Council Meetings, On The Street Interviews, V9L Safety Meeting
Next N.C. council meeting Wed Dec 6th, warming centre controversies, community gathers to discuss the street issues Sunday Dec. 3rd
Last council meeting regarding the budget :
Adrienne
Another COAP member:
This Wednesday Council will be having a regular meeting where they accept the presentations regarding the budget, so you may speak on anything related to the staff’s presentations. Additionally, Council is receiving a letter from the Minister of Housing regarding Bill 44, 46, and 47.
Meeting link: https://pub-northcowichan.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=4c6c004d-44ba-411a-a3e0-e89241407594&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English
COAP has sent the Council and CAO a letter regarding these new proposals:
Dear Mayor Douglas, Councilors, and CAO Ted Swabey,
It has come to our attention that you have received a letter from the Honourable Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing, regarding Bills 44, 46, and 47.
Could you let us know whether you have received the letter sent to the Auditor General from the View Royal Mayor, (see attached) and whether the council or our Mayor has also asked for the same audit?
An excerpt from Mayor Tobias: "I am writing to request a comprehensive value-for-money audit on the Government's Bill 44, known as the Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act. The legislation's implications, particularly concerning the absence of public and municipal engagement, warrant a thorough investigation to ensure transparency, accountability, and alignment with governmental priorities. A similar request was made to the Auditor General of Ontario recently."
All three Bills have a significant effect on the local council's ability to keep their governed areas attractive to locals and potential new residents. The Bills remove the council's power over the height restrictions and remove public input, while also creating a boon for foreign investors to swoop in and purchase previously owned strata units to flip to rentals.
We have seen how well the province having powers over other things in our community such as safe injection sites and wet housing has worked, do we really want to lose more power to the province to completely reshape our town?
North Cowichan predicts a 3000 resident increase by 2050, yet has allowed the building of close to 2000 units in the past 6-7 years. North Cowichan is well ahead of its targets for rental and purchase needs, and giving up all power over these decisions sounds like a very slippery slope to more usurping of local powers as time moves on. These Bills also take all local voices away from residents as to how their municipality looks, feels, and functions.
Bill 47: We may as well just throw out the Local Area Plans if these get Royal Assent, as the province has put in minimum height requirements for buildings ( while local municipalities often create maximum height restrictions.) While some of these minimum high requirements may not worry some counsellors as our transit service is pretty poor currently, the council's goal is to ask for better transit in order to align with the Transportation Plan, and as that builds up, we then will be required to build up even higher in those "hub" areas. Currently, Chemanius has areas where some of these builds could be made to happen, but as we can see in the Chemainus LAP there is a) A definite "feel" to the area requested by those that took part in creating it, and b) There is no infrastructure currently in place (water/sewer) to meet additional large complexes.
Bill 46: does not include using the development fees for affordable housing: "Affordable housing is not identified as an amenity in the proposed legislation. Currently, many local governments use CACs to fund affordable and social housing initiatives, among other things. For example, Vancouver’s Community Benefits from Development publication noted that 46% percent of CACs collected between 2012 and 2021 were allocated to affordable housing (6,586 units). UBCM identified this gap to the Minister of Housing in May 2023" - UBCM
.
Some Bill 44 comments found online:
"Welp this time next year rent will be even more unaffordable because corporations have bought up entire strata properties and will collude to control the price. And property ownership will now be totally unattainable by most. F** you David Eby."
"All this means is at the next provincial election the NDP will be able to say "look we increased the number of rentals in the province to help people". They will say nothing about who the owners are. It'll no longer be someone who's potentially invested in the neighbourhood and checking on their rentee. It'll be foreign and/or dirty money, or a nameless corporation renting the place as the new owner and they won't care who's in the unit. Only that someone is paying them to rent it. Get ready for house bidding wars. Families will get priced out of the market, and will be forced to rent the unit they were outbid on, and have to pay an outrageous monthly rent. Good job Eby"
"What’s the main takeaway from this? Long term inflation and concentration of wealth while very short term placing a tiny number of units on the rental market."
" Can’t wait for all the condos to be purchased by Chinese investors to inflate the rental market or be turned into 55+ only rentals yee haw !"
We ask that you show your concerns as a municipality to the Minister of Housing, and represent your citizen's concerns, without bias shown towards Bills passed by your allegiance with the party that passed them.
Sincerely
COAP
Attached letter from View Royal Mayor :
COAP hit the streets to interview those who are trying to help keep people alive during the cold weather.
Today the curling rink was packed with standing room only as residents came to come together in the first meeting to address the street issues that grow by the day in our community. This meeting was inspiring as there were folks from many different political leanings who all came together for one reason. This meeting was put on by a group called Cleanup V9L ( FB Link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094278626152 ). The host reiterated that there are more important issues locally than some climate agenda, and we need to get actions happening ASAP. Many amazing speakers were there, and it is well worth the watch. True community in the Valley is growing stronger by the day and addressing REAL issues.
Watch here:
https://fb.watch/oJ4hRQ9A_D/
https://www.facebook.com/serenafreedombear/videos/741068737933433
All our best!
Team COAP