Comments on: Canada Isn’t Keen On Foreign Buyer and Vacancy Taxes After US Warns Retaliation

By: Patiently Waiting

Patiently Waiting — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 18:49:27 +0000

I don’t think Brian Higgins even understands. He’s was at it again in Congress on Feb 3rd saying not to a 1% tax on Americans. He doesn’t say the word vacant once.

https://higgins.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-higgins-objects-to-proposed-canadian-tax-on-american

I would have love to know what the response was to his statement and what the Canadian response was to his May 3rd letter. Hopefully not “Sorry about that, eh!”

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 12:54:52 +0000

Our politicians really are as dumb as f*#k. Florida and Arizona are huge state for votes. If Higgins wants to destroy the those economy, we should let him. Floridians will chase him out of town for scaring away the snowbirds….

By: Balladu

Balladu — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 19:59:42 +0000

In reply to Quon.

Or those Russian nukes.
Or a flood to reset things.

I’m stuck in Toronto. I’m making better money than most, I could afford to buy, but not anything remotely liveable, certainly not anything that would give me Space for a family, or that wouldn’t make me feel horrifically financially insecure and downright uncomfortable.

If this is a best place to live on this world, burn down the world. It’s time to start over

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 17:27:23 +0000

In reply to Ron Bruce. Yea and who cares if Canadians have the same tax in the states. Not our problem, we voted for the tax and 2 year ban

By: Trader Jim

Trader Jim — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 17:16:38 +0000

In reply to SH. One of the key reasons I like BD is they don't have a clear political party bias. This could have easily been a "rip on the Libs" piece in Post Media, but they chose not to discuss it at a high level so the concern was placed above the politician. Though IIRC Stephen isn't a huge fan of vacancy taxes despite being in every gov vacant tax report, he just sees this as a compromise for inefficient capital allocation. i.e. higher rates, reduced income taxes, and high property taxes so the Fed subsidies from other regions aren't used to repair roads in Montreal, etc.

By: Ron Bruce

Ron Bruce — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 13:45:46 +0000

1% annual tax on vacant property. Let’s get real. Foreign investment, and not just from the USA, into homes and property, is crippling the economy by investing in buildings producing nothing and pushing those workers who are paying real taxes into the streets. This letter sounds like an ultimatum from the Kremlin to Ukraine. Grifters in Congress from either Party (Hatfields or the McCoys) have nothing better to do.
What Canadians should worry about is 300,000 residents in Hong Kong with Canadian citizenship papers who never paid a dime in 150 years for infrastructure (i.e. roads, bridges, military, hospitals, schools, universities, etc, etc, etc). Why not peel back the covers to see how this could happen. Who is paying off the people in the Canadian Immigration Office to achieve access? Criminal Code bribery offences are punishable by fines in the discretion of the court and maximum jail terms ranging between 5 to 14 years. Offences under the CFPOA are subject to a fine indiscretion of the court and imprisonment of up to 14 years.

By: Patiently Waiting

Patiently Waiting — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 13:18:42 +0000

In reply to JM.

Apparently it’s not all politicians. I was surprised to come across this when I was searching “Trudeau ban on foreign buyers”:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/votes/43/2/135?view=member

Of the major political parties only one Liberal voted Yea to the motion. Clearly, it’s the Liberals that are the problem. They are finding every excuse to leave things as they are and don’t care how it hurts the middle class.

By: Agent bob

Agent bob — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 12:28:46 +0000

I think Americans should be excluded from the vacancy tax. Most Americans at this point would never buy in Canada anyway. It’s too expensive.
However, the vacancy tax on every other nationality should be much higher than 1%; this amount is ineffective. Perhaps 5% would be more appropriate.
Also, it is vital to implement the 2 year moratorium on non residents. They are also partly responsible for the increase in prices and probably own a lot of the 1.4 million vacant homes in Canada.

By: SH

SH — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 10:25:53 +0000

In reply to Boomie McBoomerson. At this point, I suspect many Canadian Millennials would be all too happy to hand over their Canadian citizenship.

By: SH

SH — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 09:05:15 +0000

In case it wasn’t clear (Stephen doesn’t explicitly state it above), the Liberals just blocked their own election promise to ban foreign buying for 2 years. That proposal is now dead. The Conservatives and NDP members on the committee voted to uphold the ban. The Liberals, plus the one Bloc member on the committee, shot it down. The vote was 6 members opposed, 5 in favour.

The Liberals, as usual, put the interests of foreign speculators and (as noted above) wealthy Boomers ahead of the interests of poor and middle-class young Canadian citizens.