BC Budget: a good start to tackling housing affordability crisis

The government will also eliminate medical services premiums on January 1, 2020, saving individuals up to $900 annually and families $1,800.

“We came into government with a vision to fix this, and we’re taking action”, James said. There will also be per child benefits available of up to $1,250 a month, which will benefit 86,000 families.

The 2018 B.C. budget is touting a “made-in-BC” child care plan, with an investment of more than $1 billion to put the province on the path to universal childcare with more than 24,000 spaces over the next three years.

“Parents want quality child care that is safe and gives them peace of mind while they are at work”.

“We live in a province rich in people, resources, natural beauty and opportunities”, James said in her budget speech.

Finance Minister Carole James says her budget will take a multi-pronged approach to creating more housing options in a province where some seniors are forced to couch surf with friends and working couples are living in basement rentals because they can’t afford a down payment on a home.

The government plan commits $1.6 billion toward affordable housing, maintaining and improving existing social housing, and will help pay for 5,000 new student housing beds at post-secondary institutions.

She said tax revenues were down and costs associated with fighting last year’s wildfires continued to increase, and were estimated to go beyond $550 million.

The tax will apply in Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Capital and Nanaimo Regional Districts, and in the municipalities of Kelowna and West Kelowna.

Robinson said one aim of the plan will be to boost rental housing in urban areas by increasing housing density along transit lines.

Starting Wednesday, foreigners will pay the province a 20 percent tax on top of the listing value, up from 15 percent now, and a levy on property speculators will be introduced later this year, according to budget documents released Tuesday.

Budget 2018 promised more than $6 billion for almost 34,000 affordable homes and more than $1.8 billion for rental housing over the next decade.

There was no mention of the $400 a year renters’ rebate, much touted during the campaign – only a vague promise to review the homeowners’ grant program to make it fairer for renters.

The budget plan forecast a C$219 million surplus in the fiscal year beginning April 1, more than the C$151 million projected for the year ending March 31.

“We’re talking about ecosystems, biodiversity, this is about addressing habitat loss…these are Green Party fundamentals, they’re fundamentals of mine and I think the NDP and any government would wrap their arms around it, yet they didn’t take the low hanging fruit here”, Shypitka said.

On the revenue side, with MSP premiums being eliminated, the government is introducing an “employer health tax” which will raise almost $2 billion a year by the time it is fully implemented in three years.

“My basic test was you shouldn’t be able to buy a $4-million house and pay less than $20,000 in income and property taxes to British Columbia”. The tax rate will be 0.5 per cent of taxable assessed value for the 2018 tax year and two per cent thereafter.

“Restaurants Canada is disappointed that the B.C. government is shifting more of the tax burden onto small business job creators”.

Despite some of the welcome advances for individual British Columbians through targeted funding on issues impacting determinants of health, the 2018 budget falls short on some key issues that concern nurses – such as the ongoing opioid crisis, the role of home and community health in supporting seniors; the lack of follow-through on the renter’s subsidy; and the ongoing stigma and gaps in health care for Indigenous people. McCutchen said her group had long called for such a measure.

The government program is focused on licensed service providers, though the NDP said it will support unlicensed family-care providers in becoming licensed.