VIDEO: ICBA's Chris Gardner on the Homebuilding Crisis

"We are seeing layoffs that we have not seen in a generation... We are in a jobs crisis and an affordability crisis."

Our Chris Gardner joined other business leaders yesterday to raise the alarm on the NDP's reckless budget and tax increases.

AI-generated transcript:

Chris Gardner 00:00:01  Thank you Mike. I'm Chris Gardner, president and CEO of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association. We are the largest construction association in Canada. And when we look at this budget, the government's project is projecting about 44,000 housing starts this year. Our number is closer to 34,000. On page 97 of the budget. You can see that their projection is basically at the ten year average. They have not been able to increase the supply of units in housing for the last decade in this province. And so what we're seeing unfold in front of us is an affordability crisis that has turned into a jobs crisis. At the subcontractor level, the individuals who wake up every day and build homes and build everything around us, we are seeing layoffs that we have not seen in a generation. Subcontractors are laying off people. Thousands of people have lost their jobs and more will continue. 62% of our members say that this trend will continue this year and get worse. And we don't see a light at the end of this tunnel until possibly the end of 2027, maybe early 2028.

Chris Gardner 00:01:10  We are in a jobs crisis and an affordability crisis, and it's showing up in the numbers. The last 12 months, 70,000 people left British Columbia. Half of them went to Alberta. Housing is a big reason why you can buy three homes or three townhomes in Calgary for the price of one in Vancouver, four of those units in Devon for the price of one in Vancouver. The government has proven that they don't understand housing markets, and they're not prepared to work with builders to understand what the problems are. Remove the red tape, simplify building codes, and take costs out of construction so that we can build a stronger province.