Vaughn Palmer: Finance minister promises 3 times – no cuts to homeowners’ grant
Vaughn Palmer
The Vancouver Sun
Finance Minister Selina Robinson. Photo by Submitted /Government of B.C.
VICTORIA — Finance Minister Selina Robinson insisted this week that the New Democrats have no plan to reduce the homeowner grant, even as the province takes control of the application process.
“I can confirm that there is no intent to change the homeowner grant,” she said during debate on legislation switching applications for the grant to the province from local government, effective this year.
She was responding to the Opposition B.C. Liberals, who asked if the New Democrats were taking control of applications as a prelude to reducing the size of the grant or access to it.
“The grant amount will not be changing,” Robinson told Liberal finance critic Mike Bernier during clause-by-clause debate on the enabling legislation.
The finance minister also said the New Democrats are “committed to” ensuring that “90 per cent of homeowners are eligible for the grant.”
She paid tribute to the historic nature of the grant, a mainstay of tax relief for homeowners since it was created by Premier W.A.C. Bennett in 1957.
“What’s before us is a grant that has existed for decades,” Robinson acknowledged.
Far from regarding the grant as a thing of the past, she says it fits the goals of the NDP housing affordability plan, which she launched as housing minister in the previous term of NDP government.
“The homeowner grant, for sure, is part of affordability,” she said. “Again, this legislation before us is not about changing the grant. It’s just about where it’s going to be administered. There is no intent to change the grant.”
The basic grant is $570 for homeowners in Vancouver, Victoria, their suburbs and the Fraser Valley. Outside those regions, it rises to $770 annually. Plus there’s a $275 top-up for seniors and persons with disabilities.
The eligibility threshold is property assessments of $1.625 million. Above that, partial grants are available.
The grant is not without its critics, some of whom refer to it as HOG — pronounced “hog” of course — to underscore how the grant scoops up such a huge share of provincial revenues. (This year’s drain is estimated at $850 million.)
Three years ago, an NDP-government appointed panel on tax reform disparaged the grant as “a regressive and unfair element of the tax system that could be significantly improved by making it income-tested and extending it to renters.”
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau referred to that recommendation this week in asking if it were “fair to assume that the government is not contemplating restructuring the homeowner grant to make it income-based and more targeted?”
In reply, Robinson reiterated for the third time: “We are not contemplating any changes to the homeowner grant.”
Rather, the main point of changing the application process was to take municipalities off the hook from having to administer the grant and vetting applications.
“I have to say that local governments really are thrilled at this,” said the minister. “It’s one less piece of work that they need to do.”
Municipalities will advise local homeowners of the need to apply to the province for the grant when the property tax notices go out in May.
But the province is already preparing an advertising campaign to let people know directly.
Robinson also promised a phone line and online registration at gov.bc.ca/homeownergrant on the government website.
For those wishing to avoid the inevitable rush and predictable crash of the site when official notices go out in May, applications are being accepted now.
Robinson was also asked why the province is requiring applicants to provide social insurance numbers, something homeowners never had to do in the decades when they applied through local government?
“The social insurance number is a common identifier for many tax programs,” explained Robinson.
“This is not an unusual component of making sure of eligibility for programs and using it to identify which citizens or permanent residents are making applications. What’s different is that we didn’t have that information (tied) to the homeowner grant.”
The Finance Ministry will use the completed applications to identify seniors and other homeowners who have not been getting their full entitlement to the grant.
SIN numbers should make it easier to prevent fraud, estimated at about three per cent or 33,000 of the 1.1 million claims filed annually.
“We’re reducing fraud and making sure that people get their full entitlements so we can, sort of, cross reference,” said Robinson.
“We need to have the tools in order to do that — to make sure that seniors are getting their full eligibility. But also making sure that people aren’t getting homeowner grants in two or three different municipalities. You’re only entitled to one homeowner grant.”
But as Robinson also conceded to Bernier: “The reality is — and the member knows this full well — that governments can use whatever information they have to help inform public policy. … That is how all governments operate.”
Her answer provided an opening for one more question from the Liberal finance critic: “This information gathered, does the minister, then, look at maybe any new housing taxes that could be applied now that she’ll have that information?
“No,” replied Robinson.
“I guess we’ll see if that answer means tomorrow or years down the road,” replied Bernier.
He thereby put down a marker against the hypothetical day when this finance minister — or some future one — has an inclination to use the information gathered today to raise housing taxes.
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