Western Standard - Aaron Gunn blasts taxpayer-funded Vancouver condo bailout (with @AaronGunnBC)

00:00:00.000 is injecting taxpayer money to buy these unsold condos

00:00:05.120 rather than just allowing the market to do its job

00:00:08.040 and having these prices drop to a point at which they become affordable

00:00:11.700 for everyday British Columbians that actually want to go out and buy them.

00:00:15.200 And here's the ridiculousness of all of this. 1.00

00:00:18.460 You have so many British Columbians and so many Canadians

00:00:21.580 saving up, desperately trying to be able to afford to enter the housing market.

00:00:25.820 And now when they go to actually purchase one of these housing units,

00:00:29.400 They have to compete with their very own government to be able to afford one.

00:00:34.100 It's the exact opposite policy than the one that they've been supposedly articulating for the past couple of years.

00:00:48.140 This is corporate welfare. This is a bailout.

00:00:51.820 This is something real estate condo deals have been referred to by many as a bailout. Is it a bailout?

00:00:57.180 This is a bailout. Do not fall for the spin that you're going to get from Premier Eby and the Prime Minister. These empty condos that we have in British Columbia, particularly Metro Vancouver, they're largely one-bed studio apartments that just have not been able to sell. They used to sell to a certain investor class that would use them for short-term rentals or perhaps for students, but that market isn't there anymore.

00:01:18.740 Did anybody ask you for this from the development community?

00:01:23.040 First off, thank you for asking me that question.

00:01:27.080 No developer asked for this for me directly.

00:01:29.580 So that's a simple answer.

00:01:31.720 I'm William Tanton for the Western Standard.

00:01:33.840 The federal and B.C. governments want to use taxpayer dollars to buy thousands of unsold housing units in Vancouver.

00:01:40.460 Supporters called a housing solution.

00:01:42.500 Critics called a bailout for wealthy developers.

00:01:44.600 I spoke with BC Conservative MP Aaron Gunn about who really benefits, why the plan is facing backlash, and whether taxpayers are about to be forced to compete with their own government for a home.

00:01:56.800 Aaron, thank you for joining me today.

00:01:59.620 Thank you for having me. It's good to chat with you again.

00:02:02.580 Likewise. To start broadly, what's the reaction to the joint plan from Mark Carney and David Eby? I mean, this has been used now for the past two weeks. What do you make of it?

00:02:10.800 Yeah, well, I can tell you from the constituents in my riding that it was dead on arrival, quite frankly. Neither the Liberals nor the NDP campaigned on using taxpayer money to bail out billionaire condo developers in the fifth most unaffordable housing market in the entire world, propping up prices that are already unaffordable instead of letting them moderate to a price where hardworking British Columbians and Canadians can actually afford them.

00:02:37.700 So, you know, from, I think this smells fishy from the very beginning, who came up with this idea, who lobbied for it, and probably most importantly, who stands to benefit the most when it comes to developers, banks, and foreign investors.

00:02:53.020 affordable housing has been a big thing i mean i'm in ottawa and every time that marconi steps

00:02:58.200 into press conference outside from the hill it's oftentimes to do with housing announcements in the

00:03:02.500 bar haven pn east and west ends of the city where of course like ottawa and everywhere else in the

00:03:08.020 major capitals we have uh you know housing challenge so what do you make in terms of

00:03:12.700 the argument of that this would be a possible proposal to help with the housing affordability

00:03:17.060 crisis in the country oh well i i think on the face of it you don't even have to look very deep

00:03:22.860 it's actually the exact opposite of that. It is injecting taxpayer money to buy these unsold

00:03:29.520 condos rather than just allowing the market to do its job and having these prices drop to a point

00:03:35.320 at which they become affordable for everyday British Columbians that actually want to go out

00:03:39.160 and buy them. It's a bailout of wealthy developers who've made billions over the past 20 years who

00:03:45.280 built and priced condos that nobody could afford. And I think most grotesquely speaking as a

00:03:51.540 millennial. It is taking tax dollars from individuals who have been unable to afford to

00:03:57.200 enter the housing market and transferring it to developers who made billions of dollars over the

00:04:02.060 past 20 years on the very same Vancouver housing market they're now bailing out. So no, they're

00:04:07.200 trying to create a price floor instead of allowing the free market to lower these prices to a more

00:04:13.160 sustainable and affordable level. So it is the exact opposite of creating affordable housing.

00:04:18.700 So earlier today, you were at the committee meeting.

00:04:21.160 What stood out from today's meeting?

00:04:22.740 And do you think that Canadians have received enough transparency so far about how this plan would work and how the money could be spent?

00:04:29.960 Well, I think the Liberals are clearly scared of this issue.

00:04:33.000 They've spent half the time before shutting down the meeting, pointing fingers at David Eby and the NDP in British Columbia, trying to say that the details aren't there yet.

00:04:43.720 So they can't talk about the plan.

00:04:46.140 At the bottom line, if they thought this was such a great idea, they should welcome the opportunity to hold committee hearings, to march out their Liberal ministers to talk about how great of a program this is.

00:04:58.720 The fact is, I think they know this is being badly received by British Columbians and by Canadians, because nobody wants to see their hard-earned tax dollars, especially in today's economy with the affordability crisis that we've seen, get handed out to wealthy developers, the majority of which, quite frankly, are close Liberal donors.

00:05:18.980 So there's a lot of frustration here, and so we maybe weren't that surprised that the Liberals ran away from this argument and moved to shut down this meeting as quickly as possible.

00:05:28.720 premier ab has said that the government expects to purchase these units at quote liquidation

00:05:34.100 prices at the same time bc's housing minister has acknowledged that specific condos to be

00:05:38.780 purchased are still yet to be determined how can taxpayers be confident that they're getting the

00:05:43.660 best value when those details haven't even been finalized yet well they're definitely not getting

00:05:49.080 them at liquidation prices because to do that you'd actually have to wait for the condos to go

00:05:53.900 up for liquidation and here's the here's the ridiculousness of all of this you have so many

00:05:59.840 british colombians and so many canadians saving up desperately trying to be able to afford to

00:06:04.920 enter the housing market and now when they go to actually purchase one of these housing units

00:06:09.480 they have to compete with their very own government and to be able to afford one it's

00:06:14.280 the exact opposite policy than than the one that they've been supposedly articulating for the past

00:06:20.140 couple of years, they've introduced in BC all sorts of policies like the vacancy tax, speculation

00:06:25.240 tax, you know, restrictions on foreign buyers, the Airbnb ban, all under the rationale that they

00:06:34.620 want to reduce demand for these housing units to lower prices. And then when that actually happens

00:06:41.240 and you have these unsold units on the market and prices prepared to come down, the government

00:06:46.180 steps in with its other hand and uses 1.45 billion dollars of taxpayer money to prop up the market

00:06:54.420 again rather than just letting prices moderate on their own are you supportive of the measures

00:06:59.860 that you could support you talk about the airbnb ban foreign buyers ban some of these things have

00:07:04.100 manipulated the market demand against popular demand do you think that you support those

00:07:10.420 measures frankly given the results of the fact that we have unsold condos in vancouver

00:07:16.180 Well, most of those policies, as you know, are provincially put forward from the government of British Columbia.

00:07:22.640 So I don't know how much in detail I want to comment on them, but I bring those up to point out the ridiculousness of bringing in a suite of policies to notionally reduce the price of housing in a metro area like Vancouver, which, as I mentioned, is the fifth most unaffordable housing market in the world.

00:07:41.040 and then just at the point where that's about to happen because you've built up this inventory of

00:07:46.200 unsold units you come in with your other hand using taxpayer money to prop up the same housing

00:07:52.360 market that you just passed a bunch of policies with the deliberate intent to actually lower the

00:07:58.340 prices so you it's like the left hand and the right hand of government doesn't know what it's

00:08:02.340 doing and the only person who really benefits is all of these wealthy condo developers who seem

00:08:06.700 to you know privatize and get to keep all of their profits when times are good but then if they make

00:08:12.100 a bad investment decision instead of god forbid they have to take a loss the government is there 0.83

00:08:16.880 with taxpayer money to bail you out so i just think it's it's it's ridiculous it's absurd it's

00:08:22.140 a gross a transfer of wealth from millennials and uh also it is maybe the worst kind of embodiment

00:08:29.120 of what's known as crony capitalism that i can imagine and if i can just read the definition of

00:08:33.960 crony capitalism, if this doesn't sound like what's happening in Canada today, an economic

00:08:38.260 system where business success depends heavily on close ties between corporate executives

00:08:43.560 and government officials. Instead of competing in a free meritocratic market, companies thrive

00:08:50.940 by securing political favors such as bailouts, tax breaks, subsidies, or specialized regulations to

00:08:57.360 reduce competition. That's not my definition. That's the dictionary definition of crony capitalism.

00:09:01.960 I think that's what we've been seeing here in Canada.

00:09:05.240 If you were as a member of both the Conservative Party and the member of British Columbia Caucus, if you were devising the federal government today, given your understanding of your region, what would you be your alternative plan to improve housing affordability without using taxpayer dollars to buy unsold housing units?

00:09:26.780 well the good the good thing is to create more affordable housing in british columbia

00:09:32.360 the government actually doesn't have to they just have to not use taxpayer money to bail out these

00:09:38.420 wealthy developers and let the market uh proceed with a price correction in the city of vancouver

00:09:44.380 and reduce prices to a more moderate affordable and sustainable level the other thing that we

00:09:50.000 want to do of course is to remove the gst off new homes and make it easier and and cheaper

00:09:55.160 for developers, new developers to actually build these housing units to create more supply

00:10:00.140 and more competition on the open market to reduce market prices, not create this weird

00:10:05.000 kind of system where government goes in and buys a handful of housing units using your

00:10:10.540 tax dollars and then gets to randomly pick and choose who gets affordable housing where

00:10:15.240 everybody else is stuck playing the higher bill.

00:10:19.220 Well, Aaron, thank you so much for your time today and thank you for engaging with the

00:10:23.160 Western Standard.

00:10:23.820 I really much appreciate it.

00:10:25.160 Thank you for having me.

Western Standard - July 07, 2026

Aaron Gunn blasts taxpayer-funded Vancouver condo bailout (with @AaronGunnBC)

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