Economic Development Cowichan recently hosted a series of workshops to discuss workforce housing issues and opportunities for Cowichan. Attendees, including employers, workers, developers, and local government planning staff, identified gaps in infrastructure and servicing as one of the region’s major barriers to housing development. Other barriers identified in the workshops included challenges around rental housing, negative public perception of densification, and issues with the existing housing stock in Cowichan, among others.
The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) is developing a Workforce Housing Strategy for Cowichan, to come up with actions for increasing housing availability and affordability for the labour force. The Strategy will identify and prioritize actions for implementation by organizations across the broader housing ecosystem, including non-profits, for profit developers, employers, government, and others. Economic Development Cowichan (EDC) is leading this project on behalf of the CVRD, with support from Cowichan Housing Association and CitySpaces Consulting.
The project includes several rounds of engagement with stakeholders and the general public, the first of which was a series of Workforce Housing Workshops held in January and February 2023. The objective of the workshops was to gain multiple perspectives to define the problem statement, set the vision, and establish a framework to inform solution-seeking exercises in subsequent engagement activities.
During the workshops, developers and local government planning staff shared many challenges related to infrastructure and servicing. While the CVRD and municipalities may wish to restrict development outside of serviced areas, there is a severe lack of serviced developable land, especially in electoral areas. A shortage of available water was also noted a major issue that requires further examination. On top of that, the cost to extend and even maintain infrastructure was noted as a major obstacle. In Cowichan’s electoral areas, privately-owned infrastructure systems were cited as challenging to coordinate. Overall, there was strong support for a regional approach to infrastructure planning and implementation.
To read more about what we heard during our workshop series, download the full report here.
The many issues identified during the workshops will be considered for prioritization and further examination throughout the next stages of the Workforce Housing Strategy. Prioritization will be based on a number of factors, including anticipated impact on workforce housing, as well as capacity and expertise for implementation within the project working and advisory groups. So while infrastructure and servicing were identified as a key barrier, it still needs to be determined if the Workforce Housing Strategy is the most appropriate venue to address the problems.
The workshops were not the first time that infrastructure gaps have been brought to the attention of EDC staff. In 2022, we conducted a series of three business walks in Shawnigan Village, Cowichan Bay, and Cobble Hill to learn more about the state of local business. Businesses reported infrastructure issues within their current communities, such as the absence of sewer infrastructure or shortages of water. They also reported a lack of serviced industrial land in Cowichan for them to expand into, which creates a barrier to business development in the region.
Full details and reports on the results of the business walks are available here:
This challenge was also noted in the 2019 Cowichan Industrial Land Use Strategy, which found an inadequate supply of appropriately sized and serviced industrial lands located in prime locations. These lands are essential to attract and retain important industrial players of varying scale that can provide higher paying jobs in the region.
Infrastructure is not an issue that is unique to Cowichan. Much of Canada’s infrastructure was built pre-1970, and the majority of it is now due for replacement. In response, the Province of BC has announced a $1 billion Growing Communities Fund that will be distributed amongst all 188 local governments in BC to help build community infrastructure and amenities to meet the demands of unprecedented population growth and new home construction.
