In May of 2025, Courtenay was added to B.C.'s Housing Target Order and told build 1,334 net housing units within the next five years. As of Sept. 1, these orders are in effect.
The province said the new housing targets are an outcome of the Speculation and Vacancy Tax, which was expanded to include Courtenay earlier this year.
However, along with the increased housing demand, the City of Courtenay says services such as schools, roads, and healthcare will also need attention to keep up with the demand.
Mayor Bob Wells agrees that the provincial government needs to provide support with its resources for the community, along with these new targets.
When it comes to Courtenay’s schools, Wells partners with the board of trustees to address school-related needs
“Then there’s a hospital, medical staff and one of the big things most people don’t realize… in the talk about the City of Courtenay is how much work is impacted by the rovince. The road from Cliff Avenue up to the Inland Highway, which is the parkway, is owned by the province, so they’re in charge of that,” said Wells.
With roads being a vital part of the infrastructure of the City of Courtenay, it is important that the community knows that several of the roadways are controlled by the provincial government and need their approval for improvements.
“(When) you turn left on Cliff Avenue, all the way down the 17th Street Bridge, that is also the province (along with) the bypass and going up Ryan Road, all the way to the ferry to Powell River, so there’s a lot of our road infrastructure,” added Wells.
While the province needs to help with road infrastructure, Wells is focusing on not only meeting the housing goals of the Housing Target Order but has been surpassing what the provincial government has asked for in previous years.
“It’s all about housing, housing, housing. We have regular market housing, then we have our non-market housing and then we have our shelter-related housing. Those sorts of spectrums of main buckets of housing are what I mean when I say housing, housing, housing.”
While the City of Courtenay does their job of meeting the housing needs of a growing population, Wells expects the province to meet the city where it needs the most help.
“Our expectation of the province, it is going to have to step up,” said Wells.
