We the signed residents of British Columbia, call upon the Province of B.C. to repeal (or amend) BC Bill-44 (2023), in order to restore public hearings and municipal powers over zoning, which are being taken away by the bill.
We do so, because Bill 44 is:
1. Anti-democratic to the core.
2. It will have devastating and perhaps irreversible results to communities across the province.
3. Denying public hearings and making a vast province-wide land/power grab over local zoning in the interests of profits for the construction/real estate industries and their lobby is absolutely bad governance and unacceptable.
If the current government wishes to maintain any confidence of the people of British Columbia, whose previous democratic ability to shape their communities, has been completely undermined by this legislation it will accept that this was a hastily made decision and do the right thing by fully repealing this Bill. The public is only just beginning to realize its full dire implications for their communities. They will not be forgiving by the time they fully awaken to it.
4. No First Nations consultation took place. Bill 44 represents the largest handover of First Nations lands for construction in perhaps the entire history of British Columbia, making it perhaps the most brazen colonial enactment against First Nations interests in B.C. in the 21st century.
5. No consultation from the public of British Columbia took place regarding Bill 44 prior to it hurriedly being rammed through without possibility of adequate discussion/debate through undemocratically invoking a closure clause.
6. A surefire way of devastating urban forests and urban ecology by overriding local environmental protections through unilaterally expanded building envelopes.
7. The episode around Bill 44 has many of the familiar hallmarks that were seen in the fiasco involving the planned government sell-off of the greenbelt for development in the Province of Ontario.
8. Blanket rezoning/upzoning/pre-zoning, while ignoring the reality on the ground and years of local planning, is a surefire disaster and will be an example for generations to come of what not do with planning. To call this planning however, is far too generous. It is the forced abolition of planning. Its result is the effective liquidation of local area planning.
9. Is a vast and costly handover of unrequited land-value to developers and speculators without corresponding defense and protection of public interests. The public will be left to foot the massive bill due to increased infrastructure costs, which will result in exorbitant, if not extortionary tax and utilities increases.
10. Will lead to land-lift and gentrification, which will not make housing more affordable across the province, but on the contrary likely lead to many residents and tenants being squeezed out of their homes through higher costs and redevelopment.
11. Effectively represents the undemocratic capture of local government autonomy by higher levels of government.
12. Involves serious ethical conflict of interest issues that can be considered to amount to state and/or regulatory capture by powerful interests from the construction and real estate industries.
The vast majority of the Housing Needs Reports across the province, which create mandatory housing targets according to the Bill, were created by Urban Systems Ltd. through their subsidiary Urban Matters (CCC). Urban Systems is a paying member of the Urban Development Institute (UDI) construction and real estate lobby.
Many branches of the Government of BC, including crown corporations, statutory entities, regional and local governments are paying members of the UDI, often having joined without votes to do so by elected officials.
The UDI lobby, which has lobbied the province extensively, while simultaneously advising it on the generation and implementation of policy on numerous government committees, offers representation, advocacy and lobbying on behalf of hundreds of private companies that profit from construction and real estate that are its paying members.
The UDI has been hiding its members directory from public view ever since late November 2023, at the time BC Bill 44 was in the process of being hurriedly forced through by the invoking of a closure clause. Yet despite hiding its members directory from the public, the UDI still asks for new government memberships on their website.
The UDI has regularly lobbied the government for more increased density/upzoning, construction, and the deregulation of local government zoning.
They have also lobbied the government against the interests of the public, to curtail public democratic input at the local level when it comes to zoning. The government has complied in Bill 44.
The BC Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists, in Registration 59 of 69: 2023-05-04 to 2023-06-01 shows that the UDI had lobbied for the following in the BC Lobbyists Registry: ”
“Seeking changes to limit municipal public hearings for rezoning applications consistent with Official Community Plans or local plans.”
The following text is quoted from BC Bill-44:
“5. Section 464 is amended.
[…]
(c) by adding the following subsection:
(3) A local government must not hold a public hearing on a proposed zoning bylaw if
(a) an official community plan is in effect for the area that is subject to the zoning
bylaw,
(b) the bylaw is consistent with the official community plan
(c) the sole purpose of the bylaw is to permit a development that is, in whole or in part,
a residential development, and
(d) the residential component of the development accounts for at least half of the gross floor area of all buildings and other structures proposed as part of the development.
6. Section 464 is amended by adding the following subsection:
(4) A local government must not hold a public hearing on a zoning bylaw proposed for the sole purpose of complying with section 481.3 [zoning bylaws and small-scale multi-family housing].
7. Section 467 (1) is repealed and the following substituted:
If a local government decides not to hold, or is prohibited from holding, a public hearing referred to in section 464 (2) or (3) [public hearing not required, or prohibited from certain zoning bylaws] on a proposed zoning bylaw, it must give notice in accordance with this section.”
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Conclusion:
In the interests of the critical preservation of local democracy and good local (publicly informed) governance, we the signed make clear that it is crucial that the Province of B.C. repeal (or amend) Bill 44 at once, to restore public hearings and local autonomy over zoning, before it is too late to restore the inevitable damage over much of the province that will be wrought by the reckless, impulsive, poorly thought-out, radical deregulation and provincial government overreach presented in this Bill.
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Note: This petition is solely for residents of the Province of British Columbia, Canada
Please share the petition!
For more information: Please contact BCPetition@mail.com
Resources:
Les Leyne: Public hearings curbed in housing bill
The new website of the Urban Development Institute (UDI)
New BC Legislation Will Override Cities, Allow 6 Units Per Lot (storeys.com)