With Lower Mainland voters heading to the polls on October 17, the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) is challenging municipal candidates to explain how they will prevent local government decisions from adding more cost and uncertainty to an already strained construction market.

“Municipal governments can’t control global markets, but they can control whether their own fees, requirements, and processes help projects move forward or push them over the edge,” said Jeannine Martin, president of the VRCA. “When the numbers stop working, projects don’t magically become cheaper. They are delayed, scaled back, or cancelled, and communities are left waiting.”

The Cost to Build is one of three pillars of VRCA’s non-partisan Build Lower Mainland municipal election campaign, alongside the Time to Build and People to Build. The campaign is focused on ensuring candidates across the region understand the realities facing construction and the practical steps municipalities can take to help keep the Lower Mainland building.

Construction costs reach far beyond the industry. They determine whether the region can deliver the housing, infrastructure, public spaces, and services needed to support a growing population.

“When we make construction more expensive, we make our communities more expensive,” said Martin. “Those costs show up in the price of housing, the rent paid by a small business, the tax bill for a public project, or the infrastructure that never gets built.”

VRCA is calling for municipal candidates to commit to:

• Greater transparency and predictability for development cost charges and other project-related fees.
• Earlier consultation with the full construction industry.
• Better coordination among municipalities and other levels of government, with meaningful notice before new charges or requirements take effect.
• Measurable permitting standards and public accountability for delays.
• Fair, competitive procurement that is open to qualified bidders.

“A project should not reach the finish line only to discover that the rules changed, and the budget no longer works,” said VRCA’s director of advocacy, Craig Larkins. “Predictability costs government very little, but its absence can cost a community an entire project.”

As candidates campaign across the Lower Mainland, VRCA is encouraging voters and industry members to ask four direct questions:

• How will you make municipal fees and charges more predictable?
• Will you support a coordinated effort to reduce DCCs and other barriers to building?
• How will you ensure municipal procurement is fair, competitive, and focused on value?
• Will you consult construction before making decisions that affect whether projects can proceed?

“Every candidate talks about the housing, infrastructure, and amenities their community needs,” said Larkins. “The real question is whether their policies will make those projects possible to build.”