B.C.’s Cortes Island is making housing history as the first community in the province to tax short-term holiday rentals and have the funds directed to affordable housing projects, said Mark Vonesch, the area’s Strathcona Regional District director.

  • charles
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    11 months ago

    What do you propose we do then, especially as a first step measure? Right now it seems like you’re arguing that doing nothing would be better. If we don’t try any new measures, the problem won’t just go away.

    • BlameThePeacock
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      11 months ago

      There’s no politically acceptable option right now. We need the system to fail before enough voters will be willing to pass laws to benefit the majority.

      Any steps we take in the meantime just extend the time to reach a viable solution. The viable solution is to remove any ability for property owners to profit off land value appreciation. They should only be able to profit off added value improvements (building, renovations, etc.)

      Tyranny of the majority is a known problem with democracy. This is a perfect example of it in action.

      • charles
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        11 months ago

        So I’m understanding you correctly then. Let’s do nothing and hope things get better on their own.

        Thankfully, we don’t need to agree on this, but personally, I prefer taking active steps to resolving our problems instead of just sitting back and watching them get worse.

        • BlameThePeacock
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          11 months ago

          Nope, we should do nothing so that it gets worse faster, so that it can get better sooner.

          The difference we have is that you think the system can be fixed now. I don’t think it can be fixed until homeowners aren’t the majority of voters.