Скачать или смотреть Addressing the strata insurance crisis in British Columbia

Over the past year there has been a growing crisis in skyrocketing insurance premiums for stratas.

This has created a desperate situation for the more than 1.5 million British Columbians (30%) living in a strata building. People are fearful that the security of their homes is threatened and many are concerned if they are even able to afford their homes.

This issue is complex and I have done my best to illustrate the complexity in my response to Bill 14. Unfortunately, this legislation is only the "first steps" with many of the long-term problems still needing to be addressed, and the short-term affordability issues are yet to be resolved.

[Transcript]

A. Olsen:

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to Bill 14, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act. I actually appreciate the opportunity to speak following the member from Abbotsford West. I don't believe that I will be coming with as much bluster, but I do appreciate both the words that he shared about the challenges with this bill and, as well, always appreciate when members provide ideas that can be debated for us to discuss.

I think that it's important to acknowledge that we also, in the B.C. Green caucus, have been hearing from British Columbians over the past year about the substantive challenges that people are facing, British Columbians are facing, as they're hit with some of the largest insurance rate increases that we've ever seen in the province. We've been hearing these stories from strata councils who are unable to secure insurance for their buildings, dramatic rate increases, ranging from 50 percent to 300 percent. You hear from owners that they were blindsided by these increases. The costs for some are upwards of hundreds of dollars, over $1,000 in some cases, on top of housing expenses that were already unaffordable.

I think it's important for us all in this chamber to come to grips with the scale of the problem. Over 1.5 million British Columbians live in a home that's part of a strata. That's one in three, 30 percent of the people in our province, and they come from all walks of life.

In response to this crisis, the government directed the B.C. Financial Services Authority earlier this year to inquire into the causes of the increase. The issue was the focus of a number of questions from the official opposition earlier in this spring. We've done a lot of work on this issue. The member from Kamloops–South Thompson, as we heard earlier, brought in a private member's bill to really put this issue in front of government as one that needs to be dealt with and addressed with haste.

Now we have this bill, Bill 14, before us to take what the government is calling "the first steps to address a rising insurance cost for strata owners." I expect, for the most part, Bill 14 won't be met with significant criticism for what it proposes to do. The changes appear largely focused on ensuring more transparency for strata owners; providing more clarity, support, and direction for strata corporations; and better data collection and reporting for the sector. None of those can be complained about. There are questions that I'll want to ask about the regulatory power to allow certain stratas to not be required to get full insurance coverage and the potential consequences of such a change. But for the most part, the criticisms on this legislation will be for what it fails to do.

We've heard from our colleagues. We've heard some of those criticisms already in the second reading stage of the debate. I'm sure that we're going to be hearing a lot more and raising some more of those concerns in the committee stage of this debate as well. I think it's fair to say that this is a very complicated issue with few, if any, easy solutions and that there's plenty of room to make the situation facing one-third of our province even worse.

The B.C. Financial Services Authority, in their interim report issued on June 16, included in their list of causes minor claims due to water damage, poor building maintenance, initial construction quality issues, challenges with strata policies, high cost of replacement, earthquakes and a market lacking adequate insurer liquidity. Add this to the increasing costs associated with more severe weather events due to climate change, and which is only just starting to be grappled with by insurers, and the unique challenges we see due to B.C.'s overpriced housing market, and you can see the enormity of the task ahead of all of us legislators.

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[View the complete transcript at https://www.adamolsenmla.ca/