On June 19th, 2025, BCCPA’s Director of Public Affairs, Tiffany Trownson, spoke at Vancouver City Council to show support for rezoning West King Edward Avenue for a new Amica Seniors Housing community. The motion passed.
Trownson opened by commending the City of Vancouver for leading the province with B.C.’s first municipal Seniors Housing Strategy, passed by Council in July 2024, and highlighted the urgent need to expand seniors’ housing options.
- The Conference Board of Canada projects that B.C. needs 30,000 net new long-term care beds by 2035.
- The Ministry of Health estimates 16,300 beds are needed. This factoring in who can still live safely at home with home support.
- The government has announced only 1,733 publicly-funded net new beds for development between 2027–2030, which is far short of demand.
- Waitlists are growing with 3,430 seniors waiting for long-term care (double over the past 5 years), and 1,200 waiting for assisted living (up by 37%).
Using the Cranbrook Long-Term Care project as an example of the escalating costs of public projects and increased burden on taxpayers, Tiffany emphasized the importance of working across all sectors to meet the housing demand, including for-profit and not-for-profit developers.
“We need to look beyond the type of ownership and, instead, focus on the benefits to the senior community. We can do better — and we must do better,” says Trownson.
Thank you, Vancouver City Council, for recognizing the critical need and championing seniors’ housing, safety, and choice.
