Kamloops mayor says 'deportations' could risk housing market
Kamloops is one of many BC cities badly squeezed for housing, but its mayor suggested too much supply in the rental pool could collapse the real estate market.
Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson made the surprising suggestion that impending "deportations" of five million people could swing the housing market too far the other way and risk putting developers in the red, while the city he leads is faced with vacancy rates below the national average and housing targets imposed by the province.
"I think right now what's moving forward is they're asking people from different countries to move out of Canada and, if not, they will be deported," Hamer-Jackson said. "Maybe I'm wrong. If somebody can prove me wrong, that'd be fine."
The claim of five million temporary residents poised to leave has been floated by a Conservative MP, but it's a dubious claim that appears to run roughshod of other statistics, even those published by Statistics Canada which put the country's total temporary residents at around three million in 2024. Stats Can puts the BC total at around 540,000 with less than half of them students, while the Globe and Mail reports just 1.2 million across Canada are expected to leave by the end of this year.
However, Conservative MP Tom Kmiec said there were 4.9 million temporary visas to expire in 2025 and asked Immigration Minister Marc Miller about the government's plan to address them last month. Miller said those who don't have them extended are expected to leave voluntarily, according to the National Post.
Whether there will be any sort of mass deportations has not, so far, been floated by the federal government, but it struck as a concern for Hamer-Jackson when the developer for one of the projects spoke of the both risks behind new housing builds and the demand they be built.
Gary Reed of A and T Developments said Kamloops is "not even close" to meeting the demand for housing, while Kelowna has seen some improvements with a recently-rising rental vacancy rate after years of new builds.
READ MORE: Huge jump in Kelowna's vacancy rate a boon for new tenants
"You mentioned the decline in rent in Kelowna, and I lived in the day in the 80s when a lot of builders went broke because they overbuilt, rates went up and things like that. I, myself, lost a lot of money on a house," Hamer-Jackson said. "But, does it not concern you at all that the Canadian government is asking right now five million people to leave the country or they're going to be deporting—take a look at the reduction in students—does that less five million not concern you?"
Reed responded to say they look at "every metric," but Kamloops is far from meeting the need. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the city is below the national vacancy rate with 1.4 per cent last year.
He was speaking about a proposed Valleyview apartment project, which residents in the area oppose even spurring a petition that gathered more than 300 signatures.
It was the most most contentious of three proposed rental builds on the Jan. 29 council agenda and while Hamer-Jackson voted against it, he only cited supposed deportations and the loss of temporary residents bringing a glut to the rental market.
City councillors spent almost no time on his suggestion that deportations could risk collapsing the housing market, except for councillor Nancy Bepple who said Canada deports several thousand people per year, not millions.
"There is a huge reduction in international student visas getting granted in Canada, but students that are not getting a visa are not arriving in Canada, they are not being deported," she said.
Foreign student visas have been drastically cut over the last year which is, in part, an effort to address strain on Canada's housing market. Whether it will have an effect, particularly in Kamloops, is yet to be seen, but Hamer-Jackson seemed to suggest the pendulum may swing too far the other way —a notion that wasn't entertained by fellow councillors.
"I for one am not expecting four million people to be deported from Canada and I think with the growth of our city, we need this type of housing," Bepple said.
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Hamer-Jackson voted against the new six-storey, 20-unit Valleyview apartment, while all others voted in favour. Councillor Dale Bass was not present as she is out of the country and councillor Margot Middleton cited a conflict of interest.
It was a proposal that caught the ire of area residents concerned about the density and blocked mountain views it would bring. Though some councillors echoed some of the concerns opposing residents brought forth, particularly over traffic impacts, they reasoned the need for housing and incoming densification of many Kamloops neighbourhoods trumped those issues. City staff, meanwhile, said they will be studying traffic impacts closely.
"What impacted me was listening to the residents," Hamer-Jackson told iNFOnews.ca, when asked what swayed his vote against the apartment complex.
It's not clear how much the potential loss of an unknown number of temporary residents affected his vote, but he added council has approved many developments that haven't yet gone up. He also said the Kelson Group's massive City Gardens project adding rentals to one of its towers is a "red flag."
"It's up to the developer, but I'm just airing caution," he said, when asked about whether builder financing affected his vote.
Though Kamloops is facing similar housing targets imposed on many BC cities from the provincial government, he cast doubt over whether the need is evenly spread across the population.
"I think for our residents, we've got a lot of apartments around town," the mayor said. "Are they full? The people that are struggling are the single moms with two kids, single dads with two kids or seniors."
Hamer-Jackson didn't raise the same concern over a loss in demand for following proposals and voted in favour.
Middleton cited a conflict with another apartment that got council approval, also headed by A and T Developments. At 925 Notre Dame Drive, it will replace what's currently a liquidation store with a six-storey, 128-unit apartment building.
The third rental, at five storeys, won't be as tall and includes only 13 units at 1712 Tranquille Road. It will still be subject to a public hearing before council considers giving final approval.
All three are likely to be given ten-year tax exemptions, which council implemented to entice development. Once approved, they will pay the property tax value for what they were assessed at before redevelopment until the end of those ten years.
If built, the three projects would bring 261 new rental homes to Kamloops.
— This story was updated at 8:55 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 to clarify the 1712 Tranquille Road development will go to public hearing before council considers it again.
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