Prince George and Northern BC are exempt from the new speculation and vacancy tax implemented by the province.
The new tax is the government’s way to target people who own property but don’t pay provincial taxes.
Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond is also the BC Liberals Finance Critic who states while foreign speculation is problematic, the focus should not be residents who have lived and worked here most of their lives.
“I think most of us want to tackle the issue of legitimate speculation here in British Columbia but I think very few British Columbians who own a second property consider themselves speculators and we’ve been opposed to this tax from the very beginning.”
“I don’t consider and I don’t think most British Columbians consider a long-term British Columbian, someone who has lived here maybe they’re whole lives who have a second property and they’ve had it for multiple years I don’t think anyone considers them a speculator and so, this tax is a speculation tax in name only and we’ve been very concerned about that from the very beginning.”
While Bond is thankful this won’t be an issue for northern residents but feels for those in other major centers who will have to prove they’re not speculators.
“Prince George and Northern BC are not captured, areas like Nanaimo, Kelowna, West Kelowna, Abbotsford, Chilliwack those fairly significant urban centres are captured under the speculation tax.”
“We can take some comfort in the fact were not included under the speculation tax but it doesn’t help the other one-point-six million other British Columbians who are going to get a tax bill in the mail unless they can provide significant personal information and prove to the government that they are not speculators, that’s simply not right.”