to have a say on development proposals was greatly reduced because public hearings became redundant if a plan aligned with the new zoning restrictions.

It was a blatant violation of the Province’s pledge to treat municipal governments as a separate level of authority rather than mere servants of the provincial bosses. It defined local government as “autonomous, responsible and accountable government directed by democratically elected councils.”

More important than the principle, though, was the impact of the quotas. They made a joke of local zoning authority and urban planning. City councils are supposed to have the power to develop their jurisdictions based on sound planning, placing the right kind of growth in the right places.

The Province even intended to force local councils to adopt housing plans from a set list of blueprints, based on the logic it would save on costs and time.

Councils complained, yet they obediently jumped on board. Any proposed development that included the word “housing” gained automatic traction. Approve a panhandle lot in a neighbourhood that was totally inappropriate for it? Certainly. Build apartment blocks without parking? Of course.

Had the Eby plan been allowed to continue over a period of years, it would have resulted in a disaster for B.C. communities. Growth would have happened without logical controls. Residential subdivisions would have become characterized by cheap conformity. Providing services such as roads, water and sewer to these high-density monstrosities would have been an extra burden to taxpayers at large.

Thank goodness the Conservatives have come along in time to put a stop to it before irreversible damage was done. Lorne Doerkson promises to repeal Bills 43 and 44, the legislation that imposed the quotas. Forcing cities to allow duplexes, row homes and multiplexes on single-family lots will end.

Doerkson acknowledges that local councils know more about what’s best in their communities than Victoria does. On that, he’s absolutely correct.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.