Mayor Popove over province’s threat to control Chilliwack if housing goals weren’t met: ‘Like hell you will’

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But the City of Chilliwack isn’t budging, and will continue to include First Nations housing units in the the city’s HTO progress report.

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Mayor Popove over province's threat to control Chilliwack if housing goals weren't met: 'Like hell you will'

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“I think this is a very important move on our part,” Chilliwack Mayor Popove said last Tuesday, October 6. “At one point there were more residential builds on First Nations land than there were on non-First Nations land. We still have to service it, fire, ambulance, everything, and it just doesn’t seem fair. I’ve battled the old housing minister (Ravi Kahlon) on this one here, and now the new one, and with no avail. I, for the life of me, don’t understand why they won’t include it in these totals, but that’s my opinion.”

Mayor Popove said that with the “onslaught” of Addition to Reserve activities, where First Nation bands add land to their reserve, it will create even more housing starts in Chilliwack.

“I always kind of laughed at what the Minister (Ravi Kahlon) said, ‘Well, we’ll come into your city and take over.’ Like hell you will. No, you guys just stay in Victoria. We’ll look after Chilliwack. We’re good here,” said Mayor Popove, who alluded to a possible change in government in this month’s provincial election. “We’ll make our point clear possibly with a change in government; it could be a change in strategy as well.”

Councillor Bud Mercer, who is not seeking reelection in this month’s provincial election like Mayor Popove, said Kahlon, the former housing minister from Delta, was the “brain child behind this nonsense that we’re living with.”

“I understand that Minister Ravi is not re-running again in this election. And hopefully with the new provincial election, there’ll be some common sense, especially when it relates to housing on First Nations property within the city limits,” Mercer said last Tuesday, Oct. 6. “Of course, they should be counted. We’re doing the work. It’s nonsensical. It wouldn’t stand the stink test with any group of common sense people. So it’s baffling that we have to keep doing this. but so be it.”

Councillor Jeff Shields said Chilliwack itself is so intertwined between reserve and non-reserve land. In other words, First Nations land is contiguous with non-native land throughout the city.

Councillor Jeff Shields. (Image Credit: City of Chilliwack.)

“Reading staff’s report, they (the province) have no argument against why they can’t be counted,” Shields said. “It’s so weak. We got to stick to our guns.”

Councillor Harv Westeringh, a realtor, acknowledged that the overall real estate market has been slowing.

Councillor Harv Westeringh. (Image Credit: City of Chilliwack.)

“At the end of the day, the market is slowing down right now. What’s the province gonna do? Force builders to build when there is no demand on the other side?” Westeringh pondered. “Just foolish all the way around.”

Councillors voted unanimously to direct staff to continue including First Nations housing units in the city’s target reporting, and that staff not revise its Year 2 progress report as requested by the provincial government.