Article content

With the City of Vancouver’s empty-homes tax having apparently already raked in millions of dollars — and with supposedly more to come — the discussion has turned to, “what now?”

As in, “what should we do with all this money?”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or What should the City of Vancouver do with its empty-homes tax revenue? Back to video

The tax has been in place for a year and the city estimates that they’ve already collected $17 million, and expect to collect another $13 million.

Thursday, the city launched an online platform that will allow Vancouver residents to have a say on how the net revenue from the tax should be invested into affordable housing.

“I’m really pleased with the results we’ve seen from the first year of the empty-homes tax,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a news release. “We’re expecting $30 million will be collected, and council mandated that all net revenue from the tax must go into affordable housing. Now it’s time for Vancouverites to share their ideas on how best to invest this money in ways that will benefit people who live and work in Vancouver.”