Frustrated B.C. construction and development groups are urging the province’s housing minister to quit delaying what could be a cash windfall from Ottawa for local homeowners.

Eight organizations, including the B.C. Real Estate Association, the B.C. Construction Association and the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of B.C., have written to Housing Minister Christine Boyle expressing alarm at her inability to accept the federal government’s terms for billions in housing assistance that could save new homebuyers tens of thousands of dollars.

This comes after Prime Minister Mark Carney told Vancouver business leaders last week that he’d like the money to start flowing to British Columbia.

Carney said Ontario’s recent housing deal removes GST and HST from new homes and cuts development charges in half for three years. He said this reduces fees and taxes by as much as $200,000 in some markets, and those savings can be passed directly to homebuyers.

“So that’s material improvement and affordability, and what we’re looking to do is a structural change. We’re in early stages of discussion with the B.C. government around something similar,” he said.

The Ontario deal is worth more than $4 billion. It eliminates the provincial and federal sales tax on new homes worth up to $1 million, and provides funding for municipalities to bring down the price of housing by cutting development cost charges.

The goal, Carney has said, is to jumpstart the province’s stalled condo construction sector, while also delivering savings of more than $130,000 to people buying a new home.

“It tells the market, and it tells us, that the federal government is a willing and ready partner,” the coalition of organizations said in its new letter to Boyle.

“The constraint is not in Ottawa. The pace of progress rests with the province.”

The B.C. government wants the cash from Ottawa, but Boyle has already said she has different designs on how to spend it.

“We’ve been working closely with the federal government to create a made-in-B.C. program that works here that will make a difference for getting projects here unstuck, for delivering more homes,” Boyle said last month.

There is much speculation that the B.C. government is hoping the federal funding can be used to reverse its budget cuts of $1.4 billion in BC Housing’s Community Housing Fund. In effect, it could use the federal cash to bail itself out of its own budget crunch.

But taking federal funds earmarked for new middle-class homebuyers, and redirecting it towards subsidized low-income housing and shelter spaces is not what Ottawa had in mind.

Nor does the B.C. government appear to have the billions of dollars necessary to cost-match the federal government’s funding to reduce municipal development cost charges, as was done in Ontario.

“We know local governments rely on development charges to fund local infrastructure, and that local infrastructure is an important part of creating good communities for new residents, and so we’re pushing hard to make sure that that infrastructure funding is still available to invest in community as well reducing the cost of delivering housing,” said Boyle.

Whatever that means. It sounds like B.C. is worried that Ottawa’s move to reduce development cost charges could cause it to shut off other infrastructure funding sources. Though there’s been no evidence of that so far from the feds.

As B.C. dithers, the highrise condo sector that was once a driver of housing starts, continues a sharp decline.

“Every week that passes without a B.C. equivalent is another week that buyers in this province face a structural tax disadvantage relative to buyers in Ontario,” the eight business groups wrote in their letter.

“In an already weak market, that gap—and the uncertainty over whether it will persist—is suppressing pre-sales, stalling project financing, and freezing sales of homes that are ready for occupancy.”

The groups, which also include the Business Council of B.C., the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, the Urban Development Institute and LandlordBC, said in the absence of a fully negotiated deal, the province should be able to publicly commit to pursuing equivalent deals with Ontario on GST and development cost charges relief, as well as set a timeline on negotiations.

Sounds simple. Unless, that’s not really what B.C. wants.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 18 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for BIV. He hosts the weekly show Political Capital and has a NEW daily podcast, Political Capital Daily.

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