Poilievre Asks Ethics Committee to Review Government’s Plan to Buy Empty BC Condos

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 15, 2026. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is asking the House of Commons ethics committee to hold an “urgent meeting” to investigate the federal government’s plan to buy vacant condos in British Columbia.

Ottawa and B.C. recently announced a proposal to finance the acquisition and conversion of more than 2,200 vacant unsold condo units into affordable housing. Conservatives have said the plan amounts to a bailout for condo developers, and raised questions about who initially asked for the policy.

“Forcing homebuyers to compete with their own tax dollars to raise prices for the benefit of developers is not in the interest of Canadians,” Poilievre wrote in the June 26 letter to the committee’s chair, Tory MP John Brassard. “Conservatives will get to the bottom of who is benefiting from this bailout.”

A day earlier, Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that the initiative would cost around $1.5 billion, and the federal government would contribute about 10 percent of the cost.

When asked by reporters  if any condo developers had requested the policy, Carney replied, “no developer asked for this from me directly,” and said the B.C. government had “initiated the idea.”

B.C. Premier David Eby told reporters on June 25 that the Liberal government was “enthusiastic about us announcing this [policy] before all the details were out,” and that “in the absence of details, the plot has been lost a little bit here.”

Eby said the proposal would not help condo developers that “took a bet on the high end of the market” and are facing losses. He said it is meant to help make housing more affordable.

“We'll be buying below the cost of construction, no developers will be profiting from us, and it will give people an opportunity to buy a home that would otherwise not have it,” Eby said.

Poilievre’s letter said Canadian taxpayers would be “on the hook” to buy the condo units and argued the bailout would put a floor under condo prices, preventing the market correction that could make housing more affordable for British Columbians. He also questioned “which minister was lobbied to introduce the program,” after neither Carney nor Eby identified who first proposed the idea.

Poilievre said the origin of the condo plan “deserves full transparency so Canadians can be sure no one received an unfair advantage.”

Brassard responded to Poilievre’s letter by saying he shared his “concerns” and agreed that it is an urgent matter. Brassard said he would call a committee meeting in the coming days to discuss the issue, and “ultimately, it will be the decision of a majority of Committee members whether they will in fact investigate this further.”

OneBC Leader Dallas Brodie said on June 28 that she would introduce legislation to initiate an inquiry into B.C’s handling of the condo bailout.

“This mess should be handled by the market and private businesses, not by the taxpayers of Canada and British Columbia,” she said in a public letter. “I invite my colleagues in the House to support this inquiry and safeguard the interests of the taxpayers of British Columbia.”