Wilkinson’s plan to cancel the speculation tax would hurt people, says Finance Minister James

Carole James

ON Wednesday in Question Period, BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson called on the BC NDP government to cancel its tax on non-resident real estate speculators, asking Finance Minister Carole James to “shrink it to be completely disappeared.”
“Andrew Wilkinson still doesn’t understand the challenges faced by hardworking British Columbians trying to afford to buy a home or pay their rent,” said James. “If he was interested in helping young British Columbians afford a home, he would support this measure instead of standing up for speculators, offshore billionaires, and the top 1%.”
When James read aloud an email sent in by a British Columbian who supports the speculation tax, West Vancouver-Capilano MLA Ralph Sultan responded: “Clearly the Minister is not reading my email flow.”
A recent study shows that more than half of the homes in Sultan’s West Vancouver municipality are worth over $3 million – far more than any other Metro Vancouver community.
Chilliwack-Kent MLA Laurie Throness described the measure as “an asset tax on ordinary people.” In fact, the only British Columbians impacted by the tax are those with a second (or third or fourth) home that is vacant, worth more than $400,000, and located in one of the designated urban areas. The Ministry of Finance estimates less than 1% of British Columbians will be affected.
“The BC Liberals may think it’s ordinary to own multiple empty homes, but most young families would be grateful to afford one,” said James. “Andrew Wilkinson would take B.C. back to a time when real estate speculators called the shots and British Columbians paid for it. That’s wrong.”

6 COMMENTS

  1. Carol James owns more than one bc property – both in the hit zone. Her disclosure statement with the legislature claims she co-owns one of them with a relative. Curious to know the value of the one she co-owns and how the spec tax will impact this property. Which home is her primary residence? And if she actually fully owns both properties, is she collecting full rent or subsidizing the rent for the family member that is deemed the co-owner? Residential Tenancy Act might have an issue with subsidizing the rent of a family member…. if no issue with RTA or RTB then perhaps all the other folks hit with a spec tax might consider ‘subsidizing a family member’…. just speculating about how the >$400k stipulations for the spec tax came to be….

  2. What is “WRONG” . . . is the illogical concept that you can transfer wealth from hard working people to those who feel they are entitled to own a home simply because they are local residents. Only when this egregious wealth tax decimates the BC economy, propagates huge job loses and drives billions out of the province will the local population wake up to a new devastating reality as B.C. goes from a “Have Province” to a “Have Not Province”

    • Your statement spells corruption all over it. It is not illogical for local residents to expect that they are able to afford buy SFH with two people combined income in the place of their employment: which is not the case in Vancouver due to RE speculation fueled by rampant in our city tax evasion, money laundering, and immigration fraud. Bravo for Carol James for addressing a small portion of it. We need to get after the big portion of the above mentioned issues and amend our BC tax code to tax beneficial income of not working BC millionaires living off foreign capital gifted to them from offshore to evade paying Canadian income taxes while using Canadian healthcare, education and courts, all funded by Canadian income tax payers. Paying property taxes in Vancouver, does not exempt a BC resident from paying income taxes hence beneficial income used to support one’s residence in BC ought not to be exempt from taxation.

  3. I am a typical Liberal/Conservative voter. I will vote NDP/Green again if the Liberals continue to advocate ending the speculation tax. I want my children to grow up in the same city I did. This said, I may never vote Liberal again ever, as what has come to light regarding the “Vancouver Model” is completely disgusting, and I have to wonder how they didn’t know.

  4. It is not illogical for local residents to expect that they are able to afford buy SFH with two people combined income in the place of their employment: which is not the case in Vancouver due to RE speculation fueled by rampant in our city tax evasion, money laundering, and immigration fraud. Bravo for Carol James for addressing a small portion of it. We need to get after the big portion of the above mentioned issues and amend our BC tax code to tax beneficial income of not working BC millionaires living off foreign capital gifted to them from offshore to evade paying Canadian income taxes while using Canadian healthcare, education and courts, all funded by Canadian income tax payers. Paying property taxes in Vancouver, does not exempt a BC resident from paying income taxes hence beneficial income used to support one’s residence in BC ought not to be exempt from taxation.

  5. The BC Liberals operated like gangsters from the beginning. Campbell rode in on a DUI charge and proceeded to break laws on the education and health care files (cases the Liberals lost in court). They used Hydro as their personal bank account, borrowing millions from the utility and forcing the utility to pay three times the market rate to private energy companies. They virtually bankrupted ICBC, they hobnobbed with corrupt Chinese officials, they held cash-for-access dinners, they killed the investigations unit overseeing casinos, thus enabling money laundering by Chinese triad gangsters who used the cash to buy billions in real estate. The BC Liberals are corrupt and morally worthless. They only value the rich and corporate interests. Add to this there’s nothing liberal about them. Most of them are ex-SoCreds and reform conservatives who haven’t got two brain cells to scrub together.

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