Mayor Maja Tait is surprised to see Sooke on a list of communities being watched for higher housing targets when one of the main factors holding the district back is delays in funding from the province.
 
The district is among 47 municipalities in B.C. that need to speed up home construction or face penalties if those targets still need to be met as part of the new Housing Supply Act.
 
Municipalities on what some have called the "naughty list" must approve various housing types, such as townhomes, multi-family buildings, condos, and below-market housing.
 
"The communities that are part of the 47 know that they have housing challenges. So my hope is that communities will continue to do their work. We have been clear from the beginning, which is that we will use data to help inform which communities will be going to each phase of the Housing Supply Act, and that goal still remains the same," Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said.
 
Tait said the list is short-sighted and doesn't give a clear picture of what's happening at the municipal level.
 
All 13 municipalities in the Capital Regional District are on the list, including the rural communities of Metchosin and Highlands.
 
Sooke has 995 housing units in the construction or near-construction stage, ranging from single-family homes, to seniors apartments, to below-market housing.
 
"We're certainly not in the doing nothing category. I recognize we're in a housing crisis, and as a mid-size community, we're doing our utmost," Tait said.
 
Tait said the district had submitted numerous housing and infrastructure improvement applications that have been rejected by the province in recent months, including plans to build a $34 million senior housing complex on the district-owned property known as Lot A on Wadams Way.
 
The other concern is the need for more money to improve infrastructure, including upgrades to underground services, water, and wastewater facilities.
 
Tait said the Sooke Basin has an environmental problem, and a request for provincial grants to improve wastewater disposal was rejected.
 
If the money were available, it would have allowed the T'Sou-ke Nation to build housing.
 
"We can't greenlight houses that don't have amenities, and these are complicated and expensive services underground," she said.
 
Kahlon said the next step of the Housing Supply Act would be to lay out what targets the provincial government believes communities should be trying to achieve.
 
He said there is $50 million earmarked for communities across the province "to help them in their work to ensure that not only can they meet, and have the resources to do the the work required for the Housing Supply Act, but also to do the work around the policy changes that we're going to be bringing in this fall."
 
Sooke Coun. Al Beddows said he‘s mystified why there aren't more details from the province on the criteria for a community to be placed on the naughty list.
 
"I'm flabbergasted that we're on a list for meeting housing needs with all the building we've done in Sooke in the last five to seven years. You'd think we'd be at the top of the list of getting things done."
 
Kevin Laird.