Dear Editor
It is deeply disappointing that the B.C. government is only now considering gathering statistics on housing costs/sales in the province. The crisis in the Lower Mainland is hardly new – it’s not an overnight event. Fact-based policy making, such as the Green Party of B.C. advocates, requires an ongoing effort of the government(s) to gather the facts in anticipation of legislation to protect the citizenry, environment and economy.
We’ve all heard about perfectly good residential buildings being torn down. This waste is damaging to the environment and helps drive property costs ever upwards. A possible solution would be a ‘tear-down’ tax. The developer would pay a tax on the appraised value of the property less two per cent for every year the existing structures had been on the property. So, for example, if there was a perfectly good structure on a property that was only 20 years old, the tear-down tax would be 60 per cent of the appraised value of the property. Better to renovate the existing structure.
Yes, after 50 years there’d be no tear down tax (heritage building status is another matter), and it’s likely that a new structure, built to new environmental standards (Oh, what are those in B.C.? They have them throughout Europe.) would make the demolition worthwhile.
David W.G. Macdonald, Burnaby
