Dubious tax objective
Re B.C. to tax foreigners who buy in Vancouver (July 26): This is a bad idea.
First, the policy objective of the tax is dubious. The apparent intent is to depress current home values to make them "more affordable" for middle-class purchasers. But if prices do fall, the ultimate result will be that sellers will receive less while purchasers (including foreigners) will do better. Do middle-class purchasers merit government interference in the market at the expense of sellers?
Second, taxing foreigners (primarily Chinese) raises racist overtones and the ghost of the head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants beginning in 1885. It wasn't so long ago that B.C. Premier Christy Clark was apologizing for the head tax, and yet here we are with a new version.
Third, the tax is a shameless revenue grab with no government commitment to use the incremental revenue for any particular purpose. I would be less concerned if I believed it would be spent for social good.
- Thomas Ciz, Vancouver
Fast-track for all
Re Fast-track tech visas, firms urge (July 27): "Fast-track" visas for tech employees amount to cutting to the front of the line, pushing past refugees and Canadians seeking to reunite with foreign family members. Instead, industries wanting greater ease in hiring international candidates and governments interested in growth should push for speedier processing for all.
Should a highly skilled Canadian married to a foreigner discover that it will take two years for the spouse to gain permanent residence, that Canadian may emigrate, robbing our industries – tech included – of Canadian talent. And as the Liberals have demonstrated, the public is sensitive to the horrific humanitarian costs associated with inefficient refugee resettlement programs. No one wants to be seen to be pushing past them in line.
- Matthew Taylor and Naama Ofrath, Toronto
Window is closing
In an otherwise excellent profile of Sustainable Development Technology Canada CEO Leah Lawrence, Jeffrey Jones repeats an all-too-frequent blooper – that Canada adopted an "ambitious" target of 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 as part of our Paris commitment at COP21.
There are actually three separate errors in the claim. Firstly, the target is not ambitious – it's far weaker than even that of the United States and miles behind the European targets. Second, it is not a target that was adopted at COP21. It was put in place by the previous Conservative government, six months before COP21. And finally, the old target puts the target Canada did embrace in Paris completely out of reach. Canada's leadership at COP21 was based on accepting that the world must strive to avoid 1.5 degrees global average temperature increase, above the global average before the Industrial Revolution, while ensuring the world stays below 2 degrees. The principle of the Paris Agreement is that countries must withdraw old, weak targets and ratchet up to responsible action that meets COP21 goals.
We are still waiting for the new government to bring forward its domestic target. It is urgent that it do so to create pressure on other countries to do the same. The cumulative impact of all current targets leads to global average temperature rising to as much as 3.5 degrees Celsius. The window to keep climate change within levels to which we can adapt is rapidly closing.
- Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, Leader of the Green Party of Canada
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