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Public release of UDI March 10, 2022 presentation slides, agenda, and lobbying letters to David Eby.

By Sasha Izard
April 3, 2025

As revealed by Freedom of Information, below is the agenda, presentation slides and lobbying letters for David Eby on March 10, 2022.

The presentation and lobbying letters show the UDI made a concerted attempt to get Eby and the Province to intervene on local government autonomy when Eby was the Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing. The precursor to the Housing Supply Act (Bill 43), and Bill 47 can be seen in this concerted lobbying effort on behalf of the UDI, a registered lobbying organization that advances the interests of its hundreds of paying corporate members involved in real estate and development.

The UDI also counts dozens of government branches among its paying members, but has been hiding its members directory from the public since the end of 2023, as the housing bills were being pushed through Legislature. They are also now hiding their extensive lists of back room committees that meet with and work with the Provincial government and local governments.

The slides in the presentation are particularly notable in that the UDI prescribed a list of punishments for municipalities that don’t build fast enough for the UDI’s liking, along so-called rapid transit corridors, something that I revealed in the Globe and Mail in February.

The presentation slides for the UDI’s conference with David Eby on March 10, 2022:

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The following are the two letters that were also delivered to Eby by the UDI that day on March 11, 2025:

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The UDI’s 2nd letter to Eby on March 10, 2022 (see below) involved many ideas taken from Ontario.

Not much time after this the Greenbelt scandal would erupt in Ontario.

5 days after this letter, the Assistant Deputy Minister Housing and Construction Standards | Ministry of Attorney General and Ministry Responsible for Housing wrote:

Note: p.63 Ministry of Municipal Affairs FOI.

MDE appears to have been an abbreviation for Minister David Eby. Elsewhere in the communications it is written MDEby.

Update: At the end of May, 2025 I received the 3rd and final phase of the Ministry of Housing FOI. This document shows information about that meeting and its purpose:

This page in the FOI response was unusually small and difficult to read. The meeting subject was “UDI Executive Meeting – MDE” (Minister David Eby) for the March 10, 2022 meeting and notes.

In it is an email “FW UDI” which contains text:

“Executive…
Presentation on data etc.
Recommendations on performance based approach
Link targets and municipal activity to Housing Needs Assessments
Regional breakdown of polling is available and shows higher support for density around transit on
Vancouver Island. UDI recommends municipalities be allowed to move density between transit stops if
they get to the total
Province should track rezonings, and approvals as well as Building Permits Issued
Ontario ministerial zoning orders; tortonit [sic] goes farther
Need to incent increased density
Culture change needed.”

This was followed by s.13 of the FOIPPA which allows the government to censor information if it includes policy and advice and recommendations developed for a public body (something that has kept the public in the dark on vast amounts of lobbying content, as well as regarding internal governmental policy development).

“Add to weekly housing update for MDE and seek his interest in follow up work related to this.”

Followed again by S.13

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See also:

The Urban Development Institute lobbied the Province of BC to implement what they called “Global Housing Targets”. The Province would deliver new Housing Bills in response. – CRD Watch Homepage

Residents gear up for a fight as Saanich feels the growing pains of density – The Globe and Mail