The BC War Room welcomed its first-ever guest this week, and he didn't hold back. Beau Jarvis, President and CEO of Wesgroup Properties — one of the largest private developers in Western Canada — joined hosts Azim Jiwani and Michael Gardiner on day ten of the provincial election campaign to answer the show's question of the day: on housing policy, is the juice worth the squeeze?
Housing takes centre stage in the BC War Room 🏠
— Sitka Media (@sitkamedia) October 1, 2026
Developer Beau Jarvis joins Azim Jiwani and Michael Gardiner to sound the alarm on the state of Metro Vancouver’s housing market.
⬇️ New episode out now. #bcpoli #bchousing pic.twitter.com/McqGrTanhc
Jarvis's answer came with numbers. Metro Vancouver has averaged roughly 11,500 condo and home pre-sales a year over the past decade — about 4,000 a quarter. In the first quarter of this year, there were approximately 120. In the second, just 62. “Those equal housing starts,” Jarvis warned, “and so we will soon see housing starts fall off a cliff.”
The flashpoint is David Eby's proposed 2% tax on new condos left unsold after a year, which Jarvis called “political opportunism” — a rule change made “at the end of the game,” after investment decisions were already locked in. With 95% of housing built by the private sector, and roughly 30% of the cost of standing inventory already made up of government fees, levies, and taxes, he argued the bill ultimately lands on renters and buyers, not developers.
The hosts split on the politics. Gardiner, a former Executive Director of the BC NDP, argued Eby won't lose by positioning himself as the champion of affordability, even at developers' expense.
Jiwani, former Chief of Staff for the Conservative Party of BC, pointed to a new issue poll conducted for the show by Public Opinion Canada showing a majority of respondents oppose the tax.
But by the end, the Conservative and the New Democrat found rare common ground: both called for a pause on the step code and the accumulating layers of housing policy, with Jiwani going further and urging outright repeal. Jarvis endorsed his industry's call for a full policy moratorium. Is the juice worth the squeeze? “We can't even determine what the juice tastes like yet,” Jarvis said, “and we know it's really expensive.”
The episode also covers LNG Canada's Phase 2 green light in Kitimat and the tightening polls ahead of the October 24 vote. New episodes drop every weekday morning at 9 AM until election day.
Click HERE to watch on YouTube, or, if audio is more your style, click HERE to listen on Spotify, and HERE for Apple Podcasts.
