LETTER: ‘Ill-advised’ B.C. tax deferment changes hurt seniors
Published 6:00 pm Friday, April 3, 2026
Editor,
Many years ago the provincial government brought in a program to encourage seniors to stay in their own homes.
There are many physical and mental benefits to staying in their homes, and the various governments over the years understood this. Because taxes were increasing and were a real burden to these seniors, many of whom were living on pensions, the government allowed them to defer those property taxes and only charged a very low interest rate (fee simple), and that means it was not compounded.
The program was well received and was a real blessing to many many seniors.
For many years this program worked real well until the current provincial government was elected. We must keep in mind that previous governments who were of the same party saw the benefit of the program and left it in place.
Our current government decided to review the program and determined that it was being abused by some who were able to pay the tax, but decided to take advantage of the low rate of the tax deferment program.
This government then decided that change was needed, and promptly increased the tax to 2% over prime (which was a significant increase), and to add insult to injury the tax would now be compounded.
This was supposed to make the program non-viable to those who were abusing it. Those folks were more likely to be able to pay the arrears off and move on, leaving only those who needed it the most to carry the burden as they were not likely able to pay off the thousands of dollars accumulated over the years.
The simple solution to the problem of removing those who were abusing the program would have been to introduce a means test before acceptance into the program. Means tests are an accepted method of ensuring only those who need a government program are accepted.
The fact that this government has instituted these changes the way they have means they are either clueless or have another agenda, as the seniors who cannot continue to see their compounding tax bill eroding what little money they have, are forced to sell their homes, which in many cases they bought many years ago.
It has been suggested that this was the agenda of this government all along, and in light of recent moves in other pieces of legislation increases the likelihood of clueless. Yes these homes are worth more today than what they paid for them, but for the seniors, their options are to try and buy something else or go into a seniors’ home which will chew up what money they make very very fast. Some over $6,000 a month.
It is sad to contemplate the impact of this ill-advised policy move by a government supposed to be for the little guy.
Barney Biggs, Surrey