Ravi Kahlon’s inspiration for entering politics came from watching his grandfather advocate for seniors in Victoria. His grandfather, a retired military officer who migrated to Canada in the mid-1970s, played a vital role in organizing the senior South Asian community and pushing for the construction of a senior center that still stands across the gurdwara.
“My grandfather organized and drove seniors to the gurdwara, and it soon became clear that there was a need for a senior center in Victoria. I took part in the efforts as a child, helping to distribute leaflets and attending rallies.”
Ravi’s political career took off after meeting Harry Bains and Adrian Dix. He served as the deputy Chief of Staff for Adrian Dix when Dix was in the opposition and also worked with Premier John Horgan during his time in opposition. These early roles helped shape Kahlon’s path in BC politics.
The Asian Star asked him about the most pressing issues of our time, affordable housing crisis. And the changes made to the BC RTB – BC Rental Tenancy Branch – impacting landlords negatively.
Here is his response. “As Minister of Housing, wait times at the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) were reduced from six months to four weeks by investing more resources, hiring additional adjudicators, and changing outdated laws. One of the key improvements included bringing in facilitators to mediate disputes, resolving 65% of cases through this process. We made a lot of changes and now we have the fastest time for decisions in the country.” In fact, Ontario recently called them to ask how they shortened the wait times.
Kahlon also mentioned the upcoming launch of a new insurance program designed to cover lost rent for landlords when tenants fail to pay. This initiative, developed in consultation with the Landlord BC association, will help protect landlords by covering the rent for the two-month period during which eviction proceedings are carried out. The goal is not only to safeguard current landlords but also to encourage others to rent out properties with greater security, while ensuring that the program is not vulnerable to abuse.
On housing shortage, “there is no way we are going to address housing (shortage) without increasing housing supply. John Rustad has said that he will cancel all the changes we are transitioning into right now. He’s party is not going to let people build three or four units on single-family lots. If you are not going to cut red tape for approval for housing, how are you going to address this?”
“What is their solution?” The Asian Star asked.
“There has been no offer of any solution from John Rustad and the Conservatiove Party of BC. Their response on the media and in public has consistently been that they will let municipalities decide. Slow approvals contributed to the housing scarcity we have now. Talk to anybody who is a home builder, they will tell you that status quo hasn’t been working. If we just approve housing, it will get built. It’s that simple.”
According to Ravi BC NDP’s short-term rental rules have helped rent to go down for the first time in twenty years. “We are seeing some positive results but housing shortage doesn’t get fixed overnight. It takes time for that to happen but its already heading in that direction. We gave local governments $51 million dollars to do all the zoning changes needed. We also launched a digital tool so that when an application or home design is made through a computer program it can automatically be checked for code compliance.”
He continued, “Just last year we gave a billion dollars for infrastructure (to local governments). City of Surrey got $90 million. 70 million dollars of that went to the brand-new ice complex in Cloverdale. No one knows that because the city never released where their money went. When I hear from local governments or mayors that say ‘we need money for infrastructure’, I say let’s celebrate the fact that you got 70 million from us for this ice complex, let’s celebrate the fact that you are putting millions of dollars we gave you, into the bear Creek Park track and the stadium upgrade that is being built.”
Ravi shared BC had over two hundred and fifty thousand people move here in the last two years. Out of that number, “I would say a large portion moved to Surrey. Here’s another stat people may not know – 1 in 11 people in this province are temporary residents. Such high population surges make it hard to move our infrastructure to meet that demand overnight.”
