NDP’s speculation tax places $30M Parksville resort expansion ‘in jeopardy’

Trapp said their business model is based on selling the stratified units to owners who then stay in them part time, while adding them to the short term tourism rental stock when they’re not in use. Forty-nine per cent of their owners are from out of province, Trapp said, mainly people from Alberta and elsewhere on the prairies.

The proponent and the people who buy the units are far from predatory speculators driving up home prices in B.C. Trapp said the zoning of the property doesn’t allow full-time residence or long term rentals and is not designed to be residential, so they’re not subtracting from potential rental stock.

The current operations at the resort employs 25 people full-time and the existing 42-units added 10,000 room nights in 2017 to Parksville’s heavily tourist-reliant economy. Trapp said they use local contractors and suppliers, pumping money into the local economy.

This week, the Regional District of Nanaimo and City of Parksville both sent letters to Finance Minister Carole James asking for meetings to offer input and share their concerns.

As well as hearing from Trapp with issues over Sunrise’s proposal, Parksville mayor Marc Lefebvre said he has also been in discussions with the developer proposing a major expansion to Morningstar Golf Course.

“I’m receiving almost two or three emails a day from concerned Albertans who have homes in Parksville but don’t pay income tax in the province,” Lefebvre said. “My big issue with the province…is who did the math, why is it being done, what are the expected financial results and have these unintended consequences been taken into consideration?”

Levebfre said his City and the RDN were not consulted in any way prior to the tax’s inclusion in the NDP’s first budget and they were not invited to a roundtable in Nanaimo with the finance minister last week.

He also pointed to an unfair playing field created by the tax, wondering why the Nanaimo regional district was chosen and not anywhere north or south.

Kim Smythe, president of the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce, asked the same question, predicting the tax would inevitably drive business to neighbouring communities.

He said it took him less than half a day to fill the room for an upcoming discussion on the issue with Nanaimo’s NDP MLA.

“For as much concrete information as local businesses can get, they’re basically terrified of the implications of this tax. What it’s going to mean to the market conditions for vacation properties in the mid-island area and what it’s going to mean long term to our tourism market,” Smythe said.

He said people who own homes in the area but don’t live here full time provide a wide range of benefits, most notably that they pay property taxes but don’t use services year-round.

“When they come here they spend money like they’re on vacation. They’re boating, fishing, golfing, they’re feeding our local tourism economy and feeding it well.”

The Ministry of Finance declined to answer specific questions from NanaimoNewsNOW on the concerns raised by Trapp, Lefebvre and Smythe.

It said they are currently drafting the legislation and regulations and technical details would be available in the coming months.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister James said the government is hearing the concerns of B.C. vacation property owners and is taking them into consideration before tabling the final details of the speculation tax.

Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson accused the minority New Democrat government of making up tax policy on the fly.

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi

by Dominic Abassi

NDP’s speculation tax places $30M Parksville resort expansion ‘in jeopardy’

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