Something very interesting is happening in Vancouver:
Much like in the US, Canada is experiencing a severe housing affordability crisis, and the country’s indigenous communities, known as First Nations, have long suffered disproportionately from inadequate housing.
But Canada’s indigenous communities are fighting to address the issue. In Vancouver alone, several First Nations are leading a major push to build housing on indigenous-owned land, in some cases partnering with the federal government to build entirely new communities that will house tens of thousands of people, while generating wealth for generations of First Nations members to come.
Ground has already been broken on one of these projects, 11 towers with 6,000 homes being built by the Squamish Nation on a 12-acre piece of land near downtown Vancouver, Canada’s most expensive real-estate market. The Squamish people were forced off of this land in the early 20th century and finally won back their ancestral territory about 20 years ago.
That’s awesome. They don’t need the same permits as the other developers in the over-regulated city. The 99 year lease tends to keep prices lower.
How ironic the first one appears to be on the old brewery site.
property rights: Interesting. However, there won’t be any beer in the future according to the BBC, due to, you guessed it, climate change.
“Today’s silly climate scare from the BBC: Beer threatened by Climate Change”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/27/no-more-beer/
Well I do not know the answer to the question you postulate.
What I do know from experience of the high density, high rise building boom in London, England in the 1960’s as part of the recovery from war damage is that the construction was shoddy and poorly received, most of those buildings were demolished within 30 years.
To answer a question with a question-are the buildings subject to BC Building Code requirements? And even if they are, a previous building boom in Vancouver during the 1990’s gave rise to the leaky condo disaster (because of poorly thought through government vapour barrier requirements) which frequently led to expensive retrofits, often costing as much as 40% of the original building cost.
It should also be pointed out that the financing is 100% from the federal government, this is not some great entrepreneurial feat performed by the first nations.
And lastly high density zoning which is unavailable to private developers will probably lead to all the social ills that previously mentioned 1960’s London construction suffered from.
Frankly the whole experiment is fraught with potential known problems. Perhaps the NIMBYS are correct in this instance.
Lastly, will the First Nations be subject to turdeau’s latest blunder the renters bill-of-rights? I doubt it.
Well, all bldg codes in Canada are top down, national-provincial-municipal, so yes they apply, but only to the level you live at.
I question the wisdom of this from the aboriginal side, with nothing but their well being in mind.
Isn’t the technical term for a tightly-packed, deliberately ethnically homogenous residential zone a “ghetto”? And has no one learned from the experience of countless major US cities what tends to happen in “The PJs”?
Not NIMBYing or anything here, just pointing out the old adage about what happens to those who fail to learn from history.
Well reasoned
Another cultural disaster in the making.
Imagine “buying” (renting) a condo on Squamish First Nations land only to later find out your money went to the brother of the chief and not the band. Then, you’re in a pile of shit up to your waist, coffee break is over, and you can now pay the band or move out. Welcome to Canada.
I believe First Nations were in many cases screwed out of their land. Just make sure the right people are benefiting because the wolves hold the keys.
I had relatives living in the Point Gray area when the band there decided to increase their lease fee by 1700%
I wonder if they’ll find any “sacred sites” on the land and demand that all construction come to a halt. Or does that only happen when they’re building pipelines?
If they lived in that area for 3000 years, you’d think there’d still be some bones around, wouldn’t you.
I thought development of residences on Indian land around Vancouver was a no-go since they seized a bunch of houses about 20 or 30 years ago from non-Indians after the leases expired instead of extending the leases. Buyer beware.
Now if they would only gd well get on with it and start building for-profit hospitals on their territory that would be fantastic. I’ve been waiting for the Indigenous to figure this out for a decade. Forget mining, trees, and blackjack. Can you imagine the revenue stream from a modern hospital campus built on “a 12 acre piece of land near downtown Vancouver” ? Casino X10 !
RNrn
Genius
“First Nations, have long suffered disproportionately from inadequate housing.”
Facts not in evidence, billions of dollars has been provided to them for housing, usually squandered or wasted by various “first nation” governments.
I’m well familiar with the Senakw development. It started years ago with the Squamish battling the Musqueam for title of this “summer camp”. The Squamish won, signed a deal with Westbank development (co owners Ian Gillespie and Jimmy Pattson) to design and develop the project. There are no roads, schools or significant amenities built in. No indians will live there. Likely will become the new Chinese colony on the West Coast (or maybe the avocado toast people will live there?) It’s on the south end of the Burrard Bridge and once fully inhabited will dump 60,000 into Kitsilano. We moved to Saskatchewan to avoid this.