Provincial housing guidelines are coming up to a deadline and some cities are voicing defiance.
Politicians in West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Langley and Surrey have been suggesting that they will not necessarily be playing ball with housing mandates.
This display of opposition should be taken into context. Official Community Plans (OCPs) have been in place in these four cities since 2018, 2014, 2021 and 2014 respectively. Delta’s last OCP was implemented in 1985. This is a substantial gap and shows why Delta has catching up to do as a zoning laggard.
Some social media commentators applaud these four cities for standing up to the province and suggest that their opposition shows “spine” “guts” etc., and they lament why Delta should not be in this camp.
Whether or not any city attempts to vocally defy provincial governance is really a moot point. Local government does not have the power to override provincial jurisdiction, plain and simple. Annoyingly problematic for online commentators who decry that Delta officials are not listening to the public, nor are they respecting who voted them in, and lots of, shall we say, more colourful comments from various online philosopher kings.
Recently, and finally, the city of Surrey lost the battle in its bid to retain the RCMP as the local police force. Why Mayor Brenda Locke continues to disregard how government works is just weird. There is a difference between the political tough guy mentality and governmental naivety. The policing matter was recently decided by Supreme Court Justice Kevin Loo in a judgement that clearly puts civic government in its place. Municipal governors, staff and laptop political commentators need to remember who oversees municipal affairs.
In his judgement, Justice Loo reminded the city of Surrey and indeed all of us, elected officials, city staff or voters, that municipalities have no constitutional standing and are mere legal bodies established by provincial legislation.
He went on to say, “It is important to appreciate that in Canada’s political system, provincial legislatures have exclusive jurisdiction over municipalities and municipalities are thus entirely “creatures of statute.”
Good, bad or indifferent, that is the way it is.
