A lot of communities, particularly the size of Quesnel, Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, struggle with attracting market housing projects.
Premier David Eby says it’s one of the disturbing things that they’re seeing.
“What we’re seeing is that people with money to pay for housing, they want to find a place to live, they have a decent job or they have some savings for retirement, or they want to downsize in the case of these seniors, and they’re looking for housing and they can’t find it.”
We asked Eby what his government is doing to change that.
“Your listeners are going to see the provincial government involved in our BC Builds project where we’re going to support communities across the province in building affordable attainable middle class homes for seniors, for people starting their lives out of their parents’ homes, for those folks with decent jobs that are looking for a place to live.
Eby says they have to be more involved than other provincial governments have been in the past.
“We all know that rising interest rates may reduce the cost of a home on the sticker, but it doesn’t reduce the cost that you have to pay every month, and that doesn’t actually increase housing affordability. Building that housing that we need is what’s going to increase affordability and the provincial government will be directly involved in that with the private sector, with the not-for-profit sector, with cities, and with First Nations. We’ve got to get that housing built.”
Eby says that type of housing is also needed to attract teachers, police officers, nurses and the professionals in our hospitals, because they also need to have a place to live.