Liberals shut down debate over proposed probe into B.C. condo buyout plan

Condo towers and industrial buildings are seen in downtown Kelowna, B.C., on Saturday, May 30, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA — Liberal MPs shut down a Conservative attempt to have the House of Commons ethics committee investigate the government’s plan to turn unsold condos into affordable housing in B.C.

The Liberal government joined with the B.C. government last month to announce a plan to have the governments buy up 2,200 vacant condo units to convert into affordable housing through a rent-to-own model.

The Conservatives recalled the House ethics committee to probe the plan at the request of the party’s leader, Pierre Poilievre.

B.C. MP Aaron Gunn — the Conservatives’ newly minted ethics critic — moved a motion at Tuesday’s meeting dubbing the program a “bailout” for Liberal-connected developers who don’t want to sell their units at a loss.

Poilievre has accused the Liberals and Prime Minister Mark Carney of intervening in the B.C. condo market to keep prices inflated, rather than letting vacant units sit until prices dropped far enough to land a sale.

Carney says the idea came from British Columbia’s NDP government, not Ottawa.

B.C. Premier David Eby has said the condo buyout is an alternative to Ottawa’s original pitch to use federal funds to waive the sales tax on new homes in the province, but he also said the Liberals wanted to make the announcement before all the details were finalized.

Carney and Eby have both denied that the proposal is a bailout, and said the governments are looking to instead take advantage of distressed developers to get a good deal on affordable housing for Canadians.

They’ve also said that if they can’t get a good deal on the homes, they won’t move forward with any transaction.

Eby has said the numbers don’t work in Vancouver, but could work in the regions such as the Fraser Valley and the Okanagan.

Gunn’s motion called for the ethics committee to hold a series of meetings looking into the proposal, with requests to hear from the B.C. and federal housing ministers and condo developers in the province.

He said the Liberals never campaigned on this plan in the lead up to the federal election over a year ago, so he wants to know who might have lobbied for the plan.

“It is yet another generational transfer of wealth that creates no new units of housing while rewarding those who built and priced condos that nobody could afford. It’s not only bad economic policy, it’s unethical, it is immoral, and it’s wrong,” Gunn said at committee.

The Liberals used their majority on the committee to shut down further debate, and the meeting was adjourned shortly after.

Liberal MP Fares Al Soud, who moved the motion to end debate, said Tuesday that getting more Canadians into affordable housing is a worthwhile use of the federal funds allotted for the project.

Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs on the committee voted in favour of continuing talks. While the federal NDP have no members on the committee, MP Jenny Kwan appeared during Tuesday’s meeting to voice her support for Gunn’s proposed investigation.

Liberal MP Linda Lapointe, vice-chair of the committee, said in French that Conservatives were spreading “baseless accusations” about the condo plan.

She pointed to a letter sent to members before the committee met on Tuesday from Housing Minister Gregor Robertson that sought to clarify lingering questions about the proposal.

A copy of that letter, obtained by The Canadian Press, notes that details of the plan are still being finalized by the B.C. government. Robertson encouraged members to wait until those details are made public.

Through Build Canada Homes, Robertson said Ottawa is expected to contribute $150 million toward this proposal. B.C. would chip in an equivalent amount, with the rest covered by financing to purchase and hold the buildings.

Eby pointed out last month that the program would not be a net cost to taxpayers, as the mortgages would become assets and would eventually be paid back to the public purse.

Robertson also pushed back on the idea that developers would profit from the government buying units in bulk at a sharp discount, and instead pointed to the benefits for scaling up affordable housing in the province.

“This will allow access to move-in-ready units that can be turned into affordable housing cheaper and faster than it would be possible to build,” he wrote.

The housing minister reiterated that neither he nor Carney was lobbied directly by developers in support of the program.

“Our focus is on Canadians and ensuring they have access to homes they can afford — not the interests of developers,” Robertson wrote.

This report by Craig Lord, The Canadian Press, was first published on July 7, 2026.