Opinion: David Eby's 100 first days of action are fast ticking away. Much of his agenda remains to be done before the 2024 election
VICTORIA — At the outset of the year, Premier David Eby set down the standard by which he expects the B.C. public to judge the accomplishments of his government.
“In those 18 months that our government has before the next election, my goal is that British Columbians are going to see changes on these issues that are priorities for them,” he told reporters. “I remain focused on delivering those results that people can see and feel and touch and experience in their lives.”
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Eby made the comment at the halfway mark of his 100 days of action, having identified the big four priorities in mandate letters to the cabinet. “Attainable and affordable housing. Safer communities. Improved health care. A sustainable, clean, secure and fair economy.”
Eby is already facing huge challenges in making speedy progress on that ambitious list of priorities.
To take just Item 1.
With housing becoming less affordable than ever, the premier announced a series of measures to try to reverse the trend.
He put $500 million into a rent protection fund so non-profits can buy up rental buildings and keep them out of the hands of “predatory investors.”
Implementation depends on establishing a B.C. Housing Protection Fund Society at arm’s length from government to identify and purchase the best prospects.
Eby predicted in mid-January that “the purchase of rental buildings could start as soon as within the next 60 to 90 days.”
I gather it is now expected to take longer to staff up the society and ensure it has the means to properly vet the possibilities.
One of the partners in the project estimates that the government’s half a billion dollars, fully leveraged by loans, will at most underwrite the purchase of 3,000 units.
The premier also announced “a one-stop shop for provincial permitting to speed up approvals for new homes, eliminating the need for multiple applications across multiple ministries.”
“You are right to be skeptical,” said Eby when I reminded him of earlier failures with like-minded exercises in government. “We have seen in the past governments try to do one-stop shops but they have been frustrated by internal silos within government.
“This is more than a single place to drop off your application. Our goal is an expedited process where information doesn’t have to be resubmitted, reconsidered and redetermined by multiple decision makers.”
The government will be “laying the ground work and implementing this broad reform” over the next 18 months.
In the interim, he hopes to cherry pick the most promising housing proposals and get those underway “in a period of months, not years.”
Eby also pledged to phase out SROs, the antiquated single-room-occupancy hotels that are “not fit for housing” and replace them with “dignified housing for people.”
He gave no time frame for the replacement, and no wonder.
There are some 7,000 people living in SROs, according to a recent piece by Ian Mulgrew of The Vancouver Sun.
“Many such buildings are at the end of their life and rancid,” he wrote.
The New Democrats are at the halfway point of their February 2018 promise to build 114,000 units of social housing over 10 years. To date, they’ve only completed about 15,000, though thousands of others are said to be in process.
B.C. Housing is the prime vehicle for delivering government-funded social housing and it is a troubled agency.
Eby fired the board last year and ordered a forensic audit which is still in progress. The CEO left last summer and the position has yet to be filled.
B.C. Housing has only been approving one in five applications for social housing support, owing to lack of funding, according to Eby.
Another program is B.C. Builds, a program to develop more housing for middle-income earners.
The premier recently appointed former Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps on a six-month contract to get B.C. Builds running in partnership with developers, non-profits and local governments to, as she puts it, “unleash the capacity of the home building sector in B.C.”
With the market cooling and shortages of workers and materials, it will take more than enthusiasm to get things moving.
The government also wants to recruit eight to 10 municipalities to expedite housing projects in exchange for provincial assistance in developing schools, community centres and other infrastructure.
No word on the search criteria or the schedule for naming them. And as the premier himself indicates, time’s a-wasting.
When the legislature convenes Monday, it will be Day 81 of his 100 days of action. By the time the budget is introduced on Feb. 28, the full 100 days will have expired.
The legislative agenda and budget are expected to map out how Eby will proceed on his four priorities between now and the election scheduled for Oct. 19, 2024.
Already it looks as if the 100 days of action was the easy part of the rollout.
One thing to stage announcement after announcement, especially when many were primed for him during John Horgan’s long goodbye as premier.
Much tougher to actually deliver results that “people can see and feel and touch and experience in their lives” as the premier put it.
vpalmer@postmedia.com