CRD Watch Homepage

BC housing has handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to sponsor industry organizations including lobbies; refuses to reveal the full name of industry organization that it handed almost $100,000 of public money to in one payment.


By Sasha Izard
April 22, 2026

————————————————————————————————-

In recent articles, I’ve shown how BC Housing has funnelled 10s of thousands of dollars into the Urban Development Institute a lobby for corporate interests involved in development and real estate, even having an annual $10,000 sponsorship of the organization that renews each April 1st. Yes, April Fool’s day, and the joke is sadly on the public who is funding this with their taxes.

$10,000 a pop, and VIP Tables included: how BC Housing has been funnelling taxpayer money ($62,500 in less than 5 years) into the UDI, a registered lobbying organization for development and real estate, through $10K sponsorship agreements. – CRD Watch Homepage

BC Housing’s out of control spending spree: $82,249 spent in only 3 and a half years, on costs related to a single lobby for real estate and development. – CRD Watch Homepage

—————————————————————————————————

As it turns out, the situation is far worse. When I made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request (#30-02426) on BC Housing’s Industry Sponsorship Account code (something I found from a previous FOI response), it turned out that the organization has handed hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to industry, even handing over in one payment alone almost $100,000 to an industry organization.

Only, BC Housing refuses to reveal the full name of that organization (see appendix 2 at the end of the article), which was not shown in full in the spreadsheet that it provided in the FOI response.

The organization listed as “Greater Vancouver Home Builder) was almost certainly the Greater Vancouver Homebuilders’ Association (GVHBA), which was listed elsewhere in the FOI response spreadsheet. The GVHBA is a branch of HAVAN, according to its LinkedIn page at the time of writing: Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association (GVHBA) | LinkedIn

HAVAN is a lobby for real estate and development, much like the UDI, with which it coordinates backroom lobby committees with government, now hidden from the public.

Too much heat: The UDI pulls down its list of backroom committees that meet with the Government of British Columbia and Local Governments – CRD Watch Homepage

Lobbies which have received many 10s of thousands of dollars of sponsorship/partnership funding from BC Housing include the Urban Development Institute, HAVAN, the Canadian Homebuilders Association of BC.

—————————————————————————————————

The FOI response document from BC Housing showing the payments out of the industry sponsorship account over a decade:

—————————————————————————————————

Zoomed out:

—————————————————————————————————

Appendix 1: The FOI Response letter from BC Housing

—————————————————————————————————

Appendix 2: Dialogue in which BC Housing refuses to send the full name of organization listed in its FOI response

On March 23, 2026 – I received the FOI response from BC Housing’s Privacy and Information Services department with the letter in appendix 1.

—————————————————————————————————

On March 31, 2026 – I replied:

Thank you.  Many of the names are cutoff in the file, so I can’t see the full name of the organization, but those should be available.

e.g.:

Please send the full names of the organizations that payments went to from the industry sponsorship account.

Thank you,
Sasha

—————————————————————————————————

Good afternoon Sasha,

In the record created for you, the entire field length is visible. This is not a case of a print/cutoff error, but rather the full extent of the information that is available for the column “EXPLANATION_NAME_ALPHA”.

This record was created for you in accordance with Section 6 of FIPPA, which establishes that BC Housing must create a record from a machine-readable record (in this case, the financial system). Since the field is represented from this financial system in its entirety, we’re unable to provide further information.

Kindly,

—————————————————————————————————

Hello,

I’m making an official complaint to the public body.  If the records provided are incomplete, then the requested records have not been granted.  I will be reporting this to the OIPC if the full names of the organizations are not provided as requested.

Thank you,
Sasha Izard


—————————————————————————————————

See also:

Forensic audit finds former B.C. Housing CEO directed funds to spouse’s non-profit | CBC News

Index of Crown Corporations and Statutory Entities that have acted evasively about their UDI memberships. – CRD Watch Homepage

Ravi Kahlon’s Kitchen Table – CRD Watch Homepage

More Champagne Socialism from the BC Government: “$35,000 budget for open bar bureaucrat party” according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of articles and other resources on government lavishness using public funds. – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of Crown Corporations and Statutory Entities that have acted evasively about their UDI memberships. – CRD Watch Homepage