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• British Columbians overwhelmingly favour the provincial foreign buyer tax and the federal two-year ban on foreign real estate purchases, a new poll shows. But developers, experiencing a bitter downturn, are pushing the government to ditch policies that curb foreign investment. They say they desperately need investors to return to the market.

• According to a recent paper, in the 1980s, the government opened its doors to wealthy migrants with the Business Immigration Program that allowed about 200,000 people, mostly from East Asia, into Canada, until it was shelved in 2012. Instead of spurring entrepreneurial activity, the wealthy migrants invested heavily in property. Meanwhile, they continued to earn most of their income offshore, paying an average annual income tax in Canada of only $1,400

• After much reluctance, the B.C. Liberal government finally responded with a 15 per cent foreign buyer tax in 2016. It was too little, too late for the party, and the next year the NDP took over the government and increased the tax to 20 per cent. They also introduced other demand-side measures, including the speculation and vacancy tax, which requires citizens to declare if they are paying Canadian income tax and if the home is a principal residence.

• There are signs that in the current market downturn, the development community would like to reopen those doors to outside money. Condo marketer Bob Rennie said racism is driving the pushback against foreign investor buying.

• Bob Rennie recently spoke on a real estate industry panel hosted by Postmedia and said he’d been talking to Mark Carney about opening rental housing development to foreign investment. Rennie also said he was opposed to the foreign buyers’ tax from the start, and believed it was a racist policy.

Summary

• British Columbians overwhelmingly favour the provincial foreign buyer tax and the federal two-year ban on foreign real estate purchases, a new poll shows. But developers, experiencing a bitter downturn, are pushing the government to ditch policies that curb foreign investment. They say they desperately need investors to return to the market.

• According to a recent paper, in the 1980s, the government opened its doors to wealthy migrants with the Business Immigration Program that allowed about 200,000 people, mostly from East Asia, into Canada, until it was shelved in 2012. Instead of spurring entrepreneurial activity and stimulating the economy, wealthy migrants invested heavily in property.

• After much reluctance, the B.C. Liberal government finally responded with a 15 per cent foreign buyer tax in 2016. It was too little, too late for the party, and the next year the NDP took over the government and increased the tax to 20 per cent. They also introduced other demand-side measures, including the speculation and vacancy tax, which requires citizens to declare if they are paying Canadian income tax and if the home is a principal residence.

• There are signs that in the current market downturn, the development community would like to reopen those doors to outside money. Condo marketer Bob Rennie said racism is driving the pushback against foreign investor buying.

• Rennie recently spoke on an real estate industry panel hosted by Postmedia. He said he’d been talking to Mark Carney about opening rental housing development to foreign investment. Mr. Rennie also said he was opposed to the foreign buyers’ tax from the start, and believed it was a racist policy.

The footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHIdWRQR39A

An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office resulted in a purge of books critical of racism but preserved volumes defending white power.

Gone is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou’s transformative best-selling 1970 memoir chronicling her struggles with racism and trauma.

Gone is “Memorializing the Holocaust,” Janet Jacobs’s 2010 examination of how female victims of the Holocaust have been portrayed and remembered.

Two copies of “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler are still on the shelves.

“The Bell Curve,” which argues that Black men and women are genetically less intelligent than white people, is still there. But a critique of the book was pulled.

De grands patrons de l’industrie du transport dénoncent les entreprises qui font faire leurs livraisons par des chauffeurs au rabais de l’Ontario pour une fraction du prix grâce à un stratagème bien huilé.

«Pourquoi il y a autant de remorques plaquées Ontario au Québec?» se demande Pascal Gaudet, vice-président de Transwest, à Lachine.

«On paye le camion le même prix, le carburant le même prix, les assurances le même prix. Il y a une place où ils peuvent économiser: c’est en utilisant le stratagème», ajoute-t-il.

M Gaudet dénonce ces « faux travailleurs autonomes » qui se servent de ce statut d’emploi pour payer moins d’impôts. Il affirme que ce tour de passe-passe leur permet de casser les prix du transport de 20% à 50%.

Ces derniers mois, l’élastique s’est étiré au point où des transporteurs bien établis chez nous ont commencé à licencier leurs employés. Certains prévoient même fermer.

L’irritation est telle que le député libéral Monsef Deraji, porte-parole libéral en transports, vient de déposer une motion et une pétition à l’Assemblée nationale.

Alors que le phénomène toucherait de 8000 à 10 000 chauffeurs selon l’ACQ, on craint plus que jamais les «graves conséquences sur la sécurité routière».

De nombreux chauffeurs au rabais qui sillonnent nos routes viennent de Brampton où les camionneurs sont souvent des immigrants indiens qui ont des conditions de travail difficiles pouvant virer au cauchemar.

«Un emploi de chauffeur peut mener à la résidence permanente, alors beaucoup d’immigrants veulent se servir de cela et se font facilement exploiter» résume Navi Aujla, directrice générale de Labour Community Services of Peel.

L’organisme est inondé de chauffeurs en détresse rongés par des conditions de travail épouvantables. Ils sont parfois au volant 20 heures de suite.

Près d’un Tim Hortons, Talvinder Singh, un chauffeur de 26 ans, qui a l’habitude d’aller à Montréal et à Québec, nous aborde avec un «bonjour» en français.

«On voit juste les camionneurs qui ont des accidents, mais pas les entreprises qui les poussent derrière», lâche celui qui milite sur les réseaux sociaux.

«Les chauffeurs sont sous-payés ou carrément pas payés», soutient l’homme qui réclame toujours 14 000$ de salaire à son ex-employeur.

Comme Talvinder, Aman Preet Kaur, 26 ans, raconte avoir perdu 5000$ avec son ex-patron. C'est une somme immense pour celle qui est arrivée ici il y a quelques années à peine.

«Ils se foutent de la vie des chauffeurs. Ils mettent de la pression. Les camionneurs conduisent en colère. Ce n’est pas sécuritaire», peste la jeune femme.