The Tofino Housing Corporation is searching for a new captain as Interim Executive Director Ian Scott has announced his resignation. Scott carried the ‘interim’ tag for over five years and is moving on to a position with Pacifica Housing as of April 24.
“I am proud to have been part of the process to restart THC and to help initiate the development of new rental housing in partnership with Catalyst Community Developments Society,” Scott wrote in a report to Tofino’s municipal council. “My role with THC was always supposed to be ‘interim’ and now is a good time to transition to new leadership as THC moves towards its next phase of housing work.”
Scott gave his final presentation to council during April 11’s regular meeting, providing a year-end update on 2022 and suggesting the key ingredients needed to move forward.
“It’s been a great pleasure. I’m proud of the successes we have had, but also there’s been some disappointments along the way,” he said, adding the process to recruit his replacement is well underway.
“We know that obviously housing is an issue that both businesses and individuals are struggling with in Tofino. With 72 new units of rental housing coming later this year, that’s going to upset the market a little bit and we’ll see what the outcome is of that.”
He noted Tofino opened a 14-unit housing complex dubbed Creekside and is nearing completion of 37 units at Headwaters South and received funding from the BC Housing’s Community Housing Fund for 35 units at Headwaters North, which are expected to open later this year.
He added a duplex plan did not proceed due to a lack of applicants.
“Our self evaluation of that really is a combination of the price point being too high for the people who are looking to buy and maybe not as deep a demand as we had understood for three-bedroom, family-oriented, homes,” he said.
Scott said a big focus moving forward will be on the selection of the next locations for housing projects, noting eight sights are currently being reviewed.
He said “key ingredients” for the corporation’s success include having access to district-owned land at Sharp Road for Creekside and the DL-11 property for both Headwaters locations, roughly valued around $3.7 million, as well as the district’s support.
“The combo of us working together has made it possible to move these things forward,” he said.
He added that partnering with Catalyst Community Developments Society strengthened grant applications to higher levels of governments yielding about $19 million from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and BC Housing.
The THC collected about $147,000 from the airbnb portion of Tofino’s Municipal, Regional and District Tax, formerly known as the additional hotel room tax, in 2022, a significant downgrade from the $274,173 it collected in 2019.
He suggested the approximately $150,000 of MRDT funding will likely not be enough to sustain a strong pursuit of housing and noted the THC had asked for a portion of the regular MRDT that’s currently going to Tourism Tofino’s budget.
“We were politely declined by the district to consider a process that might look at allocating some of the money that is going to Tourism Tofino to come to THC to further the housing work. And, also, there’s that outstanding question of how is it only $150,000 this year when back in 2019 it was $275,000? Tourism hasn’t gone down and there’s still lots of people going to Airbnb properties.”
He said the THC is currently looking at eight district-owned sites for further housing projects, noting though that an initial plan had been to sell some properties and focus on DL114 received pushback from community members concerned about losing the Tonquion Park’s trees and scenery.
“If we’re not getting access to a large portion of DL114 it’s unlikely we have land to sell,” he said. “The idea was that we’d have land to work with to help raise revenue to be able to develop new housing as well as wanting a mixed-use neighbourhood in the Tonquin area.”
He suggested looking at potential taxation sources as well as determining which sites the community would support being used for housing projects.
“There’s the question of, is there additional taxpayer contributions needed to support the overall infrastructure of housing to have a vibrant sustainable community,” he said. “That really is a challenge for the next executive director to work with you, to work with the community to figure out where new housing goes and how it is going to be developed…All that is a story yet to be written.”
Coun. Sarah Sloman asked about the failed duplex project, suggesting other municipalities are finding six-plex developments more cost effective.
Scott responded that there are parking constraints on the THC’s smaller properties.
“I know there’s efforts to do less parking and encourage developers like the THC and others not to have too much parking, but Tofino is still a community at the end of the road and has concerns about what is the right complement of parking,” he said, adding concerns were raised about the parking available at the much larger Headwaters location.
Coun. Tom Stere thanked Scott for his five years of service and asked about funding opportunities for affordable housing that could be available from the provincial and federal governments.
“The work you’ve done has been exemplary. I thank you so much for the work to bring what I consider a very successful completion of projects to date,” Stere said.
Scott suggested federal dollars are running out as the CMHC is running on fumes.
“The grant dollars have dried up,” he said. “Unless the federal government tops up that fund, there’s no money there. They are still lending money, but it’s that free money that makes a big difference to creating housing that people in a community like Tofino can afford.”
He added that Tofino has received “more than its share from an economic and population point of view,” from the provincial government already and many communities are in need of affordable housing funding.
“What happens with the CMHC and new provincial funding programs and how they would apply in Tofino is difficult or impossible to predict,” he said.
“Will there be new programs coming that you can take advantage of? Probably. And, the best way to position yourselves to get that money is to do what we’ve done in the last five years, which is to be serious players at the table, taking leadership both at a community and district level, putting money on the table to attract that senior government funding and potentially earn a bigger share than what other communities have accomplished because they’re not taking the bolder steps that we did over the last number of years.”
Mayor Dan Law said he felt like applauding Scott for his efforts steering the THC.
“I think about where it was five years ago and where it is now and I just want to say that you’ve done a tremendous job. I do not think that we’d have the affordable housing that we have now, or any of the projects, without your hard work and expertise,” Law said. “Who knows what the future holds but I think we’re dedicated to trying really hard to keep our affordable housing projects going forward.”
Scott said his tenure was buoyed by a long list of local housing champions and “so many people involved and so many years of effort.”
“It’s nice to get some recognition for the work that I’ve done, but it really does take a community…It takes many many more people than just myself. I’ve been a talking head but there’s really been so much dedication and work by so many people and I think that needs to be the same focus going forward. It’s a community effort,” he said. “It does take perseverance. Building housing and getting it to a price point that people can afford is a nasty challenge that we have in front of us and it’s not getting any easier, it’s only going to get harder…There’s a ‘can-do’ attitude in Tofino that needs to persist if you’re going to be successful.”
andrew.bailey@westerlynews.ca
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