VICTORIA, B.C.: Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier David Eby announced a plan in which the federal and provincial governments will purchase 2,200 unsold condo units from developers and convert them into affordable housing. Their plan involves spending millions of dollars bailing out developers after a risky investment and will not meaningfully address the housing crisis.

“The housing crisis will not be solved by wasting taxpayer dollars on artificially propping up developers,” said Linda Hepner, Conservative Critic for Housing. “If prices are set too high for condo units to be sold, market forces will cause the prices to lower until people can afford them. But if developers know that the government will simply bail them out if the condos sit vacant long enough, they will never drop their prices, making the housing crisis even worse.”

“Instead of wasting taxpayer money on a bailout, the government ought to unlock B.C.’s housing industry by lowering taxes, speeding up the regulatory process, and removing the policies which have escalated construction costs,” said Hepner.

“The greater issue is that the NDP government is actively scaring investment away from B.C., said Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Leader of the Conservative Party of B.C. “We wouldn’t be in this position in the first place if the government wasn’t so ideologically hostile to business. High taxes, excessive regulations, and legal uncertainty from a government that keeps getting in the way of the economy makes it extremely difficult to build or produce anything.”

“Legal uncertainty is severely holding B.C. back,” said Steve Kooner, Critic for Attorney General. “The government practically begged a company to come take over the Yellow Giant gold mine and forced them to spend millions of dollars cleaning up an environmental mess, only to suddenly strip away their mining rights without warning or compensation so they could make a deal with aboriginal groups. And after the Cowichan decision, residents in Richmond are watching their homes, their property values, and future development get clouded by legal uncertainty on fee simple title; uncertainty which threatens all British Columbians. After all this, the only way to bring back affordability is for the government to restore certainty and stop thwarting investment.”

– 30 –

Media Contact:
Nikki Bal
Conservative.Communications@leg.bc.ca
+1 (672) 922-0948