What’s more important, better healthcare or minimizing change?
High-rises rejected in Tsawwassen
An op-ed that I wrote up: Tsawwassen can’t shut the door to new housing and still expect better services. Daily Hive, November 2025.
Last month, a divided Delta City Council rejected a downsized redevelopment application for Tsawwassen Town Centre that would have built 600 apartments and included space for a medical clinic. Originally, the developer had proposed 1,400 homes.
Although the project was scaled back, Delta’s municipal officials also expressed their frustration at another shutdown of the emergency room at Delta Hospital in Ladner — due to staffing shortages.
What may not be obvious is that the two are related.
When we have a region-wide shortage of housing, prices and rents rise to unbearable levels, pushing people out. High housing costs translate into low real salaries: after you pay for rent or a mortgage, there is not much left over. So then, it is hard to convince people to move here, and we end up with labour shortages.
Comments
From the comments on the Daily Hive site, by Mark Schoeffel of Dream South Delta:
“Last month, a divided Delta City Council rejected a downsized redevelopment application for Tsawwassen Town Centre” ... the vote was 7 to 0, Russil, and you know because you were in the audience. That is NOT divided ... that is unanimous.
I am always amazed that people in other communities will voice such strong opinions of what is happening in ours. Towers are great - in the right place. South Delta is not that place. Towers belong near mass transit which we don’t have, will not have anytime soon, and, I dare say, we DO NOT WANT.
“The proposal to redevelop Tsawwassen Town Centre was consistent with Delta’s OCP” - WRONG. As you note, the community contribution was a 6,500 square foot unit for a medical clinic. You, Russil, fail to mention that this would not have been delivered for 5+ years, would be an empty concrete shell that would require a million dollars and more to outfit, AND would require funding to operate. Given the lack of funding and staffing for our hospital, this, as Mayor Harvie and council noted, “missed the mark”.
Russil finishes with “Ultimately, you have to decide what is more important: increased growth with better services (such as healthcare) or limited growth with reduced services.” This sounds very much like a threat - you either build towers or you will have reduced services.
The province tried to shut down Delta’s ER years ago and the community fought back. Very recently members of the community came together and raised nearly $2 mm for the Delta Hospital and Community Foundation and have done so year after year. This is what a small and tight knit community does - if we have to do more of that to keep the towers out then so be it.
To start at the end, I’m thinking more that this is an actual choice that Tsawwassen residents have to make for themselves. I’m appealing to people's own self-interest. It’s hard to provide specialized and labour-intensive services to a slow-growing and somewhat isolated community, when there’s also lots of demand for those services in faster-growing communities.
If there’s some way to grow faster without towers, then that would work as well. (In Vancouver, for example, I think it’d be appropriate to legalize small apartment buildings, which are faster to plan and to build than high-rises.) But my guess is that the real issue isn’t towers, it’s the desire to minimize change, and that trying to spread a similar amount of growth over a wider area would also fail.
Regarding the project being compliant with Delta’s Official Community Plan: this is why the project was rejected at a council meeting, not at a public hearing.
Here’s Delta’s Official Community Plan. Page 22, on Tsawwassen:
In Tsawwassen, the focus for growth will be:
In and around Tsawwassen Urban Centre;
Along the 56 Street Corridor; and,
Ongoing development of Southlands and final phase of Tsawwassen Springs.
Tsawwassen Urban Centre is centered on the 1970s Tsawwassen Town Centre mall.
On page 32, height and density for Urban Centres:
Generally, up to 6 storeys, with limited opportunities for up to 24 storeys where a significant community contribution is provided
Rental and nonmarket housing contributions will be encouraged in all projects over 6 storeys and will be expected for projects that include buildings that are 18 storeys or higher
The initial application (in November 2024) included building a mass-timber library and giving it to the city. Opponents argued that what people really needed was a healthcare clinic, not a library. Mark Schoeffel, January 2025: We need a medical clinic, not a library.
The new application (September 2025) replaced the mass-timber library with 6500 square feet of space, to be given to the Delta Hospital Foundation to run a clinic. If that’s $1000 per square foot, that’s about $6 or $7 million. I don’t see how you can argue that’s not a “significant community contribution.”
On Reddit, someone wrote:
Timelines matter. And those were not discussed.
Of course rejecting the application means the timeline is going to get longer rather than shorter!
Finally, regarding the divisions on city council: as a spectator, I found the level of antagonism between George Harvie and Dylan Kruger really remarkable. Dylan Kruger put forward a motion to declare a health emergency in Delta, and George Harvie ruled it out of order. I was impressed that they were able to remain polite to each other despite the evident tension. Council meeting agenda and video.
More
Tsawwassen – the town that is frozen in time. Op-ed by Mike Schneider. Delta Optimist, October 2025.
Well, there won’t be any towers at the Town Centre anytime soon.
There won’t be any six-storey buildings either. In fact, there will not be anything different at the Tsawwassen Town Centre in the immediate future so everyone that has been against any change in our town can all take a big sigh of relief and enjoy the moment that the guardians of your bourgeois utopia have provided for you.
Shameless political maneuvering has ensured the owner of the property, despite being asked to submit an initial proposal a couple of years ago, will not be submitting a further revision of any kind. So, we will be looking at zero-storey buildings amid a housing and health crisis.
The outcome of the Oct. 6 council meeting was not a surprise. People who follow these things knew that cagey veteran Mayor George Harvie would do everything in his power to create the first move on this matter which he did by publicly announcing how he would vote on the revision prior to any advice from staff nor discussion with fellow council members. And, he is the person who asked Century Group to come to the table in the first place!
Previously:
Russil - I respect your passion and engagement on this subject - your comment "I’m thinking more that this is an actual choice that Tsawwassen residents have to make for themselves" seems to, now, recognize the rights that local communities should have for self-determination. We don't want towers and if we have to forgo rapid transit and fancy chain restaurants that look to open in these areas, I think our population will agree that the "sacrifice" is worth it. We talked to so many people who (young and not-so-young) who moved to Tsawwassen to specifically get away from the concrete jungle that was built where they were previously. Now chain restaurants are different from health care - health care is a right in Canada and to so that places like Ladner, Tsawwassen and, I suppose by extension, Mission, should have to destroy their community to make sure their ER stays open is off base. When I met you at the council meeting Russil, I don't think I asked IF you'd ever spent much time in Tsawwassen ... perhaps if you have the time in the new year, you can take the bus out and we can meet and I can DRIVE you around so you can see what you are so keen to destroy.