It is hoped that Premier David Eby and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, who have stellar backgrounds in human rights law and field hockey, have assembled the best and brightest minds, a diverse and objective team of experts, to guide a package of policies and legislation that — if passed — will introduce dramatic top-down changes to land use planning, municipal law, and local democratic processes in British Columbia.
On May 31, 2023, Mr. Kahlon announced what has become known as the “naughty list” of ten cities not doing enough to build new housing. The list was based on an “empirical index” developed “based on work with economists and experts in the field.” We had innocent questions in mind. Who are the experts? And can we see the actual numbers that identified/ranked “naughty” cities? It took five months, scores of e-mails, and an FOI inquiry, but at last, here they are, the list of experts (FOI response for file HSG-2023-31575). Presumably, the same experts were also closely involved in providing input on Bills 44, 46, and 47 in Legislature this month. (Stay tuned for a separate post discussing who’s on and not on the expert list. Related, see this post too: “It took 5 months, but B.C. Govt FOI response finally reveals the data behind the ’empirical index‘ “)
External Experts
Daniel Oleksiuk (Abundant Housing) *OBO Owen Brady
Thomas Davidoff (UBC)
Cassandra Smith (UDI)
Carmina Tupe (CHBA BC)
Peter Waldkirch (Abundant Housing)
Tamara and Jaida (Small Housing BC) *ODO Akua Shatz
Alex Hemmingway (CCPA)
Andrew Ramlo (Rennie)
Jens Von Bergman (Mountain Math)
Ron Rapp (HAVAN) *not original MO list
Acronyms and links (added by CityHallWatch): Abundant Housing Vancouver (AHV), University of British Columbia, Urban Development Institute (UDI), Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) B.C. Branch, Small Housing BC, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Rennie, Mountain Math, Homebuilders Association Vancouver (HAVAN).
For reference, here it the exact wording of our initial inquiry to the Housing Ministry on June 3, and again in the formal FOI information request of June 15.
We asked for:
“Names of the economists and experts in the field who worked with the government to develop the
empirical index used to identify municipalities according to multiple dimensions of housing need as
referred to in the 31-May-2023 media release related to the Housing Supply Act, entitled “Housing targets expected to deliver more homes faster, first communities selected”
(Media release referenced – https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023HOUS0059-000851)
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More background:
The B.C. Government is racing to pass three bills (44, 46 and 47) this month of November 2023 that if passed will reshape British Columbia forever — both in terms of the physical/built form of most municipalities in the province, and even in terms of local democratic processes. See our intro article here (If passed this month, these 3 B.C. bills will dramatically alter Vancouver and B.C. forever) and a fresh analysis Nov 12 by real estate commentator Steve Saretsky with more details on the impacts of Bill 47 which dramatically would upzone Metro Vancouver (Leaving a Mark). He considers the impacts of 12 storeys towers circling within 200 meters of the bus exchange in Steveston Village (Richmond).
On behalf of current and future generations, we wondered out loud how extensive and deep was the knowledge base guiding such monumental changes, and what were the actual ranking numbers in this empirical index that led to the “naughty cities” list. See our related posts:
We had started by writing the media contact for the Housing Minister, and got nowhere. The only way to obtain this information officially was under a formal inquiry based on B.C. Freedom of Information legislation. After scores of e-mails, a formal request and fees paid under FOI legislation, after five months, we finally got the information, on November 2. Here is the list of experts to FOI file HSG-2023-31575:
Image of response to Question 1 in FOI file HSG-2023-31575.
Below is the content of the whole responsive page. No explanation was provided. The persons at the bottom were apparently invited to the briefing indicated but did not attend.
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RELATED
B.C. government won’t release scores, rankings of 10 municipalities on the housing ‘naughty list’
Vancouver, Victoria and West Vancouver among municipalities ordered to boost housing supply (Bob Mackin, BIV, 10-Nov-2023): https://biv.com/article/2023/11/bc-government-wont-release-scores-rankings-10-municipalities-housing-naughty-list
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So much for transparency! The BC NDP and Ministry of Housing do not practice what they preach, nor do they consult municipal officials who are the housing experts. We are being frog marched down a path by a group with limited credibility. Time to turf these folks out of office due to their failure to consult.
Agree 1500%!! Any effort on solving the so-called “housing problem” should have begin with a dissection of the federal governments’ numbers (current and planned) on the influx of residents to Canada. Clear justifications should have been provided for every fact, assumption and conclusion behind these numbers. This is indeed a “transformitive” change and Canadians’ daily lives will never be the same again!!