FOLLOWING the recent firing of the NDP-appointed board of BC Housing and the abrupt departure of the Crown corporation’s CEO, the BC Liberals on Monday called on the NDP to come clean about what’s going on at BC Housing, which they said has a budget of nearly $2 billion yet terrible results to show for it under David Eby and the NDP.
BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon said: “Rather than accepting responsibility for decisions made under his watch as housing minister, David Eby instead stealthily fired the BC Housing board on a Friday evening, and then just three weeks later the CEO abruptly resigned without a credible explanation for his decision. This government’s dismal track record of transparency has many British Columbians wondering what is actually happening with the NDP and BC Housing behind the scenes.”
He added: “The Ernst & Young report which prompted these firings found serious and systemic failures with the NDP’s housing programs but ignores how Housing Minister David Eby, BC Housing, and its board failed to provide the most basic management oversight and competence.
“With homelessness and social disorder dramatically increasing under this two-term NDP government — in addition to the fact that they’ve only opened 6.3 per cent of their promised 114,000 new affordable housing units — the public deserves answers and a guarantee the NDP won’t allow their incompetence and mismanagement of BC Housing to continue.”
The BC Liberals noted that the Ernst & Young report revealed that BC Housing failed to properly account for rising construction costs in its finances, putting future projects at risk. It also determined they failed to establish the resources, skills, and jurisdictional knowledge required to successfully deliver programs
MLA Mike Bernier, BC Liberal Housing Critic, said: “Home prices and rents have skyrocketed under the NDP as this government has consistently failed on its promises to make life more affordable for British Columbians and ignored the creation of adequate housing supply in our province.”
He added: “Despite David Eby’s best attempts to downplay his involvement and paper over the dysfunction within BC Housing under the NDP, we’ve still got this entire disaster being overseen by a minister with virtually no private sector experience. Unless the NDP indicates a change in direction and a willingness to work on realistic solutions to the housing crisis we’re facing, British Columbians can expect more of the same terrible results and empty promises from the NDP.”
Falcon said: “Sunlight is the best disinfectant and real reform starts with transparency. British Columbians deserve to know more details on the awarding of contracts without criteria and the lack of a basic paper trail on property acquisitions. With a $2 billion budget being completely mismanaged, we intend to hold David Eby and the NDP accountable for the smouldering mess they’ve created at BC Housing. As I’ve said repeatedly, the NDP mean well but just don’t know what the heck they’re doing.”
