Former Victoria mayor Lisa Helps appointed premier's adviser on housing support
Former Victoria mayor Lisa Helps will help advise B.C. Premier David Eby on housing solutions, the province announced Thursday.
Helps, who was mayor of Victoria from 2014 to 2022, will work with Ravi Kahlon, minister of the newly formed B.C. Ministry of Housing, which was launched last year by the incoming premier.
The ministry is responsible for working with stakeholders and partners on housing solutions in the province, as well as designing and developing the BC Builds program – which is intended to bolster housing for middle-income families, individuals and seniors.
"The current reality is that many people in our province struggle to find housing, even if they earn a good income," said Eby in a release Thursday.
"I’m very pleased that Lisa Helps has agreed to use her years of leadership to help us work on innovative solutions, like BC Builds, to make it easier for people to find a good place to live in their communities," he said.
Two other special advisers were recently announced in B.C.
Dr. Penny Ballem, who was the head of B.C.'s COVID-19 vaccine campaign, was named the premier’s health systems specialist.
Meanwhile, lawyer Doug White was appointed the special counsel to premier on Indigenous reconciliation.
"Doug, Penny and Lisa have tremendous amounts of experience and they are all very motivated to help take concrete action on the issues important to British Columbians," said Eby.
In 2021, Helps made it clear she was not going to run for re-election as Victoria's mayor.
On her last day in the role in 2022, Helps said she would be interested in working in the fields of housing, climate change or reconciliation once her tenure as mayor was over.
"The most pressing issue, though, in our city and province and country is housing," she said at the time.
"Not only housing for people who are currently living on the street and living in tents, that's obviously important, but housing for the middle class," said Helps.
"Housing for working people, working families. It's a bit of a shame that we've somehow normalized that a young family with two good jobs won't be ever be able to buy a home. That is not OK," she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.