Dollars & Sense
Quarterly Question · Q2 2026
Housing Growth & Fiscal Sustainability

What BC finance leaders are telling us about housing growth & fiscal sustainability.

30
Responding BC local
government finance teams
47%
No full lifecycle
financial model in place
93%
Finance involved late, mid-stream,
or varies significantly
In partnership withCivicInfo BC
Dollars & Sense  ·  Quarterly Question  ·  Housing Growth
Published May 2026 · gfoabc.ca
About these findings
These findings reflect the views of GFOABC finance leaders who voluntarily responded to the Quarterly Question survey — a self-selecting group of local governments across British Columbia. The survey was completed in April 2026, more than two years after the November 2023 wave of provincial housing legislation (Bills 44, 46, and 47), and two months after the February 2026 provincial budget, which reallocated $1.4 billion from the housing strategy over three years.
How to read these results
These percentages reflect the share of members who responded to each question, not the share of all BC local governments. 30 local governments responded; where two colleagues from the same organization replied, only one response was retained. Calculations use n=30 (n=29 for Finding 06, where one respondent skipped). Multi-select questions — where members could select more than one option — are labelled as such, and individual local governments are not identified to protect respondent confidentiality. The goal is to surface directional patterns in member concerns, not produce province-wide estimates.
Perspectives from
30 local governments
across British Columbia
Finding 01 Lifecycle sustainability

47% of responding members say they do not yet have a full lifecycle financial model in place.

Click a row to focus  ·  Single-select · share of responding members
Finding 02 Finance involvement

93% of responding members report late, mid-stream, or significantly variable finance involvement in housing-growth decisions.

93%
Late, mid-stream, or inconsistent involvement
Hover a segment or legend row  ·  Single-select · share of responding members
Finding 03 Greatest financial risks

The two most-cited risks are infrastructure lifecycle funding and operating costs outpacing revenue.

Hover a row to highlight  ·  Multi-select — percentages are share of responding members selecting each option, not share of mentions
Finding 04 Cost balance

10% of responding members say costs are appropriately shared between developers and current and future taxpayers.

← Fees inadequateUnsure · manageableFees appropriate →
Click a segment or legend item  ·  Single-select · share of responding members
Finding 05 Capital plan impact

73% of responding members report some form of growth-related pressure on their capital plan.

Hover a segment  ·  Single-select · share of responding members
Finding 06 Communication confidence

10% of responding members report feeling very confident communicating long-term risks to council.

Hover a bar  ·  Single-select · share of responding members (one skipped)
Finding 07 The single biggest change

Two provincial requests tied as the top single-biggest-change response.

Tiles sized by share of responding members  ·  Single-select