Affordable housing, parks tax requisitions will be part of Metro Vancouver budget talks
Credit to Author: Jennifer Saltman| Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2019 01:00:40 +0000
Metro Vancouver board members will consider requisitioning $8 million from the region’s taxpayers in next year’s budget to pay for affordable housing and the development and acquisition of regional parks.
However, some cautioned that while the two requests have merit, they must be considered in context of the overall budget and burden on taxpayers.
One tax requisition could bring in $4 million per year — at a cost of about $4 per household — and would allow the regional district’s non-profit housing corporation to partner with member municipalities to build housing on publicly owned vacant land, or be spent on existing Metro housing if no partners come forward.
New Westminster Mayor and Mayors’ Council chair Jonathan Coté said housing is a critical issue in the region, and while Metro Vancouver alone can’t solve it, he would like to see the good work that the corporation does continue.
“I think this finally puts us in a position to expand that role and find that important niche market where Metro Vancouver can contribute to finding solutions and more affordable housing across the region,” Coté said.
A staff report says the requisition could pay for at least 50 new units and house up to 150 people or so each year. The money could also be used to leverage provincial and federal contributions and build even more units.
Metro Board vice-chair and City of North Vancouver Mayor Linda Buchanan said even though her city doesn’t have the land to take advantage of a partnership with Metro Vancouver, she believes that the requisition would be good for the entire region.
“I think there is a real sense out in our communities that people are looking for Metro Vancouver to step up. It may not be a core mandate, per se, for local government, but in reality it is a partnership between all three levels of government,” Buchanan said.
Housing committee chair and Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley said most councillors and mayors in the region ran on platforms that involved affordable housing, and he sees the tax requisition as an opportunity to live up to their promises.
He urged the other directors to support the requisition during the budget process.
The second requisition is also for $4 million, or $4 per household, but would go into the regional parks land acquisition fund, to be used to buy more park land and develop the parks that already exist.
Metro’s regional parks system covers 13,557 hectares and includes parks, park reserves, ecological conservancy areas and greenways. The regional district has identified 1,286 hectares of land that it wants for expansion, and anticipates that would cost at least $482 million.
Anmore Mayor John McEwen, who chairs the regional parks committee, said parks are vital to the region’s health and livability, and said existing regional parks are already busy.
“I would strongly suggest that this land acquisition is vital for the region,” he said.
Although the initial idea is to increase the fund by $4 million for 2020, there is a proposal to increase the fund by another $4 million per year for the following four years, which would increase the total requisition from $7.57 million to $27.57 million per year by 2024.
The proposal would have to go through the budget process for each of those years.
“This is a great idea, but I do remind you that the motion talks about not just $4 million in this coming budget year, but $4 million annually, so it’s a compounding amount and we can’t see it in a vacuum. You have to see it in the context of the full budget,” said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said he supports the requisition to budget deliberations, but had a similar warning.
“I think we’re in for a rude awakening at budget as to whether or not we can afford all of these things,” he said.
Langley City Mayor Val van den Broek wondered whether the money could come from elsewhere to pay for regional parks, such as entry fees.
“I really, really think we need to stop downloading these tax burdens on to our taxpayers, because … it’s an accumulation and we keep getting hit, and hit, and hit, and I think people are tired of it,” she said.
The average cost per household for all Metro Vancouver services in 2019 was $534.
Budget deliberations will take place later this fall.