Vernon, B.C. city council passes motion to keep housing permitting powers local

Vernon, B.C., city council passed a motion this week, pushing back against the B.C. provincial government’s suggestion that limiting local permitting power may help address the housing crisis.

The motion calls for Vernon’s mayor to write to the province and request municipalities retain their current powers when it comes to housing.

Vernon was reacting to comments made by David Eby, B.C.’s Minister Responsible for Housing, in February.

“We do see some areas where municipalities are simply refusing to approve necessary housing,” said Eby, last month.

“What we want to do is get to a place where municipalities have the opportunity to say where the housing should go, what it should look like, but not whether or not it goes ahead.”

However, many Vernon politicians argued limiting local control would defeat the purpose of having local government.

Anderson, who originally brought the motion to council, argued limiting local input is necessary in Vernon.

“There is no situation, that I can think of, where we have said no to a provincial initiative,” said Anderson.

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“In fact, we lobby the provincial government frequently for supportive and subsidized housing.”

However, the province argues some cities are struggling to approve housing.

“We see some great examples of hard work by some municipalities to streamline processes and open housing quickly,” said Eby in a statement.

“Other municipalities are struggling to approve housing or are simply refusing to acknowledge they have a responsibility to approve badly needed new multi-family housing for rent and purchase. We believe the best way forward is to work together with municipalities to address this crisis; however, if we don’t see our collaborative approach with municipalities showing results, we may have to take other measures to ensure we don’t move from a housing crisis to a housing disaster.”

Anderson argues making a policy limiting local decision-making in the entire province, instead of addressing problems in specific municipalities, would not be appropriate.

Eby says he ultimately hopes to collaborate with Vernon council on housing and he’ll now be writing a letter of his own asking to meet with them.