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NDP Provincial Government Clear Cuts Old Growth While Victoria NDP Municipal Government Clear Cuts Old Neighbourhoods

By Arthur McInnis

March 18, 2026


The provincial and municipal governments are running the exact same playbook. They are fast-tracking irreversible destruction while using the language of protection and modernisation to pacify the public.

The Grand Illusion

Just this week, the five independent experts appointed by the province to map at-risk old-growth forests sounded the alarm. Ecologists Rachel Holt and Karen Price, landscape analyst Dave Daust, veteran forester Garry Merkel, and economist Lisa Matthaus sent a scathing document to Premier David Eby and Ministers Parmar and Neill.

Their message was blunt.  The BC government is actively approving logging in the very same rare, irreplaceable forests they were hired to protect. The experts warned that the government’s ongoing clear-cutting is “not just a moral failure but also a high economic, ecological and social risk,” purposely driving these ecosystems toward extinction.

Now look at the “NDP Municipal Government” or Victoria City Council. Under the guise of the 2050 Official Community Plan (OCP), they are executing an identical sleight of hand. The provincial Bill 44 mandate and the government’s narrative was supposedly designed to “gently densify” requiring municipalities to allow 4 to 6 housing units on standard residential lots. But the Mayor and Council took that mandate and quietly morphed it into a blanket upzoning that permits 4 to 6 storey apartment buildings across the city’s residential fabric by right.

Gutting Democratic Oversight

To pull off highly unpopular policies, both levels of government had to remove the public from the equation entirely.

The province is simply ignoring its own expert panel, pushing the burden of harvesting decisions onto First Nations without offering any real conservation financing alternatives.

The city’s tactic for avoiding scrutiny was even more brazen.  Most public hearings have been banned.  Victoria City Council no longer holds public hearings for residential projects that align with their hyper-dense new OCP. To guarantee the bulldozers face no friction, they also passed a delegated authority bylaw. Elected officials and neighbourhood residents have been completely stripped of their voice in the development review process. Unelected staff now have the power to rubber-stamp mid-rise developments that will permanently alter our neighborhoods.

Misrepresenting the Facts

Neither government is being honest about what they are doing. The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs recently condemned the province for its ongoing failure to protect these forests, calling them out explicitly for misrepresenting the status of old-growth management to the public.

City Council used the exact PR spin. They sold the OCP update to the public as necessary compliance with provincial housing targets. But they blurred the lines between allowing six individual units on a lot and legalising six-storey, lot-line-to-lot-line buildings in historic neighbourhoods like James Bay.

A Legacy of Permanent Erasure

The damage being done right now cannot be undone. Once ancient old-growth forests are clear-cut, the biodiversity loss is permanent. In the exact same way, once historic urban landscapes and mature tree canopies are bulldozed for mid-rise developments under delegated authority, the character of Victoria’s neighbourhoods is erased forever. There is no public recourse. No second chances.

Time to Clear Cut the Council From Office

This goes far beyond bad zoning or poor environmental management. It is a profound breach of the public trust. The Province, the Mayor and the Gang of Five have intentionally bypassed democratic accountability, handing the keys to our city over to developers and unelected bureaucrats.

They have shown us exactly what they value (and who they are). For the Council it is not the residents or the fabric of this city that matter.  It is time for Victorians to push back. The only way to stop the clear-cutting of our neighbourhoods is to vote out the Mayor and the Gang of Five at the next election.

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See also:

Ebycrats by Arthur McInnis – CRD Watch Homepage