The Ben Mulroney Show - How did the BC government become a slumlord? How $55 million went down the drain.

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

GUEST:   Trevor Halford / interim leader of BC conservatives If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. Everything is about perspective, right? A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet. And a problem is only a problem until you think about it and then becomes an opportunity, right? And Rob Schneider, the American comic and comic act, You can do it. He's from Waterboy. He has a particularly positive spin on homelessness. A lot of homeless people in America. Could be looking at this all wrong. Either we have a huge homeless problem in America or gigantic camping success story.

Well, we turn our eyes to British Columbia. This is a segment we're going to unofficially titled, BC is Burning, because we've got a hotel. story in Vancouver that is definitely not a success story. So in 2020, the government of British Columbia bought a holiday inn called the Lugat SRO, that's single resident occupancy on Granville Street. They bought for $55 million. It's being shut down after years of fires and floods and damage despite taxpayer spending so much money to convert it into supportive housing during COVID for addicts and the homeless.

And back then in the early days of this hotel turned into a single resident occupancy building, great fanfare. The doors were swung wide open. Come, press. Hey, come take a look. Come take a look at how good this is. And look at the amenities and look at how well we are treating those who need our help. Well, now the place is such a...

rat hole with so much damage and so many problems that when global news tried to get in, they were denied access. All this stuff in the hallways pictures were taken off the wall, the TVs were all taken and sold. It was destroyed in less than a year. Following multiple fires, floods, and at least 1.87 million spent on building repairs and remediation, it appears BC housing doesn't want taxpayers to see. inside the Lugat. Do you think the public should be able to see the conditions? Absolutely, yeah. It's been destroyed. Like, it's absolutely decimated in there. It's like

there's flood damage on every floor. There's multiple rooms. You can't even go in. The roofs are caving in. Yeah, residents describe the building as destroyed. Collapsed ceilings. Flood damage on every floor. Some units filled with garbage. Many say that their new housing that they've been moved into, far better. There is a business owner on on the ground floor, he owns a nightclub, pays $30,000 rent every month to have access to this club. And he has had so much water damage that he has to close. They finally, he went upstairs to see where the water damage was coming from and it was a toilet overflowing. And he now has permanently, he had to buy sort of the dryers to dry out the building,

wherever this toilet water was coming. This is an entrepreneur who's just trying to make a living. And he can't do what he, the bargain he struck with the city, which is I'll pay you rent. I'll pay rent. I'll pay my taxes.

And I get to operate my business. And this is, I got a real problem with the press not being allowed inside. If you couple that with the story of last week with the liberal government, now with their majority in Ottawa, taking control of committees and turning the cameras off, there is a real problem with progressives and transparency,

progressives and accountability. There's a trend line that is developing here, and it is concerning. It is concerning. Here's another BC story that we're going to put on the BC is burning header. BC Parks. Now, there was a woman on social media who, noticed over the weekend that there was a number of provincial parks in BC where they had taken the name provincial off of the sign. Now it's just the name plus park.

And there is no explicit movement or mandate to remove the word provincial. Nothing says we are removing the word provincial. But according to the provincial directory, there is not a single park that includes the word provincial in their name anymore. Why you might ask? Because of BC Park's commitment to inclusion report. And here's the salient line. Quote, the BC Park system is a part of the province's colonial history. As many of the older parks were established with little to no consultation or consideration for the indigenous peoples who occupy or use these areas.

Cue the national eye roll. Because I rolled my eyes so much it hurt. Look, I'm going to be the guy who says it. I think it's time for us to start viewing reconciliation as a negotiation. Okay? Because there's been a massive transfer of wealth in an effort to move reconciliation forward. There has been a national exercise in self-flagellation. We're bad because of this and we wrongs you because of that.

I think it's now time to start viewing the remainder of the road. as a negotiation. In other words, we will sit as equals across the table and bargain this out. Because I don't know what national reconciliation is supposed to look like, but simply handing things over, I don't believe has made anything better. Like, I certainly don't feel like we are any closer to reconciliation today than we were before we tripled the amount of federal transfers to First Nations before the BC courts handed over at what feels like most of British Columbia before American bands started getting in on it

and saying, hey, maybe we could go across the border and ask for some stuff. In other words, maybe the BC government should have said, hey, what do you think of every park being called a provincial park? Maybe ask them if they care first. And if they do, ask them, what do we get for that? It's a chip you can bargain with.

because what I'm seeing is a whole bunch of Canada hating progressives who want to deny anything positive that has come from Canada being established as a nation, looking at it like a cancer that needs to be excised from this First Nations paradise that prior to us getting here was perfection on Earth and we just mucked it all up. and all we're trying to do is pay our way out of, by way of an apology. And that hasn't worked. In fact, I would argue that there has been a commensurate negative reaction by a lot of these, quote unquote, colonialists and imperialists who are sitting here saying, wait, hold on a second. Hold on a second.

There are a thousand parks in British Columbia, a thousand provincial parks. Every one of them designed to preserve nature and to honor, you know, honor nature and preserve it for future generations. And now you're telling us that it is so offensive that we call it a provincial park that we're just taking that out. Sorry, no, absolutely not. And I'll ask you this as well. Mr. Eby, did you campaign on this? Was this part of your plan? Did you put this to the voters?

that you were going to start erasing our history and starting with the word provincial? I don't know if you did. And if you had, I don't know if that would have changed people's vote. But there is something, I'm getting to the point where this is now offending me. Because I am not a problem to be overcome. I'm a partner in reconciliation,

and I'm getting really tired of being viewed my simple existence. And the existence of this nation, the institutions that underpin, this exceptionally positive nation in the world, I'm getting really tired, really tired of people who do not have our best interest at heart. And David Eby and his ilk are proving with things like this that they actually don't like Canada. They are not willing to stand up for the things that make us us.

And they are willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater in an attempt to get what? To get what? Show me the metric that shows me that we are on a path towards reconciliation and we are in a better place today than we were yesterday. because I'll bet dollars to donuts most people don't think we are. After the break, I'm going to be speaking with somebody who might agree with me. Trevor Halford, the interim leader of the BC Conservatives. I'm going to ask them about all these stories. What the heck is going on?

And how can we get to a better place? That's next on the Ben Mulroney show. Some gifts say, I thought of you. The best ones help you discover more. This Mother's Day, give her something personal with ancestry DNA. Now, up to $75 off. explore her origins and discover the journeys that made her who she is. Save today. Give her something unforgettable, thoughtful, meaningful, uniquely hers.

Give more than a gift for less. Give AncestryDNA. Visit Ancestry.ca. Today offer ends May 10th. Terms apply. Well, I think good and decent people can probably agree that landlords who do not take care of their tenants are accurately described as slumlords. but what happens when that landlord is the government of the province of British Columbia. Here to discuss what we discussed in our previous segment, which is the deplorable state of the former hotel that was bought by the province in 2020 for $55 million, and essentially turned into a homeless shelter, which fell into disrepair. We're joined by the interim leader of the BC Conservatives,

Halford. Trevor, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for me, Ben. So you have, you have witnessed, you've gone into this place firsthand. If you saw it firsthand. I did. I did. And I went into the business and the owners have been fantastic, locally owned family in Vancouver here. And I can tell you, they're pulling their hair out, trying to figure out what to do. And the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, the province of BC, you may expect this if it's a landlord from other country, out of province. But the fact is the landlord is the province here. So normally is David E.B.

failing at being a premier. He's also failing at, you know, running a building that they own. So I just want to ask, so what did you see when you walked in? Just tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to the business down below. Yeah. And so it was just... That's the nightclub, right? It's the nightclub. And it was just, they've already spent close to two months. million dollars on repairs and uh you know now it's even getting worse so you know for them you know these poor people are throwing good money after bad yeah it's a situation where the province refuses to

step in and i can tell you the firefighters are there every day uh you know they had you know toilet water used toilet water leaking through the ceiling into the establishment like it was just everywhere that had been left there for months it was absolutely just disgusting yeah but like I'm sorry, but what exactly did the province think was going to happen? I mean, look, there are so many different reasons that people fall on tough times and end up on the streets. And there are so many different reasons why people fall to the mercy of drugs. But one thing, and I think it's a fair thing to say is when someone is in those states, they are not feeling particularly good about themselves.

Their level of self-worth is probably as low as it's been. if you don't have a great deal of respect for yourself, how are you expected to have any respect for wherever you're living? And so when I heard that this is what happened to this $55 million investment by the province, I wasn't remotely surprised. No, you shouldn't be, but that's very disappointing. Not only is that taxpayer dollar money, like we already talked about the businesses and the hardship that he's going through and his family's going through with that,

But those are actual individuals that are experiencing that hardship now. And there's no support in there. You're looking at people that have extreme addiction. There's obviously prostitution going on over there. There's theft. There's violence. And I can tell you, none of it is going well. And if you think about the amount of time, the first responders are there.

So, you know, if you want to have these establishments, it only works when you put them in areas that have the support in place. And that, you know, this was set up to fill from the very beginning, Ben. province won't allow the media into the Lugat and it's a home for addicts and the homeless that cost $55 million in 2020. So if we own it,

if the taxpayers own it, and the province is citing privacy issues, isn't that a problem? It's a massive problem. Listen, this building is owned not by David Eby, but David E.E.B. purchased this building on behalf of British Columbians. They have a right to see the deplorable conditions that

people are living in and the hardships that it's forcing on businesses there. I can, listen, I can understand why the NDP government does not want this shown, but I think the public deserves to see the mayhem that's been caused in this building. And I'll tell you, they better put some age appropriateness there because

it is absolutely disgusting and I wouldn't want my kids to see that. And you know, the NDP housing minister is a former city councilor from Vancouver. So she's known about these issues for a number of years. And yet, you know, for her to put up roadblocks here, so the media can't attend. The media have an important job to do, whether the NDP like it or not. And I think the

public deserve to see the conditions of this building and what their tax dollars have gone towards. You know, maybe you can explain this to me. So the government goes ahead and decriminalizes at pretty much everything, which means you're not going to be arresting people, you're not going to be prosecuting people, you're not going to be incarcerating people for stuff that used to land you in jail, which means there's a whole bunch of savings that come from decriminalizing the money, that comes from decriminalizing all these drugs. Where did that money go? And why wasn't it diverted to mental health services for these very same people?

So here's the thing. I actually will have trouble explaining that because in BC for a large period of time under this premier, under the NDP, you could use hard drugs on a public beach at any time you wanted, but you couldn't use a plastic straw. Yeah. That was the illegal part. Yeah. Yeah. So I can't justify it or explain it. Now, could you use a plastic straw if you were using it to snort meth? That is debatable.

Oh, I found a loophole. You found a loophole. By the way, there's one snort meth? I think they do. I think I saw a movie. I think I saw a movie. Yeah. Anyway, go on. No, you know, and I think, you know, I think, you know, all kidding, is. is that we have a situation here that is horrific on our streets and in these SROs. And I can tell you that, you know, unfortunately, you have a government that is dropping the ball

on almost everything it touches these days. And unfortunately, it's affecting our most vulnerable out here. These are brothers and sisters. Yeah. You know, moms and dads, and they deserve a shot at life. But, you know, when you put them in these situations, it's destined to fail. I wanted to get your take on this story that I haven't read too, too much about, but we just talked about in the previous segment.

which is the erasure of the word provincial from the provincial park system in British Columbia. And BC Parks has it on their website that the word provincial isn't inclusive because it's part of the province's colonial history. And was that an issue in the last election? I can't imagine that that popped up. Did the BC NDP say, if reelected, we are going to start erasing that word from, from British Columbia? Yeah. Sorry, one second.

Sorry, bells to go into the legislature. You know what? I have noticed that over the last little bit. It's not something that I talked about during the campaign or heard the NDP talk about, but it is very concerning. We're hearing reports of the word provincial being taken away, and I can tell you,

every chance this government gets to erase our history they're taking, and we'll oppose them every single time. Well, you know, I just, I'm beginning to start, looking at, maybe it's time to start looking at national reconciliation like a negotiation, because what I'm seeing from the government in British Columbia is just a willingness to just, okay, what do you want? You tell us how bad we've been to you and we will try to make amends.

Do you want money? Do you want land? Do you want to erase our history? Whatever? What is it going to take? And what I've seen is I have not seen any metrics that suggest that we are in a better place today than we were a few years ago. Yeah, Ben, you're exactly right.

And let me tell you this, is that the province of BC, and Canada needs to wake up and pay attention of what's going on in BC, because we have now entered a system of co-governance. And David E.B. and the Attorney General, Nikki Sharma, have done that on the behalf of all British Colombians here, where we now have First Nations who are openly saying, First Nations leadership, that they are now co-governing with BC. And I think that that's a, you know, that is an affront on our elected democratic system. Well, I think somebody's got to challenge that in the courts. I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court would have an issue with that because that is not how our Constitution lays out the government of any part of this country. And if that is what I can tell you that, yeah, the majority of British Columbians have a severe issue with this right now.

And we're making sure their voices are heard loud. Well, and but see, this is, this is the problem is when you have a, when you have a government that I, the evidence is suggesting to me that the BCNDP do not like Canada. Like, I don't want to say that. But if you've got one group that's advocating for their interests, which is First Nations, and good for them for doing that, that's what we want. But one group is advocating for their interests and the other group is advocating for their interests. This is what you get. And I'm sorry, I want to go on the record that I truly want true, honest and forthright reconciliation with First Nations. I believe that that will make us a better country moving forward.

I think that what we are witnessing is the undermining of Canada by people who have a sworn duty to uphold our interest in the face of anything and anyone. And they are derelict in their duty and we're seeing the effects of it. I want to thank you very much for joining me. This has been a great conversation. Trevor Halford, the interim leader of the BC Conservatives. Come back anytime. Thanks, Ben. Appreciate it. Behind every F-35 jet is a Canadian company, horizontal tails built in Winnipeg, engine sensors from Ottawa,

and stealth composite panels crafted in Loonenburg to name just a few. Thanks to thousands of skilled Canadian workers, the F-35 aircraft is delivering unmatched capabilities for 20 allied nations around the world, and will generate more than $15.5 billion in industrial value for Canada. This ad is sponsored by the F-35 partner team, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and RTX. Learn more at www.f35.com slash Canada. Thank you.