OTTAWA — B.C.’s longest-serving MP is coming out swinging in defence of a new multibillion-dollar subsidy for Metro Vancouver’s sagging condo sector.
Dr. Hedy Fry, an 11-term Liberal MP representing downtown Vancouver, says it’s only logical for the government to take thousands of empty condos off the hands of developers who can’t find buyers for them.
“What would one suggest that we do with empty condos that could be converted into affordable housing by the government of Canada?” Fry told National Post. “(Should we) leave them empty and just go build a bunch (somewhere else)?”
Prime Minister Mark Carney said during a stopover in Vancouver last week that the federal and B.C. governments would jointly put forward $3.2-billion to buy up some 2,200 unsold condos in the Vancouver area and resell them as affordable housing units.
Carney said he hoped the subsidy would unfreeze a “stuck” condo sector, where prices are too low for developers to sell and still too high for consumers to afford.
Critics, including Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre , have panned the subsidy as a “bail out” for politically connected developers, and called on those developers to sell at a loss.
But Fry scoffed at the suggestion that market forces would eventually drive condo prices down to an affordable level for buyers.
“In Vancouver?! You’re joking!” said Fry. “I’ve lived in Vancouver for 50 years (and) I have never seen prices going down.”
She added that, while she understood the sticker shock that came with the subsidy’s multi-billion dollar price tag, its size was appropriate for Vancouver’s real estate market.
“$3 billion could buy you a cup of coffee in Vancouver,” said Fry. “I think it’s ridiculous to even consider that this is a bail out of rich people.”
Fry said she wasn’t concerned about the optics of federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson, a former mayor of Vancouver, managing the flow of subsidies to developers he’d previously rubbed shoulders with in municipal circles.
“Mayors all deal with developers. That’s what mayors do,” said Fry. “To make it sound like Gregor Robertson is making money for his friends, you can spin anything the way you want to spin it.”
Vancouver’s so-called “condo king” Bob Rennie was a major donor to Robertson during his time at city hall, notably organizing a $25,000-a-plate lunch in support of his re-election in 2014.
Fry said that Robertson’s personal history with Rennie is irrelevant.
“It’s not about Bob Rennie, it’s about all kinds of people who have empty condos sitting there, and people who are waiting to afford it. And if the government… can get a fire sale going, I don’t understand what’s bad about that,” said Fry.
Fry said that she’s only gotten positive feedback from her constituents about the condo subsidy so far.
Not all members of the Liberals’ B.C. caucus can say the same thing.
A second B.C. Liberal MP, speaking on background, said they’ve already fielded several angry calls from constituents.
“People are asking why we’re coming to the aid of developers who made bad bets on the condo market when there are so many more deserving folks we could be helping,” said the MP.
They added they’ve heard similar concerns from caucus colleagues.
The Carney government’s popularity will be put to the test in an upcoming byelection in North Vancouver, to fill a vacant seat formerly held by Trudeau cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson, whom Carney recently named Canada’s ambassador to the EU .
Braeden Caley, a senior aide to Carney and former advisor to Robertson during his time as mayor of Vancouver, is widely expected to be the Liberal nominee.
National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.
