Kamloops councillors allege housing fund rejections were politically motivated

KAMLOOPS — A pair of Kamloops councillors allege the decision to deny communities like Kamloops a share of funding from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) was politically motivated.

The City of Kamloops will be sending a letter to a handful of members of parliament, voicing its disappointment after the most recent application for $11.9 million was not successful. Its initial application for $15.6 million was also denied in March last year.

“We did work closely with the staff from CMHC on our applications,” Marvin Kwiatkowski, the city’s Development, Engineering and Sustainability Director said during Tuesday’s (May 27) meeting. “They felt we were strong on the first one, even better on the second one and then we were notified in March, fairly recently, that we were again unsuccessful.”

“We know some of our comparables received well over $30 million, so it wasn’t what we were hoping to see.”

Councillors voted 8-0 to write a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Gregor Robertson, Shadow Minister of Housing Scott Aitchison, as well as Kamloops Conservative MPs Frank Caputo and Mel Arnold.

“We need an explanation and I’d love to have one from federal government staff,” said Councillor Stephen Karpuk. “It would be a great opportunity for them to explain how this political decision was made rather than through an amicable and fair scoring matrix.”

Karpuk, who suggested the city write the letter, said Kamloops should have been considered as it also has some of the most infrastructure needs in North America.

“We’re not a flat place. We have all sorts of things. We’re expansive in our size and geographic extent and we have the needs like so many other communities,” Karpuk added.

Councillor Katie Neustaeter also alleged Tuesday that some of the funding decisions may have been politically motivated.

“When you look at the map and you look at who received funds, it will hard for me to believe that this isn’t politically motivated as opposed to a matrix that actually makes sense,” Neustaeter said. “There are not a lot of blue territories [that] were funded.”

She also said cities like Kamloops “are at the mercy of the legislation” put in place by senior levels of government and that cities depend on the provincial and federal governments for support in order to “get the work done.”

“We have the exact same objectives — we want housing, we need housing and the stripes of the party that represents us in Ottawa should not determine whether we’re cared for in equable ways,’” Neustaeter added.

“I think it’s important that the political conversation is also about that the need of communities are not defined by what party represents them on Parliament Hill.”

Neustaeter also said there appears to be a disconnect between the federal and provincial governments when it comes to housing.

“It’s a little bit frustrating that we achieved housing targets but we don’t have the two levels of government working together,” she said. “Because if we receive housing targets, you would think there would be some communication between the two levels.”

“In order to meet [housing targets], we need those two levels of governments to talk and to advocate on our behalf and explain the need that Kamloops has. All of the reasons we were identified for those targets are the exact reasons we should have received dollars.”

Kamloops has been tasked with building 4,236 net new housing units by Sept. 2028. While it was included in the first set of communities that were subject to housing targets, that list has since increased to include 42 total communities.

In a letter last December, BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon also said while Kamloops had missed its first-year housing targets as of last September, he “appreciates” the effort that was made.

“Kamloops has shown progress by developing and reinforcing partnerships that will result in more housing being built, such as establishing a memorandum of understanding with BC Housing and identifying sites for transfer to the Kamloops Community Land Trust,” he said.

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), there were 235 applications for $400 million that was available as part of the second round of the Housing Accelerator Fund. They said 62 applications were successful, and that “only the most ambitious applications were selected.”

“The evaluation process for both the first and second round of HAF was highly competitive, with many strong applications received and not all could be funded,” CMHC spokesperson Leonard Catling told CFJC Today in a statement.

Catling also said while all HAF funds are now committed, CMHC is “committed to working with communities to seek positive housing solutions through other National Housing Strategy (NHS) programs.”

As for the initial $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, there were 544 applications that were made and only 179 that were funded. The city wrote to former Housing Minister Sean Fraser last April after that first rejection.

Kamloops councillors are also expected to press government ministers at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention in Ottawa between Thursday and Sunday (May 29 until June 1).

“There’s a real need to change the relationship between local governments and the federal government in terms of funding,” Councillor Nancy Bepple said. “Hopefully, when we’re in Ottawa, we can help make a change in that direction.”