The West Coast Affordable Housing Conference in Tofino

Last weekend, I attended a housing affordability conference in Tofino organized by the Planning Institute's North Vancouver Island Chapter. I signed up for several reasons: I hadn't been to Tofino for 25 years. The last time was when my wife Sally chartered a bus and organized a surprise 50th Birthday Party for me and fifty friends at the Wickaninnish Inn shortly after it opened. A memorable event, despite the rain.

I was also keen to hear about recent affordable housing initiatives on the Island and meet younger planners interested in affordable housing. It's now 51 years since I joined CMHC at a time when there was a lot of money available to build public housing and innovative non-profit and coop projects (and I never tire of talking about 'the old days'. I look forward to the return of some of these programs including Section 15.1 and 34.18 of the National Housing Act which funded many of the projects built around the province. 

I also like to promote the opportunities for modular construction in smaller communities around BC. like the modular housing I helped design and develop in Chase and Keremeos. 

The conference program included a presentation by Ian Scott - Interim Executive Director, Tofino Housing on Tofino's severe shortage of affordable housing and the role of the Tofino Housing Corporation. Many property owners are adding RVs and trailers on their properties to help meet this demand. Planners and municipal officials are inclined to take a relaxed attitude to this, given the severe need. (I could not help but compare this to the situation in Vancouver where tent cities are appearing along Hastings and surrounding streets.)

Sadly, I suspect it takes a few fires and deaths before administrations take more affirmative action to address the problem.

On a positive note, we heard about the housing corporation's success creating affordable housing projects. I was interested to hear that rather than develop and build the housing itself, the corporation has been partnering with Catalyst Community Developments Society https://catalystcommdev.org/, a non-profit entity with considerable housing development experience. This is an idea that could work well in other smaller communities. And larger communities for that matter.

This was followed by a Local Housing Panel including Vancouver architect Bruce Haden - Principal, Human Studio, Chris Bozman - a local builder, and Ian Scott. It was moderated by Bruce Greig- Director of Community Planning for the nearby District of Ucluelet. I was disappointed to hear how the success of projects was so often tied to which local politicians were in power. Many politicians put the unfounded fears of residents ahead of the need for affordable housing.

Another session looked at legal aspects related to affordable housing including Housing Agreements. The presenter was Guy Patterson - Partner, Young Anderson, a law firm that specializes in providing legal services to local governments. His talk examined how legal agreements can be written to ensure that affordable housing remains affordable over time. 

He also discussed the implications of the new provincial Housing Supply Act requiring municipalities to approve new projects or else. His best line: "Build it or they will come".

As someone who often negotiates such agreements on behalf of a developer, it was interesting to be one of only four or five real estate consultants/developers in a room of public sector planners discussing housing agreements.

The afternoon session included presentations by Vancouver Island University master planning students Courtenay Miller, Alisha Feser, and Alicia McLean. Each was quite inspiring, especially Ms. McLean's impressive development approvals toolkit. I urged her to present it to UDI and UBCM officials so that she could compare the attitudes of planners, developers, and government officials in terms of what needs to be done to improve municipal approval procedures.

The Final Session - featured two speakers from CMHC-Cleo Corbett - Senior Specialist, Government Relations, and Elizabeth Tang -Specialist, Outreach and Project Development. It was gratifying to see CMHC getting back into the funding of affordable housing. Sadly, no one from the province was in attendance.

On the Saturday morning, there was a housing tour that featured some colourful staff housing which was developed along with a new hotel development. We also visited informal 'temporary' RV and mobile home communities. 

There's nothing like seeing a burned-out mobile home to appreciate why some fire safety regulations should be enforced, especially since there's oftentimes nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.

No trip to Tofino would be complete without some good seafood. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed at the Tofino Resort and Marina https://tofinoresortandmarina.com/ where the conference was held. But we did enjoy some good meals at The Shed https://www.shedtofino.com/ and Wolf in the Fog.

Vancouver Island oysters

The Cedar Sour - Cedar infused rye, lemon, thyme and egg white

A lot of tuna and seaweed is served in Tofino

Potato crusted smoked oysters with apple puree and truffle oil, and seaweed salad with mushroom, puffed rice, daikon, sesame mayo, miso chili oil and added tuna sashimi. 

The bar in the Wolf in Fog is most impressive

If you haven't recently been to Tofino, or nearby Ucluelet I can highly recommend a trip. If you have an electric car there are charging facilities, but don't expect your Tesla cruise control or full self-driving features to work for part of the trip when there is no Wi-Fi or cellular service. Hopefully, improved service can be provided in the not-too-distant future since it is a bit unnerving for some of us who like to be connected to be out of communication for such a long time. After all, the road is still a bit rough in places and many of today's cars do not have a spare tire!

This photo does not do justice the magnificent views along the west coast of Vancouver Island