VICTORIA – As the BC Liberals attempt to blame the BC NDP for housing start projections, a quick look at the last BC Liberal budget shows that the BC Liberals predicted substantially lower housing start levels under their plan for British Columbia.

The last Liberal budget, tabled in 2017, predicted that housing starts would fall to 26,969 by 2019. Relative to 2016, this meant that the BC Liberals’ own plan for British Columbia predicted an over 35% decline in housing starts.

Further, the 2017 BC Liberal budget predicted 27,512 housing starts in 2018. But actual 2018 housing starts under the BC NDP were much higher at 40,857.

A comparison between the 2017 and 2019 budget shows that actual and predicted housing starts are up significantly over what was forecast in every single year between 2017 and 2021.

In fact, the 2019 budget shows that under the NDP, B.C. is on track for 42,446 more housing starts over five years than the BC Liberals had predicted: