OPEN LETTER: Serious concerns on recent federal and BC housing initiatives

Hill Times: Critics say Liberals ‘slow walking’ foreign influence registry leaves Canada vulnerable ahead of referendum

Two years and one general election later, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the long-awaited foreign influence registry is “weeks” away from being operational. Yet, as his department is confident it is “very close to the finish line” after repeated missed deadlines and delays, critics say combatting foreign interference and transnational repression is “clearly not a priority” for the current Liberal government.   

During a press conference in the West Block foyer on June 17, NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s public safety and national security critic, also criticized Anandasangaree for repeatedly failing to deliver on his previously promised timelines.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan says continued delays are signaling it is ‘open season’ in Canada for malign foreign actors. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
Kwan said Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) has “dropped the ball,” but that “Canadians are still subject to foreign interference attacks” from countries like China, Russia, and India, and, in the case of the upcoming referendum on Alberta separatism, from the United States, as well. 

In an interview with CBC’s The House in early May, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Dan Rogers said that the referendum “is rife for amplification or for the sort of disinformation or foreign interference that we’ve seen from players like Russia in the past.”

A May 6 report authored by DisinfoWatch, the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, and CASiLabs also warned that Russian and pro-Trump U.S. actors are amplifying and spreading disinformation to “normalize” Alberta separatism, “amplify distrust, portray Canada as internally divided and politically unstable, and create uncertainty that could deter international investment.”

“This cannot be acceptable,” Kwan said, adding that, to protect Canada’s sovereignty, “our democratic institutions and our democratic rights need to be protected from foreign interference actors.”

In a follow-up interview, Kwan said that despite the concerns raised by CSIS and diaspora communities under direct threat from transnational repression and interference, she believes that Carney has been “slow walking” the registry.

Now, she said, alongside her suspicion that the delay is intended to avoid upsetting trade negotiations with China or India, she has to question whether the same considerations are being applied to the Americans.

Whatever the reason for the delay, Kwan said the excuses have not diminished the threats Canadians or the country’s democratic institutions face, but are instead sending “a clear message to foreign interference actors that Canada is open season.”

“Alberta’s voter list has already been compromised,” Kwan said. “Is that not serious enough for the Carney government to take this seriously and get a move on?”

“This was the will of the previous Parliament, and Carney talked about how important this is during the campaign, but afterwards, he’s forgotten all about it,” Kwan said. “It clearly is not a priority.”

In response to questions from The Hill Times, Anandasangaree’s office said the final regulations “should be gazetted soon,” and that the registry “will be up and running later this summer.”

*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.hilltimes.com/2026/06/23/critics-say-liberals-slow-walking-foreign-influence-registry-leaves-canada-vulnerable-ahead-of-referendum/508941/?utm_source=The+Hill+Times&utm_campaign=f9702a0d0c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_06_22_07_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_251d35861a-f9702a0d0c-94024765&mc_cid=f9702a0d0c&mc_eid=4520aaba21

 

MEDIA RELEASE: Statement calling on federal government to drop its developer bailout in BC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NDP Housing Critic Jenny Kwan statement calling on federal government to drop its developer bailout in B.C.
 
The latest housing package announced by the Carney government, including the so-called "Condo Conversion" program, amounts to a $3.2 billion bailout for developers. It follows another initiative that requires local governments to slash development fees and community amenity contributions by up to 50 percent, effectively subsidizing developers with public resources. I am calling on the federal and provincial government to abandon these schemes and invest in truly affordable, publicly managed housing with operating subsidies.
 
The Carney government's housing agenda is fundamentally flawed. Despite campaign promises to "Build Big, Build Bold, Build Now," announcement after announcement has moved us further away from the goal of delivering truly affordable homes for Canadians.
 
At a time when developers are sitting on thousands of unsold units, Canadians deserve answers. According to Business in Vancouver, there were 4,376 unabsorbed condominium units on the market in Metro Vancouver as of May 2026. The problem is not a lack of luxury and investor-oriented housing. The problem is a lack of homes that ordinary people can actually afford.

Housing Minister Gregor Robertson once promised to end street homelessness when he was the Mayor of Vancouver by 2015. Today, he is championing housing programs that lack meaningful affordability requirements. Of the projects announced so far across Canada, only six will achieve genuine affordability. Instead of guaranteeing affordability for working people, renters, seniors, and young families, the federal governments are is choosing to subsidize developers and protect investors when there is a glut of overpriced condo units on the market.
 
For years, housing prices soared while developers, speculators, and wealthy investors accumulated enormous profits. Renters were pushed out through renovictions and demo-victions. First-time homebuyers were locked out of the market. Seniors were forced to leave the communities they helped build. Throughout it all, Liberals and Conservatives repeated the same failed promise: that the market would eventually solve the housing crisis.
 
It did not.
 
Today, working families, renters, seniors, and young people are still being priced out of their communities. Now that overpriced condos are not selling, governments appear prepared to step in with billions of taxpayer dollars to rescue the very industry that profited from the crisis. Earlier this year, the federal government partnered with Ontario on an $8.8 billion development charge reduction program that delivered another major benefit to developers. The Carney government is approaching the issue of housing affordability through the eyes of an investment fund manager – that is its fundamental blindspot and the flawed design of the government’s housing programs.
 
In the middle of an affordability crisis, governments should not be guaranteeing profits for speculators. They should be guaranteeing affordable homes for people. This is not a publicly accountable way to invest public resources. The NDP supports every effort to get people into affordable homes faster. But British Columbians have every right to ask and deserve full transparency: why are wealthy developers receiving public support while so many people cannot find an affordable place to live?  Why is the government using public money to shield developers and investors from the consequences of a cooling real estate market during a housing affordability crisis? Which developers will benefit and by how much?  What sort of affordability standards will apply to the units being purchased, and will they remain a public asset in perpetuity?  

I urge the BC government to resist this troubling shift in priorities. Housing advocates are rightly concerned when BC cancelled the Community Housing Fund earlier this year and are now putting in billions of dollars to absorb unsold condo inventory.  Imagine what could be accomplished if those same resources were invested directly in permanently affordable housing. BC remained a beacon in the delivery of social and co-op housing when successive Conservative and Liberal governments abdicated their responsibility to Canadians in the 1990s.  I urge them to reconsider this change in direction.
 
Developers made business decisions during a period of speculation and rapidly rising prices. They gleefully raked in huge profits while hardworking Canadians saw their dream of ever owning a home vanish. Taxpayers should not be expected to absorb their losses when their bets with the market are no longer paying off.
 
As Build Canada Homes continue to fail to meet true affordability targets, and given the Liberal government’s track record, this new initiative raises serious concerns about who will benefit and whether affordability will once again be treated as an afterthought. 
 
Instead of negotiating one-off deals to rescue unsold condo projects, the Carney Liberals should be building a new generation of public, co-operative, and non-profit housing at the scale Canadians were promised during the last election.
 
That is what "Build Big, Build Bold, Build Now" should mean.

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Global News: Liberals dismiss ‘tinfoil hat’ privacy fears as lawful access bill passes

Liberals are dismissing the privacy concerns surrounding the government’s lawful access bill as “tinfoil hat” and “paranoid” conspiracy theories, even after amending the controversial legislation to address some of those issues.

The House of Commons passed Bill C-22 on Thursday before breaking for the summer, a day after approving a motion to fast-track the bill and end debate at the public safety committee, which was then forced to approve it just before midnight without debating dozens of outstanding amendments.

The amended bill will now head to the Senate.

The legislation would give law enforcement the ability to get access to digital information more quickly and easily for investigations under a judicial warrant.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who represented her party during the committee’s study, also criticized the process and said the amended bill “did not fix the central problem: Canadians are still being asked to trust broad surveillance powers, secret orders, and future regulations that Parliament itself has never fully examined.”

“Canadians deserve legislation that protects both public safety and fundamental rights,” Kwan said in a statement Thursday.

“Instead, the government chose to curtail committee debate while dozens of amendments remained under consideration. The centralizing approach of the Carney government continues.”

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://globalnews.ca/news/11911957/lawful-access-bill-passes-privacy-liberals-tinfoil-hat/