Juno News - July 08, 2026


Liberals shut down debate on Carney’s condo bailout


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

155.89

Word count

2,282

Sentence count

126

Harmful content

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 The Conservatives are calling for a study into the Kearney government purchase of 2200 overpriced
00:00:11.640 Vancouver condos. They say it's a billion dollar bailout for developers, including
00:00:16.600 well-connected liberal backers, at the expense of taxpayers. Prime Minister Mark Kearney recently
00:00:22.940 announced a plan to bail out developers, bankers, and investors by using taxpayer dollars to purchase
00:00:29.200 more than 2,200 unsold condominium units in British Columbia.
00:00:34.080 B, this bailout will not make housing more affordable,
00:00:37.240 but will prevent a price correction from taking place,
00:00:40.420 preserving high prices for developers rather than lowering them
00:00:44.280 for British Columbians trying to enter the housing market.
00:00:47.080 C, questions remain about which ministers were lobbied and by whom
00:00:51.720 in the lead-up to this announcement.
00:00:53.820 D, questions remain about which developers and lenders will benefit from this bailout,
00:00:58.580 which condo units will be eligible, how prices will be determined, which financing tools
00:01:04.180 will be used, and which entity or entities will ultimately own the units.
00:01:09.080 E. Forcing home buyers to compete with their own tax dollars while raising housing prices
00:01:15.340 for the benefit of developers is not in the interest of Canadians.
00:01:19.840 And F. Prime Minister Mark Carney is building an economy of bailouts and handouts to Liberal
00:01:25.200 insiders while creating higher costs, debt, and taxes for everyone else.
00:01:30.340 Now, Carney himself has spoken about the potential losses facing those Vancouver developers.
00:01:35.680 Developers who helped raise money for Carney could be on the hook for huge losses given
00:01:42.060 the downturn in the Vancouver real estate market.
00:01:45.440 If the Liberals didn't campaign on this policy, why are they suddenly deciding to pursue it
00:01:50.860 now?
00:01:51.180 Whose idea was it?
00:01:52.160 Who lobbied for it?
00:01:53.060 is this being planned for more Canadian cities and maybe most importantly which
00:01:57.980 well-connected developers big banks and foreign investors stand to benefit the
00:02:02.880 most now I want to take a moment to share with the members of this committee a
00:02:07.220 particular dictionary definition that I just think describes the direction of
00:02:12.720 economic policy in Canada over the past year and I quote an economic system
00:02:18.240 where business success depends heavily on close ties between corporate
00:02:22.680 executives and government officials instead of competing in a free meritocratic market companies
00:02:30.040 thrive by securing political favors such as bailouts tax breaks subsidies or specialized
00:02:37.080 regulations that block competition that colleagues is the definition of crony capitalism and it does
00:02:44.280 increasingly in my view represent the official economic policy of the liberal party of canada
00:02:50.520 The committee's study would also look into whether Carney's former company, Brookfield Asset Management, might stand to benefit eventually from the government bailout.
00:03:01.140 A $1.45 billion purchase of the Vancouver units would see each unit sell for an average of $659,000 per condo.
00:03:11.760 Well, the Conservatives have lost another MP. This time it is Richard Martel quitting caucus to sit in the Senate.
00:03:19.400 Prime Minister Carney appointed Martel as an independent member of the upper chamber.
00:03:25.460 This post by Canada Proud, Conservative MP Richard Martel has decided to betray his constituents
00:03:31.900 and has resigned from his seat so he can accept a Senate appointment from Mark Carney.
00:03:39.180 Carney also appointed three others to the upper chamber, including his principal secretary, Tom Pitfield.
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00:04:55.720 today is Ron Butler, well known as the mortgage guy who has a podcast he's more than happy to
00:05:01.820 tell you a little bit about. He describes himself as a big, old, overly opinionated mortgage broker
00:05:08.300 who is worried about the future of housing for average Canadians.
00:05:12.180 Overly opinionated mortgage broker
00:05:14.520 who is worried about the future of housing for average Canadians.
00:05:18.360 Welcome to the show, Ron.
00:05:20.060 Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
00:05:22.640 All right, so the Liberals have shut down debate
00:05:24.660 over the proposed probe into the BC condo buyout plan.
00:05:29.100 I think a lot of us were hoping that that would move forward
00:05:32.340 so that we could have people like the condo king testify.
00:05:36.200 It looks like that's not going to happen, but I know you have some strong views about that bailout.
00:05:41.640 Can you elaborate?
00:05:45.560 Listen, I mean, bailing out condominium developers just makes no sense.
00:05:52.920 I mean, the idea that the BC government has put forward that they're going to take a great opportunity to buy condominiums below cost, below construction costs, and offer them to families as some kind of benefit on some kind of weird rent-to-own idea, it's not even rational.
00:06:16.820 It doesn't even make sense.
00:06:17.740 if these condos cannot be sold, then let the developer go into receivership and have the
00:06:25.120 receiver auction off these condos and achieve the actual lowest price. That's the way the
00:06:30.940 free enterprise system is supposed to work. And there's no sense in circumventing it. I mean,
00:06:36.760 it's just not rational. According to the premier of British Columbia, David Eby, I mean, these are
00:06:42.740 rock bottom prices, liquidation. I mean, the government's going to be getting these at prices
00:06:48.060 that are below the construction costs. I mean, he's saying we can't resist such a deal and then
00:06:54.860 make them affordable to make them available to Canadians who can't afford the market rates
00:07:01.180 currently. Well, then tell the truth and liquidate them. You know, get a receiver involved. I mean, 1.00
00:07:07.280 get get them put them on an open auction let's that's one way to get uh you know restrict the
00:07:13.320 auction to first-time home buyers i mean there is no way in the world that i would let the
00:07:19.340 provincial government of any province not even be let alone british columbia decide what rock
00:07:24.780 bottom pricing is like that is that is not an the right approach that's not a fair approach that's
00:07:30.840 not a sensible approach with taxpayers money let these units be auctioned off let's find out what
00:07:36.920 the real below construction cost price is let's just not have somebody in a provincial government
00:07:42.840 decide what it is well what does it say about the government that they frankly don't really want
00:07:48.320 those values to go down much more than they already have done and so by the actions that
00:07:54.240 they're taking they're essentially propping up these condo values currently aren't they
00:08:00.500 well you the right approach is always just to let free enterprise find its correct point but
00:08:08.420 the idea that a provincial government would buy one single unit of something a developer says
00:08:15.060 they're having a hard time selling is not rational it's it's it's not it's not free
00:08:22.660 enterprise. It's some kind of assistance being given to that developer. And that's wrong on all
00:08:32.180 accounts. Here's the main thing. Developers in British Columbia minted money for 20 years. They
00:08:39.000 made profit after profit after profit after profit. I don't believe that they contributed
00:08:44.940 any of the profits to affordable housing. They just took the profits. Okay. So now it's time
00:08:52.380 for them to pay the piper on bad investments.
00:08:55.960 And there's no way British Columbia or the federal government
00:08:58.980 should be involved in buying one single one of these units.
00:09:04.220 Could Toronto be next?
00:09:05.600 I mean, if they do it in Vancouver,
00:09:07.840 I mean, I'm sure that there are probably some developers that you know
00:09:11.220 that would say, hey, how about us?
00:09:15.440 Well, actually, they have done something.
00:09:17.800 They took a different approach, though,
00:09:19.660 a approach that's much more rational.
00:09:21.440 They said, okay, we're going to put on a HST holiday.
00:09:26.920 We're going to put on a tax holiday.
00:09:28.360 So we're going to use the money from the feds plus some provincial money,
00:09:31.680 and we're going to say there's no tax on the sale of construction properties.
00:09:39.200 So this does two things at once.
00:09:40.640 It does allow these developers to get out from under tax,
00:09:44.100 and therefore it's a more attractive offer for the condos they're stuck with.
00:09:47.460 But it also, and this is the important part, it also stimulates the building of some other kinds of new construction, which keeps construction workers working.
00:09:56.820 Like, the crazy part about BC is if you just buy the units, you're not creating any new construction.
00:10:02.640 There could be no construction of condos in BC for the next five years, and all those workers are out of jobs.
00:10:09.300 I mean, I give them credit.
00:10:10.960 The Ontario idea is a much better idea than just buying unsold condos.
00:10:17.460 Now, you've spoken about demographics and how aging boomers will soon be looking to sell a lot of these properties, people our age, you know, aging, getting older, and so they'll be looking for buyers.
00:10:30.840 And the people that are most likely to be interested are already saddled with massive debt.
00:10:37.580 How do you see that affecting the market going forward in the years ahead?
00:10:41.680 Well, it is a real demographic shift.
00:10:43.980 I mean, the boomers are the biggest group of age bracket of people in North America, hell, in Europe, for that matter.
00:10:51.160 I mean, it's a huge demographic.
00:10:53.440 And yes, their early boomers are entering their 80s.
00:10:57.620 I'm a young boomer, but eventually I'll be dead, too.
00:11:00.500 I mean, we'll all be dead.
00:11:01.560 I mean, that's just the way it goes.
00:11:03.160 And the houses will be sold or we'll need to go into care and the houses will be sold.
00:11:07.420 But it's going to be a little more gradual than people think. 0.99
00:11:11.240 Now, is it true the young people have too much debt? 1.00
00:11:15.120 Yes, of course it's true, absolutely true. 0.98
00:11:18.660 Could the prices fall?
00:11:20.260 Yeah, they could fall, but that's just commerce.
00:11:22.820 That's just the natural cycles of marketplaces.
00:11:26.700 Excuse me, I have no problem with that.
00:11:28.280 No problem at all with prices going down.
00:11:32.360 Well, there was this post by Shazi,
00:11:34.720 Canada's housing correction is now the largest on record.
00:11:38.820 I know that's that.
00:11:39.580 national home prices are down 20% from the 2022 peak.
00:11:44.760 But after inflation question mark,
00:11:47.160 they're down 29% erased back to roughly 2016 values.
00:11:52.700 This is no longer a Toronto problem.
00:11:56.400 It's a housing reset.
00:12:01.180 It's a housing reset.
00:12:02.880 I guess, how bad are things going to get market-wise?
00:12:06.120 thank prices will prices will continue to fall uh the main thing to understand is particularly
00:12:13.380 in ontario and particularly in ontario particularly in british columbia they're starting to fall in
00:12:18.440 quebec it's just starting right now it's just starting to come off in quebec prices are down
00:12:22.900 in calgary um all right i think this is only good news this is not cause for any worry um
00:12:30.820 you know it's it could be bad news for people who need to sell those homes who bought at the wrong
00:12:34.880 time. But the important thing to understand is it's a market cycle. I mean, in the United States,
00:12:41.200 in the world financial crisis, they did bail out the banks, but they didn't bail out a single
00:12:47.860 property owner, not one. So I see no reason why we would bail them out here. And I guess that
00:12:55.040 you're also looking at interest rates and the willingness of banks to lend to younger people
00:13:03.680 as well. Those are all factors, aren't they? They are, but interest rates are still relatively low.
00:13:09.240 We have all kinds of five-year fixed rate mortgages at 399, 404. Those are not high rates
00:13:17.620 in the scheme of things historically. And banks will lend. I mean, there is no qualified buyer
00:13:23.600 who wants mortgages turned down by a bank as long as the financials are right, the income is right,
00:13:29.960 the credit score is right. Banks are eager to lend. Banks are doing mortgages. The reality is
00:13:36.120 price. And the fact that today, even in British Columbia and Ontario, in many regions, it's still
00:13:44.080 seven, eight, nine times family income is what the price of homes are. But when boomers bought
00:13:51.280 those homes, it was two and a half times income. So these younger families are at a disadvantage
00:13:57.380 still. How do people access your podcast? Angry Mortgage Podcast on YouTube and Spotify,
00:14:05.560 Apple Store, all the places you want to go for the podcast, the Angry Mortgage Podcast.
00:14:10.900 YouTube gets a little bit more action. There's more videos on YouTube. And by all means,
00:14:17.500 we'd love for people to subscribe. Thank you so much for coming on the show,
00:14:21.560 ron appreciate it thank you if you enjoyed the show consider supporting great independent
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00:14:37.720 tuning in.