First he met with the finance minister. And his protests fell on deaf ears.

Then it was the premiersa国际传媒攁nd it appears to have resulted in the same outcome.

So now West Kelowna Mayor Doug Findlater is reiterating his opposition to the provincesa国际传媒檚 planned speculation tax by putting pen to papersa国际传媒攐r keystroke to screen if you willsa国际传媒攊n an open letter outlining why his citysa国际传媒檚 inclusion in the tax plan is bad not only for West Kelownasa国际传媒檚 residents, but also his citysa国际传媒檚 economic bottom line.

For anyone who has followed along as Findlater has lead the local charge against the tax, the reasons are not new.

The citysa国际传媒檚 argument is the tax will result in less development and that means fewer homes, less revenue for the city, the potential loss of jobs, impacts on other sectors such as tourism, higher taxes to pay for future city infrastructure and a myriad of other problems that stem from turning developers away.

The ill-thought out tax, which will hit B.C. owners of secondary property, a s well as out-of-province owners, with additional tax levies, is not the panacea the province thinks it will be when it comes to trying to create more affordable housing in the handful of municipalities where itsa国际传媒檚 slated take affect in the fall.

The provincial government appears to have cherry-picked cities to include in the controversial tax plan and, as Findlater makes clear in his four-page letter to Premier John Horgan, the criteria used to include West Kelowna seems faulty at best.

But the reality is Findlater can yell until hesa国际传媒檚 blue in the facesa国际传媒擧organ has no intention of budging on this one.

In politics the key is being seen to be doing something and this is the NDP governmentsa国际传媒檚 response to the growing lament of British Columbians who say itsa国际传媒檚 too expensive to get into the property market in this province.

Theresa国际传媒檚 no doubt prices are way higher than most of us can remember in the cities and towns where we live. But recent statistics from the provincial real estate association shed some interesting light on the measures that have already been taken to try to cool B.C.sa国际传媒檚 red hot property market.

The report says recent changes in rules have resulted in a drop of about 36 per cent in sales in B.C., but at the same time, prices have only gone down 1.7 per cent. The bottom line is there are fewer homes available and prices are not coming down by much.

So, how is this all making more property available and affordable ?

Findlater makes a good case for West Kelowna, but all the yelling in the world does no good if the person you are yelling at is not listening to you.

For more on this story and the text of Findlatersa国际传媒檚 letter, see kelownacapnews.com

To report a typo, email:
newstips@kelownacapnews.com.

newstips@kelownacapnews.com
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