The Broadway and Birch Fiasco. It's time for a Forensic Audit.

I read this week that Jameson's Broadway & Birch project is now a court-ordered sale. I opposed that development back in 2020 when I learned about it from a SFU professor who lived near the property. From day one, I had several concerns. For one thing, There is no doubt that we need to allow higher densities to achieve greater affordability. But when is big too big? Some will argue that FSR is just a number. It’s meaningless. I disagree. It is a measure of a building relative to its surroundings and while some argue one building may not destroy the neighbourhood, a row of similar scale buildings might. That’s why I would like to see an overall study completed for the Broadway corridor before allowing such dramatic FSR and height increases. 

So why did I oppose it? Because at 10.28 FSR it was more than 3 times the allowable FSR at the time, and was being proposed in advance of the Broadway Plan.

But also, I thought the below market family units that justified this excessive FSR were not very livable, especially for lower-income households with children for whom they were intended. Here are just a few examples.

I once worked with someone who said his four least favourite words were "I told you so." That's how I feel about this project and so many more recently approved projects that are completely out of scale with their context and offering very little livability for those in greatest housing need.

While th developer did not seem to care whether the suites were livable or not, as long as the governments were willing to fund the project, recently it become known that this project was not working as  a rental housing development, and was supposedly going to be sold to an entity planning a hotel for aboriginal visitors to the nearby Vancouver General Hospital. An appraisal was used to justify a much higher value and sales price. But fortunately, the sale fell through. Now the project is a court-ordered sale, and I can't say I feel sorry for the developer one bit. Indeed, if anything I feel a certain schadenfreude. They wasted a lot of public money.

"Pulling an Eby" October 24, 2026

 As reported by National Post columnist Adam Pankratz, "A new word entered the political lexicon of British Columbia Saturday night: “to Eby.” 

Sadly for its namesake — outgoing premier David Eby — it is not an auspicious word. It means massive self-inflicted failure due to a colossal and hubristic miscalculation. Indeed, the scale and magnitude of Eby’s misreading of the B.C. electorate in calling his early snap election cannot be understated and it may well be the greatest political blunder in Canadian history. The resultant electoral rout will be studied and referenced for decades as a stunning backfire and cautionary tale of what can happen when a politician loses sight of the people and makes decisions for their own political benefit."

Adam is spot on in his assessment. Eby called this election, in the middle of the municipal elections, because he thought the opposition was in disarray and he could improve the NDP's standing. Kerry-Lynne Findlay had won the Conservative Leadership Race and immediately alienated much of the party. Three other parties had been formed, Centre BC; another led by Peter Milobar who had lost to Findlay; and One BC, a very right wing party led by Dallas Brodie. So Eby called the election claiming it was to fight Trump and no one believed him. So soon he changed his tune and said it was to increase the party's narrow majority. This time people believed him but were disgusted and it showed last night when the Conservatives routed the NDP. 

In years gone by, I liked Eby and even donated to one of his early campaigns. But as I watched John Horgan's $5 billion surplus dissipate into a $13.4 billion deficit, and the NDP announce increases to its Speculation and Vacancy Tax and Additional School Tax (AST), both of which were seriously harming the development community; and cancel badly needed seniors facilities and funding for community housing; and then announce an Empty Condo Tax to stop developers from HOARDING unsold condos, I desperately wanted to see him go. 

Last night Eby won his seat, but resigned in disgrace as leader since his party went from approximately 46 seats to 27 seats. 

Now the question is what NDP policies will the Conservatives change. They have already announced they are going to switch the proposed tunnel under the Fraser back to a bridge. They also promised to repeal Bill 44, the Small Scale Multi-Unit Housing Program that absurdly allows multiplexes on every single-family lot in the province in communities of 5,000 or more. Now the question is whether he'll repeal Bills 43 (which sets municipal housing targets without any regard to availability of services or market conditions) and 47 the Transit-Oriented Area legislation which sets MINIMUM heights and densities, or modify them. I am hoping he will also revisit the Speculation and Vacancy Tax and Additional School Tax and make amendments so that they are less harmful.

For those who don't know about the AST, it was introduced as a tax on luxury homes and severely impacts the Westside of Vancouver and West Vancouver. Notwithstanding its name, the revenue doesn't go towards the funding of schools. It just goes into general revenues. Moreover, while most people think it just taxes luxury houses, it also applies to residential development sites awaiting approvals and a start of construction. It's terribly ill-conceived and should either be repealed or seriously amended.

Time will tell. It will also tell whether we have elected a party of anti-vaxer rascists, as many on Facebook fear, or just some people with a lot of common sense who are committed to getting the economy back on track. Let's hope it's the latter.

The Additional School Tax. A little known impact on affordable housing

 

I spent two days this week at the BC Assessment Office on Robson Street appealing the application of the Additional School Tax on a West Vancouver property for which I have served as a planning and development consultant since 2021. While most people know this tax as the 'Luxury Tax' imposed on homes worth more than $3 million in 2018, what few people know is it also applies to residential development sites awaiting a start of construction.  You can find some details below: 

Since a decsion has not yet been released on my appeal, I prefer not to discuss the details any further. But as someone familiar with the Property Assessment Appeal Board wrote to me after reading the BC Assessment lawyer's 64 page submission " Look what poorly written legislation begets. A ton of stated cases with various interpretations." 

Hopefully after the decision on my case is released, the government, along with appraisers, lawyers, UDI, and others in the development community who are being seriously harmed by the tax can work together and improve the legislation. In the meantime, in addition to having an Empty Condo Tax, we will be stuck with a confusing, unfair and totally ill-conceived Empty Development Site Tax. And it will be increasing 50% on January 1, 2027.

David Eby's Empty Condo Tax

Although it has been a couple of months since I last wrote an entry on this blog, I am so upset with David Eby I just had to write.

In recent years, governments have tried to create affordable housing by introducing various taxes, as illustrated above. As a former BC Finance Minister once said to me, taxing for housing affordability is like bombing for peace. He's right.

On September 25th, I received a message from Stephen Chang, a CKNW story producer for the Jas Johal Show. He wanted to know if I had heard about David Eby's latest housing tax, an Empty Condo Tax. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't that long ago Eby wanted to convert unsold condos into Rent-to-Own units. It was completely ill-conceived. I did speak with Housing Minister Christine Boyle's Chief of Staff and shared information with him that I hoped would kill the idea. It might have.

But Stephen wanted me to know that Eby wanted to now tax these empty condos THAT WERE BEING HOARDED BY DEVELOPERS. Would I come on the show and talk about it. So I drove down from Furry Creek where I had been spending the day and connected with Jas around 4:30. 

I had to admit that it was probably great politics since I have learned over the years that the public loves empty home taxes, whether issued by Vancouver, a province like BC or Ontario, or even the federal government which once introduced an Unused Housing Tax. Fortunately, the government soon realized this was unecessary and cancelled the program.

However, I also shared with Jas some of the reasons why I opposed this tax, and the other empty home taxes - the provincial Speculation and Vacancy Tax, and he Vancouver Empty Home Tax. They always have unintended consequences. In the case of the SVT and EHT, they significantly reduce housing demand from those wanting second homes. When they apply to unsold inventory they also discourage supply and add to cost. 

I could go on but there are a few things Eby needs to be told. First, the developers are not HOARDING these units. They just can't sell them. Yes, they would sell if the price was reduced, but developers are not always at liberty to reduce prices. They are obligated to sell for a price agreed to with the lender, and if they are sold at a discount below that price, the lender can ask the developer to inject more equity. I suspect Eby has no understanding of this.

There are other reasons. Some of these units are in projects that are in receivership, or about to go into receivership. Therefore, it can take a while before the court-ordered sale can be soreted out and the units can be sold. And yes, developers are reluctant to sell below cost. I know this from first hand experience.

This action, and many of Eby's other recent promises have angered me more than I have ever been angered by politicians before. In the past, I have been an NDP voter. I liked Eby when I was first introduced to him by Milton Wong. I even donated to one of his campaigns after a meeting at Darlene Marzari's home.

I was, and still am a great fan of Glen Clark. I liked John Horgan. But I am now hoping that this election will prove to be his undoing. Otherwise, expect our economy to futher deteriorate, along with housing development activity.