Certainly. In Victoria, in June of this year, a consulting report commissioned by the city pointed out that while the city's tax incentive program and its grants program had been working very well, the gap between a project that is a go and a no-go is widening because the cost of purchase of properties is going up. While buildings may have second and third and fourth storeys empty, the retail level on the street is still going pretty well. That means that the purchase price of property is high. And of course we all know that the cost of construction is skyrocketing. So the developer is facing greater and greater expenses. The city is trying to meet that shortfall on these projects on its own.
At the same time, this past summer, with the City of Vancouver, a staff report to city council pointed out that with the incentive program it brought into place in 2003, the city has invested over $91 million through tax incentives, grants, and measures like density bonusing and transfer, which have attracted over $400 million in investments in Gastown, Chinatown, and the East Hastings quarter--some pretty tough real estate.
That program now is strained to the point that they're having to put more and more density in terms of bonuses into a project to make them go. The city has agreed on a stack of recommendations to put that program in suspension while it looks again at its density transfer approach and whether or not it's creating too much density. That means that all development is on hold right now. There are developers with buildings ready to go with money financed already that are just now brought to a halt.
The first reeve report--