BC NDP candidate Ravi Kahlon says the B.C. Conservatives are making up “false and desperate” claims of a potential conflict of interest in the previous BC NDP government’s Ministry of Housing.
In an open letter to the Registrar of Lobbyists for BC Wednesday, B.C. Conservative Candidate for Surrey-Cloverdale Elenore Sturko requested an investigation involving Kahlon, who acted as Housing Minister until the official start of the election period on Saturday, and a company founded by his sister, Parm Kahlon.
Sturko tells 1130 NewsRadio she isn’t outwardly accusing Kahlon of doing anything wrong, but says the Conservatives just want to be sure.
The request centres around Core Firms, which works in governmental relations, and counts development firms like Renewal Development among its clients.
Renewal Development specializes in home “relocation,” taking homes that would be otherwise demolished and physically moving them to a new location to preserve housing stock.
The company is working on a housing project in Port Moody that received federal funding for completion. Ten homes will be moved from the community to the shíshálh Nation to add more housing options there.
The Conservatives say while acting as Housing Minister in April, Ravi Kahlon suggested the province may want to partner with Renewal Development in the future.
“This is a program that we are very interested in. I know that they just received funding from [federal crown corporation] CMHC to expand some of the work that they are doing. We are looking at how we can potentially partner with them,” the Conservatives quote Kahlon as telling reporters.
The BC NDP says the company has never conducted any business with the provincial government.
A blog post on the website for Core Firm says it was launched in May 2024 — the month after Kahlon made the comments that the Conservatives are using in their attack.
Sturko says she’s not going so far as to say there was any wrongdoing, but says they want the Registrar of Lobbyists for BC to make sure nothing untoward happened. The Conservatives want an investigation to look into whether the siblings have communicated about Renewal Development directly.
“I’m not making an allegation even to say that they have necessarily done something wrong, but I think when it comes to a file this important, and when we’re dealing with such a close relationship between a government relations agency and our minister of housing — who then publicly endorses one of the clients of his sister — I think it warrants looking into,” said Sturko.
B.C. Conservatives Leader John Rustad wasn’t as reserved, claiming on social media that Kahlon’s sister was directly benefiting in some way from her relationship with the housing minister.
“Not nearly as weird as having your sister make money off of the Big Developers you endorse as Eby’s NDP Housing Minister…” Rustad wrote in response to an exchange with Ravi Kahlon.
For his part, Kahlon hit back, calling Rustad’s implication “false and desperate.”
“The housing company in question does not do work with government,” he said.
1130 NewsRadio reached out to Renewal Development for comment.