From housing to transit, here's what mayors and councils in B.C. can actually do
CBC
With less than a week remaining until voters across B.C. go to the polls to elect their mayors and councils, eyebrow-raising promises by candidates are making the rounds.
Bringing the NBA back to Vancouver. Creating a "Vancouver loop" SkyTrain going from UBC to Metrotown. Building a 60,000-person "multi-sport" arena.
Experts say grandiose campaign promises tend to muddy the water about what mayors and councils can actually do, and what they need to lobby higher governments for.
"The question that really is on the ballot, but it isn't articulated in any of these platforms, is leadership," Andrea Reimer, a former Vancouver city councillor and current professor at the University of British Columbia, said.
"You need to be able to work productively and effectively with governments. Both [at] the provincial, local, and the federal level, regardless of who's in power."
CBC News spoke to some who laid out the powers and limitations of B.C.'s cities. Here's what cities can and can't do.
Cities in B.C. are organized under the Municipal Act, according to Dr. Hamish Telford, a professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.
That gives them a broad range of powers when it comes to housing and buildings, such as zoning to determine where industries and single-family homes go and levying property taxes.
But as candidates go to bat on making housing more affordable, there's one thing a B.C. town can't do — fund and build their own housing.
"Cities are not in the business of building housing, and they couldn't afford it," Telford said.
But "they can zone to entice or require private developers to increase density on certain lots, as well as designing places where affordable community housing could be built."
This also means life-saving measures like mandating air conditioning in homes, zoning for overdose prevention sites, and local climate mitigation are up to councils.
In Metro Vancouver, the long-term priorities of regional transit are decided by TransLink's Mayors' Council — a committee of all 21 mayors in the region.
If those priorities include big infrastructure proposals — say, extending the SkyTrain to Newton or the North Shore — the Mayors' Council lobbies the province and the feds for the money to do it.