Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tweeted in response: “Your party runs BC where this apartment is located. Since you took power in Ottawa, housing costs have rocketed higher.”
The Lotus Hotel single room accommodation property was purchased by a Toronto real estate investment firm in 2021. Vancouver city council adopted vacancy control regulations in 2021 that were intended to slow speculative investment and rapidly rising rents in SRA buildings, as well as prevent “renovictions” and tenant displacement by limiting rent increases between tenancies to the rate of inflation.
Kahlon’s statement did not directly answer questions about what the provincial government will do to lower the cost of housing and assist low-income people who are forced out of their homes by corporations. Instead, it said the government is determined to make sure British Columbians have access to an affordable place to live.