The Editor,
An open letter to Premier Christy Clark, Minister of Finance Mike de Jong and Port Coquitlam MLA Mike Farnworth:
I am writing this letter not only as a member of the real estate community, but as a Canadian Forces veteran and Canadian patriot.
For the first time in my life, last week, I was ashamed to be Canadian.
Let me start by saying that this is our country, and if we want to impose a tax on foreigners buying our land at 15%, 20% or even 50%, it is our right to do so. If that is our law, then that is our law. If they do not consent to the tax, they cannot buy. Plain and simple.
The key word in that statement, and the topic of this letter, is consent. To apply this tax to binding purchase agreements that have already been entered into — purchases where the people who entered into them had no knowledge of and did not consent to this tax being imposed upon them — is not befitting or representative of the values of honour, fairness and respect that make us who we are as Canadians.
We have taken people from afar who have acted honestly and in good faith with this country’s citizens and placed them under duress. We are now using force to extract what is in many cases hundreds of thousands of dollars under threat of a forfeiture of the deposits they have put forward and possible legal action.
This is an issue that transcends political affiliation. This goes to the very core of who we are as a people, and our choices will echo throughout the international community. Enforcing this tax under duress is not only wrong but has the capacity to affect a relatively small number of foreign buyers, and a large number of Canada’s citizens. Purchase chains of five, six or seven sales — all relying on one to fund the other — are bound to be affected. It will be Canadian families that will be left feeling the pinch when the smoke clears.
I am urging you to take the ethical and pragmatic approach with respect to the implementation of this new tax and apply it only to contracts of purchase and sale entered into after Aug. 2.
Trevor Street, Port Coquitlam
