Funding Services with Taxes on Major Landholders

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Matthew. I'm a Vancouver resident, and I strongly support the motion that's before you. Last fall, when the ABC majority passed their austerity budget, we were told that core services would be maintained. We were told our concerns were not fact-based, and rather stemmed from misinformation and fear. So then I have to ask... Does the majority council not believe that lifeguards at beaches in the summer are important? Is this the public safety we were promised? As a speaker who spoke this morning regarding the Vaisakhi parade said, when we celebrate putting out fires, that's not support, that's neglect. Car-free days were saved by Councillors Orr and Maloney, but it was the council's decisions that started the fire in the first place. I've heard on numerous occasions, on numerous motions, councillors reject criticisms of not doing enough by highlighting some of the work this council's done. Fair enough, but this so perfectly encapsulates how this council does not hear us, the people of Vancouver. You spend valuable time defending your record instead of hearing us when we say we need you to do more. You may be doing something, but you are not doing enough. It is time to do more.

Let's level set here. Only 2.3% of all residential homes in Vancouver are over 3 million. Our city is over 55% renters. That means 99% of Vancouver households maintain the freeze and the savings it brings. Only the wealthiest 1% are asked to pay their fair share. a fairly standard increase given this council majority's tax increase history since 2022. We have struggling families doing everything they can to make ends meet, and we have families in ornate, colossal mansions with deep real estate portfolios deciding between Mykonos or Bali for their vacation this summer. We all utilize the city's services, and Zero Means Zero is set to leave our city in neglect. Which family do you think is better able to financially invest in the city's future right now, in this current cost of living crisis. If you choose to oppose this common sense motion, I fail to see how you can claim to care about delivering affordability for the people. And I struggle to see how you can claim to fight for anyone other than those with enough zeros in their bank account. Please, prove me wrong.

Hello again, Mayor and Council. For the last time today, my name is David Ray, a Vancouver resident, and I am here to speak in support of Councillor Orr's motion to fund our services with taxes on major landholders and investors. Last year, council approved a 0% property tax increase, and at first glance, of course this sounds like relief, and I understand the instinct behind it. People are struggling with the cost of living, and many residents are feeling squeezed. But the reality is that a blanket freeze treats everyone exactly the same. It treats residents living in their only homes the same way as a corporate landlord holding dozens of properties. It treats a working family as the same. the same as an investor holding multiple high-value assets in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. These are not the same situations. When we apply the same policy to fundamentally different realities, we create outcomes that are simply not fair. At the same time, the city continues to face real and growing costs. We need to maintain infrastructure. We need to support parks, libraries, community centers, cultural programs, and the services that people rely on every day. We need to build out everyone's right to the city. Those needs don't disappear because we freeze taxes. What we saw in the last budget was that these pressures were addressed through over $100 million in cuts and reductions, rather than through new revenue. Cuts have consequences. They affect arts and culture organizations that are already struggling to survive. They affect community surfaces that people depend on. They affect the very things that make Vancouver a livable city. This motion offers a more balanced and fair approach. It asks those who hold the most valuable and numerous properties in the city to contribute a little more towards the services and infrastructure that make those investments possible. At the same time, it protects most resident homeowners by providing a rebate to people living in their principal residence below the $3 million value threshold. In other words, ordinary homeowners would not see a net increase. while large-scale property holders contribute more towards the city that they benefit from. That's not a punishment. That's equitable and fair. Vancouver should not be balancing its books by cutting services while wealth tied up in land continues to grow. Land values in Vancouver have been built not just by individual property owners, but by the collective investments we make as a community through our transit systems, our parks, our schools, and our public services. It is only reasonable that those who benefit the most from those investments contribute their fair share in sustaining them. This motion does something wildly important. It starts a conversation about what a fair tax system actually looks like in the city of Vancouver. A system that protects working residents. A system that asks more from large-scale investors and speculators. And a system that allows us to maintain the public services that make this city livable. Because if we want a city that works for everyone, we also need a tax system that works for everyone. For the last time, thank you for your time.

Hi. Hi, thank you so much for your time. I am in support of this motion, and I urge you to support this motion as well, funding our services with taxes on major landlords and investors. I'm urging you to stop the cuts and tax the rich. Ken Sim and ABC voted to freeze property tax increases this year in a major handout to corporate landlords and super rich investors. But the handout to the rich means reduced library hours, canceled community events, less infrastructure upgrades, and worse services for everyone. I'm a former registered nurse now on disability, and I rely on the leisure access program for services at my community center that are vital to me. And I can't imagine how city council members frankly, sleep at night when their decisions are starving and strangling the community resources that are so important to those in the most need. Can SIM claim the 0% property in tax? increase would help regular homeowners with affordability but it disproportionately helps the super rich and frankly it seemed like a political stunt leading into an election year now the city needs to find 120 million in cuts or drain the reserves and jack up the taxes Later, ABC is pretending they're trying to help homeowners, but the biggest winner for them is billionaires and investors, and everyone who relies on the city services, the regular residents of Vancouver like me, will be left behind. This motion proposed by Councillor Orr is a chance to call Ken Sims Bluff and tax the rich. It's not too late to stop this brutal austerity budget. uh lastly recall the city's own budget survey showed an overwhelming rejection of the austerity budget with a majority of residents voting for tax increases and against cuts i was one of one of the over 600 people who called in to voice their opposition pretty sure we broke a record When City Hall doesn't reflect the voices it purports to serve, it's hard to call it a democracy. And I urge you to take the opportunity given by Councillor Orr and vote in support of this motion today. Protect our public services. Thank you so much for your time.

Hello, counselors. This is Robert calling in. I am a resident of Vancouver, and I would like to express my support for this motion to increase property taxes on the most valuable real estate portfolios in the city. I want to commend Councillor Orr for his express support for you know, in principle, a land value tax scheme. Of course, that's not what we get. But, you know, in the absence of a land value tax scheme, any increase on high value real estate taxes is progress. We need to run an economy that recognizes rewards for value producing labor. and does not reward the rent-seeking behavior of speculative land investments and aggressive landlord activities. I want the funds that come from the lease value of land in its undeveloped form to be put towards the common good the community services that we heard lauded from our previous callers towards our public schools that serve the children we care for in this community towards our hospitals towards our transit infrastructure and towards our parks i think that it's only fair that property taxes be levied in proportion to how much property owners benefit in the value of their portfolios from the labor of residents that make this city work. I urge the Councillors to support the motion for this increased property tax on the most valuable real estate portfolios in the city. Thank you for your time.

Hi, thanks for taking my call and giving me the time to speak today. I am a citizen of Vancouver. I'm a resident. I've lived here quite a number of years, almost 20 since graduating from UBC. But in that time, I've only seen the city become prohibitively more expensive. That's why I'm calling in to support Councillor Orr's motion. Even among those who work full-time jobs, many residents my age and younger are downwardly mobile in this city. Many will never meet the standard of living enjoyed by their parents, and many even feel as though they can't afford to have children or families of their own. While not all of this is the fault of the municipality, for years, this city's most privileged, including non-resident owners, billionaires like Chip Wilson, and more have continued to hoard wealth at great cost to the rest of us by creating de facto cuts to city services that everyday vancouverites rely on this mayor's contentious zero percent property tax increase passed in the face of overwhelming public dissent has only served to exacerbate this trend it's also had the effect of reinforcing vancouver's reputation as no fun city We've heard a lot about this council supporting public events today, but the ugly truth is that some of the council people in this chamber want to have it both ways. They want to get credit for preserving events while they themselves caused the shortfalls that imperil those events in the first place. If council doesn't want to increase the tax burden on middle-class families who live in and own their own home, fine. But if we want to be a world-class city, we need to provide services like one. We need to have world-class cultural production. We need urban infrastructure for a sustainable and climate-proof future. We need libraries with reliable hours and staffing. We need transit. The mayor and this council have made bone-deep cuts in many of these categories instead. No more. Let those who have hoarded the most pay their fair share to help transform Vancouver into the city that we all deserve. Councillor Orr's motion is fair. And it is not only good for those of us in this city who are constantly getting by on less and who rely on public services in order to make up for that fact. It's good for the city itself and for the city's future. Because if everyday people can't afford to live, work, have families, and yes, enjoy themselves here, then Vancouver has no future. I'm not naive. I do not believe the mayor and his party are sincere in their professed commitment to making this city affordable for regular Vancouverites. We've seen them ignore and dismiss the concerns of speakers in these meetings when they don't support their pre-existing agenda. But I will tell you now, we will see the day when Vancouver's ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. Whether that day comes now or after Election Day, that's up to you. Thank you. I yield the rest of my time.

Hello, my name is Natalie Schwartz. I acknowledge that we're on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh Nations. I have lived, worked, and loved so-called Vancouver for over two decades. I support Councillor Orr's motion to raise property taxes on non-resident investors, mansion owners, and those with huge property portfolios, especially landlords, to fund public services and social programs. I volunteer bi-weekly with a food bank-type service to deliver unsold food to residents of the downtown Eastside, as well as Kitsilano and the West End. Seeing that extreme poverty, that we as a society allow others to barely survive in breaks my heart. Rent is a poverty tax in Vancouver, and it's harder each year to save money, while the rich accumulate more wealth to inflate their net worth and portfolios. I see people handing over their hard-earned wages, sometimes spending over 80% on rent, which doesn't make sense to most of us. Trickle-down economics is a lie most of us figured out a while ago. It doesn't work. We need a new plan, a new leader. My own brother was sharing a one-bedroom with his partner, two kids, a dog, and a cat in the West End last year before their bills got too high. Where are they supposed to go? Vancouver loses talented artists and other skilled humans more every month. My best friend is moving back to Calgary because he can't justify his rent cost here for a higher-paying job in Calgary. My elderly neighbours slumlords gaslight her about emergency repairs, negate basic maintenance, in hopes she will give up her home of 45-plus years and move out. These people are known slumlords, and the city doesn't enforce fines. Why? Taxing the rich is an invoice for the infrastructure that they use to hoard the wealth. It's systematic exploitation that needs to be fixed. This tax will make a huge difference to our public service, which benefits everyone, as well as improving the daily life for a lot of people, mainly the elderly and disabled, who are mainly barely surviving on fumes. I hope that the city discovers their empathy and wakes up to the reality that by lifting up others, all of society benefits. By taxing the rich, you stand for society as a whole. Fight poverty, not the poor. This year is about holding each other accountable. Tax the rich. Thank you.

Hi, councillors and mayor. My name is Matthew and I am calling to support this motion. and fund our city with the help of major landholders. We need to treat Vancouver's housing like a community meal. Everyone gets a plate before anyone gets second. Yet since the founding of the city, we have bought and sold land in Vancouver like Bitcoin. A progressive tax on the people who win the speculation game just makes sense. They have won significant gains in their gamble in the past 20 years, while other investments have been left behind. This motion only calls for taxing speculation on second properties. And as we all know, one person cannot physically live at two properties at the same time. British Columbia already has luxury taxes. Why should holding multiple properties be considered anything but a luxury? And in the spirit of decolonization, why does the rights of land get decided by money if the bills get paid by the rest of us? I know that some supporters of our council may stand around like Mr. Monopoly with his pockets turned out to this, but we need to communicate to the people of Vancouver that we're serious about funding our services. This means that sometimes the richest among us have to pitch in for the party. As Matthew mentioned, we are hardly able to secure funding for our public festivals without a special motion by councillors or a Maloney. Our housing investors can afford to be gluttons for housing. They can afford to pay for the services that we cherish. Libraries, schools, childcare, parks and green spaces, streets, emergency services, and all the other public goods that make the city great. Once again, I urge the council to support this motion and I yield the rest of my time. Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Okay. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'd like to start by saying I'm grateful to be a guest in the unceded territory. of the Squamish, Musqueam, and TTsleil-Waututh people. I am the executive director of the BC Coalition of Experiential Communities, a democratic organization of sex workers across British Columbia. I am a citizen of Vancouver, and I'm here today in support of Motion 7 and a lot of the other things that were done here today. Council has committed to a 0% tax increase, but let's be clear about what that actually means. The 0% increase is not neutral. It is a decision to reduce the city's capacity to deliver services. And the harms that follow are not accidental. They are foreseeable, predictable, and known. When funding is constrained, programs are cut, delayed, or eliminated. We are already seeing this. The loss of capacity, including work specifically intended to support the safety of sex workers, is not theoretical. It's happening in real time. Those impacts disproportionately women and marginalized communities. Women rely more heavily on housing supports, community services, and safety programs. This includes women who do sex work. Sex workers already face systemic barriers in housing, financial systems, and health due to stigma and discrimination. Many rely exactly on the services that are most vulnerable when budgets are constrained.

Sorry, can you still hear me? Somebody is calling me from you guys.

Okay, sorry. So the City of Vancouver has committed to applying an equity and gender-based lens to its decisions. That commitment requires more than just language. It requires recognizing that decisions about funding have differential impacts and that those impacts are foreseeable. If that lens is not applied here, then those commitments are not being met. Motion 7 provides a way to address this. It maintains the city's ability to fund essential services while protecting resident homeowners through a rebate, and it shifts costs towards non-resident and investor-owned properties. Because the pursuit of a 0% tax increase is not cost-free, it simply shifts the cost onto those who rely on services to survive. The harms associated with service reductions are known. This motion is a practical step to try to prevent those harms while still protecting residents. I urge you to support Motion 7. Thank you.

Hello, can you hear me?

Great. Hello, Council and Mayor. My name is Maria J. Cruz. I am a working performing artist and an educator and resident of Vancouver. And I just want to say that I heartily 100% support all the articulate, well-informed statements made by everyone in favor of this sensible motion. made by Councillor Orr, which is the funding of our services with taxes on major landholders and investors. Rather than talk myself or give my opinion or further anything in that vein, I am going to echo the words of a national expert on the matter, Ricardo Trajan. is a political economist and senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Trajan, in his latest publication, The Tenant Class, tells us in his final chapter, quote, the landlord class fights fiercely for its right to appropriate tenant income and turn it into personal wealth. And in doing so, it counts on the support of most of the political class. It takes political power to go up against the landlord class and force governments to rein in markets. Further on, he states, 75 years ago, a detailed study by the CMHC's research chair unambiguously stated private markets can't, won't solve Canada's housing issues. Yet today, all major official housing strategies in the country consist largely of providing ever more favorable conditions for private investors, developers, and landlords. It's not that government lacks ideas, as clearly demonstrated here with this motion put forth by Councillor Orr. It's that politicians just don't want to implement them. because doing so would hurt a parasitic but powerful economic elite. As Councillor Zhao so passionately said regarding another motion earlier today, when residents are ignored or dismissed and not heard, that is a blatant failure of municipal government. It's time to stop ignoring the average resident in Vancouver. And it's time to stop rewarding the top 1%. Thank you for your time.