Backlash to B.C. real estate tax grows

The municipality of West Kelowna has joined a growing backlash to the B.C. government’s real estate speculation tax with a demand that it be left out of that tax measure.

West Kelowna’s council on Tuesday voted unanimously for Mayor Doug Findlater to meet Premier John Horgan and B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver to pressure the provincial government to exclude the Okanagan community from the new tax.

West Kelowna has many parttime residents who will be affected by the new annual levy that targets unoccupied homes and secondary homes owned by people not paying income tax in B.C. It starts at 0.5 per cent in 2018 and increases to two per cent in 2019.

Findlater fears many will have to sell their homes in the face of thousands of dollars in new taxes.

“The irony of this is, if they go through with it, the only people who will be able to afford really expensive places are the really wealthy, who would buy them up at a fire sale price,” he said.

“People who picked up a modest place on the lake 20 years ago and kept it in the family aren’t going to be able to afford to keep them.”

The municipality received 239 emails from part-time residents, recreational property owners and developers along with anecdotal estimates of owners facing tax increases of $20,000-$30,000.