Little Mountain Redevelopment | U/C

[whatnext]

A little more detail today on the BC Liberals' shitty Little Mountain deal:

VANCOUVER -- When the province sold Vancouver’s Little Mountain lands to a company pledging to re-house displaced low-income residents, the deal was controversial for its low price tag for prime land. Now, CTV News has learned only a fraction of that price has been paid, despite the sale and possession taking place more than a decade ago.

Holborn Group bought the 15-acre parcel for $334 million in 2008 and hundreds of low-income families were evicted from the social housing units on the site the following year. Only one temporary and one permanent structure have since been built on the land.

British Columbia’s housing minister has now revealed that the company has only paid a fraction of the purchase price the BC Liberal provincial government under premier Gordon Campbell negotiated, but emphasizes the details of the deal are secret and she doesn’t know when the full amount is actually due.

“There’s a whole bunch of secrecy around the site,” said current Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Selina Robinson on Thursday. “The provincial treasury has only received $40 million of the $334 million, so they’ve only received a small portion of payment … It stinks to me as a taxpayer, it stinks to me as a British Columbian, it stinks to me as a human being seeing that there’s an affordability issue, a housing affordability issue that didn’t just crop up two years ago, it’s been ongoing for a decade and a half.”

CTV News tried reaching Holborn by email and phone, but the company did not respond to requests to discuss the Little Mountain project.

“We haven’t seen the deal; it’s a secret deal the BC Liberals made,” said Robinson, insisting that despite being the government, the BC NDP has no idea when the full amount is due or what the terms of the agreement are with Holborn.

“My understanding is it’s a secret, a deal that was made by a previous cabinet and we don’t get to see previous cabinet documents,” she said...

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/it-stinks-vanc...ands-1.5139076