Provincial legislation Bill 44 has set an ambitious target for housing growth in the District of North Vancouver. By 2041, the District must have zoned capacity for approximately 20,000 additional housing units. This represents nearly double the pace of current development. Failure to meet this requirement will trigger direct intervention by the Province to enforce compliance.
This mandate raises fundamental concerns. The Province has imposed specific housing growth targets without presenting equally detailed plans for the infrastructure required to support such expansion. Where are the commitments to upgrade roads and hospitals? When will rapid transit, such as a SkyTrain connection to the North Shore, be delivered? Where will the doctors come from to serve a significantly larger population? These are not abstract questions—they are practical necessities that must be addressed before doubling the rate of housing development can be responsibly considered.
The fiscal implications are equally troubling. Adding 20,000 units within 16 years will inevitably strain District taxpayers. Will the Province provide the necessary infrastructure grants? Does it even have the fiscal capacity to do so, given its record-setting $11.6 billion deficit in 2025? Without clear answers, the burden risks falling disproportionately on local residents.
Bill 44 requires municipalities to rezone in advance to accommodate this growth. The legislation is mandatory.
What remains within Council’s discretion is how and where to direct this population increase. At the December 1, 2025, Council meeting, an Official Community Plan Amendment was passed to guide future growth. The majority of Council—Mayor Little and Councillors Muri, Forbes, and Mah—supported a plan to integrate the mandated growth into existing frameworks.
A minority, including myself and Councillors Pope and Back, supported an alternative approach that would have concentrated growth in expanded town centres and transit corridors. As staff noted, this alternative “on balance provides greater opportunities for further diversity of housing types and more housing in centres and along corridors where there is greater access to transit, daily needs and amenities.”
I remain opposed to the housing growth mandates of Bill 44. With respect to the Provincial government, this legislation represents poor public policy. A one-size-fits-all approach to housing growth, absent a parallel plan for infrastructure investment, is not in the best interests of the District of North Vancouver.
Criticism of these “density mandates” has been widespread. Local leaders across the region have spoken out against a policy that undermines the democratic role of local government and risks condemning neighbourhoods to poor planning outcomes. Housing experts have also raised alarms. The University of Ottawa’s Missing Middle Initiative recently gave British Columbia a failing grade—the worst of any province—for affordability outcomes under its housing policies. While rents have begun to decline, this appears linked to changes in immigration policy and labour market conditions, not the density mandates themselves. The long-term economic impacts of Bill 44 remain uncertain, but the risks are clear.
Local government in British Columbia has a long tradition of democratic accountability in land-use planning. To strip elected councils of this responsibility and transfer it to unelected bureaucrats in Victoria is a step backward. In 2026, the Provincial government should reconsider its approach. Rather than imposing density mandates, it should empower local governments to build livable, affordable communities—where housing growth is balanced with infrastructure investment, and where affordability is achieved through thoughtful, locally accountable planning.
at least someone has some brains – unfortunately the rest do not and obviously do not care at all about the quality of life on the North Shore.
Maybe they could answer another question – if the water supply is so low we cannot water our lawn then how can we have thousands of more people????
Mandating more condos without infrastructure is how you break a community. Density gets priced into commercial corridors, small businesses get forced out, and suddenly the North Shore is all bedrooms and no jobs — so traffic gets worse, not better.
We already have seasonal water restrictions every year (as Sue has pointed out), and Metro Vancouver is clear that growth is increasing demand while supply is under strain.
Stop pretending towers are a plan. Fund transportation capacity (including a real third crossing conversation) and protect industrial/commercial space so the local economy doesn’t get rezoned into dust