Ex-premiers rail against housing taxes

Two recent reports, one American, the other prepared by University of British Columbia researchers, raise the same concern — over-doctoring.

The U.S. report, released by the American Cancer Society, proposes a dramatic increase in screening for colorectal cancer. The recommended starting age for colonoscopy tests is 50. The society advises reducing it to 45.

That’s not in itself a huge change, though in B.C. each test costs the health-care system between $800 and $1,000.

However, the society is also recommending that anyone aged 30 and over get a stool test every year to look for signs of fecal blood. This is problematic in several respects.

First, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, the risk of an adult aged 30 to 39 developing colorectal cancer over the next 10 years is 0.1 per cent.

These are eight-year-old figures, while the American study used more up-to-date numbers. But double the incidence rate, indeed quadruple it, and the risk remains tiny.

Then again, subjecting adults aged 30 to an annual test when the evidence appears so slim is no small matter. Certainly, it will introduce an element of anxiety. It will also necessitate annual visits to a doctor and follow-up consultations. That would be enormously burdensome, particularly when there is already a scarcity of family doctors.

This new policy, if adopted, is guaranteed to produce large numbers of false positives. These will necessitate a cascade of additional diagnostic procedures and further anxiety.

Physicians use the term “cardiac cripple” to refer to individuals who have an innocent symptom that is misdiagnosed as heart disease and cripples them with anxiety.

We are in danger here of creating colon cripples. This bears all the hallmarks of over-doctoring.

The UBC study, if anything, is more alarming. It found the use of medication to control attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder in elementary-school kids has nearly doubled since 2000.

Yet there is no evidence children aged six to 11 are more depressed or hyperactive than in years gone by.

What the researchers did find is that boys born between September and December were 41 per cent more likely to be given behaviourmodifying drugs. Girls born in these months were 77 per cent more likely to be medicated.

The reason seems clear. These are the youngest children in their class. As the authors say: “This strongly suggests that teachers, parents and physicians are medicalizing a social rather than a medical problem.” In other words, younger children are more likely to misbehave than their older classmates, and this is taken to justify the use of drugs.

But the downsides are significant. The medications in question decrease height and weight. They do not improve academic achievement.

More problematic, there have been no studies of the downstream effect on future health,.

In practice, these medications are used to make life easier for parents and teachers. They are the equivalent of chemical handcuffs.

The concern of family members who have to deal with hyperactive kids is understandable. Medication provides a simple and immediate way to intervene.

But other forms of therapy are available for treating ADHD, and while they pose none of the risks associated with drugs. This is where parents should be steered, at least as a first option.

Both studies point in the same direction. As medical science offers more tools for diagnosis and treatment, physicians will be under increasing pressure to employ them. To the extent this improves wellbeing and longevity for patients, that is to be welcomed.

But there is the potential for a farreaching medicalization of our lifestyle. That is something to be concerned about.

A life lived under constant medical scrutiny might be a life reduced in quality.

Two former premiers issued warnings Tuesday about the negative impact of some B.C. tax moves, urging the NDP government to take a second look. Mike Harcourt, B.C.’s NDP premier from 1991 to 1995, said the extra school tax being imposed on homes over $3 million is unfair. Former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall questioned whether the speculation tax is hurting B.C.’s brand as a destination that welcomes Canadians and the world.

The two were on a panel about the B.C. housing crisis.

“It’s not a crisis, it’s a permanent condition,” Harcourt said, referring to global urbanization pressures in general and to urban B.C.’s steady increase in demand over the past several years, with accompanying price surges.

Several hundred people attended and the focus was kept on NDP tax measures.

The NDP election campaign focused on criticizing the BC Liberals for doing little about housing affordability problems, and promised to get 114,000 units built over 10 years. A variety of tax measures were brought in to fund the program, and to curb demand.

But Harcourt parted company with his party over one of them — an extra school tax next year on homes over $3 million, expected to bring in $200 million a year.

“A school tax added to a school tax is a bad idea,” he said. “It’s really just piling on, and I think it’s unfair. It’s taxing people on gains they haven’t realized. It’s a bad way to do it.”

He said increasing personal income tax at the high end by just a quarter per cent would make up all the money the new school tax is projected to bring in.

Harcourt’s government introduced a similar measure in the 1990s, but was forced to back down after a homeowner revolt.

He said he didn’t learn it was in the budget until later and had to face down his cabinet to rescind it. “They had 18 votes, and I had 19,” he joked.

He has maintained an interest in urban development and said single-family homes are a thing of the past. The zoning should be rescinded throughout the Lower Mainland, in favour of duplexes, townhouses, laneway homes and condos.

He also rapped local approval delays, saying planning officials should be extracted from decisions they shouldn’t be making. The process should be streamlined. “Stop consulting everyone.” It took 11 months to get approval for his home project in Vancouver. One of the sticking points was the type of railings on a balcony.

Wall, now a special adviser to a Calgary law firm, expressed doubt about another housing related measure, the speculation tax. “I’ve got folks at home (Swift Current), they don’t necessarily feel very welcome any more.” B.C. means “bring cash,” he said.

The tax was presented in February as a two per cent annual levy in five regions of B.C. on homes that weren’t occupied year-round. Widespread concern prompted a partial retreat later, as some areas within the regions were exempted and the rate was reduced for B.C. owners and those from other provinces.

Wall said there are already concerns in Canada about how open B.C. is to investment over the pipeline argument.

Taxing out-of-province owners of homes left empty part of the year adds to those concerns. “It might have been better named the ‘missing the point tax.’”

He said he knows someone who bought a condo in Victoria so his son could attend school, but is now re-assessing because of the added costs. The son might go elsewhere.

Ken Mariash, whose firm owns the 20-acre site where the forum was held, said his longterm development is now frozen by city hall, because the permits for several more buildings haven’t been issued.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps opened the event by noting that approval times at city hall have gone from estimated three years to a point where 90 per cent are approved within six to eight months.

She said Greater Victoria mayors have been working on an on alternative to the speculation tax, a capital gains tax concept.

Les Leyne covers the legislature for the Victoria Times Colonist. Email: lleyne@timescolonist.com.