Who will pay the taxes for universities, health care and rapid transit if residents of some of Metro Vancouver’s exclusive neighbourhoods are reporting poverty-level incomes?

Some homeowners in tony parts of the west side of Vancouver and Richmond are claiming to have income as low as people struggling in Vancouver’s chronically poor Downtown Eastside.

The tax unfairness caused by the growing phenomenon of mansion owners alleging poverty can be traced largely to Canada failing to catch trans-national migrants who refuse to report their total global income at tax times.

A study by University of B.C. geographer Dan Hiebert shows the problem is worse in Metro Vancouver than in Montreal and Toronto.

It’s the unintended consequence of Metro becoming a popular destination for those who gained a Canadian passport through the business-investor immigrant program.

Statistics Canada data shows the upscale neighbourhoods in Metro where more than 30 per cent of adults are reporting poverty have a high proportion of immigrants, writes Hiebert.

UPDATE Sept. 30:B.C. candidates promise to crack down on wealthy who hide foreign assets

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Why does upscale Richmond neighbourhood appear “poor” to tax officials?

The most contradictory-appearing “low-income” area of Metro Vancouver is the elite tree-lined west side neighbourhood of Shaughnessy-Arbutus Ridge.

It includes Prince of Wales Secondary School, Quilchena Park and the luxurious hillside houses north of 37th Avenue, which typically sell in the $2-million to $6-million range.

The neighbourhood south of Oakridge Shopping Centre also has a curiously high proportion of residents reporting poverty, even though most people there own either expensive houses or stylish condominiums.

In addition, a large collection of adjacent neighbourhoods (which StatsCan technically calls “census tracts”) in north-central Richmond, where roughly 40,000 people tend to own either pricey houses or condos, has an unusually strong percentage claiming low incomes.

Hiebert’s study, for the Institute for Research on Public Policy, dovetails with the findings of Vancouver mathematician Jens von Bergmann, formerly of The University of Calgary.