Prime Minister Mark Carney and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim toured a modular-housing construction site in Burnaby on Monday morning, the latest stop in a federal effort to accelerate residential delivery in Canada’s most expensive housing market. The project, run by a partnership between BC Housing and a private modular fabricator in Squamish, is one of about 30 sites in the Vancouver region that the federal government has identified for streamlined approvals under the Housing Accelerator Fund.
Carney used a subsequent address to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade to confirm that Ottawa and the British Columbia government had opened formal talks on adjusting the application of the harmonised sales tax to new builds in the province. "An HST and DCCs deal for British Columbia is in the early stages of discussion," he said, referring also to municipal development cost charges. He did not commit to a specific concession.
Sim told reporters after the tour that Vancouver had streamlined the rezoning process for several mid-rise rental projects in the past quarter and that the city was on pace to issue more permits in 2026 than in any year since 2017. He pushed back against criticism that a separate motion he tabled this month — to review the Vancouver Building By-law and pause the Energize Vancouver Program — amounted to a retreat on climate commitments, calling it a "cost-of-construction sanity check."
A legal challenge has emerged in parallel against a proposed floating hotel beside the Vancouver Convention Centre, with petitioners arguing that public consultation was inadequate because the renderings shown to the public were misleading. The challenge is unrelated to the modular project but underscores the political risk of large, visible accommodations as the city prepares to host FIFA World Cup matches in 2026.
The BC Hotel Association said earlier in May that hotel demand for the World Cup window has so far underwhelmed expectations and blamed inconsistent messaging from local tourism agencies about pricing, availability and security arrangements. The association said it expects bookings to firm up in the final two months before kickoff.