The Work Before Us

The government’s housing crisis strategy kicked into high gear nearly 18 months ago with key legislation to address housing supply shortfalls. Will it be enough to set us on a path towards attainability? As Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward points out in this issue’s interview (p. 8), it’s too early to tell. Whatever progress is to be made, the brunt of the work to make it happen will fall to municipalities like Langley Township and others across the province who are on the hook to achieve density and fulfill quotas to meet governments targets and expedite solutions to problems that have been years in the making.

While in agreement with government about “what” needs to be done, Mayor Woodward is less aligned with “how” to get there. For him and many of his mayoral counterparts, the prescriptive, one-size-fits-all methodology of the province’s strategy fails to take into consideration the unique strengths of each community and disrupts work that is already underway and has been for some time. Woodward’s advice: let the province focus on what they’re responsible for—financing or BC Housing for example—and let cities do their work, with actual consultation and real collaboration.
Regardless of the right approach, there’s no question that supply targets are ambitious—but necessary. Langley Township’s Interim Housing Needs Report calls for 43,000 housing units to be in place over the next 20 years to accommodate expected growth. And that’s just one municipality. By some estimates, British Columbia is expected to have a shortfall of up to 600,000 units by 2030, and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimates we will face a shortage of 5.8 million homes nationally over the same time frame.

The real challenge will be finding an economic solution that permits building on such a scale while protecting affordability, an increasingly steep ask against the backdrop of a protracted trade war that will impact already rising materials and labour costs. If necessity is the mother of innovation (apologies to “invention”), then perhaps we might look to the emerging off-site construction field to provide the innovative solutions. Offsite construction—modular, pre fabrication, etc.—offers lower costs, quicker time to production and the added benefit of a smaller environmental footprint. Plus it has the attention of more and more MPs (p. 20). It is probably a safe bet to see this sector scale up in the coming years.

Whatever the solution, supply increases can’t come quick enough to take pressures off affordability. As the country gears up for a federal election during a tenuous time for our economy, the provinces will look to Ottawa for critical support—the same way the 5,200-plus members of the Fraser Valley Board will look to our own newly-elected Board of Directors for leadership and guidance.