March 11, 2025

On March 6th, UDI wrote a letter to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy about an ongoing issue in the Capital Region that is increasing the costs of soil relocation. Effectively, background concentration levels of naturally occurring minerals (e.g., salt) are being treated as contaminated, even though some are prevalent on Vancouver Island due to the proximity of the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the soils require special disposal, which is difficult because there is a limited availability of fill disposal locations in the Region – especially those that can handle contaminated material. 

UDI requested that the Ministry work with the sector to resolve the issue as soon as possible – especially given the substantial cost pressures Victoria area builders will be facing with impact of the seismic provisions in the BC Building Code that came into effect on March 10, 2025.