In a year-end interview with the Burnaby NOW, federal NDP Leader and local Burnaby South MP Jagmeet Singh said the feds should do more on housing and transit.
Federal land for affordable homes?
In December, Singh made the news after he criticized a development plan by the Liberals, which would see 20 per cent affordable housing built on public, federally owned land.
Singh said that wasn’t enough.
“The other 80 per cent could be anything,” he told the NOW. “That could be luxury condos; it could be places that are just expensive, that people can’t afford.”
He noted Lower Mainland rents run into the high $2,000s to even $3,000 for a one-bedroom apartment.
“That’s not affordable,” Singh said, describing that as “luxury in cost.”
But Singh wouldn’t call out the City of Burnaby for a similar development proposal for five highrise towers built on city-owned land, with an even lower percentage of units earmarked for below-market rates (14 per cent).
Singh said Burnaby has a “good track record” of investing in housing, including co-ops and shelters.
“I wouldn’t be able to apply the same critique to Burnaby that I applied to the federal government, because the federal government doesn’t have a track record of having done anything around affordability.”
“Most of what’s being built in a lot of major cities are these very expensive luxury condos, condos that are nice-looking but are not suitable for families, are not affordable.”
Market housing can help subsidize below-market rents, but Singh noted the federal government has much deeper pockets than a municipality, which can’t take out loans or run a deficit.
“The federal government doesn’t have any of those stipulations and can absolutely build purely affordable homes,” Singh said.
Singh suggested the federal Liberals and Conservatives shouldn’t leave the market solve the housing crisis.
“They’re pointing to this supply problem that we have, which we absolutely do, but what separates (the NDP) is that we are focused on building homes that people can actually afford,” Singh said.
“We need to incentivize building more homes, but we want to identify specifically purpose-built rental,” he said, as well as investing in non-profit housing such as co-ops.
Transit funding
Singh also said the federal government should chip in to support a Metro Vancouver transportation expansion plan.
TransLink’s Mayors’ Council went to Ottawa last year on a mission to lobby for federal money for Access For Everyone, which includes the Burnaby Mountain gondola project and the bus rapid transit line from the North Shore to Metrotown.
But the money hasn’t come yet.
Singh said he “100 per cent” supports the request for what he called a “shovel-ready project” with buy-in from multiple municipalities.
“They have initiatives that make so much sense, that 100 per cent would make cities more livable, would help in densification, would help with public transit, would help in so many ways,” he said of the TransLink plan.
He said the transit expansion plan includes “very reasonable requests” for a “huge population.”
“I one-hundred-per-cent support their ask,” Singh said.
“The federal government is just dragging their feet,” he said. “They’re not giving (the mayors) a clear answer; they’re not dedicating the funds that should be dedicated.”
The federal New Democrats are keeping the Liberals in power through a “supply and confidence” agreement that has the NDP vote in support of the Liberal government on confidence votes in return for support on key issues.
Singh said his party is “forcing the government to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do,” but he hedged on the amount of power the NDP holds.
“We’re using the leverage in a minority government. We do only have 25 seats, so I don’t want to overplay our strength.”
