The bromance between NDP Premier John Horgan and Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver has hit a few rough patches since the summer courtship began. By most assessments there’s not much compelling Horgan to listen to Weaver on most policy issues.
But there’s one area where Weaver makes a lot of sense: the province’s housing crisis.
This week Weaver presented the Green Party’s wish list on housing policy.
Many of the ideas, designed to curb speculation, are eminently reasonable. Among them: restrict foreign purchasing of property, put in new taxes of speculating and flipping, closing loopholes in the foreign buyers’ tax and the bare trust loophole, which allow buyers to hide the real owners of property and avoid paying taxes. Other ideas include working with local governments to restrict short-term rentals, allowing empty homes taxes outside the City of Vancouver and collection of better housing data.
These aren’t outlandish ideas. Academics, immigration experts, and even the NDP in opposition mused on many of them.
The common thread in the ideas is they aim to make housing more about where people actually live and less about being places to park money.
There are likely forces lining up against such plans. The real estate industry has had a run of being the biggest industry in the province in recent years, surpassing old economic engines like forestry. Then there are the many comfortably housed, older, middle-class voters who have benefited from the real estate rave. Governments mess with their lottery winnings at their own peril.
But the housing crisis threatens to overwhelm both the middle class and the economies of communities around the province.
Weaver’s suggestions go a way to addressing that.
Here’s hoping the NDP government is prepared to consider them.
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