Saturday September 27, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 9:10 am]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
On Friday in Victoria, federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson addressed municipal leaders on the last day of their week-long 2025 Convention of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM).
His 25-minute speech was a fairly straightforward reporting out of what the federal Liberal government has already announced about what they hope will be improvements for housing and infrastructure in communities of all sizes across the country.
But one of the big takeaways was a preview of changes or supports coming for the application of development cost charges (DCCs) by municipalities.
“There will be an announcement later this fall, stay tuned for that,” said Robertson toward the end of his remarks at the podium to an audience of about 400 people.
DCC’s add to the growing expense of building homes, Robertson stated, also mentioning the high cost of land and materials as increasing the cost of producing homes.
About DCC’s:
Development Cost Charges (DCC’s) are levied by municipalities usually as a way to generate revenue for use in building necessary community infrastructure. That can be physical infrastructure like roads, sewer or wastewater systems but also for social infrastructure like recreation facilities.
DCCs are usually paid up front by developers and can add significantly to the cost of housing. In BC, there are also now Amenity Cost Charges (ACC’s) that allow local governments to collect funds for amenities such as community centres, recreation centres, daycares, and libraries.
“On development cost charges we are working on a program that will make sure that we can invest in infrastructure and support local governments who are using those development charges to invest in housing infrastructure in particular,” said Robertson in response to a media question from Island Social Trends..
“We want to make sure we can bring down the cost of those development charges which are added on to the cost of housing and building the housing. We’re looking at an approach to roll out later this year to strike a balance there of reducing development charges but also making sure that local governments continue to invest in the housing infrastructure we need to build homes,” said Minister Robertson.
Housing as a human right:
“Homes in Canada must first and foremost be for people t live in,” said Robertson during his speech to hundreds of delegates. That elicited applause as his comment echoed a motion that UBCM delegates approved at this week’s UBCM Convention about housing being a human right.
At this stage, there is a ban on foreign investment in housing, he pointed out to delegates.
Robertson said that Canada is moving away from reliance on “our single trading partner to the south”, and that supports for business and communities can be found through Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacificCan)
He said that the new Liberal government is working on “shaping communities that are healthier and more affordable to get around,” putting an emphasis on the process of improving transportation in and between cities.
Build Canada Homes:
Robertson told media that the difficulty for municipalities to get access to provincial and federal funding for housing “has been difficult but is changing now”.
He mentioned Build Canada Homes as a “mission driven agency” in that context, which he said will “ensure” that the federal government can work with local, provincial and territorial governments and with Indigenous partners “to get housing built at an unprecedented scale”.
With now a focus on non-market housing: “We are now reaching out through Build Canada Homes to our partners at provincial, territorial, local and Indigenous supporters in government to as k them to bring forward their best affordable housing projects.”
“We look forward to financing projects, working in partnership to get them built as soon as possible. Whether that’s through homelessness with supportive bridge housing that we can build urgently with modular housing, and larger scale projects in the big cities that have workforce housing with lower rent options for young people. Also housing in smaller communities. We have to make sure we’re supporting communities at every level, every scale,” said Robertson.
Federal land for affordable housing:
“The Canada Land Bank has a lot of property in it. And when you look across all the departments — Defence, Canada Post, and Ag Canada — there’s a lot of federal land. Some of that can be repurposed to build housing on,” said Robertson.
He added: “That’s my goal with Build Canada Homes is to make sure the most strategic pieces of federal lands that can have housing on them — affordable housing — that we get those into development and get homes built.”
Defence land for housing development at Esquimalt DND has been discussed in the past, including with the BC provincial government.
“We’re doing a federal process to identify what can move the fastest into development of affordable housing. We can work on that partnership together. I’m hopeful to see opportunities here in the south island, and across BC and across Canada. There are many opportunities — just how fast we can move with these and do we have to deal with some of the challenges of them partly in use with other partners,” Robertson outlined.
More projects and land availability and more partnership opportunities will be rolled out in the months ahead, said Robertson in his media scrum after this speech to the UBCM delegates. “Later this fall I expect to have another traunch of land that we’re looking at identifying for housing,” said Robertson.
Immigration impact:
Will the federal government help municipalities with infrastructure to keep up with population growth (which comes largely from immigration)?
“The federal government does have infrastructure funding available, particularly housing infrastructure,” said Robertson, adding that he is responsible for an infrastructure fund that is responsible for water, wastewater and stormwater systems. “That enables housing to get built,” he told media. That infrastructure is developed by partnering with local governments.
“We’re looking at the next generation of infrastructure investments across Canada. We will be into that process with upcoming budgets next year and looking at partnerships is essential here,” said Minister Robertson.
“All levels of government need to contribute on infrastructure. The needs are very high particular with climate disasters and those impacts now, and with the scale of housing that we need to build,” the Housing and Infrastructure Minister said.
“That’s where the prime minister says we need to invest,” he stated. “We need to focus right now on Canadians and the Canadian economy and infrastructure is a key piece of that.”
About Minister Robertson:
Robertson is the Liberal MP for Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, elected in the April 28, 2025 federal election.
Robertson was the provincial MLA for Vancouver-Fairview (2005 to 2008) but was better known as the mayor of Vancouver (2008 to 2018) during which time he tried to make housing affordability improvements in the large west coast metropolitan city.
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Mary P Brooke is the Editor of Island Social Trends which offers professional news insights to attentive and informed readers. She has owned and operated a series of news publications on Vancouver Island since 2008 with a mission to inform through a socioeconomic lens. In 2025, Ms Brooke was awarded at King Charles III Coronation Medal for her contributions to community through journalism and also embarking on community leadership in urban food resilience.
===== RELATED:
- Housing as human right gains momentum at UBCM 2025 (September 23, 2025)
- Build Canada Homes introduced by Carney ahead of fall sitting (September 14, 2025)
- New housing coming to DND base in Esquimalt (August 17, 2024)
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