If you felt there might be something missing from the data on North Shore household incomes released this week by Stats Canada, you’re not alone.
In West Vancouver, household incomes went down in the last 10 years – to below $90,000. That’s notable and strange in a place where a house now costs $3 million.
Sometimes statistics don’t tell the whole story, particularly when they are only gathering part of the relevant information.
Yes, it’s true that West Vancouver has an aging population, more reliant on pensions than some communities. Some of those people living in multimillion-dollar mansions have been there for decades as the value of their properties exploded around them. But there is also the question of large amounts of income that doesn’t show up on official radar.
There are a number of wealthy people whose income from investments is stashed away from prying government eyes in offshore accounts.
Sadly, two successive federal governments have so far shown a lack of interest in pursuing them. Some of it is also undoubtedly unreported global income. Tax shell games in which some members of a family are “residents” and others are not for tax purposes can result in minimal declared income apparently supporting very affluent lifestyles.
Our tax laws, written at a very different time, are badly in need of reform. Large loopholes need to be closed. It’s not credible for Ottawa to plead poverty while turning a blind eye to the wealthy among us earning supposedly low incomes.
When you don’t look, you don’t find.
