Quote: A real-estate agent's view on the provincial shadow-flipping law

From an op-ed in The Sun by Jonathan Gelderman, a ReMax agent in the Fraser Valley.
… Clark’s new law merely forces the unscrupulous first buyer to complete the transaction before flipping the property at a higher price the very next day. Indeed, this law is more about the government profiting off of flipping, and less about stopping it, because every time a property transaction is completed, property transfer tax is payable to the provincial government, potentially tens of thousands of dollars.
In fact, this is government’s largest single source of revenue and they’re now raking in record profits, as reported recently in The Vancouver Sun. An enormous governmental conflict of interest has been created, as government stands to become the largest single profiter from new flipping rules.
 
Once again, this conundrum: Why would a government with ‘the economy’ as its priority and a dependence on taxes from the metro area not have an urban policy devoted to regional prosperity?  More particularly, how can it not by now have secured an agreement with the region on TransLink in order to secure federal funding?  Why does it seem to take a quiet pleasure standing in the way or failing to address  both housing and transportation initiatives that would lead to jobs and growth, and hence more of the tax revenue it needs?