Re: “Tax picks on law-abiding people,” letter, Jan. 27.
Please, no more letters griping about the speculation tax. I suspect that those who are complaining are in my generation or are older. I am retired, in my 60s, and have reaped the economic benefits of the obscene increase in housing prices in Greater Victoria over the past 40 years.
However, I fully support the NDP government’s housing policies, including this tax, that attempt to address the housing-affordability crisis that the development community has failed to deal with since the 1990s.
Those who complain appear to ignore the fact that we all apply for many tax exemptions every year, including the homeowner grant and the many deductions and other exemptions in our personal and business tax returns. That is how taxes operate; you have to prove that you qualify for an exemption. That is neither onerous nor an invasion of privacy.
I suspect that the loudest complaints are from those who have one or more houses that are vacant or held for speculation, or worse, that their protestations simply betray both a lack of empathy about the economic impact of the housing crisis on the younger generation or those with lower incomes, and they simply want to maintain their position of entitlement in the current hierarchy of economic privilege and power.
The sooner the provincial government can shake up that hierarchy to help those younger than my generation, the better off our society will be. Bring on the speculation tax.
Guy McDannold
Shirley
