I don’t usually look to Victoria for inspiration. But I was heartened one morning this week when a news report talked about B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong wanting to get information that would support or toss out the notion that foreign ownership is a key factor in the Vancouver housing crisis. We use the word crisis too often, I’m sure, but when a decrepit little house on a small lot in West Vancouver goes on the market for $2.4 million, surely younger working people in the Lower Mainland are facing a crisis. How to afford living in the city of their choice when the cost of housing has skyrocketed beyond the means of the average Jill and Joe?
Last week I was chatting with a friend about that exact situation and my input was pretty much restricted to, “We need to have a conversation.” By conversation I meant a public debate in which adequate information is gathered in an effort to determine just why Vancouver has become one of the most expensive places on the planet to buy property.
We hear stories about foreign ownership, of non-residents buying property as investments — either in the hope of financial gain or for a place to live in the future — but is that the only factor? Simply put, we don’t know. That I would describe a finance minister’s conviction that we need more information as heartening is a sad reflection on the state of provincial politics. The (decidedly not) British Columbia Liberal Party likes to boast about its commitment to consultation, but the record would indicate otherwise.
I like when efforts are made to include everyone with any interest on a topic. We had it in the last decade when an alternative to our “first past the post” electoral system was being reconsidered. A citizens’ panel was drawn from all walks of life and given direction to hear from experts and to travel the province to hear from anyone who had an opinion. While the end of the process was certainly flawed (but who didn’t enjoy the irony of a referendum requiring 60 per cent of voter support to change a system that routinely elects MLAs who get only 40 per cent of the votes?) the conversations that went on in the run-up to the vote included everyone who had an interest on the subject.
If de Jong’s statement leads to that kind of discussion — even though it is unlikely it will lead to a formal vote — I think he is doing the province a great service. Gather information, get the conversation going, and voters can decide which party offers the best approach to the problem.
Of course, de Jong, Premier Christie Clark and other members of the ruling Liberals didn’t have quite the same enthusiasm for engaging the public in the decision to go ahead with Site C dam construction in the Peace River area. There was a lot of information about the proposal, which has been floating around for decades, but the $8.3 billion project was pushed ahead last year without anywhere near the public engagement that should be routine for such a massive investment. Put aside the cost and consider the elimination of a huge swath of productive agricultural land and the project doesn’t sound quite so appealing. Factor in the lack of evidence that we need to be generating power on such an enormous scale, or that the costs simply don’t make the hydroelectric dam a good financial deal, and there is plenty of room around which to have a public discussion.
It’s one thing for governments to want to get people working and to make long-term investments in infrastructure. It’s entirely different though, when public engagement is tossed aside in the interests of the agenda of a small cadre of political insiders. For all we know, the premier really wants to leave a legacy that will have future citizens using her name in the same breath as the say W.A.C. Bennett.
I think it’s more likely that it will end up being referred to as the Damn Christie Clark Dam. But I could be wrong though, because people who have more knowledge and insight, and those who are directly affected by the flooding of such a huge swath of valuable land, weren’t asked to the table.
So let’s have a discussion about why housing on the Lower Mainland is not affordable to the working class. And it still isn’t too late to have one about Site C, even though stopping the project would be expensive. We will never really know, though, if the people in power don’t want to listen.
Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.
