BC NDP housing minister Ravi Kahlon has defended giving nearly one billion dollars of property tax revenue back to B.C. homeowners annually.
Approaching one billion dollars annually, the B.C. homeowner grant refunds a portion of property taxes back to most owners of principal residences, should they be Canadian citizens or permanent residents living.
The grant is also limited to a maximum home value, which is continuously re-assessed by the bureaucracy to capture roughly the same amount of properties and keep the total amount on pace with inflation. In 2023, the grant fully applies to all residential properties valued at less than $2,125,000 — whereas in 2021 the threshold was $1,625,000.
Economist Marc Lee calls Bennett’s prolonged policy “a pointless tax reduction to those with the privilege of home ownership.”“The people who don't own homes are the most at risk and most vulnerable in our society. I think that's the area of the market where we most are concerned about in terms of public policy, and yet we don't provide any equivalent,” said Lee, of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which broadly favours taxation for government social programs.
Lee thinks doing so is no longer political suicide given how real estate has become the primary driver of wealth in the province. He also points out that the threshold applies across the province and as such a $2.1-million property in rural B.C. gets the same as one in Vancouver. Provincial housing ministers have long defended the grant, noting it assists seniors — although as Lee and Geller both note, property taxes can be deferred by seniors and the deferments are clawed back from the equity upon sale or transfer. Families with children may also defer property taxes.
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