For City of Langley Special Council meeting of June 26, 2023.
Please note these are not the official minutes, but rather, highlights of items approved by Council and do not reflect all items considered by Council at the meeting. Council Meeting agenda is available here: https://langleycity.ca/cityhall/city-council/council-meetings. For more information, please contact kkenney@langleycity.ca or pkusack@langleycity.ca
2024 RCMP Approval in Principle
As required under the City's contract with the province, Council authorized a letter of approval in principle be sent to the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General to increase the detachment strength by 6 members to 57.35 members and increase the 100% RCMP total budget cap to $15,329,932.
Award of Tender “T2023-001, 2023 Storm and Sanitary Excavation Repairs Various Locations”
Council passed the following motion:
- THAT Tender “T2023-001, 2023 Storm and Sanitary Excavation Repairs Various Locations” be awarded to Sandpiper Contracting LLP in the amount of $464,000.00 (excluding GST), and
- THAT a construction contingency of $46,000.00 be approved to address potential variations in field conditions; and
- THAT Council Authorize the Acting Director of Engineering, Parks and Environment and the Corporate Officer to execute the contract document for Tender T2023-001.
Increasing Affordable Rental Housing Supply
Council passed the following resolution:
WHEREAS the Prime Minister, at the National Supply Housing Summit held on February 24, 2022, advised that Canada has a shortage of over two million homes, and that with the increased need of immigration, there is a need to double the volume of housing created in Canada annually to meet the current housing deficit and future demand;
AND WHEREAS the Rental Construction Financing Initiative (RCFI) program; an underfunded and underused housing initiative accessed through the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC), designed to provide funding from the Bank of Canada through CMHC directly to developers and Non-Profit/charities; removing a layer of cost traditionally inflated by market mortgage interest rates; thereby limiting effects of inflation, extreme moves in interest rates and increasing cap rates; any of which have currently removed many affordable rental projects from market because of they are too great a risk or not viable.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the UBCM call on the federal government to modify the current CMHC / Rental Construction Financing Initiative (RCFI) program to further incentivize private enterprise and non-profits to build critically needed affordable rentals, using the following approach:
• Dramatically increase funding to RCFI by 10 billion per year or whatever amount is necessary to support rental deficit needs.
• Fix interest rate direct from the Bank of Canada at .75%. There is no need to follow bond rates as the Bank of Canada can set the rate and fund directly to CMHC. By doing so, the applicant could reduce the cost of future rent and know for certain the future financing costs as project timelines can be up to five years.
• Change RCFI loans from 10-year fixed terms to 20- or 30-year fixed terms. Setting longer terms will lower the cap rate helping further soften effects of inflation.
• Additionally, continue with CMHC insurance renewal at year 21 or 31. This creates more revenue for the Government of Canada.
• Waive GST on RCFI financed projects. If these projects are on First Nations land, GST is already waived. By further waving all projects savings can be used to buffer inflationary costs and flow to rent reduction.
• Allow projects to apply for the RCFI program prior to zoning. This will bring surety when making promises to municipalities by the applicant.
• Adding 10 years to the program timeframe.