New BC Political Discussion - POST BC Election 2017

[WarrenC12]

^^^ GOOD.

I have been casually looking at jobs these days and it's shocking how businesses are still offering pathetic salaries. Then I'm looking through resumes for jobs we are offering and we aren't getting anybody qualified. Hmmm....

[djmk]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

^^^ GOOD.

I have been casually looking at jobs these days and it's shocking how businesses are still offering pathetic salaries. Then I'm looking through resumes for jobs we are offering and we aren't getting anybody qualified. Hmmm....

Good? If you do the math, the employee loses out every time.

Self employed pay both CPPs, get no vacation and can be fired with no notice. It puts them at serious risk.

imho, this budget puts them more at risk

[Bdawe]

So, there's some chatter out there that the new school tax property surtax applies to purpose-built rental properties unless granted a waiver by the municipality called a "revitalization certificate" for adding new units.

So if you own a three-million dollar apartment building, regardless of whether it's got three units or thirty units, it's getting hit with a "luxury" surtax. Where as if that building was stratified and those units were rented on the secondary market, they would be surtax free.

I'm sure most of you can see how this is going to add yet another distortion against rental apartments into the BC realestate market. Needs a fix

[cabotp]

Originally Posted by djmk

Good? If you do the math, the employee loses out every time.

Self employed pay both CPPs, get no vacation and can be fired with no notice. It puts them at serious risk.

imho, this budget puts them more at risk

I'm really trying to grasp how a self employed person could be fired

Unless by self employed you mean contracted.

Being self employed will always have greater risks, but it also can have greater rewards.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by djmk

Good? If you do the math, the employee loses out every time.

Self employed pay both CPPs, get no vacation and can be fired with no notice. It puts them at serious risk.

imho, this budget puts them more at risk

How do you figure? From what I can tell the self-employed are no longer on the hook for MSP, as premiums are being totally abolished. Since they will still get access to the same medical system as employees, their coverage will be subsidized courtesy of the tax paid by larger firms.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by djmk

Good? If you do the math, the employee loses out every time.

Self employed pay both CPPs, get no vacation and can be fired with no notice. It puts them at serious risk.

imho, this budget puts them more at risk

Good in reference to wages finally being bid up by employers. How do employees lose in that scenario?

Self employed can be fired with no notice... LOL what? If you're talking about contractors, absolutely. The going rate is about double the salary of somebody doing the same job, so the risk/reward is certainly there.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Bdawe

So, there's some chatter out there that the new school tax property surtax applies to purpose-built rental properties unless granted a waiver by the municipality called a "revitalization certificate" for adding new units.

So if you own a three-million dollar apartment building, regardless of whether it's got three units or thirty units, it's getting hit with a "luxury" surtax. Where as if that building was stratified and those units were rented on the secondary market, they would be surtax free.

I'm sure most of you can see how this is going to add yet another distortion against rental apartments into the BC realestate market. Needs a fix

Yes they should be exempt for sure. I'm certain this will happen with the current NDP.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Bdawe

So, there's some chatter out there that the new school tax property surtax applies to purpose-built rental properties unless granted a waiver by the municipality called a "revitalization certificate" for adding new units.

So if you own a three-million dollar apartment building, regardless of whether it's got three units or thirty units, it's getting hit with a "luxury" surtax. Where as if that building was stratified and those units were rented on the secondary market, they would be surtax free.

I'm sure most of you can see how this is going to add yet another distortion against rental apartments into the BC realestate market. Needs a fix

Untrue:

Province confirms rental buildings to be exempt from luxury house tax
Properties with four or more rental units will be exempt from the new school tax announced in B.C. Budget 2018

[sunsetmountainland]

Does not take long for a N.D.P government to screw things up!
every day is amateur hour in Victoria under the NDP

If you need further evidence that every day is amateur hour in Victoria under the NDP, do yourself a favour and read the letter sent recently to Finance Minister Carole James by the Urban Development Institute, the professional group that represents B.C. property developers and planners.

Collectively, as they point out in the letter, their work contributes “almost $23 billion in annual GDP and sustains over 233,000 well-paying and family-supporting jobs across the province.” Whatever you might feel about developers, construction and real estate are the No. 1 contributor to the B.C. economy, which is why it’s important for all of us that those sectors remain healthy — at least if we want a functioning economy. You know? Jobs. Private-sector economic activity to tax so there’s money for hospitals and schools, etc.

That’s why so many British Columbians were stunned, but perhaps should not have been surprised, when James admitted the NDP did zero modelling of the economic impact of the slew of class-warfare taxes they imposed on property in their recent budget.

Last week, I wrote that I’d never “heard anything more incompetent or irresponsible from a finance minister” — and that was before I’d heard the concerns of the Urban Development Institute experts.

They argue that far from improving affordability — the stated policy goal of the taxes — the UDI says the NDP approach will probably make homes more expensive, especially lower-priced housing designed for the very people the NDP wants to help.

“The increases to the Luxury Property Transfer Tax (PTT), the Foreign Buyers’ Tax (FBT), the School Property Tax, and the yet to be defined Speculation Tax, will only substantially add to the costs of residential development,” UDI president and CEO Anne McMullin writes. “All of these increased costs will ultimately be passed on to tenants and home buyers, further hurting affordability.

“We understand the focus of the increases being made to the PTT, the FBT, and the School Property Tax, are intended to target speculation and reduce foreign demand in the housing market on sites above $3 million,” she writes.

http://theprovince.com/opinion/columnist...budget-tax-measures-and-with-good-reason

NDP demonstrates irresponsibility and incompetence with new taxes

Last May, B.C. voters decided they wanted a kinder, gentler sort of provincial government and transferred their support to the NDP and the Greens.

Now that the dust has settled, with an NDP minority government nominally in charge (although with a Green tail wagging an NDP dog), voters should wake up to the fact that, yet again, they’ve elected a gang of bandits.

Consider the NDP’s first budget, delivered last week. It slams British Columbians with $5.5 billion in new and expanded taxes over three years while increasing spending by $5.2 billion.

What is it about that party that its members can’t get it through their heads that most people actually want fiscal responsibility from their governments and that the days of tax-and-spend should be history? As usual, the NDP thinks its sole purpose is to transfer wealth from anyone who is working hard and doing well. As has happened every time they’ve formed government, that attitude is their undoing. The sheep inevitably decide they’ve been sheared enough.

So, again, the NDP has leaped to pass a slew of unprincipled new taxes to pilfer any income or wealth they decide is excessive, regardless of the damage they inflict on individuals or the economy. This is always couched in the rhetoric of “make the rich pay” or, as Finance Minister Carole James self-righteously put it, to ask “people who have benefited from out-of-control housing prices to pay a little more to help ensure all British Columbians can afford a place to live.”

When did that become the job of homeowners? And “pay a little more”? Does she mean the $12,000 a year in extra school taxes she has imposed on retired economics professor David Tha, who lives on a pension and happens to own a Vancouver home he bought decades ago that through no fault of his own has increased in value? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of David Thas out there.

While the finance minister clearly doesn’t care, it must be said that the Mr. and Ms. Thas of B.C. already pay a lot more school and other property taxes because of higher property values. They are already contributing “a little bit more,” to use James’s unctuous words, and don’t deserve an even higher tax burden.

The same is true of the NDP’s new five-per-cent property transfer tax for homes that sell for more than $3 million. (It’s three per cent for lower-priced homes.) If the NDP cared about affordability, why didn’t they eliminate that idiotic tax, brought in as a temporary measure 31 years ago?

Then there’s the 20-per-cent foreign buyers tax and the two-per-cent “speculation” tax on those who own property in B.C. but don’t pay income tax here. You know? A few foreigners, but mostly other Canadians. Both pay income taxes somewhere, and Canada has tax treaties with other countries so people, Canadians included, aren’t forced to pay in two jurisdictions.

Here’s why all of this is unethical, including the NDP view that they have a right to force people through rapacious taxation to rent out their private properties, as if they were public assets.

Canadians support progressive taxation, where wealthier people pay higher taxes. But the NDP — being urged on by bogus university academics who are really taxpayer-funded, highly paid left-wing activists — are applying the same tax principles to assets.

Having taxed income, government should not take a second run at people’s wealth by annually taxing their property, which they have usually acquired through hard work and sacrifice. Unless they want to help people pay their mortgages, or cover their losses when there is a downturn in the housing market, the NDP should not stake a claim to homeowners’ equity.

What is even more stunning is James’s admission that the government didn’t study or model the impact of all these taxes on the housing market before imposing them. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything more incompetent or irresponsible from a finance minister. Real estate and construction are the two largest contributors to B.C.’s economy, and James just wants to throw the dice?

http://theprovince.com/opinion/columnist...sibility-and-incompetence-with-new-taxes

[sunsetmountainland]

B.C. NDP housing plan counts thousands of Liberal units twice

The NDP government’s ambitious plan to build a record amount of affordable housing will actually double-count almost 5,000 housing units that were funded under the previous B.C. Liberal administration.

The new government promised the “largest investment in affordable housing in B.C.’s history” in last week’s provincial budget, with $6.2 billion allocated over 10 years to build 33,700 new units of affordable rental, student and supportive housing.
But almost 15 per cent of that total is simply counting 4,900 housing units already started and funded by the Liberals.

The Liberals spent $355 million in February 2016 and $500 million in September 2016 on housing, which then-premier Christy Clark trumpeted as “by far the biggest amount that any government has invested in British Columbia’s history in affordable housing.”


Of that pot of money, 852 housing units are complete and 4,430 are in development or construction.

The NDP were able to count the bulk of those units as their own in last week’s provincial budget because they topped off the Liberal investments with another $75 million that the new government said was needed to improve affordability.

“We’re taking $75 million to ensure those 4,900 rental homes are actually affordable,” Housing Minister Selina Robinson said. “They were just too expensive.”

Robinson said the $75 million was used as capital to drive down the development and mortgage costs, thereby lowering the final rent. She said that meant a Vancouver project with 61 units saw planned rents of $2,428 a month for three-bedroom units fall to $1,663, and rents of $950 for one-bedroom units fall to $845. In a Kelowna project, she said it drove the price of a three-bedroom unit from $1,483 a month to $1,129.

“What would be the point of having a project that people couldn’t afford, and calling them affordable housing?” Robinson asked. “That’s a misnomer. We put in additional capital grants to make sure they meet people’s needs … that’s enough to get them to the point where they are actually affordable.”

However, the money also allows the NDP take 100 per cent of the credit for old units by increasing new funding only nine per cent. Robinson rejected the suggestion it was done for that reason.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/b-c/b-...usands-of-liberal-units-twice-1.23185699

Nothing like a double dipping N.D.P government. Just like the great economy they inherit from the B.C. liberals. They also include housing units provided under the previous liberal government.


ANALYSIS: Even the BC NDP don’t expect much movement on housing prices

The NDP’s first budget in 18 years included a 30-point action plan to make housing more affordable, but the budget document itself seems to indicate even the government does not expect much movement on housing prices any time soon.

There is a new speculation tax on empty homes, a big boost on taxes on expensive (i.e. in excess of three million) homes, and higher taxes for foreign buyers.
The government is also planning to build thousands of social housing units and more student housing over the next few years.
But even with all this, the government still expects to make $100 million more on property transfer tax transactions in the coming year and another $22 million the following year, which suggest high prices will still be around for a while.
In addition, like the B.C. Liberals before them, the NDP government will rely on a strong housing market for huge revenues ($520 million from the new taxes over a full year, plus $2.2 billion from the transfer tax in the coming year).
In other words, it remains in the government’s financial interests for the housing market to remain red hot. Any noticeable decline could rob the budget of hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.
Moreover, buried in a table in the budget that includes more than a dozen economic indicators lies this intriguing statistic: housing starts are forecast to decline almost 27 per cent in the coming year followed by a further reduction of six per cent the following year (that’s right: “decline”).
Even with the government’s significant investment in public housing, a decline in housing starts will not address the supply side of the house price equation. And much more supply is needed than simply government-built social housing.
All of which brings us to the idea of what, exactly, is meant by “affordability.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/4053320/baldrey-bc-ndp-movement-housing-prices/

[sunsetmountainland]

These are taxing times for our new NDP government

Finance Minister Carole James has been under siege in the legislature for a new payroll tax unveiled in the February budget.It’s called the “employers health tax,” due to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019 to offset lost revenue from the elimination of Medical Services Plan premiums in 2020. After two weeks of push-back from business, local governments and non-profits, this tax is exposing the NDP government’s inexperience as it hastens to deliver on its election promises.

Questions started immediately, like where does a university get an extra $7 million next year, to pay this new tax in addition to the MSP premiums it pays for hundreds of employees. It soon became clear that some of the consequences of getting rid of MSP were unforeseen, and the collateral damage is going to be severe.

James keeps reminding opposition critics that the B.C. Liberals doubled the rate of MSP in previous years, leaving a huge revenue hole after the NDP matched the B.C. Liberal election promise to eliminate Canada’s last remaining direct health care charge.

“Details to come,” says Finance Minister Carole James again and again as reporters and opposition critics question her daily about new taxes in her debut budget. (Tom Fletcher/Black Press)
B.C. VIEWS: These are taxing times for our new NDP government

Businesses, non-profits, local governments are feeling the pinch of payroll tax

Tom FletcherMar. 11, 2018 10:00 a.m.ColumnistsOpinion

Finance Minister Carole James has been under siege in the legislature for a new payroll tax unveiled in the February budget.

It’s called the “employers health tax,” due to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019 to offset lost revenue from the elimination of Medical Services Plan premiums in 2020. After two weeks of push-back from business, local governments and non-profits, this tax is exposing the NDP government’s inexperience as it hastens to deliver on its election promises.

Questions started immediately, like where does a university get an extra $7 million next year, to pay this new tax in addition to the MSP premiums it pays for hundreds of employees. It soon became clear that some of the consequences of getting rid of MSP were unforeseen, and the collateral damage is going to be severe.

James keeps reminding opposition critics that the B.C. Liberals doubled the rate of MSP in previous years, leaving a huge revenue hole after the NDP matched the B.C. Liberal election promise to eliminate Canada’s last remaining direct health care charge.

The new tax will apply to any organization with a payroll of more than $500,000, regardless of net earnings. For payrolls of $1.5 million or more, it’s nearly two per cent. This sounds like music to NDP supporters’ ears: make big business pay, those fat-cats with their million-dollar payrolls and so on. Reality is a lot uglier.

For 2019, employers who pay their staff MSP premiums will have to pay both. First came the realization that this payroll tax will apparently apply to municipalities, school districts and hospitals, the biggest payrolls in many communities and those that already pick up staff MSP premiums.

And even when MSP is gone, the payroll tax is going to be almost as much, expected to bring in nearly $2 billion a year to the provincial treasury. For example, Langley’s school board was told it will cost more than MSP for the district’s 2,500 employees. The same goes for health authorities, colleges, universities and municipalities, which will have to pass the extra cost on via property taxes.

And that’s just the public sector, the focus and experience of many NDP MLAs. It’s a real mess in the private sector, where layoffs may be the only option.

Sticking with the Langley example, Darvonda Nurseries employs 250 people, mostly seasonal, in one of many labour-intensive greenhouse businesses in the Fraser Valley. Like many employers, owner Tamara Jansen and her family don’t pay MSP on behalf of employees. Farm workers and other casual and part-time employees don’t earn enough in a year to pay more than nominal MSP, if any at all.But now Darvonda Nurseries is looking at an extra $100,000 a year coming from their narrow profit margins. Van Belle Nursery in Abbotsford is in a similar situation, with up to 150 workers at peak season to grow and wholesale ornamental plants.
“If you have a high payroll, it sucks to be you,” said Jansen, calling the tax “a war on farms.”

This payroll tax is similar to jacking up minimum wages, a simplistic “social justice” move constantly demanded by the B.C. Federation of Labour. It ends up hurting many of the working poor by pushing them out of their marginal jobs.

The B.C. Liberals promised to phase out MSP as the economy grows, without new taxes to replace it. The B.C. Greens wanted to shift the burden onto income tax, so higher-income earners would carry more of it. Those options are looking a lot better now.

https://www.nanaimobulletin.com/opinion/...taxing-times-for-our-new-ndp-government/

The fun is just starting with this amateur N.D.P government!

[MIPS]

The fun is just starting with this amateur N.D.P government!

Could be worse. We could still be under the Liberals where the only thing that got done was Chinese ****sucking.

[retro_orange]

Amen!

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Could be worse. We could still be under the Liberals where the only thing that got done was Chinese ****sucking.

I always wondered why Christy had such chipmunk cheeks!

[Spork]

The RE industry sure is out in force getting Post Media to spin out all sorts of sob stories and opinion articles, my god!

[casper]

Originally Posted by sunsetmountainland

Does not take long for a N.D.P government to screw things up!
every day is amateur hour in Victoria under the NDP


http://theprovince.com/opinion/columnist...budget-tax-measures-and-with-good-reason

NDP demonstrates irresponsibility and incompetence with new taxes



http://theprovince.com/opinion/columnist...sibility-and-incompetence-with-new-taxes

You should expect it to be amateur hour. That is how our political system works.

New government gets elected. One of the first thing it does it fire the top tier of deputy ministers and associated positions and replace them with new people that are sympathetic to the new party in power. For the first year they are amateurs and they are going to screw up. Over time they will learn their jobs and they will learn what to do to keep the government from messing up. After 10 years the party gets voted out and the entire process starts all over again.

[casper]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Australia pays fast-food workers $20 an hour and the sky hasn’t fallen

...Wages for service sector jobs tend to be much higher than in Canada, where the dollar currently trades at par with the Australian currency. Entry-level fast-food workers, for example, are paid $20.08 an hour as a base hourly wage. Pay goes up to $25.10 on Saturday, $29.12 on Sunday, and overtime hours are $30.12 for the first two hours and $40.16 for each hour thereafter. On top of this, employers pay 9.5 per cent of wages to every employee's nominated retirement fund. Workers who are non-permanent "casual" employees are generally paid a further 25 per cent of their wages on top of these amounts.

Has the economy crumbled under the weight of high wages? No. The Australian economy has fared quite well by international standards. GDP per capita is healthy at around US$48,000, compared with Canada's $44,000. The unemployment rate is low, at 5.4 per cent nationally. There has not been a recession since the early 1990s. This is arguably in part a result of the buoyancy of demand created by high wages.

Have these wages made life horribly expensive for the consumer? Not really. OECD price level indexes for 2016 place Australia at 125-per-cent OECD average and Canada at 107 per cent. Prices that are sensitive to the cost of labour, such as restaurants, do seem to be higher. However, where prices are higher, they can usually be met by well-paid workers...

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o...nd-the-sky-hasnt-fallen/article38026876/

Australia is also a country that does not have a tipping culture. Personally I would be happier with a system where you don't tip and instead prices are a 15% higher across the board.

[WarrenC12]

Insights West polled BC'ers and found huge support for the new housing tax measures:

https://insightswest.com/news/british-columbians-welcome-budget-proposals-on-real-estate/

It's way beyond insane out there, and at least the NDP is trying something. The BC Libs were "smiling with their mouths full of shit" as my grandpa used to say.

[geotag277]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Insights West polled BC'ers and found huge support for the new housing tax measures:

https://insightswest.com/news/british-columbians-welcome-budget-proposals-on-real-estate/

It's way beyond insane out there, and at least the NDP is trying something. The BC Libs were "smiling with their mouths full of shit" as my grandpa used to say.

Interesting that a majority of home owners think the tax is a "very good idea", and 75% of Liberal voters fall in the "good idea" bucket.

I suspect if the BC Liberals were quite a bit tougher on the housing affordability issue in the election they would have won another term.

[MIPS]

If they had made any serious attempts to curb speculation they would still be in power and there is no doubt about about it. The only attempts we saw however were too little, too late and after a few months things went back on the upswing. I got no qualms with the NDP retooling the legislation as they prod around and see what they can feasably do before the pushback gets them the boot. They likely will only have one chance at this unless a miracle happens before the next election.
That I am hearing right now the two big snags are the liberals saying this will hurt people with vacation homes or second properties, of which is context sensitive because both have abused loopholes.