British Columbia Premier David Eby is expected to announce his government’s plans to take on the housing affordability crisis today.
It’s one of the issues Eby said he planned to tackle just moments after he was sworn in on Friday. The provincial leader is expected to release details of his plan at 10:30 a.m. PT.
CBC British Columbia will livestream the event.
Eby, who was housing minister before running for premier, released a housing plan during his leadership campaign aimed at addressing affordability, targeting speculators and protecting renters.
His proposed plan would fast-track affordable housing by speeding approvals, use government land for some projects, make all secondary suites across the province legal and allow homebuilders to replace a single-family house with up to three units on the same lot.
According to Statistics Canada data published in September, B.C. is leading the country when it comes to costly housing.
The data gathered from the 2021 census said B.C. ranks as the most unaffordable province for housing in Canada, due largely to the number of people paying high rents to live in downtown Vancouver.
Eby said on Friday that he planned to “hit the ground running” and announced two one-time payments for residents, to help mitigate inflation pressures for residents.
On Sunday, he announced a new public safety plan to increase enforcement on repeat violent offenders and expand mental-health crisis response teams.