More homes on the market, help for first-time buyers, protection for renters, and more family doctors. Those are some of the pledges the BC government made yesterday as the final session of the 42nd Parliament opened with the throne speech delivered by Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin.

The speech—which was delayed temporarily by protestors on the legislature lawn calling for a ceasefire to the conflict in Gaza—laid out what the governing NDP has done and what it plans to do over the nine months before this fall’s provincial election.

Top of its list was housing support, where the government, through Austin, said new laws restricting short-term rentals resulted in a record-setting 19K new rental homes registered last year—a 30% increase from the year before.

“Taken together, experts predict these changes will deliver hundreds of thousands of new homes in the next 10 years,” Austin said. The next step, she said, is to leverage government land and grant programs to bring down construction costs to make middle-class housing projects more viable through its BC Builds program. “These homes will also be built faster, with more efficient provincial and local government approvals, and they will be income tested, designed for the middle-class people who keep our communities working, so they can live close to where they work.”

Housing minister: Need a better way

Following the speech, when asked about how some developers have been using inflation and rising construction costs to back out of delivering promised affordable housing units, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon acknowledged interest rates have become a challenge with many housing developments across the province.

“I've also heard municipalities say we've approved projects that have been sitting there for eight years and they haven't been built. And so I am going to work with UBCM (Union of British Columbia Municipalities) and our partners to say there's got to be a better way.”

For those confined to the rental market, Austin said the government will have their back. “Action will be taken to protect renters from bad-faith evictions.” 

Khalon said renovictions are still an issue in BC, particularly with seniors. “So we need to make sure we find a balance between having the ability for a homeowner to have a loved one coming to their place when they need it, but also ensure that the rules that are there for the right reasons are not being abused,” Kahlon said. “And so legislation will be coming forward to help strengthen that.” 

Federal government delivers $2B for housing

Earlier in the day, the federal government announced it had matched BC’s housing commitment of $2 billion for its BC Builds program, which aims to put housing within the reach of middle-class residents. All BC Builds projects have a target of middle-income households spending no more than 30% of their income on rent. Reflected in this initiative was the throne speech promise “to help more first-time homeowners get on the ownership ladder as we dramatically increase the housing supply.”

Delivered two days ahead of Thursday’s provincial budget, the throne speech also touched on strengthening health-care service “by continuing to attract more family doctors while investing new resources into cancer care and long-term care for seniors.” 

The government said under its leadership, 700 additional doctors began practising medicine in the province last year and that 74K mostly private-sector jobs were created.

Through the speech it also pledged to protect the province from climate emergencies with year-round wildfire-fighting resources and to clamp down on big-industry pollution. 

Children and the internet

It also promised legislation to combat cases of sextortion, such as the one that led to the suicide of 15-year-old Amanda Todd in 2012. “That's why a new suite of concrete actions was launched last month to protect young people from online threats, restrict cellphones in schools, and hold big social media corporations to account.”

Though few details were provided, the speech also promised new legislation to protect children and schools from disruptive protests. 

‍Watch the full speech here. 

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