Editor, The News:
Re: Metro homes sales take big dip in April.
While it is correct to identify government tightening stress test impacting house sales, it is not correct to blame foreign buyers as not contributing to our economy.
Foreign buyers will and have had some short-term influence in housing prices. But to say these investors are not contributing to economic growth is wrong. All investors contribute to the economy — even illegal ones who do not pay taxes.
On taxes, those loopholes need correcting like so many used by Canadians. If an investor buys a house in B.C. (even if he or she leaves it vacant), that grows the economy. It decreases supply and motivates developers to meet the increased demand. The price may temporarily go up, but the increase in construction and jobs all help to grow the economy.
Any input of money buying houses, cars or other personal things will grow the economy no matter where the money comes from.
Dan Banov
Maple Ridge
‘Choked’
Editor, The News:
Re: Maple Ridge public hearing blasts housing plan near river.
I am totally choked that this development has been approved for 26 homes. I have lived in this city for over 50 years and have seen the damage done when this river goes on a rampage, as it has several times.
I only hope that whoever purchases a home in this area is advised that they are on a floodplain and should keep their hip waders handy, because it will flood.
Skip Johnson
Maple Ridge
‘Cut cost of climate change’
Editor, The News:
Climate change isn’t some distant risk to our grandchildren. It’s been affecting us since pine beetles destroyed a forest the size of Sweden, costing $43-billion in lost lumber, $10.2-billion in lost stumpage fees, 27,000 direct jobs, and hundreds of millions for B.C.’s Pine Beetle Action Plan.
The cause is climate change driven by an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion, leading to milder winters and hotter drier summers.
Climate change increased the frequency and severity of B.C.’s wildfires. In 2018, wildfires burned 1.2 million hectares, cost $568 million in fire suppression, and displaced 65,000 people. Climate change doesn’t just favour forest diseases, insects, and wildfires; it has other costs, such as melting glaciers and warming fish-bearing waters.
These expenses are the taxes we’re already paying in B.C. for the carbon we’ve dumped into the atmosphere. We need climate action now to cut the cost of climate change.
Robert Macrae, environmental
technology instructor
Castlegar