Dear Editor,
Re: Poll Support For Vacant Home Tax — News, June 4, 2015.
If Coun. Bill McNulty requires some assistance in differentiating Vancouver absentee homeowners from Canadian snowbirds who spend their winters in Florida or Arizona, perhaps I can lend him a hand.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do Canadian snowbirds seek employment in the U.S.? No.
2. Do Canadian snowbirds enrol their children in the American public school system while they continue to earn considerable wealth in Canada? No.
3. Do Canadian snowbirds utilize any public services such as social assistance or “free” medical care. No. Especially the medical part!
3. Do Canadian snowbirds arrive with vastly more wealth than the general population of the city they are living in?
Probably not.
4. Do Canadian snowbirds purchase property in existing neighbourhoods with schools and other community services making it unaffordable for local families to continue living there? Not that I’m aware of. I think most Canadian snowbirds live in quiet resort areas designed by developers for the purposes of not only snowbirds but a vast number of fellow Americans that live there part time as well.
5. Do Canadian snowbirds buy multiple dwellings to get their money out of Canada in hopes of establishing permanent residency in the U.S.?
No. Uncle Sam will not allow that to happen.
6. Do snowbirds see huge gains in their property values down south? Nowhere near to the same degree we’re seeing in Vancouver. If they do squeak a profit, Uncle Sam will certainly get the lion’s share of the net profit.
Snowbirds go down to the U.S. to shop, play golf, get a tan and spend their devalued Canadian dollars.
There is no lucrative financial agenda, no attachments and they do not expect any obligations of their host country — not that they would get anything anyway.
Ken Moffatt
Richmond
