Whitehorse Daily Star

Image title

Photo by Vince Fedoroff

COMMITTEE CONSIDERED – City council, seen at its meeting on Monday evening, is contemplating the creation of an advisory committee to study the serious housing crunch.

Council ponders establishment of housing committee

City council expressed an interest at its meeting Monday to consider the creation of an advisory committee to look into the local housing shortage.

By Chuck Tobin on December 7, 2021

City council expressed an interest at its meeting Monday to consider the creation of an advisory committee to look into the local housing shortage.

Council is scheduled to vote next week on whether to instruct city administration to prepare a proposal indicating what would be involved in forming a housing advisory committee, what its mandate and terms of reference would be, and how much it would cost.

Council’s preference was to provide administration with direction next week to return in January with the information.

Coun. Dan Boyd put the suggestion of a housing advisory committee on the floor for discussion Monday evening.

“It is well-known we are in a bit of a housing supply problem,” Boyd told his colleagues. “Costs are going through the roof.”

Boyd said both the city and the Yukon government are supposed to have an inventory of housing lots available for sale over the counter, but that hasn’t happened in 10 years.

He’s hearing people can’t move to Whitehorse because they can’t get housing.

Boyd said contractors and developers have expressed concern with the city’s permitting process.

An advisory committee, he said, would assist in examining and advising on the city’s permitting process, and exploring if there are other ways to do it.

Boyd’s suggestion to form a committee and provide administration direction to come back in January with terms of reference received unanimous support.

Mayor Laura Cabott noted council’s ability to appoint advisory committees is in a bylaw passed back in 2017, but that the city has not used it yet.

Like Boyd, Cabott said the city has just not been able to keep up with the housing demand.

“It’s not for lack of effort, but we just keep getting further and further behind,” the mayor said.

Coun. Jocelyn Curteanu voiced her support but recommended caution.

The city, she said, must ensure the work of the advisory committee is not redundant with anything the Yukon government might be doing.

There are many different aspects to housing needs, she pointed out.

Curteanu said she would like to see the committee focus on things that are achievable in the short term.

She also noted she would be hesitant to appoint a committee without knowing what sort of resources would be involved.

A couple of members of council noted the housing issue was on everybody’s mind during October’s municipal election campaign.

Forming an advisory committee is an opportunity to look outside the box and bring the private sector into the discussion, said Coun. Ted Laking.

“I think this is a huge opportunity,” he said. “The citizens of Whitehorse take this issue very seriously.”

Acting city manager Jeff O’Farrell said if council instructs administration to pursue the possibility of an advisory council, staff could have a proposal in January outlining the committee’s mandate, terms of reference and what resources would be involved.

Council, he said, can also instruct administration to conduct more research into the possibility of a housing advisory committee.

Comments (9)

Up 4 Down 1

Oh come on on Dec 13, 2021 at 8:30 am

Council, your mandate is simple. Your job is not to virtue signal or make symbolic gestures. You are meant to make decisions to keep the city functioning.

In this case, you just need to rezone areas and tell the NIMBYs where to go. Densify downtown. Build up. Build out. When the NIMBYs complain about not having a nice view of the river, at least it’ll be due to new buildings and not a massive pile of discarded beer cans, vodka bottles and syringes along the river path.

Up 18 Down 1

Groucho d'North on Dec 10, 2021 at 9:11 am

Perhaps amend the OCP to include development of the land across the river (Wickstrom Rd) and the land above -west of- the Copper Haul Rd. There is also land on the east side of the highway down Kathleen Rd. Time to expand some more, all this in-fill is doing is devaluing properties.

Up 13 Down 2

Mike on Dec 7, 2021 at 9:27 pm

Look into the homeless problem will ya? Thanks. The liberals are as close to a Babar show as possible. Let's organize a committee to investigate the facts when everyone already knows the facts but does squat about it.

Up 21 Down 4

bonanzajoe on Dec 7, 2021 at 7:34 pm

Another Committee. Can I join? I like free coffee and donuts.

Up 20 Down 1

Politico on Dec 7, 2021 at 4:29 pm

What's to look into, we don't have enough lots. Instead of a committee maybe come up with some ideas to solve the problem!

Up 10 Down 0

Bart Evers on Dec 7, 2021 at 4:15 pm

How many government employees do we have exactly Matthew?
I think we are along 6,000 for exactly how many working class people?

Up 0 Down 12

Yukon star on Dec 7, 2021 at 3:45 pm

No rent cap yet that's the problem.

Up 44 Down 5

Why isn't the tank farm being developed? on Dec 7, 2021 at 2:59 pm

I had secured one of the new lots for sale at the tank farm. Would the City like to explain their policy and why all of the lots went off the market?

Up 51 Down 10

Matthew on Dec 7, 2021 at 1:44 pm

Oh my.. more councils, more commitees, but nothing will get done because they aren't going to the root of the problem.. which ironically is big government.. LOL

Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar

In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.

Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.