Gregor Robertson set himself a bold goal as the newly elected mayor in Vancouver in 2008 – ending street homelessness in the city by 2015.
Seventeen years later, British Columbia remains immersed in the national housing crisis with Vancouver's rent sitting at the highest in the country and the number of homeless people increasing.
Robertson is getting another chance to make things better, this time on a much bigger stage, after being named housing and infrastructure minister in Prime Minister Mark Carney's new cabinet.
It's an appointment that some have criticized amid Vancouver's high housing costs, while supporters say Robertson's experience makes him uniquely qualified for the job.
Robertson, who was Vancouver's longest consecutive serving mayor from 2008 to 2018, won his riding in Vancouver Fraserview–South Burnaby with 52 per cent of the vote.
Andrea Reimer, who co-chaired Robertson's mayoral nomination campaign and went on to join him on city council, said in an interview Tuesday that she "can't think of a person across this country who has put as much time into trying to solve the housing crisis" with what she called a "very skinny" set of tools available to mayors and little help from other levels of government at the time.
"I think he has a lot of pent up frustration around a lack of action from those levels that he would feel excited about finally being able to act on," she said of Robertson's new, larger stick in Ottawa.
Reimer called Robertson a "courageous visionary" who was willing to articulate problems even if he knew the city would not be able to solve them alone.
"He was the first politician in Canada to really stand up and say, 'This is a problem and someone needs to do something about it,' and (be) willing to take ownership and responsibility for trying to do something."
But as someone who once lived on the streets, Reimer said she saw improvements when he was in office.
Robertson co-founded the Happy Planet organic juice company before moving into politics in 2005, first in the provincial legislature with the New Democrats and then later as mayor.
He was well known for arriving to news conferences on his bicycle, often wearing a suit and always wearing a bike helmet.
Robertson is also now the minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada. He joins Delta MP Jill McKnight, who is taking over the Veterans Affairs file, and three secretaries of state as the B.C. contingent in cabinet.
Federal Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre says Robertson's record on housing is that prices ballooned during his tenure as mayor, giving the city the most expensive housing prices in North America.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data show that during Robertson's time as mayor of the City of Vancouver, the average price of single-family and semi-detached homes rose 179 per cent across the broader Metro Vancouver area.
Carney told reporters that Robertson brings "the type of experience" needed to help tackle Canada's housing crisis
The prime minister said Robertson was on the team that developed his government's housing policy, which will look at how Ottawa can help get municipal costs down and "regulation out of the way" so more houses can be built.
"We're going to have to change how we build. And a lot of that expertise, not exclusively, but a lot of it has actually been developed in British Columbia," Carney said.
"Minister Robertson is very familiar with it. We're going to incorporate that, but in a pan-Canadian strategy to really drive this."
Housing was a key platform point for Carney during the election, including a promise to double the rate of residential construction over the next decade to reach 500,000 homes per year.
Robertson will be shepherding a plan that includes a pledge for $25 billion in financing to prefabricated homebuilders and $10 billion in low-cost financing and capital to affordable homebuilders.
Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad said he "loves to see the fact that there is representation at a senior level from British Columbia" in the federal government.
When asked about Robertson's appointment, Rustad said he's "not quite sure he would be the person I would have put into a position like that, given his record in Vancouver, given his record of some of the problems that have been created over a period of time that he was an integral part of."
B.C. New Democrat house leader Mike Farnworth, who was elected to the legislature in 2005 along with Robertson, welcomed Robertson's appointment and rejected suggestions that Robertson should be blamed for the rise of housing prices during his time as mayor.
"Mayors don't determine housing prices, but mayors do bring a wealth of experience, and he's served in the (provincial) legislature," Farnworth said. "I think it's good to have a member of the cabinet from B.C. dealing with such an important issue."
Farnworth added that Robertson possesses "good people skills" and experience on the local and provincial level. "So, he will be able to bring that perspective to Ottawa," he said.
Reimer said Robertson's time as mayor prepared him for the attention and expectations that are being placed on the file.
"I think mayors are particularly used to being called to account on a wide range of issues. They live in the cities that they represent, and thus are held to account in the grocery store, on streets, in transit, wherever they are," she said.
— With files from Wolfgang Depner in Victoria
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
