UBCM Convention Side Event: BC's Housing ACE Card

Top players from diverse fields will show their cards in a fast action round:

• Lisa Dominato, City of Vancouver Councillor & Metro Van Climate Committee Chair: Housing & Municipal Facility Integration & Low Carbon Building Innovation
• Tiffany Duzita, Community Land Trust ED: Critical Technologies, Tenures & Financial Templates
• Lisa Helps, Premier’s Advisor on Housing and former Victoria Mayor: Standardizing Building Design and Housing Acceleration
• Ken Kalesnikoff, CEO of BC’s largest mass timber manufacturer: Opportunities and Imperatives for BC Offsite Manufacturers
• Brenda Knights, BC Indigenous Housing Society CEO: Land, Housing, Economic Reconciliation & Stewardship
• Rocky Sethi, Developer and builder, former Adera Development COO: Accelerating Supply with Provincial & Local Policy Reform
• Surinderpal Rathor, City of Williams Lake Mayor: Human & Natural Resource Constraints: A Value Added OpportunityCome to the table! Tell us: what's the big deal in a municipal early adopter program?

Moderated by Alex Boston, ACE Project Director, former SFU Centre for Dialogue Fellow & Renewable Cities ED

Event Overview

This event aims to foster policy discourse on using strategically located, underutilized public land and zoning and permitting innovation to build a) housing supply and affordability and b) a pipeline of projects to grow offsite construction. It builds on a UBCM resolution by Courtenay, Quesnel and Vancouver calling for cross sectoral collaboration to create a robust provincial policy framework with an early adopter program to drive market transformation.

12:00pm - Check-In, Lunch, and Networking

12:30pm - Showtime!

Thank you to our sponsors!

Please contact info@zeic.ca if you would like to join these generous sponsors in supporting this event.

Land Acknowledgement

This event will be taking place on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. To the Nations who have stewarded and cared for these lands since time immemorial, we offer acknowledgement, gratitude and our commitment to ongoing learning and respect.

Context: Dealing an ACE Card on Affordability, Climate & Economy

While municipal permitting innovation is essential, the biggest constraint on housing supply is labour force constraints. B.C.’s construction labour force has peaked and almost 40,000 workers are projected to retire in 10 years.

BC will never meet supply and affordability targets without dramatically shifting to offsite construction. High tech, offsite manufacturing can accelerate construction times and improve productivity up to 50% and cut construction cost 20%. Offsite construction is the only way to scale net zero construction province-wide.

B.C. is home to an innovative offsite wood frame and mass timber manufacturing industry. This leadership has been driven by visionary entrepreneurs, talented professionals and tradespeople and public policy leadership. To move from innovation to market transformation, much more robust policy and practice is needed.

The single biggest barrier to scaling offsite construction is inadequate demand from project developers in private and public sectors. A strategic approach for growing demand is by building affordable housing on well-located and underutilized public lands.

Across B.C. communities, there are over 4,000 public land parcels: provincial, local and federal. At least 15%––over 600 sites––are near jobs, services and transit and have developable land to accommodate housing and complementary uses. If an average of 80 housing units are built per project, this could generate more than 50,000 units on land the public already owns.

If a large share of projects are dedicated to offsite construction, this creates a predictable pipeline to instill investor confidence in expanding manufacturing capacity, growing a new industrial sector with domestic and international market potential.

Provincial leadership is essential to drive this course correction. This transition will also require leading players across many sectors to collaboratively advance solutions and take early action: municipalities, federal agencies, developers, manufacturers, non-profits, coop and Indigenous housing organizations, big, small and Indigenous forestry operators, trades and professions, post-secondary institutions…

Municipalities can grow the project pipeline by pre-zoning land and pre-approving a suite of attractive offsite manufactured designs for builders and developers, expediting the permitting process.

Successful project delivery will require adaptation across many sectors: meaningful Indigenous engagement on crown lands, new skills and knowledge for professions and trades, diversifying housing tenures, strengthening fiscal and industrial policy tools...

Background Material

Download the UBCM Resolution: Affordable, Net Zero, Offsite Wood Housing Industrial Development