Adam Olsen, MLA 215-2506 Beacon Avenue Sidney, BC V8L 4T9 Re: BC Budget 2018 – Speculation Tax Dear Adam, On your website you state that “The goal of the BC Greens' housing policies is to help British Columbians struggling amidst the housing crisis, especially in cities like Vancouver and Victoria." While that is an admirable goal that we support, the Saturna Island Ratepayers and Residents Association (SIRRA) Board takes the position that the Speculation Tax is ill-founded in concept, and most certainly in its planned wide-spread application within the diverse Capital Regional District (CRD). The tax, when applied as it currently does to Saturna, doesn’t go after speculators at all. Instead, it punishes those owners, most of whom purchased recreational property years ago in good faith, and simply wished to have a vacation home in the Southern Gulf Islands. Those owners include a majority of BC residents, as well as a few Canadians from other provinces, residents of the US, and some remoter international locations. Instead of being regarded as speculators, these property owners are all important continuing contributors to the Saturna economy, an economy that has been in a serious struggle since a significant downturn in 2008. Imposition of the so-called Speculation Tax has the potential to do extremely serious damage to our fragile economy. Where you have stated in an e-mail of March 8, 2018, to SIRRA members that the tax is not as proposed by the Green Party, it nonetheless could not have made it through Budget 2018 without the support of your party. We therefore see it as your responsibility, and that of the Green Party, to ensure that this tax will not apply to Saturna, or for that matter to any other area in the Southern Gulf Islands. That is, unless it can be demonstrably shown that foreign speculation is creating a problem of affordability that merits action, as in your noted cities of Vancouver and Victoria. Sincerely, per David Osborne, President, on behalf of the SIRRA Board cc: Dr. Andrew Weaver, Elizabeth May, Hon. John Horgan, Hon. Carol James