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By Langford-Juan de Fuca MLA Ravi Parmar

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Building as we grow

Nov 15, 2023 | 11:00 AM

BRITISH COLUMBIA IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO LIVE and communities across the province are growing every year, including in my own riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca.

An important part of supporting growth is, of course, making sure everyone has a home. As such, our government has been tackling the housing crisis from all angles. Our Homes for People plan takes a holistic approach to making sure that we are building more homes for people, faster, and that includes legislation we introduced last week.

If passed, this new legislation (Bill 46) will help to reduce construction delays and streamline processes to build the homes people need, all while we fund infrastructure like fire halls and police stations, as well as amenities like community centres and libraries for growing communities.

In some fast-growing communities, local governments negotiate with homebuilders to get money for community amenities like parks and recreation centres during the zoning phase. This process can be slow and make building more expensive. These new changes would mean that local governments can plan ahead and set their zoning rules in advance.

These changes help with a clearer way for builders and local governments to figure out costs for these amenities so that we build homes faster and eliminate protracted negotiations.

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We’re also proposing changes to development cost charges, or ‘DCCs,’ which allow local governments the flexibility to collect funds from home builders to help with core needs in the community like water, sewer and roads, all of which support new housing. Other amenities, such as emergency services and highway projects are normally paid for by the municipality and often funded exclusively by property taxes. If passed, local governments will soon be able to use these DCCs for a wider range of amenities that support a growing community, which will ease the strain of property taxes on homeowners.

This builds on other work our government has done to support municipalities with the pressures of a growing population. This includes investments in new schools and hospitals, and our $1 billion Growing Communities fund that went to every municipality in the province.

Overall, the goal of this legislation is to make the building of homes both easier and faster, and to provide the services people need in growing communities by making the process more predictable and efficient. This is just one part of our plan to help British Columbia with growth and one of the many actions our government is taking to tackle the housing crisis head on.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.