The Chair of the Thompson Nicola Regional District board says they welcome a new move by the province to allow them to be part of the Secondary Suites Incentive Program.

Barbara Roden admits she’s not sure at this point how much interest there will be among Regional District residents to take part in the program, but says they’re pleased folks now have the option.

She says there was a reason the TNRD was among the 16 Regional Districts throughout BC chosen for this program.

“Our zoning throughout the entire TNRD currently allows secondary suites just about everywhere,” noted Roden.  “There are one or two little pockets that don’t. Staff are working on getting those bylaws updated by June this year.”

Under the program — to be launched in April — the province will provide subsidies of up to 40-thousand dollars for the creation of a secondary suite on their property, provided they rent it below market rates for at least 5 years.

The province says 16 of the 27 regional districts in BC “have the necessary building bylaws, and building-permit and inspection services across their electoral areas” allowing them to join the pilot now.

The other 11 regional districts could be added to the pilot in the future.

Roden suggests while this might not be as popular in the more remote areas, she notes not all of the TNRD should be considered ‘rural.’

“You have a lot of areas in the TNRD where you have an Electoral Area that butts right up against a much larger area, like Kamloops, like Merritt,” pointed out Roden. “People there, they wouldn’t mind having a secondary suite, because they know that someone in Kamloops, for example, wouldn’t mind living in an Electoral Area around Kamloops and making that 20 minute commute.”

The province says the three-year pilot – which already applies to all 161 incorporated municipalities – will create as many as 1,000 affordable rental units for each of the three years, when it launches in April.