Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of thousands of petitioners in my riding of North Island—Powell River who are calling on the Liberal government, now that there is a new Conservative provincial government in B.C., to abandon their condo billionaire bailout, a $1.5-billion plan to use taxpayer money in British Columbia to purchase unsold condos, instead of their developer friends having to lower prices and sell at a loss.
The petitioners are especially concerned that this plan would essentially use their money to artificially inflate what is already one of the least affordable housing markets in the world while lining the pockets of billionaires, many of whom have close ties to the Liberal Party and the current Minister of Housing.
They also express their frustration that these condos are already built and that this plan would therefore create zero new units of housing. A lack of transparency remains as to who lobbied for the policy, where it came from and who exactly stands to benefit the most.