Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Michael Reeve

DEVELOPMENT COST CHARGES

Province hopes changes to DCCs spur investment in new housing across B.C.

Jul 4, 2025 | 5:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — This week, the Province of B.C. announced structural changes to development dost charges (DCC) in an attempt to spur development of much need housing units.

DCC’s are fees paid by developers to municipalities when they build a new project, and the money is used to fund infrastructure upgrades in the area. As of next year, they’ll only have to pay 25 per cent of the fees up front, and the other 75 per cent can be deferred for four years or until people move in, which ever comes first.

B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon lauded the changes as a way to help expedite housing starts across the province.

“And these kind of solutions sound maybe not as grand but they are significant in a sense that they will make the difference between projects happening and projects not happening,” Kahlon said at a press conference.

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The move to delay the majority of development cost charge payments to municipalities comes with positives and negatives in the eyes of Kamloops city council.

“It’s a positive for the developers because there is more of an incentive if they don’t have to do those DCC cash payments to the same extent as early as we require them now on projects over $50,000,” Dale Bass, the Deputy Mayor for July, said.

“However from the city’s point of view that is money that isn’t coming in that we need for infrastructure, for a lot of things.”

Kamloops was placed on the provincial naughty list and it was required to boost new housing starts over the next four years. While not a silver bullet, the DCC changes should help developers get shovels in the ground.

“It’s kind of the death by a thousand cuts that we are trying to avoid,” said Chris Crowell, the President of the Canadian Home Builders Association Central Interior (CHBA CI). “Each of these small items is exacerbated with the cost of money and different pressures and risks that builders are taking on.”

“This move will help address one of those risks, so it’s a win for sure right now These small things add up and I think that it may be the difference between somebody saying yes to a project or not. I think it can make a difference at that level.”

While the City of Kamloops can not build new units themselves, they can advocate for provincial infrastructure funding, which Bass said will become a focus for council moving forward.

“The minister has changed things without consulting with the municipalities,” added Bass. “So what we will do is amp up our advocacy on behalf of our city, because a lot of cities are getting provincial dollars for infrastructure, we are not. We need it, they want is to build.”

Development cost charges will be used to fund sanitary upgrades along Fourth Avenue downtown, with that project set to get underway on Monday (July 7). In the future though, the city may need to borrow money to complete these projects.