VICTORIA – Yesterday, the NDP government took bold action to tackle housing speculation and make housing affordable for people.

The B.C. Liberal reaction? Finance Critic Tracy Redies was “very concerned” about the impact on real estate developers:

“I guess my question is: how is this going to affect property development? Property development has been one of the biggest industries and generators for the B.C. government. So I’m very concerned about what the impact will be.”

It’s no surprise that the B.C. Liberals are standing with speculators and developers. Andrew Wilkinson’s housing platform didn’t contain a single action to tackle housing speculation.

And just last week, Wilkinson actually criticized demand-side measures like the ones announced by government yesterday.

BC NDP MLA Bowinn Ma says that after 16 years of putting millionaire developers ahead of people, the B.C. Liberals haven’t learned a thing.

“Letting housing speculation go unchecked might be good for people living in five million dollar houses, but it’s terrible for the millions of regular British Columbians struggling with the cost of housing,” said Ma. “It’s clear that Andrew Wilkinson’s B.C. Liberals are standing up for their rich friends while making life harder and more expensive for everyone else.”