Anne Kang

Anne Kang serves as British Columbia's Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport and as the MLA for Burnaby Centre. Her portfolio is not the housing file or the finance file — the ministers most directly responsible for BC's affordability crisis. But tourism and the cultural economy are deeply connected to the affordability question, and the connection is worth examining. BC has aggressively marketed itself as a destination for tourists, remote workers, and international migration — and succeeded brilliantly at it. The province's population has grown rapidly. Its profile as a desirable place to live and visit has never been higher. Tourism revenues have recovered strongly from the pandemic. By the metrics of her own portfolio, Kang can point to success. The problem is that the very desirability BC has cultivated and marketed has driven the demand side of its housing and cost-of-living crisis. More people wanting to live and visit British Columbia, without the housing supply to accommodate them, produces exactly the affordability collapse that BC families are experiencing. The provincial government's ministries have not coordinated to ensure that growth is matched by the infrastructure and housing that makes that growth sustainable for people who were already here. Burnaby, Kang's own riding, has some of the most severe housing cost pressures in Canada. Her constituents know what it costs to live in the city she represents. The tourism numbers look good. The rental vacancy rate does not.