Article content continued

Harcourt knew whereof he spoke in terms of ideological rationales. The surcharge was one of a number of tax increases recommended by a senior adviser to then-Finance Minister Glen Clark in a policy paper that was subsequently leaked to The Vancouver Sun.

The paper urged the New Democrats to use taxes to promote “redistribution of wealth” on lines of “class, gender, race and disability” and to redress the balance between “those who can afford to invest in property and make gains and those who cannot.”

The advice from Maureen Maloney, then a University of Victoria law professor, later the deputy attorney general under the NDP, took particular aim at home ownership.

“The gains on real estate are to some extent the product of governmental action by improved or maintained infrastructure, zoning bylaws, capital expenditure or other development projects,” she argued.

“Accordingly a portion of these gains should be attributed back to the government who created them in the first place.”

Not for her the view that seniors and others should be allowed to defer the higher property taxes: “Many senior people and some people with disabilities are wealthy and do not need this exemption.”

Nor did she see any merit in allowing relief from gift and inheritance taxes for “mere accidents of birth” (i.e., one’s children).

Not all of the advice was taken. At one point, Maloney recommended that principal residences be taxed on “imputed rents” — what they would fetch if rented out.