David Eby, B.C.’s attorney general and minister of housing, is threatening to override municipal zoning powers to get more housing built. Eby says the province has two ways of doing this.
First, his government could allow construction on provincially owned land, while ignoring local bylaws. This was done in Maple Ridge, when the government expedited construction of 2,000 units of social housing.
Second, the province could force a municipality to alter its zoning scheme so that more high-density housing could be built. This power has not been used before.
In passing, it’s an odd arrangement to have the province’s top law officer also responsible for housing policy. Doesn’t he have enough on his plate overseeing the justice system?
But there are larger issues here. Provincial authority to override municipal decision-making came about as something of an afterthought.
When Canada took the first steps toward independence with the Constitution Act of 1867, only two centres of government were established — the provincial legislatures and Parliament.
That was understandable. It was a huge task to carve out the framework of Confederation. In that crowded and complex process, municipalities were handed off as creatures of the provinces.
Yet is this a wholly reasonable arrangement? Are they still an afterthought?
Municipalities today have come to possess many of the powers we would associate with an independent level of government, not least the fact that their governing councils are democratically elected. They also have separate taxing powers.
Eby may have the constitutional authority to overrule local governments, but does that give him a free hand?
And even if it does, is zoning authority the place to start?
Quite a few other options beckon for his attention.
Consider the ridiculous situation where Greater Victoria has four municipal police forces, as well as three RCMP detachments.
Even Central Saanich, population 17,400, maintains its own law enforcement department, complete with a chief constable and a deputy chief. If Eby wants to tune up local government, here might be a better place to start. More of this in a moment.
Then again, half of Victoria’s city councillors don’t actually live in Victoria. That means, among other things, that they can establish taxes which personally they won’t have to pay. Why not attend to this anomaly?
But the key issue is zoning. It is by this power that municipalities protect neighbourhood characteristics of importance to the residents.
There’s a reason why we entrust this task to municipal councillors. Only they are close enough to keep in touch with local sentiment. Only they have an immediate enough relationship with the communities they represent to speak knowledgeably on their behalf.
This is one of the main reasons why we have local governments.
Eby’s frustration with slow moving action on the housing front is understandable. There is indeed NIMBYism at work.
Yet as a minister with province-wide responsibilities, his inevitable distance from the local scene renders him very nearly the last person who should be dictating community zoning.
Perhaps he believes that the mere threat to intervene will hurry things along. But if it doesn’t?
There are far better ways of influencing local decision-making than naked force. Annually, the Union of B.C. Municipalities makes recommendations to the province. Make those the centre of attention.
This year the UBCM asked the province to amalgamate police services to address fragmentation, and move toward an integrated B.C. Police Service.
Here is a proposal long in need of action which Eby and his colleague Mike Farnworth, the solicitor general, could undertake. Co-operation on this and other UBCM priorities might provide the leverage needed to gain action on provincial priorities like housing.
In intergovernmental relations, as elsewhere, the carrot works better than the stick.
