Comox Valley 2026 Election Housing Series
On September 9, the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) named the first board of the Comox Valley Housing Authority. Eight people now oversee a public corporation set up to get more non-market rental housing built in the Comox Valley. (Comox Valley Regional District)
Its core local funding comes from property taxes, though not from every property in the region: the Town of Comox has stepped out of the service that pays for it. The regional board that takes office after the October 17 election will set the amount each year through the budget process.
What the authority is
The Comox Valley Housing Authority is a private corporation wholly owned by the regional district, set up under the BC Business Corporations Act. The CVRD board approved its creation on December 9, 2025, subject to provincial approval.
Its mandate is non-market rental housing for low- and moderate-income households. Its first functions are developing housing through partnerships with non-profits, acquiring land, and coordinating affordable housing work across the region.
The CVRD identifies land and early planning and design work as two of the biggest barriers for non-profit projects. The authority is meant to cover those costs so local projects can qualify for federal and provincial construction funding. Similar bodies already operate in Whistler, Tofino and the Capital Region around Victoria.
The inaugural board has four CVRD directors and four independent members: (Comox Valley Regional District)
- CVRD directors: Will Cole-Hamilton, Melanie McCollum, Vickey Brown and Jonathan Kerr
- Independent directors: Jordan Brietzke (Wiser Projects), Damien Duport (Pacific Swell Developments), Jerad Langille (Langille and Company) and Shane Colclough (Wachiay Friendship Centre)
Board orientation starts this fall. As of the December 2025 business plan presentation, specific unit targets had not been set; those are left to the authority’s board and staff.
Where the money comes from
The authority does not levy taxes itself. Its local funding runs through the CVRD’s Comox Valley Housing Service, a tax requisition on properties in the participating areas: Courtenay, Cumberland and Electoral Areas A, B and C. The CVRD also expects the authority to draw on grants and, eventually, some revenue of its own.
The Housing Service is older than the authority. It began in 2009 as the Emergency Shelter and Supportive Housing Land Acquisition Service. In 2025 the CVRD rewrote its purpose to cover non-market housing and funding for a CVRD-owned housing corporation.
The 2026 requisition is $880,000, unchanged from 2025, and the CVRD’s five-year plan holds it at that level through 2030. The 2025 draft budget carried $1,380,000 for the service; on February 25, 2025, the board cut it by $500,000 to $880,000, the “foundational” option from the CVRD’s housing feasibility work. Directors Ken Grant, Jonathan Kerr and Rich Hardy voted against that budget motion.
The original business model set aside roughly $250,000 a year for operations and $630,000 for land and project funding. The 2026 budget divides it differently for the start-up year: a $100,000 initial grant to the authority, about $80,000 for legal and contract work, about $8,000 in CVRD support services, and about $692,000 transferred to reserve. From 2027, the plan raises the annual grant to the authority to $250,000, with about $620,000 a year going to reserve. The service’s reserve opened 2026 at about $1.6 million and is projected to reach about $2.3 million by year-end and $4.8 million by 2030.
The bylaw also sets a maximum requisition: the greater of $1.5 million a year or $0.05592 per $1,000 of assessed value. The CVRD lists the 2026 maximum at $1.5 million. The board can raise the requisition up to that maximum through the normal budget process without going back to electors.
The first column below uses the CVRD’s adopted 2026 residential rate estimate of $0.0325 per $1,000. The second uses the maximum rate in the bylaw. Actual amounts vary with assessed value and the assessment roll in the participating areas.
| Assessed value | 2026 budget (approx.) | At maximum bylaw rate (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $16 | $28 |
| $700,000 | $23 | $39 |
| $865,000 | $28 | $48 |
| $1,200,000 | $39 | $67 |
The charge appears in the regional district portion of your property tax notice. Courtenay and Cumberland collect it for homes inside their boundaries; the Province collects it in the electoral areas.
The same 2025 approval process also raised the maximum on a separate CVRD service, Homelessness Supports, from $421,000 to $550,000 a year. Its 2026 requisition is $521,000. That service funds local organizations working on homelessness and is budgeted apart from the housing authority. Comox does not take part in it either. The February 2025 amendment to the Homelessness Supports service was adopted separately from Bylaw 850. (Comox Valley Regional District)
How it was approved
The CVRD used an Alternative Approval Process (AAP), which BC local governments can use in place of a referendum for certain bylaws. In an AAP, supporters do nothing. Electors who oppose the bylaw sign a response form. If at least 10 per cent of eligible electors sign, the board has to hold a referendum or drop the proposal.
The response window ran from January 15 to February 18, 2025, and covered every municipality and electoral area in the region, Comox included. Stopping the housing bylaw required 6,213 valid forms. The CVRD accepted 5,038, which is 8.1 per cent of eligible electors, and rejected another 370.
The results went to the board on February 25, 2025, in front of a packed gallery. A group called Comox Valley Action told directors it objected to the approval method rather than the projects themselves. A late delegate, Bob Long, argued that housing belongs with the provincial and federal governments and should not land on property taxes.
Grant, a Comox director, moved to put the housing bylaw to a referendum at the October 2026 election, seconded by Area C director Edwin Grieve. Kerr, the other Comox director and then the board’s vice-chair, argued against waiting; CHLY reported him telling the room, “We can’t delay this for a referendum for two years.” Area A director Daniel Arbour pointed to the 2015 referendum that created the homelessness service. Cumberland’s Vickey Brown said the annual budget process gives the public a say on the rate every year. Grieve said a referendum would give every elector a vote.
The motion was defeated 7 to 3, with Grant, Grieve and Hardy in favour. The board then adopted the bylaw, with the same three opposed. The official CVRD minutes confirm both votes.
Why Comox isn’t paying
On January 15, 2025, with the approval process underway, Comox council voted to start a formal review of the service. Comox had been part of it since it began in May 2009. In a March 4 release, the Town said the service’s scope had changed from what it agreed to in 2009, and pointed to financial pressure on residents, including infrastructure costs tied to the Province’s Bill 44 housing legislation. Mayor Nicole Minions said the Town “has chosen to continue funding these types of initiatives locally,” through direct contributions to housing organizations. (Comox)
A service review under BC’s Local Government Act lets a member municipality challenge the terms of a regional service and, if needed, withdraw from it. (Comox)
The CVRD board took up the review on March 11, 2025. On a motion from Arbour and Grant, it directed the chief administrative officer to explore Comox’s concerns in a cursory fashion with the other municipal administrators and electoral area directors, in conjunction with an expedited withdrawal for Comox.
The budget documents show where that ended up. The CVRD’s adopted 2026 service summary states that Comox is not a participant for the 2026 tax year. Comox’s withdrawal did not reduce the $880,000 requisition. The full amount is now divided among Courtenay, Cumberland and Electoral Areas A, B and C.
| Jurisdiction | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Courtenay | $333,771 | $436,140 |
| Comox | $188,735 | $0 |
| Area C (Puntledge–Black Creek) | $115,301 | $140,541 |
| Area A (Baynes Sound–Denman/Hornby) | $95,551 | $121,634 |
| Area B (Lazo North) | $99,581 | $113,439 |
| Cumberland | $47,062 | $68,245 |
| Total | $880,000 | $880,000 |
The residential rate estimate rose with it, from $0.0273 per $1,000 in 2025 to $0.0325 in 2026.
Comox is still represented at the table. Kerr sits on the housing authority’s inaugural board as one of the four CVRD directors, and his re-election announcement lists the new regional housing authority among the recent work of Comox council. (Comox Valley Regional District)
What the CVRD says the money is for
The CVRD reports that about one in five Comox Valley households spend 30 per cent or more of their income on housing, that average rents have more than doubled in the past decade, and that the region needs roughly 2,500 more non-market units.
The CVRD also says non-market housing needs some form of ongoing subsidy and expects continued investment from grants, tax requisition or other sources. The authority may eventually earn some revenue from its own projects, but the plan assumes taxpayers keep contributing.
What to ask before October 17
Regional district directors from Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland are appointed by their councils after each election. Electoral area directors are elected directly. In Area A, Daniel Arbour is acclaimed. (Technically as of September 18.) Nicole Minions was acclaimed as mayor of Comox, and Vickey Brown is the only candidate for mayor of Cumberland.
Several directors who voted on the housing bylaw in February 2025 are on this fall’s ballot:
| Director | 2026 race | Put Bylaw 850 to referendum | Adopt Bylaw 850 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ken Grant | Comox council | For | Against |
| Jonathan Kerr | Comox council | Against | For |
| Rich Hardy | Area B director | For | Against |
| Daniel Arbour | Area A director (acclaimed) | Against | For |
| Vickey Brown | Cumberland mayor (only candidate) | Against | For |
| Will Cole-Hamilton | Courtenay council | Against | For |
| Wendy Morin | Courtenay council | Against | For |
The February 2025 minutes confirm the referendum and adoption votes shown above.
The next CVRD board, which holds its inaugural meeting November 17, will set the housing requisition through the annual budget. Municipal councils will decide which of their members sit on the regional board, and the CVRD board appoints its directors to the housing authority. The CVRD calendar currently lists the inaugural board meeting for November 17. (Comox Valley Regional District)
Questions voters can put to council and area director candidates:
- Should the housing requisition stay at $880,000, rise toward the bylaw maximum, or come down?
- What results should the authority report publicly each year: land acquired, projects advanced, units under construction, or senior-government funding secured per local dollar spent?
- How should the reserve, projected at $2.3 million by the end of this year, be allocated, and who decides?
- When should the CVRD use an AAP for housing decisions, and when should a question go directly to referendum?
- For Comox candidates: should the town rejoin the regional housing service, or keep funding affordable housing directly?
The next couple of posts in this series will cover where candidates in Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland and the CVRD electoral areas stand on housing.
This year’s $880,000 requisition is set. From 2027 on, the amount is a budget decision for the board that takes shape after October 17.
Jeff Nield, Managing Broker, Engel & Völkers Vancouver Island North
Sources
- CVRD, Service Purpose, Establishment Bylaw and Five Year Requisition (2026 Revised Roll at Adopted Budget, April 2, 2026)
- CVRD, 2026–2030 Financial Plan, Service 450 Comox Valley Housing (revised February 2, 2026)
- CVRD, 2026–2030 Financial Plan, Service 450 Comox Valley Housing (January 2026 draft)
- CVRD Board minutes, February 25, 2025 and March 11, 2025
- Town of Comox, Town of Comox Initiates Service Review of CVRD’s Emergency Shelter and Supportive Housing Land Acquisition Service, March 4, 2025
- CHLY 101.7 FM, Tumultuous meeting passes housing service bylaw following controversial AAP, March 3, 2025
- CVRD, Addressing Affordable Housing
- CVRD, Affordable Housing AAP (Bylaw No. 850)
- CVRD, Inaugural Board Appointed for Comox Valley Housing Authority, September 9, 2026
- CVRD, CVRD Board Supports Formation of Comox Valley Housing Authority, December 10, 2025
- CVRD, Board Decisions Following AAP Results, February 26, 2025
- CVRD, Nomination Packages & Information (2026 General Local Election)
- Comox Valley Record, Comox Valley Housing Authority approved by regional district, December 10, 2025
- Comox Valley Record, Dr. Jonathan Kerr announces re-election bid for Comox council, September 3, 2026
- My Comox Valley Now, Comox Valley election candidates declared, September 2026
- The Raven 100.7, Candidates Declared For 2026 Local Government Election, September 2026