A quick synopis of the story so far…
In 2008 the British Columbia Government under Liberal Party Premiere Gordon Campbell and Housing Minister Rich Coleman sign a deal to sell British Columbia’s oldest and most successful social housing project to a foreign investment company named Holborn.
Holborn’s CEO named Joo Kim Tia, bought the 16 acre property for its land value and nothing else. Campbell and Coleman signed a confidential agreement with Tia that ensured that BC Housing would relocate and/or evict all of the tenants and deliver a wasteland to the new owner. Enough of THE SECRET DEAL – that the Community Advocates for Little Mountain (CALM) are currently fighting to reveal in BC Supreme Court – has been leaked, that there is speculation that the contract is without deadlines for paying the $300 million dollar debt, nor the rebuilding of the destroyed social housing, or any form of market housing on the site.
As a result Little Mountain has remained a nearly complete wasteland for the past 13 years. For this reason Holborn’s new slogan that “Great Stories Take Time To Write,” is particularly ironic, since the loss of Little Mountain, in housing and (most importantly) human terms was great.
What sort of person would look upon the trampling of a low income community for profit as a “great story?”
The Little Mountain site, located in Vancouver B.C. has been the city’s largest urban wasteland for 13 years. It was created by the Holborn Group.
Stay tuned for the outcome of the BC Supreme Court decision (in April 2021) on the Holborn Group’s secret deal with BC Housing. Go to #takebackthemountain and show your support by signing our petition.
David Vaisbord
