Kelowna latest municipality to raise the alarm about 'damaging' B.C. speculation tax

“We know that there are serious issues in our community and we want to work with the provincial government to help rectify this situation, but we don’t think the speculation tax as proposed will necessarily have the positive impact and, in fact, could potentially have some very serious negative impacts,” said Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran. Basran said Kelowna is not happy with the tax in its current form, which will operate more like a vacant home tax and won’t be as effective as a “flipping” tax aimed directly at those who buy and quickly sell properties. Basran said he is hearing “in droves” from Albertans who own vacation homes in Kelowna that they see the speculation tax as a warning from the province that they shouldn’t be spending their money in his city. “They’re taking real offence to this on the heels of the oil and wine dispute,” he said. “They feel this is an indication from our provincial government that they are not welcome in this province.”