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Saanich Council Ditches Motion to write to the Provincial Government to Remove the Provincially Mandated Housing Target Order for the District.

Councillors Brice and Brownoff, had previously made a media tour promoting their motion to remove the Provincially Mandated Housing Target Order for the District, which was covered on CHEKNews and in the Times Colonist.

Councillor Chambers sought to dilute the Motion by proposing an amendment to the motion at the March 16, 2026 Council Meeting – abandoning the word “Removal” and modifying the motion to: “that the housing targets assigned to the District of Saanich be reviewed and reduced, as maintaining the current targets are no longer fair or realistic.” [Which implies that the targets were previously fair or realistic.]

The Motion was defeated, by the majority, with Councillors Phelps-Bondaroff, Westhaver, DeVries, Harper and Mayor Murdock having voted in opposition.


By Sasha Izard
March 17, 2026


If you read the headlines from the local news media last month, it might appear that Saanich and its councillors wanted the province to scrap the housing targets. That couldn’t have been further from the case at last evening’s council meeting, where this issue was actually deliberated on, watered down, and then rejected by the majority of the council.

2 Island municipalities want B.C.’s imposed housing targets tossed

Saanich councillors want province to scrap housing targets – Victoria Times Colonist

The following had been written earlier in the Times Colonist on Feb 28, 2026:

“Two Saanich councillors want the province to remove housing targets for the municipality, saying the government’s policies are disconnected from what is happening in the economy.

Councillors Judy Brownoff and Susan Brice intend to file a notice of motion at council Monday night, for debate in the middle of March.”

I wrote a letter to the editor in response, which was published in the Times Colonist on March 13, 2026. I noted that the councillors proposing the motion had waited almost half a year before the election to raise this as an issue, when the Housing Supply Act had been passed almost 3 years previously, and from which the Province announced that there would be housing targets for the District of Saanich. Why were they finally taking action now?

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The motion was deliberated on at last evening’s March 16, 2026 Saanich Council Meeting.

While Councillor Brice remained steadfast, cogently providing strong reasoning behind her and Councillor Brownoff’s motion when she presented it, the others faltered, Brownoff included.

After Brice and Brownoff presented their motion, Councillor Chambers was the next to speak. Rather than deliberating on the actual motion itself, which was to write to the Provincial Government asking to remove the housing targets, Councillor Chambers spoke instead of lowering the housing targets and reviewing them.

According to the National Observer’s CivicSearchlight transcription of the meeting (note: transcriptional errors are possible), at the [140:59] time point, Councillor Chambers spoke:

Thank you very much Mr. Mayor and thank you to my colleagues for bringing this forward, and it doesn’t take a mind reader to know that I’m totally on board. From the moment this questionable legislation has been mandated, I have been

scrutinizing this very carefully for infrastructure deficiencies, you know, tree environmental loss, lack of consultation with First Nations and the public. So for me, reducing these, re-evaluating, review, and re-evaluating and restarting these, is actually fiduciary management because right now, we’ve got high budgets.

Everything is in flux right now. And so I really do want to lower these targets. And we do hold a lot of power here in our adjudication of applications. We do.

So that is also something to consider. At first, when I first heard this, I was a little bit upset because I felt a little bit invisible because I’ve been, like, stomping my feet saying. And then I had a rethink. And I thought, oh, my God, these ladies are brilliant. And I apologize for my, like, not super excitement.

And now I’m very excited, and I’m really happy to have my colleagues on board, and I really want to, yeah, I do have a list of grievances with the province, and I think that we’re all looking forward to getting back to filling those potholes instead of having to worry about getting our municipal authority taken or financial downloads or environmental devastation.

Never thought I’d say it, but I’m actually looking forward to filling those potholes again.

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Chambers spoke a second time, about 20 minutes later in the meeting:

[163:05]

Cllr. Chambers: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I’d like to propose a motion.

Mayor Murdock: There’s currently a motion on the floor, Councillor Chambers.

Cllr. Chambers: Can I put an amendment, I mean?

Mayor Murdock: You can certainly.

Cllr. Chambers: Can I try it? Thank you.

Chamber’s proposed amendment to the motion was as follows:

That the mayor write to the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs requesting that the housing targets assigned to the District of Saanich be reviewed and reduced as maintaining the current targets are no longer fair or realistic. Is there a seconder for the amendment? Councillor Brownoff seconded. 

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By seconding the amendment to the motion, Brownoff was effectively helping set the stage for the defeat of her and Brice’s original motion, which had been to write to the province for the removal of the targets.

Brownoff then shifted the direction even further from the removal of the targets as originally had been proposed.

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After further deliberations, the Mayor spoke[190:09]:

Thank you, Councillor Phelps-Bondaroff. So just to revisit where we are, still at the main motion. I think everyone has had the chance to speak twice. Councillor Brownoff has signaled her intent to bring a motion arising that is asking the province to consider that the ministerial order be revised to reflect development permits and rezoning applications rather than occupancy permits, which is the current target.

My advice, for what it’s worth, is that we defeat the current motion and that we then consider the subsequent motion that may more precisely get at the concern that we wish to raise. So I will call the question on the main motion as it was put. Those in favor?

Opposed? Councillors Phelps-Bondaroff, myself, Westhaver, DeVries and Harper are opposed. The motion is defeated.

Further deliberations ensued, but even by then the idea of writing to the province for the removal of the housing targets, in the original motion; had long since been dispensed with.

Chamber’s interpolation, and proposed amendment, along with Brownoff’s seconding of the amendment, and subsequent different proposals had shifted the direction of the motion from calling for the removal of the housing targets, to something entirely different. The original motion was rejected.

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Appendix 1: Presentation to Saanich Council by Sasha Izard during the public input segment at the March 16, 2026 Saanich Council Meeting

Item G.1. REMOVAL OF PROVINCIAL HOUSING TARGETS

So, I’m glad that this motion finally came forward, even if it’s half a year before the election.

After all, it is better late than never. 

This motion follows almost 3 years since the Province brought in the Housing Supply Act, and announced that there would be housing targets for the municipality of Saanich.

Wasn’t it obvious from the beginning that top-down housing targets were hardly democratic, bad for the municipality, a disaster for the environment and urban planning; not to mention an increased strain on resources and the public, due to added infrastructure requirements?

I hope that these arbitrary and draconian targets are withdrawn.  The cost to the urban forest on Southern Vancouver Island by forced density has been horrendous.

Last year, I wrote the following article:

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

The UDI development lobby, were not content with the actual demand for housing in Saanich to shape policy. They wanted global demand forced on municipalities to bolster the speculative schemes of many of their corporate members involved in real estate and development.

Only, tough luck for them, the Federal government pulled the rug out from underneath them, after the untenable reality became impossible to avoid, of the overwhelming spike in demand that made housing affordable to only the top brackets. The Federal government pulled back significantly on new permanent resident numbers, and for many involved in real estate and development, a market built on seemingly unlimited demand came crashing down, at least in terms of condos.  In comparison, many Single-Family Homes have been bought up and removed for upzoning, or held off the market by speculators.  Their prices have only declined moderately.

A market model driven by developers and speculators will not deliver housing affordability for families

I direct you to a Van Sun article:

Douglas Todd: Everybody loves their entitlements, especially B.C. housing developers

“Metro Vancouver city councils have approved 132,000 housing units, but developers haven’t started to build them. Much money can be made by monetizing entitlements through a resale or flip.”

Also: “Douglas Todd: An abundance of housing approved in Metro Vancouver, despite NDP charges of too much red tape”  

“Three Metro Vancouver municipalities have approved more than 85,000 units of new housing, contrary to complaints from developers and the B.C. NDP. But they aren’t being constructed, given the real-estate downturn.”

Upzoning creates wealth for speculators and further erodes affordability through gentrification, and the reduction of Single-Family Homes, aka homes for families.

Therefore, I ask that you finally stand up to the Province and demand that it remove these horrendous housing targets that were weaponized against our communities, by the development industry, through a Provincial Government held under their sway,

Thank you.


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See also:

Index of articles revealing major lobbying influence on B.C. Provincial Housing Bills and Housing Targets. – CRD Watch Homepage

How the Development and Real Estate Lobby Pressed Mandatory Housing Targets, Mass Upzoning, Captured Official Community Plans, and Made the Shutting Down of Public Hearings the Norm in British Columbia Under the NDP Government – CRD Watch Homepage

Freedom of Information reveals that the Province of B.C. was working to implement what the registered lobbying organization, the Urban Development Institute, had been pushing for. This culminated in the recent Housing Bills that override local government authority on zoning.  – CRD Watch Homepage

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

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

The “Hong Kong Model, transit density – Setting expectations and having clear guidance. MDE [Minister David Eby] First step target approach”. UDI Executive Committee Meeting in April 13, 2022 with David Eby when he was the Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing. – CRD Watch Homepage

The David Eby Confession:  Premier Eby talking to the ‘Condo King’ Bob Rennie, finally spilled the beans in front of the camera, on how UDI lobbying played key role in the creation of the Provincial Housing Bills. – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of articles regarding questionable media coverage of local government and public participation. – CRD Watch Homepage

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Resource:

CivicSearchlight – by Canada’s National Observer