THE BC Liberals on Monday slammed the NDP, saying that “despite their promises to deliver affordable housing, the NDP’s newly announced housing strategy abandons their old promises and fudges the numbers, all while failing to address the fact that housing affordability in B.C. is worse than ever.”

“David Eby’s so-called housing ‘refresh’ is nothing more than an admission that his NDP government is incapable of delivering their original promise of 114,000 homes by 2028,” said Karin Kirkpatrick, BC Liberal Critic for Housing. “British Columbians know that housing affordability continues to worsen on his government’s watch, and they are tired of waiting for action. Unfortunately, this supposedly new housing plan, which contains mostly previously announced or delayed commitments and carefully crafted messaging to hide the NDP’s glacial progress, is anything but refreshing.”

Five years into their 10-year plan, just 15,783 homes have been built by government — that’s only 13.8 per cent of their 114,000 unit promise. Meanwhile, the CMHC says that B.C. needs to build 570,000 homes by the end of the decade to restore affordability, noted the BC Liberals.

“This announcement makes it clear that even David Eby knows the NDP’s housing strategy hasn’t been working,” said Kirkpatrick. “But instead of acknowledging this failure and changing course, Eby has delivered an incredibly vague plan that doesn’t get to the heart of the housing crisis or even target the housing construction B.C. needs. Six years and two terms of this NDP government has resulted in the worst housing affordability in North America and David Eby has given people no reason to expect better results from his so-called housing ‘refresh’.”