Article content continued

Photo by CHAD HIPOLITO / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“The Green caucus wanted to allow municipalities to opt out, but that wasn’t acceptable in my opinion,” said James. “So we’ve come to a compromise, where mayors will have the opportunity to bring forward the impacts on their communities directly once a year in a formal meeting.”

That will be useless, said some mayors, because meetings with James so far have failed to influence her decisions.

“We meet with (Finance Ministry officials) all the time, so I guess I’m a bit perplexed,” said Kelowna Mayor Colin Bansran. “They didn’t listen, so I’m not really sure what regularly scheduled meetings would do to make them change course.”

“We’re disappointed in Mr. Weaver, quite frankly,” added West Kelowna Mayor Doug Findlater. “I’d met with him at UBCM and I thought he was going to hold out for much more.”

The Opposition Liberals piled on criticism, describing the changes as “a half-baked compromise” that “sold out” local communities.

“What the leader of the Green party did was let down all the people who were counting on him,” said Liberal finance critic Shirley Bond. “What he got today is an embarrassment.”

The changes are the third rewrite of the speculation tax since the tax was announced in February’s budget.

James exempted Gulf Island properties from the tax in March, and reduced the tax rate from two per cent to 0.5 per cent for B.C. residents.

The version of the tax she put forward this week contained new exemptions for developers working on housing projects, and for people suffering medical emergencies, employment changes and marriage breakups.