BC Liberal Housing Critic Todd Stone is calling out the NDP government for their continued failure on the housing file revealed in their carefully-worded BC Housing Q2 report released on Wednesday.

“We received a first quarterly report during the fall showing that, despite their promise to build 114,000 new housing units, the NDP is failing to deliver anywhere close to their targets,” said Stone. “Now they have released this second report which shows that they are continuing to fail British Columbians and have barely opened any additional homes.”

The latest report shows that only 151 more units were opened under the NDP in the second quarter of 2019, up from 2,279 units. After the Q1 report showed that 51 per cent of units planned by the NDP “have been announced but no commitment has been made towards them,” the Q2 shows that 6,143 homes are still tied up in the same “initiation” phase with no funding commitment. The report shows again that just 71 affordable rental units have been completed to date under the NDP. Over 42 per cent of projects under active construction have seen a major or minor delay.

“It is clear Housing Minister Selina Robinson does not want to tell the whole story on this issue and has gone out of her way to convince people that she is reaching her goals, yet the reality is quite different,” said Stone. “The NDP government needs to admit that their housing plan is a huge failure, and they’re increasingly unable to fulfil their promises to deliver on housing affordability for British Columbians.”

At this rate, it would take Horgan’s NDP government over 100 years to fulfil their promise to build 114,000 new housing units, he added.

The BC Housing Affordable Housing Investment Plan Report – Second Quarter 2019/20 can be found here: http://www.bchousing.org/publication/AHIP.pdf