Disappointed by crowd’s reaction

Dear editor: On Sunday in Kelowna, I attended what I thought was a public meeting about the proposed speculation tax (or what ought to be called an “empty second home tax”) that the B.C. government intends to implement.

What actually happened might have been more aptly called a political rally for the BC Liberal party.

For two hours, I listened to rhetoric-fuelled pronouncements that the tax is, apparently, a disaster-in-wait: bad for jobs, bad for business, bad for everything.

That these conclusions were presented as the uncontested truth is troubling, but not surprising. The panel consisted of two Liberal MLAs (including the party leader Andrew Wilkinson) and two tax consultants employed by corporate clients.

No one from the NDP was invited, no labour or housing economist, no tenant organization.

If you were at the Kelowna meeting, you might have thought the sky was about to fall. But, even more worrying than the catastrophizing about this tax is the fact that we did not see this same level of outrage in Kelowna when it came out that we have the lowest rental vacancy rate in the country, but that some 25 per cent of homes in the downtown area and 17 per cent in the Mission area are vacant.

We didn’t see public meetings called to address the housing affordability crisis, or that Kelowna’s rental rates have increased 15 per cent in one year. That there are families that move into tents for the summer to save rent money for the rest of year, and senior citizens living in shelters because they can no longer afford rent (stories that have been relayed to me through my work with a poverty reduction organization.)

Instead, politicians and industry groups organize “public meetings” where we overwhelmingly hear from people who have the privilege of owning multiple homes. I recognize that this is not a monolithic group. And, I sincerely hope that when the details of the tax are proposed, the government will ensure it does not threaten anyone’s basic livelihood.

However, when I took to the microphone to remind the crowd of the housing affordability crisis we are facing in Kelowna, I was booed and heckled. One elderly gentleman told me to “shut up.” The event organizers did not intervene to interrupt this rather shocking behaviour.

What I learned from this “public meeting” is that some people’s interests are more important than others. Christine Mettler

Kelowna