It's good the author is a professor of finance.  If he was a geography professor, people would wonder why he doesn't know that British Columbia extends beyond the Lower Mainland.

This program is only marginally different than the old BC Second Mortgage Program that ran for many, many years under governments of both political leanings, that allowed buyers to bulk up their down payment.  It was a good thing then, and it's a good thing now.  Think what this will do for a young family trying to get a start in owning their own home in Terrace, Chetwyn, Chase or Port Hardy. 

As to the myth being promulgated that buyers will suddenly be taking on too much debt with this measure; buyers will be means tested as before.  Canadian lending practices are very conservative, and so broadly applied that the rate of arrears in mortgages in Canada is less than one third of one percent - 0.28 to be exact.