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Imagine a candidate for office saying: “I promise to meddle in real estate markets and set taxes to hurt workers, businesses, and the environment. I will drive families out of Vancouver to empty and close its schools, while overcrowding suburban schools. Why? To subsidize luxurious homes for rich people who pay taxes elsewhere.”

Would they have your vote?

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Federal, provincial, and local politicians have delivered on this platform, presumably unintentionally. Their choices have helped make Vancouver extremely unaffordable.

Low property taxes and high income and sales taxes punish people who live and work in Vancouver, but reward real estate investors, particularly those who got rich elsewhere. To help renters, business owners, and working families, the obvious response is to cut income and sales taxes and raise property taxes. However, simple tax reform would likely hurt some homeowners, so politicians have shied away.