Leaky Condo Devastation

Paul Nicholson wrote this piece as a follow-up to his article that appeared in the Times-Colonist, Comment page, November 29, 2004. However, it has not been published to date.

Paul Nicholson is a Victoria-based communications consultant who specializes in government. He also owned a leaky condo, and notes with wry irony that the construction company that built his parents' condo is the same company that got the contract to repair his.

A few months ago, I wrote in this space about the plight of my elderly parents, living the nightmare of the leaky-condo devastation that is cutting a swath through their strata complex.

I wrote that the nagging financial worries were literally killing my 90-year-old father, having contributed to another stroke, and the ongoing fear of ruination continues to lie heavy on him.

I suggested that government, either by omission or commission, was largely responsible for the leaky condo debacle. I urged Premier Gordon Campbell to put action to his general promise of providing leadership by acting specifically to help put right the leaky-condo disaster.

After the article was published, I was floored by both the number of people who contacted me, and by the depth of tragedy of their tales. Moreover, I was stunned how my call for leadership on the part of the Premier echoed his very own words from just a few years earlier.

Leaky condo owners’ organizations, such as Conduit here in Victoria, showed me letter after letter from then-Opposition Leader Gordon Campbell with a near identical refrain. Look at what Mr. Campbell wrote to a Sooke resident during the May, 2001 general election:

Despite all the time that has passed and all the opportunities to address concerns like yours — the NDP showed no leadership on this very serious and important condo owner issue . . . . If elected, a BC Liberal government will take on the leadership role that has been missing . . .

In this and numerous other letters Mr. Campbell went even further:

The solution for leaky condo owners can only be found by taking a strong stand, and driving an agenda that brings together stakeholders, homeowners and all levels of government to develop and fund a long-term solution. As BC Liberals, our commitment is that should we form government, we will take such a stand and provide the much needed leadership….

Even the soon-to-be Deputy Premier got into the act. MLA Christy Clark had this to say during the last election campaign in May 2001:

The provincial government has to admit some liability… The time to study it to death is over.

In the early euphoria after the election victory, the tenor or the letters didn’t change much. In a letter dated November 15, 2001 the new Premier promised:

My government is committed to finding solutions to this problem … You may... rest assured that we intend to focus on this problem.

But then a year goes by, and uh-oh . . . the ancient art of political back-peddling is revived by the new Premier. In a letter dated September 4, 2002, Premier Campbell now writes:

As you know, leaky condo owners are anxiously awaiting a government announcement that will give them hope and relief.

I must caution that this work is unlikely to result in significant financial relief for owners.

Christy Clark might have thought the time to study it to death was over, but her boss sure didn’t. The Premier then proceeded to bury the issue with yet another study headed by Dan Jarvis, an MLA whose profile is so far below the radar screen it doesn’t even show up on sonar.

And there it still lies, four years later. Successfully interred by a Premier who promised to show leadership.

As the phone calls poured in in the wake of that earlier article, I was struck by a telling and tragic common denominator: Every call except one was from a woman. In all cases, the women ranged from late middle age to elderly, and their stories were uncannily similar. Widowed or divorced, all were living alone in severely reduced financial circumstances.

The woman whose husband divorced her, leaving her with half the assets and significantly reduced income. Or the newly widowed woman who suddenly found herself on half an income and a home that was too much to care for. She too would invest her dwindling resources and future into a condo.

I am certain now that older women comprise a significant number of the 55,000 leaky condo owners. Try to imagine being too old to work, living on a low fixed income and suddenly, through no fault of your own, having a $50,000 or $60,000 or more debt thrown onto your lap.

Although many of these callers phoned to commiserate with the plight of my elderly parents, I found their own tales of hardship and financial devastation just as upsetting. What left the deepest mark on me, however, was their sense of betrayal. They trusted Mr. Campbell when he promised to help. He didn’t live up to his own billing, and now there is just hopelessness and helplessness.

Gordon Campbell has said publicly he wants to reach out more to women — an area where he continues to fall well short. If he truly means this, I know of a good place to start.

Gordon Campbell has also said he would be a different kind of politician — one who could be trusted. He truly wanted to set himself apart from past political leaders who reneged on their promises. Yet when he could have fulfilled his promise of leadership on the leaky condo issue, Mr. Campbell ran, and he hid.

There is still an opportunity for Mr. Campbell to be a man of his word. However, with re-election all but assured, he undoubtedly will emulate all those other reneging politicians he ostensibly despises so much.

Sadly, his legacy on the leaky condo will lie atop the junkpile of every other promise-breaking politician who came before him, and on whose shoulders he proudly perches.