The Campbell Liberals have discovered how to turn a broken promise into misleading propaganda about social housing.

Yaletown Mews is an example of social housing. Lorne Mayencourt should know about it since he attended its official opening in November 2002. The project which was built by the Affordable Housing Societies had planning work begin in 1998; the building permit was issued August 16, 2000, 9 months before the last election; and it was completed in December 2001. The Campbell government should be encouraged to follow that example, and Mayencourt should be encouraged to give credit to the former government. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find any similar project that has been announced in the New Era.

Campbell's New Era document promised to "Work with non-profit societies to build and operate an additional 5,000 new intermediate and long term care beds by 2006." Who can forget the communication chaos created by then Minister of State Intermediate, Long Term, and Home Care, Katherine Whittred, when in the April 22, 2002 staged cabinet meeting, she fudged on whether new "assisted living" beds would be counted towards the 5,000 new intermediate and long term care beds promised by 2006. Fast forward two years and we find Campbell Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt interviewed on the Rafe Mair show on September 1, 2004, by guest host Shiral Tobin. Mayencourt denied that his government's claims about an increased number of units for social housing were inflated by including assisted living units. Just look at the Coal Harbour project, he said, "it has nothing to do with seniors." That would be the project scheduled to open in 2006 where the opening sentence of the news release announcing the project read "Members of Vancouver's arts community and their project partners celebrated the construction of 111 units of mixed-income housing for seniors in Coal Harbour today."

The government that broke its promise to see an additional 5,000 new intermediate and long term care beds built and operating by 2006 now not only wants to count assisted living as intermediate and long term care, but also wants to double count those beds as social housing units. BC Housing's website verifies the switch from residential care beds when it says "The program will create 3,500 independent affordable units with support services, and assisted living apartments for those who need a greater level of care. This is part of the provincial government's New Era commitment to provide an additional 5,000 new intermediate and long term care beds by 2006." That website also includes various "housing facts" such as "47% of all renters pay over 30% of their income on rent while almost 1 in 4 renters spent half or more of their income on rent." The Campbell government is not meeting that need for social housing, and counting assisted living as social housing isn't fooling anyone.

When a caller referred to the legislative debate on social housing as evidence that only 21 new units have been built by the Campbell government, Mayencourt read from a list of projects and claimed that they have nothing to do with assisted living. Topping his list was Dunsmuir House, the long standing Salvation Army facility that was rebuilt using $16.2 million in funds raised by the Salvation Army. The government contributes operating costs for emergency shelter. Counting its operating contribution as a contribution to the construction of social housing is equivalent to including the housing component of a welfare cheque as social housing. Mayencourt also used the Dr. Peter Centre and Yaletown Mews as examples. The Dr. Peter Centre is a needed project for persons living with HIV/Aids but, like assisted living, it is part of health services. The news release that announced the Centre went on to talk about other "social housing" and said "The units will provide housing for some of the province's most vulnerable citizens, including frail seniors, people at risk of being homeless, people with disabilities and First Nations citizens." It is good to meet the needs of vulnerable citizens, but double counting health facilities as social housing is misleading. While Mayencourt didn't give the former government credit for Yaletown Mews, he should be reminded that it is exactly the type of project the Campbell government should be developing in addition to facilities for those who are vulnerable because of their health.