Suggestions from the province that North Cowichan needs to do more to develop new housing more quickly during the ongoing housing crisis is not sitting well with some council and staff members.

A letter to North Cowichan from Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon indicated that the municipality, as well as others in B.C., are not keeping up with the requirements of Bill 44, which was implemented last March and requires local governments to update their zoning bylaws to allow for more housing units

In the letter, Kahlon said that while much has been accomplished in the past year to remove restrictive zoning that hinders housing development across B.C.鈥檚 communities, local governments and the province must remain focused on enabling small-scale multi-unit housing.

鈥淚 know that you share our goals and agree on the collective responsibility of all governments to address the housing crisis in our province,鈥� Kahlon said. 鈥淏ut for many local governments, the work we asked you to do under Bill 44 is not yet finished. I expect over the next few months you will take another look at your bylaws and consider updates to achieve better alignment with the provincial site standards to successfully enable development.鈥�

At North Cowichan鈥檚 council meeting on Feb. 5, Coun. Bruce Findlay said he鈥檚 assuming that the correspondence from Kahlon is a form letter, with possibly some minor changes, that was sent to all or most of B.C.鈥檚 municipalities.

But he said he sees the letter as a message from the minister that 鈥渞esistance is futile鈥� and took exception to that.

鈥淚 appreciate that they want to see some housing going on and I鈥檓 100 per cent in favour of development but, at the same time, I don鈥檛 like the tone of this letter,鈥� Findlay said.

鈥淚 think staff is doing an incredible job of getting our old systems and bylaws up to date and when I read this, I get my back up. I think we鈥檝e been doing everything that we can do in the timelines that we鈥檝e been given.鈥�

CAO Ted Swabey said he agreed with Findlay and thinks there鈥檚 a disconnect between the federal and provincial governments about the challenges at the local level to deliver more housing.

鈥淭his letter doesn鈥檛 sit well with me considering what we鈥檝e been doing, and I also suspect it was a form letter,鈥� he said. 鈥淪taff think we鈥檙e on track to achieve the goals the government has set.鈥�

Mayor Rob Douglas said the reality is that North Cowichan has dropped everything the municipality had been working on in terms of updating its outdated zoning bylaws to do what the province wanted to meet its deadlines for Bill 44.

鈥淎s mentioned in some of the news headlines recently, not all communities across B.C. did meet that deadline, so it鈥檚 frustrating to get a letter like this where it feels like we鈥檙e having a finger waved at us for not doing our jobs when, clearly, we did.鈥�

George Farkas, North Cowichan's general manager of planning, development and community services, said staff are in the process of developing a response to Kahlon鈥檚 letter that will be brought to council for consideration.