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Premier John Horgan says housing is a major issue in B.C. for accepting Ukraine refugees

There will be setting up a 1-800 number to help answer calls from the community about refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

We are going to see “tens of thousands” of refugees arrive, mainly women and children. Currently the government has no clue what they will do for housing and schools.

There is expected to be a large language barrier but housing will remain the largest issue. Metro Vancouver area has the lowest vacancy rates in the country at 1.2 per cent.

“We all stand ready to open our hearts and our homes to the refugees will be coming,” he said, at a news briefing Friday, after hosting a roundtable with local Ukrainian community leaders.

Horgan acknowledges housing is the “number one challenge” but that doesn’t shy him away from inviting more people to come to B.C. and make living more unaffordable than it already is. We will have to fight for more supplies in the stores (more empty shelves) because more people means more food being bought from the store. Just because food is being bought from the store doesn’t mean the farm or distributor has supply to sell to the store.

“I know the community of faith that I’m attached to people are, you know, renovating their basements as quickly as they can to prepare a suite or they’re emptying out rooms that have been filled with boxes to make sure there’s a space for people if it’s needed,” has Horgan insisted B.C. residents open up their home to random couch surfers to be housed in their living room or any so-called “extra” rooms or space considering there is already no room for the people currently here and that’s why we have a housing crisis and a homeless crisis.

Interesting though to ask people to open their homes up to random refugees and not worry about the people already here needing housing to move out of their parents or find something more affordable.

Apparently we can depend on everyone to help out Ukraine refugees but we don’t care about the people already in B.C.

Another option John has on the table is to take up space in student housing or hotels at the ski hills and other places. They hotel needs to be paid for filled rooms and that rolls on to the tax payer because the government is so-called “paying” for it but that’s your tax money and printed money that you never had.

The premier added there is a sense many Ukrainians will stay in Europe so that they can go home and start the rebuilding process if Russian president Vladimir Putin vacates their sovereign nation.

“But if that’s not the case, Canada, of course is a desirable location for the Ukrainian community to come to because of the support systems they’d have when they arrive,” said Horgan

Yes the best support system usually does by default attrack the most people but this is also at the expense of British Columbians.

British Columbias infrastructure is already strained to the max with multiple crisis piled on top of each other.

We already have a zero housing supply for renters and what’s there is massively over inflated and priced. Metro Vancouver is seeing the lowest vacancy rates at 1.2 per cent and and highest monthly rents (an average of $2,498 for a two-bedroom condo) reported by CBC in February.

We have healthcare worker shortages backlogged from multiple years and then made worse when Bonnie Henry decided to fire healthy healthcare workers to enforce her unjustified and unscientific vaccine mandates.

British Columbia is carrying a massive amount of debt with continued over spending over the next few years with no plans to balance the books.

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