B.C.'s minimum wage to be increased to $16.75 per hour

[countmeout]

Instead they should be doing things to make living here more affordable and less taxing on the lower income earners.
A complete ban on foreign ownership of residential homes/buildings with no loopholes would be a great start.
A complete ban on Investment corporations buying residential homes/buildings would also be a good start.

Sure, I can get behind local ownership only, but foreign operations will still require some access to land, and the current land they own cannot be taken from them. This will be a mostly commercial activity.

2 years ago over 75% of all Single family detached houses sold in Kelowna were to investment corporations.

This simply isn't true. If it was true, thousands more rentals would be on the market, pushing prices down...

What I also see is all levels of the government wanting the housing prices to stay this high because lets face it, they all collect more money when estates are valued over 1 million either by probate taxes at your death or by sales taxes when its bought or by increasing property taxes as all of these are based on a percentage of the total value of the property.

If the value of a property is over $25,000, probate applies. Yes land transfer tax increases, but it's only 1-2% of the property value, so increasing a home from $500,000 to $800,000, the government only gets an extra $6,000.

And Cities STILL have to increase property taxes every year even though they naturally collect more as the assessed values increase each year. That should tell you how fiscally responsible our city mayor and councilors are with our money........

This isn't how property taxes work...

[coffeeFreak]

I realise this is not about BC's minimum wage, but I'm posting only to give a comparison of how a very low minimum wage means nothing when it comes to Big Box store prices. I moved to Regina last July and was shocked to hear their claim to fame is having the lowest minimum wage in Canada that was only $11.81 (there was a a whopping increase on October 1st to $13). So given the lower wage, I honestly expected to see that the lower labour costs ($3.84 per hr less than BC prior to Oct 1st) would be reflected in pricing, but that was not the case. I was surprised to see that all the chain stores had the same or even higher prices as those same stores had in Vernon -- Safeway, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Superstore, as well as food and drink establishments such as Boston Pizza, McDs, Tim Hortons, Starbucks, etc. SK would definitely the place to own one of these businesses that's for sure.

The working poor are literally in extreme poverty here. Add to that, there are no rent controls, my car insurance was more expensive than ICBC's (over $150), gas prices are in the $1.60+ range (same as Vernon's), and, well, we are expecting snow AGAIN@#* this weekend , so the heating costs are definitely a financial hardship.

I guess in all of this, all I can say is I hope that with BC's wage increase, chain stores and shops don't go overboard jacking their prices up, especially given they had their highest profits this year as compared to the last 5yrs.

[countmeout]

I guess in all of this, all I can say is I hope that with BC's wage increase, chain stores and shops don't go overboard jacking their prices up, especially given they had their highest profits this year as compared to the last 5yrs.

Pricing by big box stores is based on supply+demand, convenience, and consumer perception of value.

Bottled water is a great example, you can buy milk cheaper. Has nothing to do with labour expenses.

When people discuss minimum wage affecting prices, they are talking about local restaurants and other service-driven places with razor-thin margins.

[Nedroj]

2 years ago over 75% of all Single family detached houses sold in Kelowna were to investment corporations.

This simply isn't true. If it was true, thousands more rentals would be on the market, pushing prices down...

Really?

https://betterdwelling.com/canadian-cit ... investors/

Just Under Half of New Homes Completed In BC Are Investor-Owned
BC real estate skews even more towards investors, not surprising anyone. Investors owned about 1 in 4 (24.5%) of homes in the province in 2020. That share jumps to a little under half (43.3%) of homes completed after 2016. The provincial average is almost on par with Vancouver.

Investors own the highest share of total housing stock in smaller cities in BC. Fort St. John (37.1%), Squamish (35.8%), and Dawson Creek (28.0%) have the largest share of total stock owned by non-occupants. Unfortunately, this data set doesn’t go back to 2015, but it would be interesting to see if the non-resident tax influenced this issue.

Vancouver Has Seen 44% Of Its New Supply Go To Investors
Vancouver real estate shows a similar trend, but a higher share of investors. Investors owned nearly 1 in 4 (23.5%) of total housing supply in 2020. For recent builds, that share jumps to nearly half (44.0%) of the supply. It’s easy to see how Toronto and Vancouver home prices are so distorted. There’s a lot less friction for home prices when you’re passing the costs on to someone else

Canadian Cities Have Seen Up To 92% of New Supply Go To Investors
Let’s start with some general observations, shall we? About 1 in 5 (21.0%) homes in the median city across the four regions are investor-owned. When isolating new construction (built after 2016), that number rises to 1 in 3 (33.7%) bought by investors. Their ownership of new housing is overrepresented. It’s running about 60% faster than the general market share.

The share of investor-owned housing is more intense in some regions than others. For example, Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, has the highest percentage of investor-owned housing. They own 49.9% of the total stock and 92.1% of recently completed construction. For a city where unemployment is 65% above the national average, it’s not a great setup.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -1.6743083

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-onta ... statistics

[countmeout]

Just Under Half of New Homes Completed In BC Are Investor-Owned
BC real estate skews even more towards investors, not surprising anyone. Investors owned about 1 in 4 (24.5%) of homes in the province in 2020. That share jumps to a little under half (43.3%) of homes completed after 2016. The provincial average is almost on par with Vancouver.

The common trend in all of these:
NEW homes. About 35,000 new homes are registered each year. There are between 80,000-120,000 sales a year.

Going back to the quoted data above, if investors purchased just under half of NEW homes, that means they took about 17,500 homes. The total sold was ~100,000, so investors bought about 17.5% of what was available.

Seems to me they have shifted to buying new, likely holding them for 10 years and then selling and buying new again. Keeps down on maintenance costs, and unlike a car, a new home will appreciate in value, not decline.

Note that buying 17,500 dwellings in BC, will run you over $7,000,000,000... We need no fear of a single entity takeover monopoly of our real estate. BlackRock's total holdings are $117B USD. To have purchased all the dwellings for sale in BC last year, one would have required $50B. To buy all the dwellings available in a year across Canada would cost >$200B. That just buys one year. You'd have to keep that up and spend over a trillion to soak up everything.

Without being able to take a monopoly no single entity will gain a stronghold, it will be made up of tons of little players.

This means those making a minimum wage salary will have a competitive rental market, just need to have their values catch up since they are competing in a global market.

The real fix for the lower income, open up more available space to build, reduce government oversight and let the free market turn out homes in droves. 80,000 immigrants showed up to compete with minimum-wage workers in BC. We only built 40,000 new homes. BC's average number of people per dwelling is ~2.4. so we build just enough homes for immigrants, nvm our own born-here population. Either needs a shift in how we live, packing more in per unit or start building more.

[ferri]

B.C.'s minimum wage to be increased to $16.75 per hour <---Topic

[Blindeyes2020]

I love peoples logic.
If they raise minimum wage everything will go up in cost.
Everything goes up every year no matter what.
Also the government putting speed limiters on 18 wheelers for safety will make everything go up also.

Everything will go up every year except our wages or intrest earned off of your money in the bank, but service fee's always go up.
Get your head out the sand.

[Patron]

I love peoples logic.
If they raise minimum wage everything will go up in cost.
Everything goes up every year no matter what.
Also the government putting speed limiters on 18 wheelers for safety will make everything go up also.

Everything will go up every year except our wages or intrest earned off of your money in the bank, but service fee's always go up.
Get your head out the sand.

I agree, everything goes up every single yr and min wage increases are not the main factor

also I thought that AI would then take over many jobs, but then it occurred to me that robots don't pay taxes, so either the companies that use them will have to start paying more taxes ( which won't go over well) or they will be forced to hire real people..ain't no way our government is gonna lose their tax base

[puterbrother]

it always seems ridiculous to me that the "so called" elite bureaucrats still don't understand that whatever they choose to do always trickles down to the taxpayer....? O.K. Wait...They do don't they ! I smell burnt fish !

[Babba_not_Gump]

it always seems ridiculous to me that the "so called" elite bureaucrats still don't understand that whatever they choose to do always trickles down to the taxpayer....? O.K. Wait...They do don't they ! I smell burnt fish !

A close friend of mine runs a large restaurant. Talking with him about $20, $23 hamburgers and he's at his wits end. They are so burdened with minimum wage increases, additional stat holidays, constantly increasing taxes, everyone directly affecting his bottom line. And then his suppliers give him new price increases for the products he buys all because they are hit with the same increases he is.
And he has no choice but to increase prices.

All these increases are a direct result of governments and their incessant need for more taxation. It never ends.

Every business, regardless of what product or service they are providing is impacted by government taxation and interference.

Increase the minimum wage.
Add another stat holiday.
Increase another tax.
And the carbon tax is the prime example of a tax impacting every part of our life.

The breaking point is coming.

[JLives]

it always seems ridiculous to me that the "so called" elite bureaucrats still don't understand that whatever they choose to do always trickles down to the taxpayer....? O.K. Wait...They do don't they ! I smell burnt fish !

A close friend of mine runs a large restaurant. Talking with him about $20, $23 hamburgers and he's at his wits end. They are so burdened with minimum wage increases, additional stat holidays, constantly increasing taxes, everyone directly affecting his bottom line. And then his suppliers give him new price increases for the products he buys all because they are hit with the same increases he is.
And he has no choice but to increase prices.

All these increases are a direct result of governments and their incessant need for more taxation. It never ends.

Every business, regardless of what product or service they are providing is impacted by government taxation and interference.

Increase the minimum wage.
Add another stat holiday.
Increase another tax.
And the carbon tax is the prime example of a tax impacting every part of our life.

The breaking point is coming.

Did you discuss corporate profits at various points in the supply chain?

[fluffy]

Did you discuss corporate profits at various points in the supply chain?

Of course not, after all "the market" can do no wrong. The question that sticks in my mind is why should employees subsidize their employer's profit through low wages ? Isn't this whole thing supposed to be a partnership ? What about things like "a rising tide raises all boats" ? Sure costs are going up everywhere, but it's the result of a number of factors, and pointing a finger of blame at the government without putting any responsibility on the corporate sector is way off the mark. Look at the recent hearings in Ottawa over grocery chain record profits, long on excuses and misdirection from the CEO's, along with refusal to open their books and actually back up what they are saying.

[Babba_not_Gump]

A close friend of mine runs a large restaurant. Talking with him about $20, $23 hamburgers and he's at his wits end. They are so burdened with minimum wage increases, additional stat holidays, constantly increasing taxes, everyone directly affecting his bottom line. And then his suppliers give him new price increases for the products he buys all because they are hit with the same increases he is.
And he has no choice but to increase prices.

All these increases are a direct result of governments and their incessant need for more taxation. It never ends.

Every business, regardless of what product or service they are providing is impacted by government taxation and interference.

Increase the minimum wage.
Add another stat holiday.
Increase another tax.
And the carbon tax is the prime example of a tax impacting every part of our life.

The breaking point is coming.

Did you discuss corporate profits at various points in the supply chain?

You bet, mainly at his end. It's called survival.

[puterbrother]

Holy Crap ! They are only .25 cents away from the wage I fought for last year at my job.Isn't it wonderful to work for a company with a board of directors who control how much you get paid.Not based on what you are worth but how much they save by denying your deserved raise.All this after 15 years of service.When temps are hired at 16.75 and I have to cover for them when they do a *bleep* job ! Wow...time to check the want ads !

[Catsumi]

Holy Crap ! They are only .25 cents away from the wage I fought for last year at my job.Isn't it wonderful to work for a company with a board of directors who control how much you get paid.Not based on what you are worth but how much they save by denying your deserved raise.All this after 15 years of service.When temps are hired at 16.75 and I have to cover for them when they do a *bleep* job ! Wow...time to check the want ads !

I hear you! Wages like this is making me think of dragging me arzz back to work. It’s a goldmine compared to what I collected in my working years.

I suspect a number of retirees will rethink too. If the young cellphone holders cannot or will not work, we will show them how.