The 10 BC municipalities chosen by the Province to be the first ones given housing targets were selected from a larger list of 47, according to an order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council that brought the Housing Supply Act regulations into effect on May 31.
The regulations also provide additional details about the Housing Supply Act -- such as the information and metrics municipalities must provide to the Province upon request -- that were not announced last week.
To begin with, when the Province sets a housing target for a municipality, it must also provide the municipal government with 30 days to respond to the housing target order. The regulations do not outline what that response has to entail, but the municipality will presumably have to formerly accept the target or challenge it, as the regulations note that the 30-day period can be extended if requested.
Aside from the housing target, the order will also include "the performance indicators and timeline by which progress by the specified municipality toward meeting each housing target is to be assessed" and a "reporting period" for which the municipality has to provide a progress report.
According to the regulations, the progress report can be prepared by either a municipal employee or an external party.
The regulations also list various kinds of information that the municipality must provide to the Province upon request, at any point. That includes statistical information about the current and projected population, statistical information about household incomes, information about significant economic sectors, and information about currently available housing units, units that are anticipated to be available, and the types of housing units.
Additionally, the Province can also request other information regarding municipal processes, including:
If the Province finds that the municipality has not met it's housing target, the Province can either appoint an advisor to review the municipality -- including the actions it has taken towards meeting the target, its policies, and its processes -- or issue a directive, which could include ordering the municipal government to amend or enact a given bylaw, as well as issue or refuse to issue a permit.
The 10 municipalities that were announced last week were: Abbotsford, Delta, Kamloops, North Vancouver, Oak Bay, Port Moody, Saanich, Vancouver, Victoria, and West Vancouver.
RELATED: How BC Selected The 10 Municipalities To Be Given Housing Targets
Listed in the Housing Supply Act regulations is the full list of municipalities that were considered, from which future groups will be selected. The remaining 37 municipalities are:
Municipalities that were selected as part of the first group, and those that were not, were both notified last week. As part of this, in an email dated May 31, Assistant Deputy Minister of Housing Bindi Sawchuk wrote to the City of Burnaby, informing Chief Administrative Officer Leon Gous that although Burnaby had not been selected as part of the first cohort, "it may be subject to a housing target assessment as part of a future cohort."
"The Act is being implemented in a phased approach, with cohorts of 8-10 municipalities establishing targets every six to eight months," Sawchuk added. "The first cohort of ten municipalities has been selected based on an independent assessment ranking dimensions of housing availability, affordability, and urgent housing need."
According to the BC Government Directory, the Ministry of Housing now also has a "Housing Targets Branch," which lists Cimarron Corpé as Executive Director.
