Reported real estate flipping has opposition blasting Quebec’s housing minister – Montreal | 24CA News
One of Quebec’s opposition events, Québec solidaire, has blasted the province’s housing minister after stories surfaced late final week that she was concerned in actual property flipping with a business accomplice that now lobbies the federal government.
“She herself is part of [what] is causing us to live in a housing crisis,” mentioned Québec Solidaire (QS) MNA and co-spokesperson candidate Ruba Ghazal on Saturday.
“The phone in my riding never stops ringing with people getting evicted and having no place to live.”
The stories first surfaced on Thursday, when La Presse, Ricochet and its French counterpart Pivot revealed that the CAQ’s housing minister France-Élaine Duranceau’s latest business accomplice, Annie Lemieux, has an energetic foyer mandate with the housing ministry.
Lemieux is president of an organization that owns a whole bunch of rental flats, in accordance with Ricochet’s reporting, and she or he and Duranceau flipped an condo constructing collectively and made near $2.5 million.
This is identical ministry that simply tabled Bill 31, a laws that may finish tenants’ proper to make lease transfers, which is a method of casual lease management in a province the place the inhabitants is more and more combating the price of housing, particularly in Montreal.
The bombshell stories revealed that Minister Duranceau, who herself is a former realtor, and Lemieux have been business companions on a number of initiatives, together with the 2019 buy of a two-storey Montreal constructing on De Chateaubriand Avenue in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie.
They allegedly purchased the constructing for $517,000, renovated and transformed it into 5 luxurious condos dubbed “Le Briand.”
The models offered for between $400,000 and $800,000 every. La Presse reported that they made about $3 million in whole on the sale of the condos. The venture listed each ladies as directors and Duranceau as a shareholder.
“What bothers me about this is realizing that our politicians are close to the elite. They’re not close to the issues Quebecers are dealing with,” mentioned former QS MNA and one other co-spokesperson candidate, Émilise Lessard-Therrien, on Friday after the controversial story surfaced.
Québec solidaire has constantly advocated for tenants’ rights and reasonably priced housing in Quebec and has been very vocal about being towards renovictions and actual property flipping.
“Is [she] the minister of the real estate industry, or a minister with the common good at heart” wrote QS MNA Andrés Fontecilla in a Twitter assertion. “Her past alleged real estate practices show us that the interests of tenants are not her primary concern.”
“[This news] is dripping with contempt for citizens who are doing what they can in the face of the housing crisis,” mentioned one other QS MNA Christine Labrie.
Legault stands by his minister
On Monday, Premier François Legault commented on the story and reiterated his help of Duranceau, saying, “Listen, people in real estate buy and sell, it’s part of what goes on in the industry. It’s [known] that France-Élaine [Duranceau] has a past in real estate.”
He continued by saying that it’s a “a plus” that the housing minister is aware of the actual property sector, and that it’s her accountability to develop reasonably priced housing as quick as attainable.
“If someone can successfully manage those projects and be innovative, it’s her,” Legault mentioned to reporters on Monday. About the lobbying appointments between Duranceau and Lemieux, the premier mentioned they had been discussing the development of a seniors’ residence.
“It had nothing to do with their dealings in the past.”
Bill 31
This comes after Duranceau apologized earlier final week for remarks she made throughout an interview on Quebec’s Noovoo tv community the place she defended Bill 31, saying tenants can’t “use a right that isn’t theirs, to assign a lease to someone else, on terms they decide on when it’s not their building. Any tenant who wants to do that has to invest in real estate and take the risks that go with it.”
After that quote was known as tone deaf and offensive, the minister mentioned she was “sorry if it seemed insensitive. It was a legal and economic description of things. On the contrary, I’m very sensitive to what’s happening in housing.”
If Bill 31 is adopted, landlords could have the precise to refuse and terminate lease transfers. The present regulation requires that landlords will need to have a “serious reason” for doing so.
The invoice has been described by housing advocates as a setback to tenant rights and an extra step to cut back entry to reasonably priced housing.
Global News reached out to the housing minister’s workplace for remark by e-mail and by telephone however didn’t hear again.
— with information from The Canadian Press
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
