About this series
The Globe is reporting from cities and towns in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia to hear from residents about the issues affecting their communities and their votes in the municipal elections. Explore the entire series here.
You don’t need to cruise far along Beach Drive to be enthralled by what you see.
Garry oaks, with their glorious, gnarled branches, beseech you to stop and marvel. The waters of the Juan de Fuca and Haro Straits shimmer in the near distance. Turn a corner and you gaze enviously at golfers approaching greens hugging the shoreline at the very photogenic (and very private) Victoria Golf Club. Continue a bit further and you’ll pass large Tudor-style homes and mansions of grey stone hiding behind ivy-covered castle-like walls.
Those who live to the east of Foul Bay Road, and to certain points north and south, call the municipality of Oak Bay home. Downtown Victoria exists four kilometres to the west.
Open this photo in gallery:
In Oak Bay, B.C., British pubs like The Penny Farthing cater to a community with deep anglophile roots.
Once upon a time, the road dividing the two communities was known as The Tweed Curtain, a cheeky reference to the haughty, affluent suburb that existed beyond its imaginary flannel border – one that promoted a strong British heritage with its tea rooms and private schools. While times changed elsewhere over the years, Oak Bay was happy to maintain (and closely guard) the status quo. And then Bill 44 came along.
In the fall of 2023, David Eby’s NDP government passed a law permitting small-scale multiunit housing – think laneway houses, secondary suites, multiplexes – on lots previously restricted to single-family or duplex homes. The government also imposed new housing quotas along with it.
The NDP has defended the legislation as a means of tackling the province’s affordable housing crisis. Various forecasts have shown that there is a severe housing shortage in B.C., especially “missing middle” homes that offer more space for young families than many high-rise condos do.
Open this photo in gallery:
David Eby, whose B.C. New Democrats are headed into an election on Oct. 24, passed a law three years ago to stimulate more multiplex housing in places such as Oak Bay.Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press
Feedback on the NDP’s density initiative has been mixed. In many jurisdictions, multiplex buildings that have gone up on corner lots or on big pieces of property, and whose character and style have not clashed with existing homes, have been applauded. But there have also been instances where big, ugly four, five and sixplexes have been erected in the middle of city blocks, on small pieces of property, dwarfing smaller, older homes beside them.
Similar complaints have been registered in cities across the country where multiplexes have been proposed to address housing challenges.
Not surprisingly, housing has become a central focus of the current municipal elections in B.C. that happen Saturday and which overlap with a general election that will take place a week later.
The stakes for Oak Bay, an aging community that prides itself on the stately, pristine appearance of many of its neighbourhoods, couldn’t be higher. For many, Bill 44 threatens to undermine the value of the single most important investment they have – their home.
Oak Bay residents will choose their next mayor, six councillors and an area school trustee on Oct. 17. They’ll be back at the polls a week later for the B.C. provincial election.
A son of Oak Bay, Brian Smith became the town’s mayor from 1974 to 1979, a position that launched him into provincial politics and eventually a role as B.C.’s attorney-general under the Social Credit government of the day. As a politician, he was the perfect embodiment of Oak Bay’s upper-crust repute with his crisp Oxford shirts, blue blazers and grey flannel pants. Today, at 92, Mr. Smith remains as informed and as combative as ever, especially when it comes to Bill 44.
“Oak Bay certainly has had a reputation as being anti-development,” he said, sitting in the living room of his Rockland townhome. “But I don’t think that’s the case any more. People accept we need new forms of housing, but they don’t want it jammed down their throats the way the NDP is doing.”
Because of the continuing provincial election, B.C.’s housing ministry said it could not comment on criticisms of Bill 44.
Mr. Smith says some large multiplexes that have been erected have, in some cases, rendered older, existing smaller homes beside them “stranded assets.”
“[The government] says this is all about creating affordable housing,” Mr. Smith continued. “Well, I can tell you right now they won’t be building affordable housing in Oak Bay. Land values are too high. They’re building multiplexes in which the homes can cost more than $2-million. That’s not affordable for a lot of people. Hardly.
“Let’s get off this socialist guilt trip the NDP is trying to put us on – share the pain and all that crap.”
Brian Smith was Oak Bay’s mayor in the 1970s; Kevin Murdoch holds that office today.
The man who has had responsibility for navigating the real-world effects of the new housing law is nursing a coffee at Ottavio’s in the heart of Oak Bay village. Kevin Murdoch is running for re-election as the town’s mayor after eight years in office.
Mr. Murdoch is all for new forms of housing – in fact, he ran successfully on that very policy in 2018. He’d like to see the community grow. The population currently is about 18,000 and has been roughly that for decades. Mr. Murdoch believes most of his constituents support new housing but not just any housing and not just anywhere.
He prefers to see new multiplex infills go up on corner lots, for instance, where they are less jarring than in the middle of a block. The city has imposed some restrictions that prevent new builds from encroaching on neighbouring properties, although it hasn’t worked perfectly.
The fact is, much of the residential heritage-style architecture in Oak Bay is distinct and charming. Many homes were built decades ago in the Tudor Revival design, with steep gabled roofs and prominent brick chimneys. Some are West Coast contemporary. Others boast deep, Arts and Craft-style overhangs. Plopping an unsightly multiplex monstrosity into that mix is fraught.
Obviously, the provincial government’s strong-arm approach to housing quotas has not gone over well. “We’re seeing a lot of pushback on housing that didn’t exist before,” said the 56-year-old Mr. Murdoch, driving through the streets of his community to show The Globe and Mail where he thinks new multiplex units have worked and where they haven’t.
“They [the province] have made housing a lot more political than it used to be.”
Open this photo in gallery:Open this photo in gallery:
The multiplex at top left is a recent addition to Oak Bay; the one at bottom is still under construction.
Under Bill 44, introduced in the fall of 2023, Oak Bay is required to build (and have occupied) 664 new housing units by Sept. 30, 2028. At the end of 2024, Oak Bay had completed just 16 new units of its government-imposed quota of 56 for that year. In 2025, the target was 138 new units, Oak Bay built 36 – or 26 per cent. As of June of this year, the community has completed-to-occupancy 73 net new units.
If you don’t think that’s much, consider that between 2019 and 2022, Oak Bay averaged two net new homes a year.
Mayoral opponent Sam Holland said Oak Bay’s housing issues extend beyond new multiplex units going up. There are people living in big homes that have skyrocketed in value, which come with having to pay some of the highest municipal taxes in the province – $10,000 a year for the average household, according to the city. But many are living on small, fixed incomes.
“This has been a problem for years,” Mr. Holland said in an interview. “These people desperately need different types of housing they can downsize to. The city has been late to address this for years. Council has been reactive to their plight instead of proactive.”
Open this photo in gallery:
Whoever wins Saturday’s election will work out of Municipal Hall, which has a statue of two acorns out front.
Christopher Causton was mayor of Oak Bay from 1997 to 2011. He backs up what Mr. Holland says about the tough financial straits older people in Oak Bay are in. “I call it genteel poverty,” Mr. Causton said in a phone call.
According to the 2021 census, nearly 68 per cent of the community’s population is 65 or older.
Mr. Causton said another recent housing-related move the NDP made that has hurt seniors in the community was changes to the program allowing those 55 and over to defer their property taxes until they sell their home. Previously, people taking advantage of the program paid an interest rate of prime minus 2 per cent. Now, it’s been changed to prime plus 2 per cent, a move the government made to discourage those taking advantage of the program, not out of need but greed.
“There are many seniors in Oak Bay who are furious about this,” Mr. Causton said. “They feel helpless. They see a provincial government using a sledgehammer to hit municipalities with Bill 44 and are now hitting people, many cash poor, with changes to the tax-deferment program.
“These are huge issues in both the municipal election and the provincial election, and I mean huge.”
Kevin Murdoch, meantime, has learned a thing or two in his time as mayor but none greater than the importance that the home holds for people.
“I’ve seen grown people cry at meetings over some issue related to their home in which they feel threatened in some way,” said the mayor. “You realize how important their home is. It’s everything. It’s their single biggest investment so anything that compromises that is serious stuff.”
Local Matters: More from The Globe and Mail
The Decibel podcast
In pockets of Vancouver and Toronto, the population has shrunk by up to 40 per cent over 50 years, even as the cities grow overall. Has the solution to the housing crisis been there all along? Architecture critic Alex Bozikovic spoke with The Decibel about the demographics and politics at play. Subscribe for more episodes.
Communities in focus
Maple Ridge, B.C.: How a contested supportive housing project won over its neighbours
Brandon, Man.: The Wheat City has a problem with derelict buildings
Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.: Trade war and local elections spark conversations about change