BC, hype, politics

Ramping back on the foreign buyer tax

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220 Comments

Christy Clark has said that the province intends to make some changes to the foreign buyer tax, exempting those with work permits.  No word yet on if there will be a limit on the number of properties that are exempt.

Clark made the comments Sunday while speaking to reporters at a Lunar New Year event in Vancouver.

“We’re going to lift the foreign owners tax on people who have work permits, who are paying taxes and living in British Columbia as a way to encourage more people to come.”

Clark did not elaborate on the proposed changes.

Read the original article here.

 

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Oopswediditagain

https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouver/chinas-capital-controls-could-crash-vancouver-real-estate/

This might put a damper on those Chinese New Year celebrations by the real estate bulls.

New capital controls in China, January of this year, forbidding currency conversion for foreign real estate. Ouch.

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bullwhip29

Crab fishing bust nets three alleged offenders
http://www.thelocalweekly.ca/crab-fishing-bust-nets-three-alleged-offenders/

>>> was told it is the same a-hole that was busted last summer. who wants some contaminated crab with black bean sauce…if that is not to your liking we can do ginger and green onion…
http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/commercial-crab-harvester-fined-20000-for-fishing-in-a-closed-contaminated-area-2151224.htm

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Oopswediditagain

https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouver/chinas-capital-controls-could-crash-vancouver-real-estate/

Looks like that Chinese New Year might not be reason for bull jubilation.

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Oracle

If they could only stop illegal inflows via import over invoicing via Hong Kong.

That would truly stop the inflows as then only 50,000 per year per person can come in.

Import-over-invoicing for products imported into China from Hong Kong and yuan exchanged for dollars going to Hong Kong.

Then those dollars flow freely into companies in canada and people purchase homes with numbered companies. Canadian gov knows this.

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Oracle

Looks like Newcomer and YVR busy downvoting the truth.

Shills.

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Oracle

Trudeau has betrayed Canadians by not following promise of electoral reform. The Libs and Cons are the same now (not in peoples interest) and will indefinitely hold power unless THE PEOPLE can do something about it.

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The Man

A Liberal is just a Conservative that marches in the Gay Parade.

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Abdul Lahazi

CKNW Steele & Drex: Are changes to the foreign buyers tax linked to real estate donations?
http://www.cknw.com/2017/01/31/steele-drex-are-changes-to-the-foreign-buyers-tax-linked-to-real-estate-donations/

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Just me

Answer: YES.

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southseacompany

“Americans are making big compromises to buy homes”, MSN Money

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/americans-are-making-big-compromises-to-buy-homes/ar-AAmtLHU

“Limited housing supplies are prompting prospective homeowners to make significant compromises, such as devoting less money to saving for emergencies and retirement, a new survey says.”

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southseacompany

“Commentary: The Canadian housing market is not invincible”, Canadian Mortgage Broker News

http://www.mortgagebrokernews.ca/news/commentary-the-canadian-housing-market-is-not-invincible-220527.aspx

“While housing remains an important component of the Canadian economic system, a veteran markets analyst argued that the real estate sector is not immune to a crash similar to—or even worse than—that experienced by the United States nearly a decade ago.”

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southseacompany

“Trump’s first housing move tanks mortgage applications 3.2%”, CNBC

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/01/trumps-first-housing-move-tanks-mortgage-applications.html

“Most notable was a 13 percent drop in FHA applications — a direct result of the Trump administration reversing a cut in the FHA’s annual mortgage insurance premium just hours after the inauguration. That cut was the last major policy act of the Obama administration and would have decreased monthly payments for thousands of new, lower-income borrowers. FHA applications increased immediately after the cut was announced, and lenders have reported that many of those have also been withdrawn.”

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Buynow or Getlaidnever

Vancouver’s chief housing officer Mukhtar Latif no longer with the city

http://www.straight.com/news/863136/city-vancouver-parts-ways-chief-housing-officer-mukhtar-latif

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Donald T

He is with Pl0YG0N now, this is officially. Otherwise since 2003.

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Just me

Link?

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Alice

“China’s Capital Controls Could Crash Vancouver Real Estate”. They want foreign buyers now because China shut off the easy money ahead of the election here.

https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouver/chinas-capital-controls-could-crash-vancouver-real-estate/

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Screwed

Not new

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Buynow or Getlaidnever

Mystery surrounds Chinese-born Canadian billionaire reportedly seized by China police.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3218998/mystery-surrounds-chinese-born-canadian-billionaire-reportedly-seized-by-china-police/

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southseacompany

“Fed to hold interest rates while Congress debates stimulus”, Market Watch

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-to-hold-interest-rates-while-congress-debates-stimulus-2017-01-30

“The Federal Reserve is likely to stand pat on interest rates at the end of their two-day meeting on Wednesday, awaiting more clarity on fiscal policy.”

““Fed officials, just like investors, businesses and consumers, is waiting to see what the Trump Administration and Congress actually gets done,” said Michael Gregory, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.”

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Best place on meth

I wonder what Krusty’s next dirty trick will be to try and con voters into……oh, wait here it is.

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/01/31/Will-Clark-Rig-Fundraising-Reform/

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Just me

The BC Liberals are facing serious pressure over fundraising practices. The province still allows unlimited corporate, union and individual donations. The BC Liberals have exploited that, holding dozens of private fundraising dinners where people pay up to $20,000 to meet Clark and cabinet ministers; accepting contribuutions from foreign donors; and, until recently, paying Clark a $50,000 a year “stipend.” (Now Clark says she will claim unspecified expenses from the party.)

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ostritch

Why is this a big deal as long as all parties find fundraisers. Please don’t tell me the unions don’t fund the NDP?

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YVR

It looks like the changes they are talking about would be a good thing. The Tyee is an NDP rag and Bill Tieleman an NDP hack. They are only pissed it would remove the fundraising issue in the election if the BC Liberals make the change.

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Just me

Will you ever ackowledge the corruption of your local Libs? Or are you so ideologucal that you will remain blind to it?

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patriotz

“Please don’t tell me the unions don’t fund the NDP?”

They don’t, in the sense that union contributions to the NDP amount to only a fraction of the total. The majority comes from individuals. On the other hand, the majority of funding for the BC Liberals comes from corporations.

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Shut It Down Already

So they’d don’t but only in the sense that they do?

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Just me

Clark takes money from the very prople she is supposed to legislate about and discipline.
There is no limit to these donations, like in mist ither jurisdictions.
Clark has been paying herself a salary from these donations. Other party cadres pay themselves salaries.
Clark will now claim unspecified expenses using donations from the businesses she should invigilate.

Sorry, this is daylight corruption. And the reason she can do it is that there are people like you who keep putting her in office. However much you dislike the NDP, bith the quality and quantity of their financing is not the same.
Differences matter, people are not all the same.

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Patiently Waiting

This is why the NDP will ban all corporate and union donations when it comes to power. It is the latest political trend in centre-left governments (e.g. Alberta) and is totally in the NDP’s interest to do so.
Meanwhile, the BC “Liberals” are full of crap on this issue and everyone knows it.

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bullwhip29

yeah, give the people what they want…LOL

now that liberal coffers are topped up, she will turn off the spigots. of course, this would not stop the flow of red envelopes under the table…

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Best place on meth

It turns out the reason Krusty installed these new loopholes in the foreign buyer tax is because her biggest donors, BC’s biggest developers, were so irate over the tax that they threatened to pull the plug on donations to her campaign.

http://www.inews880.com/syn/112/268164/steele-drex-are-changes-to-the-foreign-buyers-tax-linked-to-real-estate-donations

Vote Liberal and you are voting for corruption.

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Just me

There is clearly a pattern to this whole behavior. Everything she does or says has a very tangible (monetary) reason.
The BC Libs have always been a but didgy. But after 20 years in power, they have become plain indecent.
Voting for them is voting to let millionaires become billionaires.

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Just me

From BPOM’s article:

Mackin says his source tells him those same real estate leaders didn’t take kindly to the imposition of the foreign buyers’ tax last summer.

“These people were not happy when the announcement was made last July, and some of them were telling the party that they were going to stop writing cheques,” he says.

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Best place on meth

“We believe that people should be able to come to BC to work, pay taxes, and contribute to our economy. We want to make sure BC can continue attracting high-skill workers in the tech sector and others, who come here and create more jobs.”

Because as we all know, the best way to attract skilled workers from all over the world to our tech sector is to make ridiculously unaffordable housing even more unaffordable.

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squeak

Oh Christy Christy, oh my..

I think BC has done an excellent job in retaining and recruiting young smart talented people to BC. Not.

BC has done everything it its power to tell them (between the lines of course) to take a hike. and they have! No level headed smart young person sees BC as the place to live anymore, unless you love KD every day and no life b/c they cannot afford to live.
I am convinced it is not going to get better in BC. BC is not the place for young honest decent Canadians.

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YVR

Any idea why would the NDP be supporting this new loop hole in the foreign buyers tax? Seems strange to me they are not on board with opposing it. It seems all the critics of this bubble are suspicious of this change but Eby is praising it. It will be interesting to see the latest disclosures for NDP donations. Horgan admitted they have solicited donations from the major developers.

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patriotz

The NDP position is that penalty taxes on RE should be paid by those not paying income tax, rather than being based on citizenship or immigration status, as I have pointed out already in this thread.

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Oracle

You sound like a BC Liberal pumper. Hmmmm.

Is Newcomer on holidays from his paid job to blog for vested interests?

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Shut It Down Already

… says the one-topic poster (liar in fact) who never provides supporting evidence for anything they say.

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Just me

Developers will not cozy up to th NDP. They are effectively running the province together with Clark.

If thr NDP went to power, they might try. But the differences would be too stark for this to be a mutually benficial relationship.
That is exactly one of the reasons I wil vote for the NDP in May: I don’t want the developers to have another four years dictating our agenda and laundering chinese money.
Every other consideration is not relevant in today’s BC. Housing is the key issue.

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bullwhip29

it was an experiment gone somewhat awry. the original move (announcing the FBT) was necessary to gain public support and further cement their hold on power going forward. in the event of a severe market disruption (which is what occurred) safeguards were put in place from day one.

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Best place on meth

2161 20TH AVE E

Seller has raised their price.

Was 1,688,800…..now 1,688,888

I shit you not.

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Bag it and tag it

increase is a limited time offer for Chinese New Year

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realist

Of possible interest to readers:
TITLE: Housing Bubbles: Canadian and Global Experiences
WHO: Dr. David Ley, Professor of Geography, UBC
WHEN: Wednesday, February 1st, at 8:00pm
WHERE: West Point Grey Community Centre, 4397 West 2nd Ave, Vancouver Tel: 604 257 8140 http://www.westpointgrey.org/events/annual-general-meeting/

MLA David Eby, CoV Councillors Tim Stevenson and Adrian Carr, Park Board Commissioner Catherine Evans will also be in attendance and will be available to answer questions.

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Oh NO

728 e 32nd what did it finally sell for?

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Oracle

regarding the HB-1 Visa changes.

Many of my friends who came from India and went to BCIT started their own computer software companies after. They are mostly 1-2 man shows in Canada with about 10-20 in india. It is in their interest to keep those employees inIndia as they can pay them less and make more money here. Several in their early 30’s already have several homes here and drive range rovers, etc.

If those 10-20 make it to Canada, they too will start a company and hire Indians overseas.

The local born and bred with no ties to other low wage countries will lose.

I think thats what Trump is addressing.

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Oracle

Basically ending the Canadian equivalent of TFW and IMP programs.

Could you imagine if Canada treated its workers like that?

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paulb

New
214
Price Change
20
Sold
115

TI:7823

http://www.clivestevepaul.com

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Just me

These are not bearish numbers. People are still buying. But according to zolo they are buying condos. I guess a breakdown would be very informative.

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Best place on meth

Total sales this January were 1601.

10 year average is roughly 1900.

And from Steve Saretsky yesterday:

As the detached market continues to wither this has caused a big shift into the condo market to pick up the slack. Condo sales are now responsible for 54% of total sales, up from 43% just one year ago.

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Just me

Thanks!

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Oh NO

How many west side detached sales today? Did it set a new record low?

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Best place on meth

No, a record low would be zero.

Todays sales totalled 1.

2685 KING EDWARD AVE W
Asking 2.6, sold 2.4

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No Money Down

Assessed $2.98M (Sold 19.5% below assessed)

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Just me

So, using BPOM numbers, this January there were 865 condo sales (the average number in January for the past ten years is 817).
Moreover, townhouses and SFHs account for the remaining
736 sales this month (for an average January, that number would be around 1083 units).

It seems buyers are substituting across housing types. Not sure what to make of it, probably lower amounts of cash floating around.

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history

will myrealtycheck be the new manipulated index?

Subjectivism is a quality these days, winners are those that are able to alter data for propaganda. Objectivism is dead.

An index set to become a standard, a quality of the objective? Then paint the end of week, or end of month with false info.

myrealtycheck will eventually be made useless

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oncebittwiceshy

history
will myrealtycheck be the new manipulated index?

myrealtycheck:
“Thanks for visiting. I’m a self-employed Web Developer working in Vancouver, Canada, and I use this website to post different projects I’ve been working on and to list my services if people are interested in hiring me for a project.”

I think that you can measure objectivity through self interest. As the web developer doesn’t appear to have a vested interest in the market going one way or the other, it will prove to be very useful.

It provides a great incite on the trend.

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Just me

Premier Christy Clark in conflict of interest over Kinder Morgan pipeline approval: groups

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/premier-christy-clark-in-conflict-of-interest-over-kinder-morgan-pipeline-approval-groups

This is very relevant to our RE debate, insofar it shiws how the decusion making process of the “gatekeepers” is being altered by money gufts and donation that eventually accrue as salary to BC party members.

Not even in communist China…

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oncebittwiceshy

Wow, how quickly we forget that this market is driven by sentiment only. Let me help you out. On http://www.myrealtycheck.ca/, let’s use the example of West Vancouver. Two weeks ago the prices were dropping an average of $421,000.. Now those price drops have reduced to $384941.09. Homes like this are anticipating the “foreign cash” rush and are raising their price. Lol. That is called seller “sentiment”. 3190 Thompson Place, West Vancouver Oct 26:$5,998,000 Jan 16: $6,188,888 Change: 190888.00 3% The only thing that matters is buyer sentiment. The price reductions are because nobody is buying. The problem is the buyers are going to be sitting back for some time, maybe contemplating Trump effects on the world or maybe watching the market deteriorate even further. In any event, the trend downwards will continue regardless of how many foreigners decide to get… Read more »

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Hyper-mega-Bull

let’s assuming you are right and sentiment is the only thing that determines price.

you’ve presented no evidence or argument that supports your conclusion:

>The problem is the buyers are going to be sitting back for some time, maybe contemplating Trump effects on the world or maybe watching the market deteriorate even further.

FAIL!

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oncebittwiceshy

Buyer sentiment (sales) fell off a cliff in July 2016. I’ll presume that’s an accepted fact. Prices have dropped. Agreed?

http://vancitycondoguide.com/condos-driving-the-market/
“As of December 2016 condo sales were down 25% year over year but a collapse in detached sales (down 52%) has left the market vulnerable, leaving condos to pick up the slack. Townhouse share of the market remains relatively flat.”

What new evidence have we seen that suggests buyers are suddenly interested again.

???????????????????????

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bullwhip29

a lot changed on chinese new years. the possiblity that krusty will whip the rug out from under everyone moved a significant step closer to reality. in fact, so much so that HAM will at the very least scoop up all the spots in line and be ready to pounce should all the stars align once again. i expect HAM to write up many offers with conditions, extended closing etc on what is currently available (which isnt much) in very short order. following this, many asking prices will be raised and/or listings outright cancelled

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Just me

Some seriously crazy increases logged by myrealtycheck.ca
It seems people are starting to jack up asking prices. Half the chages are increases today.

Do they know something we don’t, or are they just optimistic sellers?

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Oracle

Its kind of obvious but you guys are oblivious.

Foreign money going to come in like a tsunami before the May election.

Watch.

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bullwhip29

yes watch… HAM will snap everything up with offers subject to …?…?…?…. and push out closing to cover their asses in the event krusty doesnt deliver on her new year’s promise (and possibly hand out even more goodies in the coming weeks). nervous sellers are probably more accommodating at this moment in time and would likely accept the more stringent terms

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Lurker

Can you imagine what a HAM crash an NDP victory would cause? It would be like Brexit.

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would-be buyer

The house a couple of blocks from me on Balaclava listed for $3,8M with one open house this past weekend now has a “sold” sign on it. When I walked passed the open house there were four or five sets of shoes at the front door. It looked busy enough inside and I chalked it up to local looky-loos, since I have been reading the westside was dead. Guess the buyers know something we don’t. I walk past this house almost daily. It sold a couple of years ago and underwent a nice reno.

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ostritch

This market is on pause until the election is decided.

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Combat roach

And what does happen after election gets decided?

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ostritch

NDP = SELL

LIB = HOLD OR BUY

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bullwhip29

Vancouver’s chief housing officer fired from job
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouvers-chief-housing-officer-fired-from-job

>>> it is safe to say that a few more of these working stiffs should be shown the door…

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Hyper-mega-Bull

skilled foreign workers anyone?

New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/h-1b-visa-reform-bill-introduced-in-us-house-of-representatives/articleshow/56888616.cms

the world is retreating from globalization but canada is still open for business!

RENT’S GOING UP!

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Combat roach

H1-B Visa $130K/yr no big deal, it will get easily absorbed by goog, FB, uber, ms and alike for an entry level SW developer position.

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Oracle

Great for American students graduating!!

They are a country.

We are a global dumping ground.

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Oracle

American Citizenship worth way more than Canadian now. Only worth it to come to Canada if you are rich and want to launder money or are very poor and want to escape poverty.

being a middle class worker means you will be paying for the above groups while not being able to afford housing.

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ostritch

I did some work for a medical tech co in Milpitas for a few years. Stopped. Came back after a few years more and the majority of staff who were all US citizens were replaced by Indians. Before it was US graduates, after it was all H1Bs. It’s good for India and these workers but bad for US graduates. And then you read it’s large Indian companies who provide the workers. So I assume they get a cut of their salaries. Sounds like it’s only good for the stingy Corps. Now they’ll have to pay.

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patriotz

“New H1-B Visa bill doubles the salary requirements to $130K/yr”

This bill, and the similar bill also mentioned in the story, are sponsored by Democrats. Now will the Republicans find some excuse to oppose them?

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