Read his lips: “The government is not considering a home equity tax in any way, shape or form.”.Those words were told to the Commons finance committee Thursday by Liberal MP Sean Fraser (Central Nova, N.S.), parliamentary secretary for finance, said Blacklock’s Reporter..“Any suggestion to the contrary is entirely false.”.Committee members summoned testimony from Paul Kershaw, a University of British Columbia professor whose research team received a $250,000 CMHC grant specifically to study taxation of homeowners’ equity..In earlier research papers, Kershaw’s group described homeowners as “lottery winners” whose equity should be taxed like capital gains earned playing the stock market..“Some people won the lottery,” Kershaw said in a 2019 podcast with a CMHC executive..“People who bought homes decades ago now, especially in our big cities, can be living in multi-million dollar properties.”.Kershaw told the finance committee his research was “provocative and potentially uncomfortable” for homeowners who benefit from rising house prices..“It’s hurting my community and country,” he said..“Evidence shows wealth inequality and pervasive unaffordability barriers make our economy less efficient while compromising our population’s health.”.In Monday’s federal budget, Cabinet proposed to introduce a 1% annual equity tax on offshore foreign owners of vacant residential properties..“The idea here is that homes are for Canadians to live in,” said Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland..The foreigners’ tax is worth $175 million a year, by official estimate, however, it does not apply to Canadian citizens..“This is opening the door farther than I would like,” said Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who called the measure a significant entry into taxation of homeowners’ equity..“Governments have a habit of testing these concepts and expanding them later on.”.Mike D’Amour is the British Columbia Bureau Chief for the Western Standard..mdamour@westernstandardonline.com
