Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said it’s going to take ‘many more years’ to address Canada’s housing deficit.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says there aren’t going to be any quick fixes in dealing with Canada’s housing crisis because projects take years to approve and build.
The former Vancouver mayor, who returned to elected politics eight years after he said he was looking forward to getting back into the business sector, lays the blame broadly for the status quo.
“The actions we’re taking today, in most cases will take three to five years to play out in full with significantly more homes,” Mr. Robertson said in an interview.
“Basically, all previous governments for decades have not delivered enough federally and built strong enough partnerships to scale up housing construction to the level needed, so we’re millions of homes behind, which is going to take many more years to turn around.”
But Opposition housing critic Scott Aitchison said excuses aren’t enough.
“The challenge for him is to deliver. It’s, frankly, the challenge that all housing ministers have had,” said Mr. Aitchison, the Conservative MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka.
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While federal politics has lately been dominated by Canada’s trade conflict with the United States and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to fast-track major projects, Canadians will eventually want to see action on housing, pollster David Coletto said.
The issue was key to successful efforts by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to rally support in the April election campaign before it was upended by the threats from south of the border.
“It’s a politically powerful issue because it touches everybody in some way,” said Mr. Coletto, the chair and CEO of Abacus Data.
Of the current minister, Mr. Colletto said, “Outside of Vancouver, and maybe parts of British Columbia, Mr. Robertson is not a household name. I am not sure from a public opinion or the public watching perspective it matters so much who is in the job as opposed to what the outcomes look like.”
Mr. Robertson got his current job by helping draft federal Liberal housing policy during the election campaign – a point that Mr. Carney raised in May when he named the former mayor to cabinet, saying he had “the type of experience” required for the assignment.
Mr. Robertson also has experience at three levels of government – municipal, provincial and federal – he now hopes to unite to improve the housing situation in Canada.
From 2005 to 2008, the 60-year-old native of North Vancouver was an NDP member of the B.C. legislature. He left provincial politics in 2008 to seek the post of Vancouver mayor in that year’s election, and ended up as the city’s longest-serving mayor.
His run as mayor included grappling with policies on homelessness, a push to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world, and struggles over bicycle lanes. It also coincided with the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver and Whistler and the 2011 Stanley Cup riot, in which more than 100 people were injured and millions of dollars in damage done to the city’s core.
In 2018, he did not seek re-election, saying he wanted to return to the business sector where he had earlier made his mark as co-founder of the Happy Planet line of fruit juices, soups and other products.
Following his political exit, Mr. Robertson worked in the international environmental movement, serving as ambassador for the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. He also worked for a private sustainable-development company.
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Mr. Robertson resisted calls to run for the federal Liberals under Justin Trudeau, but accepted an appeal from Mr. Carney to seek a seat in the spring election because he was impressed by the former central bank governor.
“I was not expecting to be back in politics and government,” he says. “But as soon as the opportunity was in front of me, I had no doubts.”
Now he is the MP for Vancouver Fraserview-South Burnaby, a riding he won with 52 per cent of the vote.
His appointment to cabinet brought scrutiny of his housing policy, with questions from Mr. Poilievre, among others, about soaring housing prices in Vancouver on his watch.
Mr. Robertson shrugs off criticism about his work on housing when he was mayor. “Welcome back to the front lines of politics,” he quipped, noting that Vancouver was at the forefront of the housing crisis that has now become entrenched across Canada.
Now he says he is focused on co-ordinating efforts to build housing among all levels of government and the private sector - something he said was lacking during his time as mayor.
“I feel like I am getting another opportunity to bring what I learned and best practices and leadership from local levels to the federal level and try work a Team Canada approach with all levels of government, delivering on affordable housing like never before.”
Political scientist Hamish Telford says Mr. Robertson has been a sort of a non-partisan performer, citing the former mayor’s association with the NDP, and the centrist Vision Vancouver party in municipal politics, and now the Liberals.
“He’s broadly speaking a progressive guy, but not an overly partisan guy,” said Mr. Telford, who teaches at the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. “He’s someone who is used to working with a broad range of people from a broad range of backgrounds.”