Nice response from Sandy Garossino to last weeks Allen Garr column “Blaming Chinese For High House Prices in Vancouver Is Racist”.
When I raised concerns over the impact of international transactions during the civic election campaign, the response was overwhelming and full-spectrum from across our entire community, because the problem is universal.
It was notable how concerned Canadian Chinese Vancouverites are about this difficult issue, and how optimistic and imaginative some of their solutions are. Many in this community, such as Susie Joe Dooner, expressed grave concern about the exodus of gifted young people they have seen—their own friends and family leaving their home city and province in despair of having a future here.
And it was this community which also expressed concern that our local real estate and development industry bears some responsibility for its aggressive marketing to foreign investors. Some cautioned that the scale of the potential market poses real hazards to a small city like Vancouver.
It is profoundly inaccurate to represent the public reservation about unregulated international capital in our housing market as having a racial bias, when the concern is universal.
Read the full letter over at the Courier.
I wonder why we don’t have a foreign owner property tax structure like Florida and other places that charge a premium to non-resident owners (regardless of what their race or country of residence is). It would raise more money to pay for city expenses, take some of the tax burden off residents and best of all the only people who would complain about it can’t vote!
