| Although politicians are allotted votes around the FVRD board table by the population they represent, smaller communities still wield slightly more power than their number of constituents would suggest. 📊 Tyler Olsen
THE AGENDA
POWER SHIFT
With more people, comes greater power. Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Mission will each have more power at the Fraser Valley Regional District over the next four years, thanks to population growth in each of the municipalities.
The regional district is overseen by 23 directors appointed by member municipalities and rural electoral areas. But not all directors have an equal say. Instead, representatives have varied levels of "voting strength," depending on how many people they represent.
Abbotsford has had, for instance, six directors who represent more than 150,000 peopleβor more than 20,000 people each. Electoral area directors, meanwhile, frequently represent only a couple thousand people, if that.
The voting strength calculations are meant to give constituents across the valley a roughly equal say in regional decisions. As populations
shift, the votes must be weighted differently.
Between 2017 and 2022, the FVRDβs population increased by nearly 30,000 people, to about 324,000. Most of that growth took place in Abbotsford, Mission, and Chilliwack.
Because of that, each of those cities will see their weighted votes tick upwards. Abbotsford and Chilliwack will each get two additional votes, while Mission will get one. There are 73 total weighted votesβup five from 2017.
Still, rural areas tend to have a greater proportionate share. Cities roughly get one vote for every 5,000 people. Directors of each electoral area, even those with less than 2,000 people, get a full vote. So while Harrison and the eight electoral areas have five per cent of the regionβs population, they control about 12 per cent of the votes at the FVRD table.Β (Not that it matters too much: split votes are exceptionally rare at the regional district table.) The voting strength-population disparity will
continue to decrease as larger communities grow.
HOMEΒ PRICES CONTINUE TO FALL, BUT REMAIN HISTORICALLY HIGH
Housing prices are still plunging, but the state of home values depends a lot on oneβs perspective.
Abbotsford single-family home prices are down 26% in just the last six months. (Prices have changed at roughly the same pace across the Fraser Valley.) For your typical Abbotsford home, thatβs knocked about $400,000 off its value. The value of townhomes and apartments has also declined, though not quite so quickly.
Tonwhome prices are down about 15%, while apartment values have declined by about 18%. Prices are also down (by between 3% and 9%) across home classes compared to a year ago.
But pulling back a little further underscores how pricey homes still are compared to just a
few years ago.
With a typical house still selling for more than $1.1 million in Abbotsford, prices are still 28% higher than in October 2020 and 43% higher than fall of 2019.
In 2019, you could get an average townhome in Abbotsford for under $500,000. Even today, after prices have sagged the last six months, townhouses still cost around $650,000, according to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.
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