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For most of my life, things in the larger world seemed quite certain and slow to change. Today, it seems that reliable, solid ground is slipping away, sometimes quite suddenly.
The first example that comes to mind is Canada-U.S. relations. We’ve always been best friends, peaceful neighbours who help each other out when needed.
About 20 years ago, I was a Girl Guide leader, and every year we took the Brownies (now known as Embers) and Guides to Peace Arch Park for an event called Hands Across the Border, where Guides and Scouts from both countries gathered in the park that straddles the border to trade gifts showing the friendship between the two countries. It started in 1921 but is no more. At least not in 2025.
Like many Canadians, Girl Guides of Canada has suspended all travel to the U.S. over fears for the safety of their members. For six straight months, border traffic from Canada to the U.S. is down, and it’s unlikely to grow again until something changes. Though the rhetoric has calmed down somewhat, I never thought I would see the day when our neighbour would threaten to make Canada the 51st state, but it has happened, and that threat hasn’t been retracted.
Another example is the cost of property. Owning a home in Metro Vancouver has never been easy, but property prices for the most part grew at a constant rate over my lifetime, with cyclical highs and lows. Now the costs are entirely untethered from incomes, which is not a healthy state. Recently, there were two opposing letters from people with interests in real estate, one from builders asking for foreign buyers to be allowed into the housing market again, the other from urban planners and academics, asking the province to stay the course.
A couple of recent news stories show the craziness of real estate prices in B.C. The first, a Richmond News story by Maria Rantanen, reveals how the Richmond School District is buying back a school in North Richmond for $60 million that it had already bought in 1962 for $49,350, or about $513,000 in 2025 dollars. Now that’s inflation.
I could only find data for historical minimum wages in B.C. going back to 1965, when it was $1 per hour. Today it’s $17.85. If minimum wages kept up with this type of property value inflation, today’s minimum wage would be $116.96 per hour. I’m not suggesting that’s what it should be, merely showing the absurdity of the property inflation.
The Vancouver Sun had a story this summer reporting that the Vancouver School Board owns 223 properties worth $9.5 billion. This isn’t that surprising, although the value is massive. If you think of the size and number of school properties throughout the city, their real estate value is necessarily going to be huge. But some of the VSB’s properties are not used for schools, which is where it gets surprising and complicated.
Another surprising thing in that story was to hear school trustees say that a big focus of their work – as school trustees, a role that should be focused on education – was on leases and the legal aspects of owning land. One thing is for sure – public bodies like school boards should be very hesitant about selling land; Rantanen’s story above is a case in point. Getting the land back after it’s sold could be a very pricey proposition.
Speaking of land, a B.C. Supreme Court decision released last week has the potential to shift our understanding of property ownership, though Indigenous leaders said the case isn’t about seizing homes or threatening homeowners.
The judge ruled that the Cowichan Tribes have title to about 1,900 acres in southeast Richmond, land that is today filled with warehouses and the port, but that was once a Cowichan traditional village of Tl'uqtinus on the south arm of the Fraser River.
The judge found that Canada and Richmond’s fee simple titles and interests in these lands are defective and invalid. The case only addressed lands held by Canada and Richmond, because the Cowichan Tribes did not ask the judge to make a ruling on privately-owned lands within the same area, the ruling says.
The B.C. government plans to appeal.
“This ruling could have significant unintended consequences for fee simple private property rights in B.C. that must be reconsidered by a higher court,” B.C.’s Attorney General Niki Sharma said in a statement.
The government should respect the courts and negotiate in good faith, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs said in a news release.
“Cowichan is not seeking to invalidate interests held by private landowners,” Chief Don Tom, UBCIC vice-president, said in a UBCIC news release. “Framing this decision as a threat to private property stokes fear and unfairly scapegoats First Nations.”
It’s too early to say what the eventual outcome will be, but the one thing we can count on is change.
Tracy Sherlock is a freelance journalist who writes about education and social issues. Read her blog or email her [email protected].
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