Conservative government to roll back BC NDP's housing rules, give cities more control | Daily Hive

Conservative provincial government set to roll back BC NDP's housing legislation to give municipal governments more control

Lorne Doerkson. (John Lehmann/Conservative Party of British Columbia)

The incoming provincial government led by the Conservative Party of British Columbia is promising to hand decisions about neighbourhood density back to municipal governments, potentially reversing the central features of the outgoing BC NDP-led administration’s approach to increasing housing supply and improving affordability.

Premier-elect Lorne Doerkson wants municipal governments and residents to be able to decide where high-density residential uses belong, challenging the top-down legislated provincial requirements introduced by outgoing Premier David Eby.

Following Eby’s party leadership race commitments, the BC NDP introduced and passed key pieces of housing legislation, with the bulk of these policies and strategies rolled out in 2023.

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The Housing Supply Act, passed as Bill 43, enabled the provincial government to set five-year new housing completion targets for municipal governments and monitor their progress. If municipal governments fail to make sufficient progress, the provincial government can intervene, including ordering changes to municipal planning rules.

Bill 44, the legislation enabling small-scale, multi-unit housing, requires municipal governments to allow more housing in neighbourhoods previously restricted to single-family houses or duplexes — without the additional step of pursuing a rezoning application. Depending on the location, this includes secondary suites, laneway homes, three or four homes on eligible lots, and six homes on certain properties near frequent bus service.

Bill 46 provides municipal governments new ways to collect development fees for amenities such as community and recreational centres and libraries, with charges established upfront to make costs more predictable, as opposed to negotiation-based public benefits on a case-to-case basis with each project. It also expands existing infrastructure charges to cover facilities such as fire halls and police stations.

Bill 47 of designated legislated Transit Oriented Areas (TOAs) requires municipal governments to allow higher-density housing within 800 metres of designated SkyTrain stations and 400 metres of designated bus exchanges. Around SkyTrain stations, permitted heights generally range from 20 storeys closest to stations to 12 and eight storeys farther away. It also removes minimum residential parking requirements.

“Local governments aren’t a branch office of Victoria”

So far, since the election victory, Doerkson has publicly committed to specifically removing the housing targets established under Bill 43. These targets measure completed homes, with annual milestones, rather than simply counting units approved by municipal governments.

The premier-elect has also indicated that Bill 44 would, at minimum, be amended to give municipalities greater control over small-scale, multi-unit housing in traditionally low-density neighbourhoods.

In a June 2026 housing update, the provincial government reported that 97 per cent of municipal governments had adopted Bill 44 into their bylaws and policies. It also pointed to falling asking rents and increased rental construction as evidence that its broader housing agenda was producing results.

But municipal governments have argued that while they control the approval of housing project proposals, their ability to ensure developers begin and complete construction is limited. Projects also depend on factors far beyond municipal control, including weak market demand, slower population growth due to federal immigration changes, persistently high borrowing costs, high cost of construction labour, equipment, and materials, and economic uncertainty.

Over the last few years, many municipal governments across B.C. have reluctantly implemented the BC NDP’s housing requirements, arguing that they undermine local planning and residents’ input.

In his civic election platform, Green Party of Vancouver Mayor-elect Pete Fry committed to work with the provincial government on amending Bill 43’s housing targets for the City of Vancouver, given that it is not producing community amenities and that construction starts have slowed and migration patterns have changed, making the provincially imposed 2023 housing targets “impossible to meet.”

The legislation also prohibits public hearings for certain residential rezoning applications that largely align with municipal governments’ existing Official Community Plan (OCP), further limiting opportunities for residents to weigh in on individual projects.

Some residents have directed their frustration over these provincially mandated changes at their mayors and councillors. Opposition to higher-density housing became a point of contention in not only the provincial election, but also the civic election, which saw numerous mayoral and city councillor incumbents across Metro Vancouver lose their seats.

When asked today by Daily Hive Urbanized where Premier-elect Doerkson stands on the future of bills 43, 44, and 47, a spokesperson for the Conservative Party provided a statement, asserting that municipal governments are better suited to determine the best policies for such issues and that Doerkson will treat municipal governments as a partner.

“Local governments aren’t a branch office of Victoria. They’re the people who get the call when the water main breaks, when the shelter is full, and when the fire is coming over the ridge. For too long the relationship only ran one way: Victoria decided, and mayors and councils found out when everybody else did. Premier-designate Doerkson has been clear that a Conservative government will treat them as partners instead,” stated the spokesperson.

However, they made it clear that municipal governments would still be expected to enable overall new housing growth as a continued measure to address B.C.’s housing affordability and supply issues.

“But partnership runs both ways. Every community in this province needs to grow, and local governments will be held to the plans they’ve made for that growth. But where density goes, and what it looks like, should be decided in Terrace by people from Terrace and in Kelowna by people from Kelowna,” continued the spokesperson.

“British Columbians just elected a lot of new mayors and councillors, and the message to our municipal partners is simple: we’re on your side, and we’re ready to get to work with you.”

“It’s a movie we’ve already seen, and the first movie sucked”

The BC NDP argued the provincial government’s intervention was necessary to overcome highly restrictive municipal rules, speed up housing construction, and make better use of expensive public transit investments. Allowing more people to live near public transit hubs was also intended to improve access to employment and services without requiring a personal vehicle.

Any changes would also come after municipal governments have already spent considerable time and staffing resources to revise their bylaws and policies.

Ravi Kahlon, the outgoing BC NDP MLA for Delta North who oversaw the introduction of Eby’s legislation as the B.C. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs between December 2022 and July 2025, and decided not to seek re-election in the snap provincial election, said this new debate initiated by the Conservatives should centre on whether young people can afford to stay and raise families in their communities.

He said the policy changes implemented by the BC NDP were intended to give younger residents more options beyond condominiums, allowing them to live in established neighbourhoods with schools and other amenities. Achieving that requires allowing a wider variety of homes in areas where housing choices have traditionally been limited.

Kahlon expressed concern that the Conservatives would return to an approach that had already failed to provide enough affordable housing options.

“It’s a movie we’ve already seen, and the first movie sucked,” Kahlon told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview earlier this week.

He pointed to personal accounts from residents as examples of how the small-scale, multi-unit housing changes were helping. One person told him they had built a fourplex where they and their children could live, while friends described pooling their money to share a triplex.

For Kahlon, those experiences show how allowing more homes on existing residential properties can help families remain close and give people options to share housing costs.

He warned that young people would continue leaving B.C. if they could not afford to live here, and said the Conservatives should explain how their proposed changes would improve those prospects.

His questions for the incoming government were: “What is their housing policy trying to solve? How does repealing this actually help young people be able to stay in our communities?”

Other housing, infrastructure, and economic development promises made by the Conservatives

The Conservatives’ broader platform promises lower construction taxes and charges, faster housing approvals, and municipal zoning that matches OCPs. It also proposes overhauling the B.C. Step Code, simplifying the B.C. Building Code, preserving natural gas connections, restoring seniors’ property tax deferral terms, and providing tax credits for suites for senior relatives.

Metro Vancouver Regional District would become a smaller regional utility with a professional board, with other responsibilities returned to municipal governments. The regional government would be downsized to focus only on providing bulk drinking water, sewage treatment, and solid waste disposal services, as well as the regional parks.

The party also pledged funding partnerships for building new and improved community and recreation facilities.

Its economic agenda includes personal and business tax relief, permanently cancelling the BC NDP’s proposed PST expansion to professional services, temporarily exempting eligible business equipment from PST, and deferring PST on designated major construction projects until they begin operating. Other promises include firm approval deadlines, fewer regulatory requirements, a capital spending audit, broader competitive bidding, and expanded trades training.

The platform supports SkyTrain, bus rapid transit, bus, ferry, and HandyDART expansion where demand warrants it, while preventing TransLink from imposing a vehicle ownership or registration levy. Doerkson has also specifically committed to Surrey mayor-elect Doug McCallum’s promise of extending SkyTrain’s Expo Line along King George Boulevard from Surrey City Centre to Newton Town Centre.

Doerkson has also promised to pivot back to the original 10-lane George Massey Bridge project, abandoning the BC NDP’s eight-lane immersed tunnel project as a measure to greatly reduce costs and project risk.

The party will expand port and rail connections, and make improvements to BC Ferries’ service standards and accountability.

For agricultural land, the Conservatives propose remapping the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) using updated soil data, changing its governing rules, prioritizing farmworker housing, and allowing more farm-related business activities and limited agricultural tourism rentals. The natural resource promises include faster mining and forestry approvals, expanded natural gas and electricity production, supporting the new Pacific Link oil pipeline spearheaded by the Alberta and federal governments, and repealing CleanBC while retaining carbon pricing for large industrial emitters.

On First Nations reconciliation and land ownership, the party pledged to repeal the BC NDP’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) and related legal provisions, introduce legislation defending private property rights, disclose more information about Aboriginal title claims and agreements, and protect public access to Crown land.

It also committed to respecting constitutional Indigenous rights and consultation duties, honouring existing resource agreements, and pursuing reconciliation through treaties, revenue sharing, and Indigenous ownership and participation in projects.

As well, following Eby’s controversial decision to call a snap provincial election that overlaps with the civic elections across B.C., the Conservatives will implement legislation banning future election overlaps, with provincial and civic elections separated by at least 60 days.

With files from Amir Ali

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