federal government and Province of Ontario signed an agreement,<\/a> with each committing $4.4 billion to fund new infrastructure, enabling municipalities to reduce development charges by up to 50 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\u201cThe agreement in Ontario offers a template for funding infrastructure and lowering the cost of building,\u201d said Sim in a statement. \u201cWe need a similar deal here in B.C., one that sees the province match federal funds dollar-for-dollar to reduce development charges directly so projects can continue moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vancouver City Council has attempted to reduce red tape, accelerate approvals and cut development costs levies by 20 per cent, Sim explains, but slowing construction activity persists.
\u201cVancouver has done the work to lower building costs and speed up approvals. As a result, we\u2019ve seen decades-high rental delivery in 2025 and rents declining over the past two years,\u201d said Sim.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to lose that progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent increases in Metro Vancouver\u2019s regional development charges have also underscored the need for a co-ordinated provincial-federal solution.
\u201cWe know the only way to improve long-term affordability is to keep building more homes,\u201d said Sim. \u201cThis is a window of opportunity for the province to partner with the federal government and municipalities to lower costs and deliver the homes people need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2013 Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is calling on the Province of British Columbia to secure a housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-588069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}