Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action.
Canada's housing 'affordability crisis' fueled by overseas money, Trudeau says
Prime minister provided no supporting data but government has set aside funds to study perception that foreign investors are to blame for housing bubble Canada housing market Concern over the overheated property market has focused on Vancouver, where the proportion of million-dollar homes in the city has climbed this year to 91%.
An influx of capital from Asia is partly responsible for soaring housing prices in Vancouver and Toronto, Justin Trudeau has said, as a new study showed more than 90% of all detached homes in Vancouver are now worth more than C$1m ($772,141).
“We know that there is an awful lot of capital that left Asia in the past few years,” Canada’s prime minister told public broadcaster CBC on Friday.
I'm not knowledgeable enough about the situation, but unless the federal government can force Quebec to sort its investment immigration business out the situation won't change. They really do get a pretty sweet deal out of it, and it's illegal to ban the investors from moving to other provinces because Canada has freedom of movement within the country.
May as well learn Mandarin/Cantonese and work in the high end service industry. I've heard some crazy tipping stories of people who work in high-end restaurants in downtown Vancouver.
It’s a bold first promise by the BC NDP ahead of the 2017 provincial election.
“We need to be bold about the minimum wage, we’re going to get it to $15 an hour by the end of the first term of the BC NDP government.”
John Horgan is vowing to bring British Columbia to that figure should his party win the election.
He says he knows the promise is a big one.
“But they also know if people have more money in their pockets they have an opportunity to spend it in small businesses. We’re going to be consulting with people at the early stages of the government, but the commitment to the people of B.C., the commitment to the lowest-paid workers, is that they’re going to be a high part of our agenda, not an after thought.”
Horgan has accused Clark of reneging on her promise to put B.C. families first.
its great to have these "ideals", however, wage theft in Ontario rises every time the minimum wage rises. Its probably the same in BC. all this does is contribute to the underground economy.
wage theft is at epidemic proportions in Ontario. The #2 LAN Cafe on Yonge street in Toronto has exactly zero of its 25 employees making standard over-the-table minimum wage. The 2 print shops I worked as a high school senior//university freshman... no one gets paid minimum wage for the hours they work.
ironically, the minimum wage laws in Ontario create a lawless, zero-regulation, underground economy that is a libertarian's wet dream.
Ontario's decision to have a citizen's sex removed from the Health Card is a bad idea. Interpreting the results of many tests hinges upon knowing the sex of the patient. Just 1 example of 10,000. interpreting the hemoglobin result requires knowing the sex of the patient.
i have no opinion on removing sex from the driver's license.
A tip of the cap to the Justice Minister and Health Minister for their speech this morning about Marijuana. this is leadership the country needs on this contentious issue. I wonder if their speech will strengthen the Toronto Police Force's resolve in convicting the marijuana store owners they busted recently.
It really looks like the federal government is saying to the toronto police "go get'em boys".
I wonder if discussing sex purely in terms of chromosomes in any medical context would be beneficial. Your health card can simply have whatever combination of X and Ys you have (there are more than just XX and XY), if its that important. Affecting tests is certainly a thing, but there are lots of genetic markers that effect different diagnosis, and you cant expect them all to be on your health card.
Then have gender be whatever they identify as I suppose, if it's even needed anywhere.
It’s a bold first promise by the BC NDP ahead of the 2017 provincial election.
“We need to be bold about the minimum wage, we’re going to get it to $15 an hour by the end of the first term of the BC NDP government.”
John Horgan is vowing to bring British Columbia to that figure should his party win the election.
He says he knows the promise is a big one.
“But they also know if people have more money in their pockets they have an opportunity to spend it in small businesses. We’re going to be consulting with people at the early stages of the government, but the commitment to the people of B.C., the commitment to the lowest-paid workers, is that they’re going to be a high part of our agenda, not an after thought.”
Horgan has accused Clark of reneging on her promise to put B.C. families first.
On the otherhand, it's less than a 50% increase rather than a 100% in the states. Still won't vote for them for that reason though. The continued budget woes for the public school system could change my mind, however (even though I work in the independent system.)
The real estate sector is losing the privilege of policing itself in B.C., the provincial government announced Wednesday.
Premier Christy Clark said the province is taking over regulatory responsibilities in a bid to better serve consumers and increase public confidence in the industry.
“The point of regulation is to protect people,” Clark said.
“The real estate sector has had 10 years to get it right on self-regulation and they haven’t.”
The rule-making authority currently held by the industry-controlled Real Estate Council of B.C. will be passed on to a newly established superintendent of real estate, Clark added.
A job posting for that position has already been posted.
The announcement followed one day after the release of a damning report prepared by an independent advisory group, which made 28 recommendations aimed at improving oversight and protections in the sector.
Clark said the government will be taking “immediate action” to implement all of those measures.
Among them is a call to hike the maximum fine for individual misconduct from $10,000 to a whopping $250,000, and the maximum fine for brokerages from $20,000 to $500,000.
The report also calls for banning real estate agents from representing sellers and buyers on the same contract, to ensure the best interests of all clients are properly considered.
“Protecting consumers is vitally important, especially in this market where everything’s moving so quickly and people are telling us that they feel taken advantage of, that there are shady practices,” Clark said.
A confidential whistleblower line for people to make complaints – another measure called for in the report – will be set up as well, the government said.
The Opposition NDP welcomed Wednesday’s announcement, but said the province is still only addressing a small symptom of the larger problem of affordability.
Leader John Horgan called on Clark to launch an integrated task force to investigate money laundering, fraud and tax evasion in real estate transactions.
“Let’s get back to the root cause here and that is speculative investment money coming from offshore and distorting the marketplace,” Horgan said. “There’s no shortage of evidence that there’s a problem here, the only challenge is will the premier step up and address it?”
The B.C. government said it’s already working to deal with affordability, through measures implemented during the last budget and by pushing for more housing supply.
On July 01 2016 01:41 Tephus wrote: (there are more than just XX and XY),
more than 99.8% of the population is either XX or XY. the ontario government is removing a very practical and highly leveraged piece of info from the health card. political agendas are now interfering with basic, front-line healthcare
i'd prefer Ontarians be given the same options on their health card as they do on their driver's license. fortunately, the government is still accepting input on this policy change.
welp, i just signed an $80,000 deal to audit my #1 customer's databases and their CRM (25% of their CRM is made by me) to report the situations where sex can be removed. my #1 customer is a very big ontario nursing org.
i'm talking to my #2 customer about a similar kind of audit. they are offering to fly my only employee into Ontario to help.
just got 2 calls about the Small Medical Office Admin app i put together with the generous help of 3 Ontario Docs... concerns about removing sex and how it impacts the reports it spits out.
VICTORIA — Foreign buyers of Metro Vancouver real estate will be taxed an additional 15 per cent, the government announced Monday in new legislation.
The tax would increase the property transfer tax on non-Canadian citizens or non-permanent residents purchasing homes. It would begin Aug. 2 and apply to all residential property in Metro Vancouver, excluding the Tsawwassen First Nation.
The government said the additional tax on a $2 million home in the Lower Mainland would amount to $300,000 on a foreign citizen.
Premier Christy Clark said the goal is to keep the dream of homeownership for the middle class alive, amid criticism that skyrocketing real estate prices have made it unaffordable for most ordinary British Columbians to afford homes.
“There are a lot of things happening in the housing market that are making housing more expensive,” Clark told reporters. Related
Global destinations that impose a tax on foreign buyers Permit red tape holding up 69,500 housing units: Developers Vancouver needs data sharing with Victoria for vacancy tax to work: Mayor
“There is evidence now that suggests that very wealthy foreign buyers have raised the price of overall housing for people in British Columbia. If we are going to put British Columbians first, and that is what we are intending to do, we need to make sure that we do everything we can to try and keep houses affordable and try to make sure those very wealthy foreign buyers find it a little bit harder to buy a house in the Greater Vancouver area.
“Because if we can make it a little bit harder for those wealthy foreign buyers we are going to make it a whole lot easier for those middle class British Columbians we want to put first.”
The Opposition NDP said the move will not address the core problem of foreign speculation in Metro Vancouver’s real estate market because it focuses on people and not the money flowing into the region.
“Much of the investment that’s happening now in the Lower Mainland is being directed by cash from somewhere else by people who are already here,” said NDP leader John Horgan. “What we’ve been advocating for … is using the income tax act to determine if people purchasing homes are participating in the economy.”
Though the bill contains provisions for auditing and penalties, Horgan said he thinks it can be circumvented easily.
“You hire yourself a tax lawyer, you hire yourself an accountant and you can get by that pretty quickly,” he said of the self-declared citizenship form. “I think sophisticated investors, those that are laundering money in our real estate market, will be able to get by that very quickly.”
The latest government data shows foreign buyers purchased more than $1 billion worth of B.C. property between June 10 and July 14, and 86 per cent of that was in the Lower Mainland.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong said government has the ability to alter the tax to between 10 and 20 per cent, depending on how the market reacts. The goal, he said, is to “diminish the amount of foreign investment.”
That is an abrupt about-face for de Jong, who has spent months arguing that B.C. should not do anything to discourage foreign investment in B.C.’s economy. He said Monday that since then he’s seen a small amount of data that appears to prove foreign buyers are driving up prices.
The rules also apply to foreign-controlled corporations that are not incorporated in Canada or in which at least one beneficiary is a a foreign entity. But it would not apply to commercial property. So the tax would only be levied on a foreign-controlled company that purchases residential real estate or apartment or condo buildings.
The money would go into a special housing account set up in legislation Monday to fund housing affordability projects, rental supply and housing support programs. Government is putting $75 million into the fund initially.
The bill also gives the City of Vancouver power to implement a tax on vacant homes, which the city has argued could help increase the supply of rental housing by encouraging absentee owners to rent out their properties. Vancouver has said it needs a data-sharing agreement with the provincial government to make the tax work.
The bill also removes self-policing in the real estate industry.
The new housing legislation comes as the B.C. Liberal government wrestles with criticism it has been slow to act on the housing affordability crisis. Critics have called for government intervention to cool the market and keep home prices in reach of middle-class British Columbians. The government has resisted, saying it didn’t want to interfere and that the issue was primarily one of rising demand for a limited supply of homes. But as the May 2017 election looms on the horizon, both the Liberals and NDP are fighting for voter approval on their plans.
No kidding. This isn’t a Goliath of a political problem. It’s Godzilla. Much tougher to fight.
And there’s real money on the table.
Last year, the Notley NDP are sworn in as the government.
A little over a month later, before they figure out the locations of the washrooms, they decide to fast-track hikes on existing carbon levies, hitting electricity companies.
But there’s a clause in the electricity contracts going back to the year 2000 saying if the government changes the law and the company buying the power is “more unprofitable” because of that change they can bail out of the contract.
City of Calgary’s Enmax exits from one of their contracts. Enmax and others want out of other agreements.
The taxpayers could be on the hook for $2 billion. Power bills will go up.
Amateur hour with our NDP government in Alberta. Welcome to why I identify as conservative. It's the lefts rush to apply good intentions policies without taking the time to explore the unintended consequences.
No kidding. This isn’t a Goliath of a political problem. It’s Godzilla. Much tougher to fight.
And there’s real money on the table.
Last year, the Notley NDP are sworn in as the government.
A little over a month later, before they figure out the locations of the washrooms, they decide to fast-track hikes on existing carbon levies, hitting electricity companies.
But there’s a clause in the electricity contracts going back to the year 2000 saying if the government changes the law and the company buying the power is “more unprofitable” because of that change they can bail out of the contract.
City of Calgary’s Enmax exits from one of their contracts. Enmax and others want out of other agreements.
The taxpayers could be on the hook for $2 billion. Power bills will go up.
Amateur hour with our NDP government in Alberta. Welcome to why I identify as conservative. It's the lefts rush to apply good intentions policies without taking the time to explore the unintended consequences.
You say that like it's something the left has a monopoly on. The cons in Ontario broke up Ontario Hydro, and the rates there have been going through the roof since then, even when natural gas prices are going down. NDP blocked building further nuclear plants before them though, another huge mistake.
Imagine a world where Ontario Hydro had built enough base load nuclear power completely eliminate the need for coal/ng/oil and then cover off-peak usage in Quebec, in exchange for Quebec covering peak loads with all their hydro power. Could of maintained nuclear expertise to export too. Oh well.
my solution to wage theft was to rip off my employer. if i had a chance to do it all over again... i would. going to the authorities does fuck all... meanwhile, you've got car insurance and tuition payments to make on a set deadline...
It is Supreme Court of Canada rulings that end up pwning idiot Crown attorneys that make me proud to be Canadian. once you are charged the Crown is on the clock.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/r3mj36k.jpg)
