NDP calls province’s data ‘garbage’
NDP Housing Critic
David Eby says he’s “appalled” that the province is using this data, arguing it has a lot more information it can draw from to look at who is buying property in BC.
“It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so insulting to people who are seriously concerned about this issue and want real information about what’s happening in the market,” he tells us.
Eby believes the five per cent figure for Metro Vancouver is unrealistic.
“The City of Vancouver did their electricity study that found that 12.5 per cent of the condo stock in Vancouver is vacant year-round. The 2011 census status found that 10 per cent of people in wealthy neighbourhoods were declaring less income tax than they actually had to spend to maintain their housing. So, we know those numbers are up in the double figures.”
“Why this provincial government refuses to use the data they have for real numbers that we can all rely on is beyond me. They really need to settle this debate. It’s a divisive debate. It’s a problematic debate. All they’re doing is kicking the ball down the road and pretending there’s not an issue when clearly, there’s a very serious issue in our communities,” adds Eby.
He says the province needs to start taking things more seriously.
“What they really need to do is stop with these press release kind of figures and pull out the data from the income tax system and say, ‘Okay, you only declared $20,000 on your income tax this year, but you bought a $3-million house. Can you explain to us how that can possibly be?’ I think that’s where you’re going to find the real information about what’s happening in our market.”