Mayor doubts Surrey will fulfill all housing targets, calls for review 

Mayor Brenda Locke says Surrey has demonstrated strong progress in meeting provincial housing targets, but fulfilling future numbers is “not realistic,” so she’s calling on the province to review its goals. 

At the July 13 council meeting, Locke asked if numbers could be adjusted, considering changes to federal immigration policy and the province’s cancellation of 954 housing units in May because of “fiscal constraints.”  

Ron Gill, the city’s general manager of planning and development, explained that the provincial targets are net new units — demolished units would be subtracted from the total and any incomplete units would not count.

While Surrey is currently exceeding the two-year target, Gill said this is largely due to a record year in 2024, when the city issued permits for 6,200 units, which was significant compared to previous years. 

“This year, it’s certainly been significantly lower, and that’s largely to do with things that are outside the city’s control, so market conditions, immigration … and yet the targets continue to ramp up,” he said. 

In 2022, the provincial government passed the Housing Supply Act, allowing the province to create binding housing targets for municipalities. The policy addressed municipal roadblocks to developing new housing, like zoning bylaws and permitting processes. 

In July 2024, the Ministry of Housing issued Surrey its housing targets of 27,256 net new housing units to be completed by June 30, 2029. The target for this year was 8,872, which Surrey has surpassed, as it currently sits at 11,795 new units. 

In the past, mayors across the Metro Vancouver region have said the housing targets take a one-size-fits-all approach that piles infrastructure costs onto cities. 

Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said every municipality has its own needs and opportunities that should be leveraged. He suggested the province could have more flexibility when deciding if municipalities have met their targets.

Over the past two and a half years, Surrey has issued 13,844 net new housing units, achieving this goal six months ahead of schedule according to its Housing Action Plan. This is supported by $100.7 million from the federal government through the Housing Accelerator Fund. 

But Yan notes that city approval does not mean the unit will be built, and that the completion of housing is not solely in the city’s hands. 

“The issue is while the municipalities have approved tens of thousands of units, [like] in the city of Surrey,” Yan said, “when the private market decides not to build for whatever reason … [then] how is that accountability being applied?”

At council, Locke noted “a real discrepancy” between the federal and provincial housing targets, with the federal targets sitting lower than the provincial ones. 

“[There is] significant risk that the city, if the targets are not adjusted, will not meet the 2028 and 2029 targets if we remain on the current trajectory,” said Gill. He added that he has not heard the targets will be adjusted.

Yan questioned what the province plans to do if municipalities do not meet the targets. 

Supportive housing is an aspect Yan believes is left out of the targets, as affordability is relative to local incomes — he noted that the 954 housing units the province cancelled in Surrey included supportive, complex care and transitional housing.

Another issue is that many housing units go unabsorbed, which Yan attributes to various reasons from pricing, location and size. 

“Every municipality in Metro Vancouver has a population that is in need of supportive housing. But then the flip side of that is also the responsibility on the provincial and federal sides to fund that particular type of housing,” Yan said. 

“Part of this is also the discussion about the regional cooperation that housing needs … [As] one of the fastest growing municipalities … how does [Surrey] see itself as a leader in the region or [a] guiding regional leadership?”