The Editor:
I am opposed to the idea of the city creating the Burnaby Housing Authority (BHA).
The taxpayers of Burnaby should not be on the hook for 100 per cent of the cost of building affordable housing and managing them. The city is already contributing to the cause as in the case of $20.4 million in land value provided towards two non-market housing projects on 7388 Southwynde Ave. and 7730 Sixth St.
Another concern is the BHA proposed budget with $100 million over the years from 2024 to 2028, $2 million each year for operating expenses and $475,000 in 2024 for office rental and office equipment.
There are no "goals" outlined in the business plan on how many units will be built in the first, second and third year or how much money the BHA would require to purchase land and start a construction company from scratch.
Where would the skilled construction workers come from when the big developers themselves are having the same issue?
Another critical area of concern is the high interest cost of borrowing to construct any form of housing as can be witnessed across Canada as developers are now delaying any new construction.
This should be the responsibility of the provincial and federal governments to continue funding affordable housing.
While it is noble, the city should stay in its own lane and provide its growing population with amenities such as swimming pools, ice rinks, community centres, recreation centres, libraries and day to day services first and foremost.
ie. Cameron Community Centre and Library, Confederation Park Community Centre, Burnaby Lake Recreation Complex, Willingdon-Brentwood Community Centre, Bonsor Recreation Complex redevelopment, James Cowan Theatre redevelopment, Swangard Stadium renovation, Central Park Outdoor Pool rebuild, new Burnaby Animal Shelter, new RCMP headquarters and City Hall redevelopment
Since 2018, we still have not completed any of these above amenities and the closest one to completion is the Rosemary Brown Arena. This is already over budget at a current cost of $54 million and is still behind schedule by 2.5 years with an unknown completion date.
The plan by the city was to fund the BHA with the “Community Benefits Bonus Fund” from developers which the city expects to receive $150 million in 2024 and, in past years, $237.2 million (2023), $250.7 million (2022) and $341.7 million (2021). This is a staggering $979.6 million, just shy of $1 billion.
This fund is the bulk of the workhorse for amenities projects and will greatly impact any type of redevelopment and construction in the future.
With the BC NDP’s announcement of their new housing Bills 44, 46 & 47, this changes everything. The municipalities will no longer be able to dictate to the developers how tall they can build, so those funds will disappear.
So, how will the city fund the BHA when the same funds also cover the capital costs of all the other amenity projects?
The city had an estimated $2.4 billion in reserves at the end of 2023 ($2.6 billion is earmarked for capital projects on the financial plan).
The city will be in a deficit and would be unable to complete these projects without raising future property taxes for years to come.
We should not be led to believe that all the city’s capital projects will be completed without negatively impacting Burnaby taxpayers, which is extremely concerning.
- Heymann Yip, Burnaby
