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Introduction

How do BC’s three main parties compare on urbanist priorities?

British Columbia is holding an election on October 19th to decide the next Premier of the province. The party that wins will influence how much housing costs, whether traffic is clogging the city, and if our cities can thrive.

Strong Towns Vancouver is a non-political local advocacy group created to help Metro Vancouver thrive. We believe there are four key principles for building a strong town:

1. Housing: Everyone deserves to live in a house that is right for them
2. Transportation: It must be quick and easy to move around a city
3. Safe Streets: City streets should be walkable and accessible.
4. Local Governance: Decisions at the smallest scale have the biggest impact.

Each of BC’s three main parties, the BC Conservatives, BC Greens, and BC NDP have put forward a vision for these four principles. This is a guide to their policies from a Strong Towns perspective.

This election will be extremely close. Your vote matters. If you care about your city, use it wisely.

Housing

BC Conservatives

The Conservatives have promised to “stabilise the housing market” by “getting prices under control by promoting the development of new housing.” The first policy on their list is to allow up to $1500 per month of rent or mortgage payments to be deducted from provincial income taxes, saving an average of $1600 per year. Unfortunately, these types of policies do not work for long. Untargeted subsidies do not fundamentally change the laws of supply and demand, and will only cause demand to increase until the price is $1600 per year above where it is today. All of this comes at an eventual cost of $3.5 billion per year. Even worse than ineffective policy, they have promised to roll back the existing upzoning laws and Airbnb restrictions, which have already helped to bring down the cost of rent by increasing supply.

Fortunately, they have since announced stronger policies, incentivising small-scale housing, and overruling municipalities when they fail to approve building permits in a timely manner. They have also offered to work with municipalities to upzone areas preemptively, with the city’s cooperation.

Another action they plan to take is to eliminate B.C.’s Energy Step Code. Right now this code is optional for municipalities to opt-into, as a layer of energy efficiency requirements for buildings that sits on top of the BC Building Code. Most municipalities have adopted at least some of it. While eliminating this code might help reduce initial housing costs by removing regulatory requirements that could slow or add complexity to construction, in the long term it could also increase the cost of ownership or rental of the home with higher heating and cooling costs and create additional demand on the supply of energy.

Overall, their housing policy is a mixed bag. They offer an assortment of policies which have the potential to be effective, but undermine their plan by removing existing law which has been proven to work.

BC Greens

The Greens’ focus is on financial assistance for renters, with policies including raising the income cap on the rental assistance program and building dedicated affordable housing. In some situations, targeted subsidies can make sense. When done well, they can create relief for those who need it most, while remaining small enough that they do not cause overall prices to rise too much. On the other hand, their policy to cap rent increases between tenants could have unintended consequences. The housing market is fundamentally governed by the law of supply and demand, and developers are highly cost sensitive. Artificially restricting the price of rent could result in fewer houses being built, creating almost no vacancies, and a market which continues to fail British Columbians.

Fortunately, the Greens are also planning to increase housing supply, including through enabling local developers such as nonprofits and housing co-ops. Activating these small-scale developers is very important, because it simply is not possible (or desirable) to build enough condos fast enough to house everyone. It is necessary to have small-scale developers build infill housing and low-rise apartments across the city to ensure that construction is at the pace we need, that it results in the type of housing that people want, and that development is equitably distributed across the city.

The Greens have also taken a unique position on housing by specifically criticising the companies who profit off of expensive housing. The book Escaping the Housing Trap by Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn and Daniel Herriges talks extensively about how US banks turned housing into a speculative investment, contributing to the housing crisis. The Greens have echoed this concern and plan to address it by cracking down on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This is an important but often overlooked solution to the housing crisis.

The Greens earn major points for their plan to stop companies getting rich off of unaffordable housing, and have adequate commitments to building more homes. However, they lose points for their ineffective market controls and subsidies.

BC NDP

The NDP have been trailblazers in housing policy, with other governments copying their successful policies. First among these was upzoning much of the province to remove restrictions on building types. This is a huge and transformative step. Zoning is exclusionary, racist in origin, and creates unnecessary burdens for developers. Policies like this have already helped to reduce the cost of rent in BC, and we are only just beginning to see the effects.

This election, their headline promise is to offer a loan to first-time homebuyers of up to 40% of the price of a new home. This policy is targeted at home-buyers with income below a (still unspecified) cap. Whether this is a small enough target to avoid causing the price of houses to jump up remains to be seen. Structuring this program as a loan is smart, as the long-term budgetary impact will be minimal, or even positive, making this a sustainable program. Combined with a commitment to continue working with nonprofits to build small-scale housing in all neighbourhoods, the NDP offers strong housing policy.

As strong as the NDP’s policies are, there is still room for improvement. We would love to see them implement the Conservatives’ proposal to require grocery stores and local businesses near transit. We are also hoping they will go further in relaxing their zoning laws, and allow more flexibility to allow businesses to operate in residential areas. Creating complete neighbourhoods with home-based businesses, local corner stores, and cafés, as well as ample housing, would allow the city to truly flourish.

Transportation

BC Conservative Party

TransLink has warned that it is about to enter a crisis, with half of their buses and trains at risk of being cut if their funding is not modernised. This makes it especially alarming that the Conservatives are proclaiming “No More Bailouts” for TransLink. The party has committed to addressing the funding crisis through increased efficiency, more funding from the federal government, and stop-gap funding for the next two years. Given that TransLink recently announced $90 million in cost-cuts, and the federal government has already announced public transit funding back in July, this may not be enough to ensure fast, reliable, and affordable transportation.

We should take a moment to emphasise why public transit is vital, whether you ride a bus every day or prefer to commute by car. Public transit is extremely efficient at transporting people, and can move dozens or even hundreds more people in the same space as personal vehicles would. This means that when people use transit, they are not increasing traffic. If half of all buses in Metro Vancouver were cut, everything on the road would grind to a halt.

More optimistically, the Conservatives are promising to extend the SkyTrain to Newton in Surrey. Surrey is one of the fastest-growing areas in the province in terms of transit ridership, and solutions to relieve congestion are sorely needed. Unfortunately, they once again undermine this promise by adding commitments to expand Highway 1 to Chilliwack. This would cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and would not reduce traffic. In fact, one of Strong Towns’ core commitments is to end highway expansion, due to the destruction it causes.

The Conservatives say they are committed to transit, but do not have the policies in place to make sure the buses keep running.

BC Green Party

The BC Green Party has made an ambitious promise to provide fully-funded transit — that is, free transit. This would be a dramatic shift in how we use transit, which would encourage more people to use the service more frequently. This would be fantastic for making the city more accessible to all, as long as capacity keeps up with demand, at least. Fortunately, they also promised to provide additional funding for more buses in areas serviced by BC Transit and immediate funding to maintain Translink’s operations in Metro Vancouver.

A fully-funded transit system would require us to reimagine transit the same way we imagine roads: an essential public service which is free for all of us to use. However, the Greens do not have a defined plan for how they would fund and implement a free transit system.

The Greens undoubtedly have the strongest position on transit, but their plans are also the hardest to achieve.

BC NDP

The NDP have already made significant advancements in public transit, including introducing free transit for kids under 12, and expanding SkyTrain service to east to Langley and west to Arbutus. If reelected, they are promising to connect the North Shore to Metrotown with a fast, high-quality Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line, and to finish the SkyTrain to UBC. This is a strong legacy of ensuring fast, reliable transit access, and their promises for the future would continue to expand this service to the whole of Metro Vancouver.

On the other hand, the government recently announced $2.65 billion dollars to expand Highway 1. This is a staggering amount of money, especially given that highway expansion does not reduce traffic. One of Strong Towns’ primary objectives is to end highway expansion, and all of the destruction that it causes. As highways grow, a process known as induced demand encourages more residents to move further from the city centre and commute by car. Once they get to the city centre, however, they face the same bottlenecks of traffic and lack of parking. This encourages cities to bulldoze buildings to make way for more parking lots and roads, until there is no room left for people to thrive. Again, all of this destruction comes with no reduction in traffic, and billions of dollars of cost to taxpayers.

To be fair to the NDP, this is not a typical highway expansion. One lane will be entirely dedicated to becoming a bus lane. Unlike cars, buses can reduce traffic by removing between 50 and 100 cars from the road per bus, and they also don’t require any parking spaces once they reach their destination. Even better than buses, the NDP are promising to connect the province by rail, including links between Metro Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton. Anyone who has been stuck on the Sea-to-Sky Highway watching their map turn solid red will know how sorely needed these rail links are.

The NDP deserve praise for their achievements improving public transit so far, and have presented an inspiring vision of a province connected by rail. Their record is tarnished only by the money they are wasting on highway expansion.

Safe and Productive Streets

BC Conservatives

As part of their promises on transportation, the Conservatives plan to support transit-oriented communities. This is a copy of the plan the NDP have already enacted, but the Conservatives go further and commit to including grocery stores, small businesses, and services within walking distance of these areas. This is a concept known as mixed-use development, and is one of the most undervalued strategies for building strong communities. Local businesses serve as a community hub for neighbours to connect. Local grocery stores allow children, the elderly, and those with mobility challenges to gain and maintain their independence for longer. Local services provide employment and help grow wealth which will stay in the community. We are big fans of the Conservatives’ commitment to mixed-use development.

The enemy of mixed-use, transit-oriented development is sprawl. When communities spread out, the number of customers available to a business owner is reduced, and local businesses close. More roads need to be built, which worsen traffic, and will cost far more to maintain than the property taxes the local residents can pay, and cause the city to go into debt. Sprawl also traps the 25% of Canadians without a driver’s licence in their homes. This is why the Conservatives’ plan to allow BC residents to spread into the Agricultural Land Reserve is disastrous policy.

Looking at road safety, we could not find any plans from the Conservatives to support cycling and micromobility, or addressing the deadly epidemic of road violence in the province.

The Conservatives have laudable commitments to strengthening mixed-use development, but undermine this promise through costly and destructive sprawl.

BC Greens

The BC Greens have long standing commitments to supporting mixed-use development and walkable neighbourhoods. They have also promised to expand cycling infrastructure and e-bike access. Unfortunately, we could not find any specific policies on their platform.

BC NDP

The NDP have already passed laws to support transit-oriented development, and offered rebates on e-bikes. Going forward, they are offering $10 million in funding for complete communities through Clean BC. In addition, they are committing to crack down on speeding, which will save lives and help address the deadly epidemic of road violence.

Local Governance

BC Conservatives

The Conservatives are promising to remove the policies introduced by the BC NDP which upzoned every city in the province to allow multifamily housing. While this policy is very effective at tackling the housing crisis, the provincial government did need to overrule cities to achieve this. The Conservatives are promising to work with cities to change their zoning, which does allow stronger local governance. This is somewhat countered, however, by their promise to overrule municipalities on issuing building permits which exceed their deadlines.

Overall, the Conservatives would move in the direction of stronger local governance.

BC Greens

The Greens are looking to diversify revenue sources for cities by giving them grants and sharing the revenue from carbon pricing. This could help to change the incentives, and accelerate housing affordability. In BC, most cities receive almost all of their revenue from property taxes. This gives the city a strong incentive to allow property taxes to increase every year. Conversely, if house prices were to fall, it could cause a funding crisis for cities. By giving cities diversified revenue streams, they would allow mayors to have the financial freedom to end the housing crisis.

City financing is an overlooked but important topic, and the Greens are the only party working to address this problem.

BC NDP

Vancouver has been at the forefront of the housing crisis for a long time. Ideally, the mayor would be able to step in and address this issue with a local-first approach. Unfortunately, successive mayors have failed to take action, and the issue of housing affordability has become truly province-wide. With this in mind, the BC NDP overruled municipalities on zoning, and took the bold action needed to tackle the housing crisis.

While we support the NDP’s housing policy for many reasons, we do have to flag the erosion of local governance that this has caused.