Should foreign ALR owners be subjected to new housing tax?

LOWER MAINLAND (NEWS 1130) – A foreign owner housing tax is coming into effect next week, but what about foreign-owned farms?

So now the question is: should the government feel the need to monitor and tax who owns BC’s farmland as well?

One expert says, “Yes!”

Kent Mullinex with Kwantlen Polytechnic University says first we need to find out who owns what when it comes to agricultural land in southwestern BC, which Mullinex is doing with counterparts from the cities of Richmond and Surrey. Then he wants to find out what they’re using it for.

Mullinex says farm land can be an attractive investment.

“Agriculture land is essentially a non-renewable resource, and there’s one thing that people have to do and that’s eat. So agriculture seems to be a good investment. Even if it isn’t used for agriculture it then is used for other economic purposes and that also is a good economic bet,” explains Mullinex.

“It favours investment by folks who have the money to invest and it absolutely disfavours the use of prime agriculture land for agriculture.”

When asked if foreign farm owners should be taxed more harshly, Mullinex said farm land should only be owned by farmers and anyone else should be barred from owning it, foreign or domestic.

“It is incumbent upon us to absolutely, unequivocally take the speculative value out of agriculture land in BC. Right now there is no agriculture land in the Lower Mainland that is valued for agriculture. None,” he says.

“It’s absolutely appropriate to put teeth into the Agriculture Land Reserve Legislation and eliminate the non-agriculture use of agriculture land.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today