Liberal MPs used their majority on the House of Commons ethics committee on July 7 to end debate on a Conservative motion to investigate British Columbia’s condo buyout plan. The meeting was adjourned soon after. It was the first formal fight over a scheme that families in Metro Vancouver and Toronto have been watching closely, since both cities hold large stocks of unsold condos.
The plan itself came a month earlier, when Ottawa and B.C. announced that governments would buy up 2,200 vacant condo units and convert them into affordable housing. Federal funding allotted to the project is roughly $150 million, according to Liberal MP Fares Al Soud, who called getting more Canadians into affordable housing a worthwhile use of that money.
The ethics committee fight
The Conservatives recalled the committee for an emergency meeting. B.C. Conservative MP Aaron Gunn moved a motion that labeled the program a “bailout” for Liberal-connected developers who do not want to sell their units at a loss. It called for a series of meetings to find out who might have lobbied Ottawa for the plan, and for testimony from the B.C. and federal housing ministers and from condo developers in the province. The Liberals shut it down before it went further, The Canadian Press reported.
What the experts say
Outside Parliament, economists have focused on one open question: price. Mike Moffatt of the Missing Middle Initiative at the University of Ottawa said the public does not know how much governments will pay for the units, or how steep a discount they will get. Ottawa has said it will release finer details in the months ahead. “I do think this can be a win-win if structured correctly,” he said, “but I also understand why people are skeptical.”
Andy Yan, director of the City Lab at Simon Fraser University, said other cities do not have as many unsold condos as Metro Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation counted 4,376 completed, empty condos in Metro Vancouver, a 76 per cent increase over a year earlier. In the Toronto area, Urbanation reported a record 4,295 newly completed unsold condos in the first quarter of 2026, more than double the year before.
Yan called for “surgical responses” rather than blanket approaches. He also pointed to people who already bought in these buildings. Owners could be left asking what happens to their unit’s price when the government buys the one next door.
Supporters and critics
Backers of the plan argue that finished homes standing empty help nobody, and that converting them puts existing inventory to work for families on housing wait-lists. Critics argue that public money would be absorbing market risk, and that buying existing condos adds no new construction. Some warn that developers might come to expect rescue when projects miss sales targets.
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson has described the purchases as one tool in “the broader toolkit,” with Build Canada Homes as the main approach to growing the stock of affordable homes.
Sources
- Mark Carney’s plan to bulk-buy unsold Vancouver condos might be a bailout, but it doesn’t have to be | RCI
- Carney's Condo Conversion Plan Sparks National Debate Over Housing Strategy – The Daily Scrum News
- Federal Liberals shut down debate over proposed probe into B.C. condo buyout plan
