File Photo (Image Credit: Flickr / Province of B.C.)

By Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Many layers to Premier Eby’s BC Housing scandal

May 11, 2023 | 1:31 PM

WITH EACH PASSING DAY, the extent of Premier David Eby and the NDP’s chaos and mismanagement at BC Housing grows deeper and more concerning.

Part of the problem is the dizzying number of reports and audits which the NDP has tried to conceal. Our former government instigated an audit of Atira Women’s Resource Society in 2017, but the NDP clearly didn’t like what it said so they buried it. Nobody would have known about it had it not been leaked by a whistleblower. We now know that this BDO report, which the NDP had a copy of in 2018, showed warning signs of financial mismanagement at Atira — BC Housing’s largest housing provider.

There have also been at least three Ernst and Young (EY) reports, the first of which was quietly posted online over the Canada Day long weekend in 2022, when few people would have been paying attention. The firing of the entire BC Housing board, late on a Friday evening, followed — with then-Housing Minister Eby claiming it had nothing to do with wrongdoing.

The second EY audit, finally released on Monday after much prodding by the official opposition, was explosive. It revealed a clear conflict of interest and financial mismanagement within Atira and BC Housing. The most serious issues took place under the watch of now-Premier Eby when he was minister.

The report showed that while Eby was aware of the 2018 BDO report revealing major mismanagement at Atira, instead of releasing it to the public and immediately addressing the concerns when he became housing minister in 2020, he chose to bury the report and massively increase the amount of funding going to the organization. Under Eby, funding for Atira more than tripled — a 335 per cent increase — from $17 million to more than $74 million in 2022.

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Later this week, we learned about a third damning EY report that was completed last year, that relates to the former CEO of BC Housing and has never been made public. Former board members say the premier put a gag order on them via a blizzard of non-disclosure agreements. We’ve called on Premier Eby to lift these restrictions and let these individuals speak so the public can learn the entire truth about what’s going on.

Since these startling revelations started to trickle out on Monday, the premier has been trying to rewrite history, portraying himself as a hapless victim of the misdeeds of others. But the facts don’t lie. Either he had no idea what was going on in his own housing ministry; or he knew full well what was going on, blatantly tried to keep the information away from the public and doled out tens of millions in taxpayer funds regardless. Either possibility is a bad look.

Here in Kamloops, we’ve seen evidence of the NDP and BC Housing’s ‘interesting’ decision-making on the housing file. Last month, BC Housing announced it paid a total of $12.8 million for a 42-unit apartment complex on Cherry Avenue on the North Shore, despite BC Assessment valuing it at $4.2 million. The building, which had been ravaged by fire, sat empty for more than two years in a hot rental market and without being snapped up by developers. It appears BC Housing did little research or due diligence before the transaction — and it smells an awful lot like a move to rush year-end money out the door, with a purchase at three times the assessed value.

The real tragedy of all this incompetence, cover-up and lack of oversight by Premier Eby and the NDP is that vulnerable people in our communities are the ones paying the price. B.C. continues to be in a housing crisis, and some of the very organizations who are supposed to be getting affordable housing built are mired in serious conflict of interest and mismanagement questions. Now we know why this government hasn’t come close to building the 114,000 homes it promised to build within ten years. Money is being indiscriminately shovelled out the door by the NDP, with very few housing units to show for it.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.