Surrey mayoral candidate vows Empty Homes Tax, 1,000 new supportive units a year | Daily Hive

Surrey mayoral candidate proposes new municipal Empty Homes Tax, building 1,000 new supportive housing units per year

Mike Starchuk. (Imagine Surrey)

Surrey mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk wants to introduce a new municipal tax on homes left empty for much of the year, with the revenue dedicated to building new affordable housing projects within the city.

The Imagine Surrey party leader announced the proposal today, calling on the provincial government to commit to giving the City of Surrey the municipal authority to introduce a tax based on the City of Vancouver’s Empty Homes Tax (EHT).

Surrey’s municipal government cannot enact the measure on its own, whereas Vancouver’s municipal government received special taxing powers through changes to the provincial government’s Vancouver Charter legislation in 2016 and then subsequently introduced its EHT in 2017. The City of Surrey and other B.C. municipal governments are governed and regulated separately under the B.C. Local Government Act and the Community Charter.

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If elected in the civic election on Oct. 17, 2026, Starchuk says his party would pass a member motion within its first 100 days asking the provincial government to change that. The party would also preemptively prepare a bylaw so that the City of Surrey could quickly proceed once it receives authorization.

“I’m not asking the province for money. I’m asking for the same tool every mayor of Vancouver has had since 2016, and I’m asking every leader on the provincial ballot to answer in one word whether they will give Surrey that same power,” said Starchuk.

He is also seeking early commitments from provincial political parties and candidates ahead of the provincial general election on Oct. 24, 2026.

Under Imagine Surrey’s proposal, Surrey’s EHT would apply to homes left unoccupied for most of the year. Exemptions would cover principal residences, long-term rentals, homes undergoing renovations, and owners in care.

The party has not committed to a specific rate. Instead, Surrey City Council would set it, using the City of Vancouver’s annual levy of three per cent of assessed property value as a benchmark. If the City of Surrey adopted that same rate, a taxable vacant property assessed at $1 million would face an annual bill of $30,000.

Imagine Surrey asserts that landlords actively trying to find tenants are not the intended targets. The aim is to encourage owners to make unused homes available for people to live in, while raising new revenue to fund new affordable housing projects from properties that remain empty.

The City of Vancouver’s experience with the EHT forms a central part of Imagine Surrey’s case for introducing a similar tax in their jurisdiction.

The 2025 EHT annual report by Vancouver’s municipal government identified 979 vacant properties for the 2024 tax year, representing a decline of about 67 per cent from 2017. It also reported that $194.3 million in tax revenue had been allocated to new affordable housing initiatives since the tax began. However, the report acknowledges that the EHT’s effect is difficult to isolate from other variables affecting the housing market, such as immigration, construction costs, and the cost of homeownership.

Both Vancouver and Surrey are already covered by the provincial government’s separate Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT). Last week, BC NDP leader David Eby made an early campaign promise, announcing that if re-elected, his party would introduce a new tax on developers and their unsold newly-built strata market ownership condominiums and further increase the SVT rate — from one per cent to two per cent for domestic owners subject to the tax, and five per cent for foreign owners.

The proposed Surrey EHT would be an additional measure, as Vancouver’s is, with Surrey’s municipal government controlling the use of the revenue raised.

While seeking new powers for the City of Surrey’s own EHT, Starchuk wants annual reporting showing both how much the provincial SVT collects from Surrey homeowners and what it funds within the municipality’s geographical boundaries.

The proposal comes as more homes are available for rent across Metro Vancouver, driven by slowing population growth due to the federal government’s immigration target changes, sluggish economic growth, and the recent wave of completions in new secured purpose-built rental housing. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported a 3.7 per cent vacancy rate for Metro Vancouver’s secured purpose-built rental apartments in 2025, which is the highest vacancy rate the region has seen since 1988.

City of Surrey would provide partial application fee refunds for permitting delays

The new EHT is part of a wider Imagine Surrey housing platform that would also attach financial consequences to slow municipal approvals.

Residential building permit applications would have a 180-day deadline for a decision. After that, applicants would receive 25 per cent of their fee back for each week of delay, reaching a full refund after four weeks.

Renovations, secondary suites, home businesses, and minor improvements would have a shorter, 60-day deadline with the same refund guarantee. Rezoning and development permit applications would face a separate 180-day deadline, with fee discounts when the City misses it.

To help homeowners and smaller builders, the party also proposes pre-approved designs for laneway homes and secondary suites, along with a dedicated desk to help applicants through the permit process.

Within its first year, a City Council led by Imagine Surrey would publish an inventory of City-owned land for new affordable housing projects and offer select sites to non-profit organizations, co-operatives, and Indigenous housing providers.

Building an average of 1,000 supportive/complex-care homes per year in Surrey over four years

The platform also calls for incentives for developments that include below-market homes and a target averaging 1,000 supportive and complex-care homes annually over four years, working with BC Housing and Fraser Health Authority. These would be located near public transit services throughout Surrey.

That target would depend on partnerships and funding from other levels of government. The party says the City would contribute land, approvals, and business planning, while looking to the federal and provincial governments to provide funding to cover construction costs.

The proposal could also be welcomed by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party. They have repeatedly argued that Vancouver bears a highly disproportionate share of the Metro Vancouver region’s supportive housing. They say Vancouver accounts for about 25 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s population, but has more than 75 per cent of its supportive housing, with much of it concentrated within or near the Downtown Eastside. Sim has been calling for other municipal governments in Metro Vancouver to step up in enabling supportive and complex-care housing and other services within their communities.

Supportive housing and SROs have become a highly contentious issue amid reports of increased crime and public disorder around some locations.

Starchuk asserts mayoral candidates Brenda Locke, Doug McCallum, and Linda Annis have blocked affordable and supportive housing.

Other commitments by Imagine Surrey include supporting the B.C. Rent Bank, encouraging pet-friendly rental housing buildings in Surrey City Centre, and coordinating neighbourhood growth with Surrey’s school district to better align new housing with new permanent purpose-built classroom capacity. Over the decades, Surrey has increasingly become highly dependent on the use of years-long temporary portable structures to meet the demand of rapid student enrolment growth, driven by population growth.

Starchuk was a longtime firefighter, serving 32 years with Surrey Fire Services and retiring in 2024 as the City’s chief fire prevention officer. He first entered municipal office in 2014, when he was elected as a city councillor under the Surrey First party. He lost his seat in City Council in the 2018 civic election. He was subsequently elected in 2020 as the MLA for the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale under the BC NDP, but lost the seat in the 2024 provincial general election.

Imagine Surrey is running a full slate of eight candidates for City Council, entailing Narima Dela Cruz, Yousef Aldabainah-Barakat, Chandan Chahal, Perminder Chohan, Ashiyana Hanif, William Li, Margaret Mubanda, and Kevin Wilkie.

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