Eventually, facts will overtake BC Liberal hysteria on speculation tax


"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
Napoleon Bonaparte

I am reminded by the BC Liberals behavior of the Republicans after the roll out of ObamaCare in the USA. They screamed socialism, big government, and a whole lot of other unsavory epithets towards President Obama and the Democrats just for the sin of trying to extend out the universality of healthcare coverage in America. The sin? The individual mandate; where every uninsured American was obligated to seek out insurance. To meet that legal requirement, several states and separately the Federal Government unveiled a subsidized exchange where individuals would be able to purchase a healthcare insurance plan - or subsidized one if they qualified.

The Speculation Tax isn't healthcare, but its to address a problem that was left to fester while the last government was still in office.

After the BC Liberals deregulated the real estate trade in 2005, handed the oversight to the industry itself, things got out of control. The advent of dual agency where realtors were able to act for seller AND buyer simultaneously didn't help either. The assignment sale process nicknamed 'shadow flipping' triggered a run on real estate prices as they got inflated artificially at every step because sales/commissions. This meant that actual people, real buyers, were forced out of what was ordinarily and affordable market.

To their credit, the BC Liberals were goaded into pulling back the excesses in the deregulation monster they created, but it didn't unto the damage. To the very last hour of their government, they were defending a NEW program to loan interest free money for down payments to new home buyers unable to purchase a home. As if the lessons of 2007/8 were completely forgotten. They just didn't get it.

That is the stage set for the NDP when they take the keys to power in 2017.

While the real estate markets may have cooled significantly since then, we still have a problem where several homes are left vacant by said speculators hoping to cash in on rapidly rising home prices. Granted, this is not every case; but how do we find out who's a legitimate home owner.

We ask.

For the BC Liberals, they dispute that speculation is even a problem. That any tax directed towards addressing the speculation problem is wrong and an attack on the middle class. This is where the BC Liberals lose badly.


To be honest, there is room for improvement on the technical details and reporting mechanisms for the tax, but this is a new idea only attempted once before in the city of Vancouver. There are other regions/cities with similar land speculation problems, so the solution went provincial.

I've been witnessing several folks attacking the NDP, clearly BC Liberal supporters (who have identified themselves as such), rail on that this is not how to do this.

So answer me this: your previous government saw the same trends and heard the same complaints. If the solutions are so simple, why didn't you guys act accordingly? You had every opportunity to do so.

Where the BC Liberals go wrong, fast, is their pledge to repeal. At least Republicans promised a replacement of Obamacare (if only a fantasy). Given the facts that the speculation tax jurisdiction is only the largest urban centers with vacancy rate issues and high unaffordability issues, not every home owner should be concerned. Those to home the tax law applies, only 1% of those home-owners would be subject to the tax itself.

And here is the key: the first $400k of home value isn't considered; more to the point, the BC owner of the vacant home would get a $2000 credit to apply directly to any balance owing for each property affected.


This tax is as micro targeted as you can make it. The NDP has given homeowners in the taxable jurisdictions the very tools to exempt themselves from paying this tax and lessens the blow for LOCAL home owners if they have to pay. It targets the multiple high value properties owned but left vacant by those playing the market as an ATM.

These are the folks that the BC Liberals are defending.

The BC Liberals are literally coming to the defense of the 1% of the one-percent. If I were an adviser to Andrew Wilkinson (who has been a BC Liberal insider almost the WHOLE time his previous government was in power), I'd tell him to back away quickly from this one. The NDP will be preparing TV ads for the next election showcasing Andrew Wilkinson as the limousine-liberal that he is; and it will be harder hitting than the ads that Obama hit Mitt Romney with.

But, don't listen to me. Even though I've seen this movie before.

My 2 bits


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