Don’t punish Canadians

The B.C. government is casting a wide net with its property-speculation tax. It might catch more people than it intends. The new tax, designed to curb the effects of out-of-province speculators on house prices, will charge absentee owners two per cent of a home’s assessed value in Greater Victoria, the Nanaimo area, Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Kelowna and West Kelowna.

The goal is to make sure that houses are lived in by people who will contribute to the economy and the community. The hope is it will increase housing availability and possibly push prices down.

But it applies to more than rich foreigners who park their money in houses here. It will also catch those from other provinces who bought a home in Lotusland where they live for six or seven months of the year. Some are working and some are retired.

If they bought the property decades ago, it has appreciated in value to the point where two per cent per year is a hefty sum. A house assessed at $600,000 would owe another $12,000 a year. For a retiree with pension income of $40,000 or $50,000, that’s a heart-stopping bill.

And these are fellow Canadians who spend half the year in B.C., buying local goods and services, and becoming part of the community. Just as some British Columbians own vacation homes in Ontario or Nova Scotia or elsewhere.

Such people are not speculators. They are ordinary Canadians. Does the government really want to punish them?

It should take a close look at this issue as it fine-tunes the laws. Don’t catch the wrong fish in this new net.