Petition launched against Liberals' condo bailout
The petition argues that if developers' latest units go unsold, that failure should fall solely upon them and not the Canadian taxpayer.
Author: Quinn Patrick
Conservative MP Dan Albas has sponsored a petition opposing the Carney government’s $1.45 billion proposal to bail out condo developers in the Metro Vancouver area who are currently stuck with unsold units.
“Federal tax dollars are paid by Canadians across the country and should not be used to protect Vancouver-area condominium developers, investors or lenders from losses created by speculative over-building, inflated land values, weak demand or failed market assumptions,” reads the petition, first reported on by Blacklock’s Reporter.
“Metro Vancouver has record levels of completed and unabsorbed condominium inventory, and unsold units should be allowed to fall to prices that households can afford through open market discounts, credit or losses, or receivership before public acquisition is considered.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney has come under fire for his decision to bail out the developers, with some believing it to be benefiting private-sector interests.
On Tuesday, Liberal MPs voted 5-4 to bury a Commons ethics committee investigation into his bailout, which was supported across party lines by NDP, Conservatives and Bloc MPs.
Petitioners asked Ottawa to “refrain from using federal funds, guarantees, loans or other financial supports to purchase or finance unsold condominium units in British Columbia unless all acquisitions are publicly disclosed, independently appraised, priced materially below current market comparables or based on post-receivership valuations, protected by non-market affordability covenants and transferred to public, non-profit, cooperative or Indigenous housing ownership.”
Last month, the Carney government announced a plan to buy 2,200 unsold condos and convert them into “affordable housing.”
It’s part of Ottawa’s $1.6 billion pledge to cut B.C. development charges. However, there is no guarantee that said savings will reach buyers.
“We would be buying distressed condos,” Carney told reporters at the time. “Of course, developers aren’t going to admit that they are going to have distressed condos. We don’t care about the developer. We care about the person, the family that can potentially move into the home.”
The prime minister said the government intended to set up a rent-to-own structure.
“We will look at any opportunity across the country that gets more affordable housing to Canadians. We can’t do it all, but where we see dislocation, where we see opportunities, where that’s the best use of the dollar, we will look at that,” he said.
But that’s not the way petitioners see things, saying that condo developers have “benefited for decades from rising land values, public infrastructure, favourable planning decisions and strong private returns and should not shift downside risk onto taxpayers when market conditions change”
They believe that if their latest units go unsold, the failure should fall solely upon them and not the Canadian taxpayer.