Another million people will be added to the population of Metro Vancouver over the next twenty years. Currently at approximately 2 million, regional stakeholders have begun holding discussions to determine how to accommodate such an increase.

It came as something of a surprise that two of the speakers at a recent downtown event did not want to accommodate them at all. One was representing the Fraser Institute (the local right-wing think tank) and the other was, of all things, from a language school. They both made the point that regional planning tends to be more about things – infrastructure – than people. And since the region has absorbed a large number of people in recent years, with many of them coming from Asia, they at least challenged the perception that recent immigrants had in fact been well integrated.

One of them also committed the usual gaffe of saying “we are not allowed to speak of this since we will be accused of racism.” Perhaps this issue has less to do with racism and more with xenophobia – fear of the unknown stranger.

The regional government in British Columbia has very limited power and cannot do much with immigration. Such a responsibility is that of the federal government. Canada accepts more immigrants as a percentage of population than any other nation. If it did not do so, the country's population would be declining. It cannot have escaped anyone's notice that Canada is still largely “empty” in terms of population, and very rich in terms of resources.

In addition, Metro Vancouver is facing a real crisis, which is the lack of skilled workers. Construction costs have been spiraling as there are not enough people to frame houses, set tiles or put in plumbing. And even if the federal policy to encourage immigrants changed, there is no power to stop people moving around within Canada, and many see the West Coast as highly desirable if only because it has a somewhat warmer climate than most of the rest of the country and it is possible to ski in the mountains.

The last regional plan talked about protecting the green zone, building a compact urban region with complete communities and increased transportation choices. The major noticeable difference in the new proposals is to add affordable housing to these goals. Because that is how the influx of new people is currently being “dealt with”. The lack of cheap open space to develop and the resistance of existing neighborhoods to increased densities mean that house prices in the region have risen faster and higher than nearly anywhere else in Canada. West Vancouver is one of the most expensive places in the world to live.

What visitors to the region tend to notice rather early in their stay is that Vancouver boasts many homeless people. Not only are these individuals quite visible, they are also persistent beggars, despite local bylaws to the contrary. The stark contrast between the new high rise condominiums downtown, and the shabby tramps with shopping carts full of returnable bottles could not be stronger. But there is nothing new about this problem. What has been missing is any kind of determination to actually do something effective about it: like building public housing for instance. For if there is one thing residents here object to more strongly than increased density, it is public housing.


Stephen Rees is a Transportation Economist and Regional Planner who blogs at http://stephenrees.wordpress.com

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