Douglas Todd: NDP goes after housing ‘profiteers’ in cabinet and big business

It’s time to make life difficult for federal politicians and big corporations that “profiteer from housing,” says the federal NDP’s housing critic.

Liberal cabinet ministers who play the real-estate market for personal gain — and the giant housing corporations to which they have given massive tax breaks — need pushback, says Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan.

The veteran MP, who this week debated Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen in the House of Commons, joins Conservative MPs in finding it “strange” that Hussen refuses to admit Canada faces a housing crisis — at the same time he has recently bought a second apartment to rent out.

The fact the housing minister owns two Ottawa rental units, and that one third of his fellow Liberal cabinet ministers own two or more dwellings, Kwan said, helps explain why the federal Liberals’ so-called “housing strategy” is failing.

“Politicians are profiteering on housing,” Kwan said in an interview.