VICTORIA — British Columbia has set new housing targets for a group of 10 more municipalities with the goal of meeting housing demands in the province.
The orders aim to boost housing supply by about 40,000 homes over the next five years, the Housing Ministry said in a news release Thursday.
The move marks the fourth group of communities in the expanded housing-targets program, and includes Burnaby, Coquitlam, Courtenay, the Township of Langley, Langford, Penticton, Pitt Meadows, Richmond, Squamish and Vernon.
The ministry said each municipality has been given five-year targets, which begin on Sept. 1 and reflect 75 per cent of their estimated housing needs.
It said each has been given a set of guidelines that recommend the number of units by size, and how many should be owned or rentals.
The ministry said more than 14,000 of the homes will be below-market rentals, and more than 16,000 new homes have been built in the first 30 communities selected for housing targets.
The biggest housing order in the latest group is for 10,240 homes in Burnaby, while Coquitlam, Richmond and the Township of Langley are each being told to boost supply by more than 6,000 homes.
Some communities have pushed back against the housing orders.
The City of Pitt Meadows said it asked the province to reduce the target of 727 new units over the next five years to "better reflect Pitt Meadows’ unique local conditions."
It said the city had a limited land base for new housing developments because "nearly 80 per cent of the city is within the Provincial Agricultural Land Reserve."
It said the province's methodology also overlooked other barriers to new housing such as floodplain restrictions, high groundwater, limited transit access, frequent rail blockages and federal airport zoning regulations.
“We share the province’s concerns about the need for more affordable housing,” Mayor Nicole MacDonald said in a statement on Thursday.
“However, we raised serious and well-founded objections to the scale of this target given the unique constraints facing Pitt Meadows. It is disappointing that our request to reconsider and work together with the province on a more appropriate, realistic target was not accepted."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2025.
The Canadian Press
