this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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We need more housing density in cities, but that's never happening with municipal governments getting stuck in NIMBY hell while the people who actually want dense housing to be built do nothing to petition the government
Well, the cities are ultimately subject to the provinces, so if we can get enough support for this kind of stuff on the provincial level it can be used to overrule the NIMBYism that tends to dominate municipal politics. Of course, the problem with that is that most of the current slate of provincial governments would most definitely not be on board with this sort of thing. But hope springs eternal, I suppose.
BC is making progress here! The provincial government is planning on introducing legislation that effectively rezones all single family lots to allow for duplexes, triplexes, and if space permits, quadplexes. If the land is next to transit then some higher level of density is also permitted. Finally, they're threatening cities that don't build enough housing that they might take away their ability to control building permits, zoning, etc.
The people the municipalities are beholden to are the very same people the province is beholden to. The only way the province would seek to overrule a municipality is if sufficient people in other municipalities recognize a benefit that a single municipality is overlooking. However, your comment suggests that said NIMBYism is present across all of the municipalities, so there is no such divergence here.
Well what complicates it is the differing participation rates between municipal and provincial elections. NIMBYs don't tend to dominate municipal politics because they form a huge voting bloc, but rather a particularly motivated voting bloc in a low turnout environment. Provincial elections don't have the greatest turnout, but still tend to get much higher turnout rates than municipal. In that difference you can maybe find the electorate provincially to make this stuff happen where it doesn't turn out on the city level.
Governance doesn't happen at election time. That is only the hiring process to select the employee you wish to work with going forward. Governance happens after the election when you are down at the constituency office (or equivalent) working with and guiding the employee you hired.
I suspect, and experience corroborates, that those who think they can throw their employee to the wolves, never speaking to them again, and everything will work out just fine at the municipal level are the same people who make the same mistake at the provincial level. Similarly, the people who understand that democracy is a process of continual hard work understand that no matter which government it is.
As such, the NIMBYs who are constantly talking to their councillor are no doubt the same NIMBYs constantly talking to their MPP/MLA. And those who leave life to chance, hoping that their hired employee is a mind reader...