A review of the CMHC’s role and culpability has been shelved
Peter O’Neil
Sun
The Conservative government has shelved its election promise to conduct a review into a federal agency’s role and potential culpability in B.C.’s $1.5-billion leaky condo crisis, according to a letter sent by Human Resources Minister Diane Finley to a homeowners’ group.
Finley said the promise, made in Victoria by Prime Minister Stephen Harper Dec. 17, can’t be fulfilled because of court actions launched against Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., a federal agency.
CMHC, according to internal documents obtained by Tory MP John Cummins last year, was aware in the early 1980s that new federal building regulations could lead to severe damage to homes in coastal areas.
“As I’m sure you can appreciate, it would not be appropriate for me to comment or to consider initiating a review into leaky condo issues while these matters are before the courts,” Finley wrote to Consumer Advocacy and Support for Homeowners (CASH), a consumer advocacy group that is seeking compensation for the thousands of B.C. residents whose homes and property values were devastated by moisture damage.
CASH president Carmen Maretic, in a letter sent Wednesday to Harper and Finley, said the Tories “knew or should have known” at the time of the campaign promise about a lawsuit filed against CMHC in B.C. on Dec. 6, 2005.
Critics have also noted that CMHC has been named in more than 30 other lawsuits. Former Liberal housing minister Joe Fontana and former Liberal industry minister David Emerson, now Tory trade minister, stated publicly in mid-2005 that the government couldn’t comment on CMHC’s role in the crisis because the issue was before the courts.
“Minister Finley’s response is unacceptable to British Columbians (voters), leaky condo owners and our organization,” Meretic wrote.
“The Conservative government must understand the suffering of the leaky condo victims, and the number of people who yet again will be re-victimized by a lack of accountability and by broken promises by your government.”
Harper, in a sweeping “Stand up for B.C.” election platform unveiled Dec. 17, promised to “review CMHC’s handling of construction regulations and ‘leaky condos.'”
A press release accompanying the platform boasted that Conservative MPs “understand and have advanced the interests in British Columbia” on several fronts, such as pressing CMHC “to investigate how it failed to warn homeowners about potential problems with ‘leaky condos.'”
In an exclusive interview with The Vancouver Sun after the announcement, Harper said he’d consider compensation for condo owners following the review.
Cummins (Delta-Richmond East), who was travelling to Ottawa Wednesday and couldn’t be reached, has alleged that the Liberal government under Pierre Elliott Trudeau, by establishing energy-conservation building standards to prevent heat and moisture from entering or escaping homes, planted the seeds of the leaky condo crisis that emerged in the 1990s.
Cummins had earlier asked the Library of Parliament to research options for the Harper government to fulfil the “review” promise. The subsequent report, released in April, said a formal public inquiry would be the “best choice” to look into CMHC’s “possible role” in the condo crisis.
CASH estimates that the crisis, which emerged in the 1990s, has resulted in more than 65,000 homes being damaged by moisture and the buildup of mould and fungi. The non-profit society’s website ( http://www.cashsociety.net/) includes links to the early-1980s documents that allegedly suggest the federal government’s culpability.
The Dec. 6, 2005 suit filed on behalf of two British Columbians by Vancouver lawyer John Singleton will not qualify as a class-action suit, thus qualifying others to join in the legal actions, until it is certified by the B.C. Supreme Court.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
