Victoria Coun. Jeremy Loveday hopes city council will press the province for the same taxation rights Vancouver is getting over vacant properties.
Loveday and Mayor Lisa Helps have submitted a resolution to councillors calling for the mayor to write the province asking for an amendment to the Community Charter to enable municipalities across the province the right to tax vacant properties.
If passed, the resolution would also direct staff to begin collecting data on the number of empty units in the city to allow council “to make an informed decision on whether or not to implement a tax on vacant properties if the province makes the requested changes.”
In response to a request from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, the province announced this week that it would recall the legislature for a special sitting on July 25 to amend the Vancouver Charter to enable that city to tax vacant properties.
The levy is aimed at improving the supply of rental homes in the city’s real estate market, while waiting for new construction to come online, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said.
“I figure if they’re going to go to the house to debate this, they should debate it all at once and grant all municipalities the same authority,” Loveday said.
“My impression is they haven’t drafted the legislation yet. It seems like they’re coming up with it on the fly and we have a chance to respond and say that this housing crisis isn’t just in Vancouver. It’s across the Lower Mainland and on the south Island and we need action from the provincial government that’s going to affect all municipalities.”
The province is responsible for providing the “statutory powers” necessary within the Vancouver Charter to allow for the tax.
Once legislation is passed, it will be up to the City of Vancouver to determine the tax rate and how to measure whether a home is empty or not.
Loveday is uncertain about how Victoria city staff would determine whether a home is vacant, or for that matter, if the city should impose a tax on vacant properties at all.
“I’m not exactly sure how Vancouver has done it. They’ve collected the data and decided that this is a good idea for them,” Loveday said.
“I’m not there yet. I don’t have the data for the City of Victoria and I’m not actually convinced that this is something we should necessarily do.
“But I want it to be a tool that we have at our disposal and I want the city staff to start collecting the data to see if this is something that would have a positive impact on our housing vacancy rates and on the ability for people to find housing.”
Robertson has said it is too early to say how much the Vancouver tax would be, but did say it should apply only to homes left empty 12 months of the year.
The current rental vacancy rate in Vancouver is 0.6 per cent, but a city-commissioned report in March suggested that there are 10,800 empty units in the city.
Helps noted that Victoria, also with a vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent, is the third-most expensive Canadian city — behind Vancouver and Toronto — in which to buy or rent.
Loveday said he has received messages from politicians around B.C. wondering what can be done to make the taxation initiative provincewide.
