Our coalition represents business, medical, academic, entertainment, and other professional people who need a 2nd home in Vancouver. Their work spans the province, the country, and the globe. Just as your local MLA needs a 2nd home in Victoria, they have the same need in Vancouver. We also represent seniors who live in more remote locations, but require a small Vancouver condo to meet their medical, family, and social needs. For most of them, these are patterns they established years ago. The city administration is pressuring them to leave or become landlords unless they pay almost 500% of their regular municipal taxes as a fine of 3% of assessed value.
The coalition launched on March 8th/2017 in Gibsons BC. Through a blitz of letters to the editor of local newspapers throughout southern BC and the interior, we now comprise concerned citizens throughout British Columbia, but particularly the Sunshine Coast, Whistler Corridor, Okanagan, Vancouver Island and Gulf Island regions. We also include owners from other provinces, the USA, and residents from all over the world who consider Vancouver their home-away-from-home. Through sharing of ideas and resources including legal, we strategize on applying public pressure to the City of Vancouver to adapt the Vacancy tax by expanding the limited definition “Unoccupied” or the exceptions to the term “Deemed Vacant”. The coalition has a participatory membership. This includes personal letter writing. We have formulated and presented logical amendments to the City Council & Mayor, and have a retained a PR firm to ramp up pressure by public exposure. Although working with City Council proactively is optimal as of May 2019 we have retained Don Sorochan QC (https://www.sorochanlaw.com ) to prepare the framework for a legal challenge based on constitutional grounds. Only by group activity, and a class action of aggrieved citizens will change occur. However, the work of the Coalition in providing public information and obtaining legal counsel takes funding by participants. Please contact us for ways that you can contribute.
- An 80 year-old widow on modest income who worked hard, and paid mortgages and taxes all her life, lives in Victoria but owns a Vancouver secondary condo, often returning for personal, family, professional and medical reasons. She recalls wartime occupation years in Europe where their family apartment was expropriated to billet soldiers, and senses the same injustice now.
- A successful Canadian music producer working out of LA shuttles back and forth from Vancouver for business and family reasons. His work discovering and subsequently promoting Canadian talent in the US is a significant benefit to our country.
- A medical doctor who returns repeatedly to a number of villages in remote northern areas of Canada but requires a small condo in Vancouver for professional, personal medical, and family reasons.
- A 90 year-old widow from the Sunshine Coast has maintained a small condo in Vancouver for decades in order to receive medical treatment for herself, her now deceased husband, and for family support.
- A CEO of the Canadian entity of a US pharmaceutical development business. Planning to expand in Vancouver, he and his spouse purchased a condo in 2015. Unfortunately a few delays with commercial real estate delayed expansion plans. The empty homes taxes are causing us to seriously reconsider our job creating expansion plans. and rethink the business environment of Vancouver. Consequently, we are also evaluating Toronto, which has a more thriving pharmaceutical community with no tax harassment.
- A US citizen who purchased a Vancouver condominium 17 years ago, and comes during the summer months approximately 6 months/year. His son is Canadian. His strata council bylaws restrict lease durations. Given that the city of Vancouver starts counting six month occupancy or rental as of July 1st, this occurs during peak usage time by the owner himself.
- A retired couple, having spent over 50 years working and paying full taxes in the Lower Mainland has been forced to sell their one joy in life. In 2017 we opted to pay the EHT – a hit to our limited cash flow that we could not afford to pay. The next year (2018) we thought we would try to rent the unit so as to avoid the EHT. Renting has been a disastrous exercise. Our first tenant, having signed a 6 month lease, quit after only 2 months and lots of hassle. The next tenant who had also signed an 8 month lease has quit early and has also been a big problem. We have been unlucky with these tenants and have decided that we do not want to continue renting with the hassles and unpleasantness that it involves. Our only choice therefore is to sell the unit which we do extremely reluctantly. The irony is that the buyer, we are told, is likely to be an owner/occupier who will never rent out the unit. What has been achieved by this pernicious tax? Net gain in rental vacancy-zero