Two more thoughts on the BC Government’s new foreign investor tax.

The government has yet to tell us what they think a reasonable amount of foreign investment is. The stats show that 10% prompted them to bring in this massive tax hike – are they wanting 0 foreign investment? 1%? 5%? What is an acceptable level?

Second, the government’s budget is already set, but one presumes this new tax will bring in more cash. It might be a little, it might be a lot, but it’s all unaccounted for in the 2016/17 provincial budget, which guides spending until March 31, 2017.

Conveniently for the government, there is an election May 9, 2017. This extra cash, whether it’s $1 million or $1 billion, can technically be spent on any pre-election goodie Christy Clark wants. That’s a big concern for fiscal hawks like me.