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Calgary council scraps real estate tax

Calgary Herald

Council has scrapped a controversial proposal to increase the land transfer fee home buyers pay during real estate deals in order to help finance affordable housing in the city.

Recommendations to explore stable sources of funding, such as a development levy on new and redeveloped property, were approved once the contentious land transfer fee was removed.

Ald. Bob Hawkesworth said getting rid of that one item allowed other good measures to go forward.

"I think it detracted from the overall thrust of the report and the tools we’re looking for," he said.

"It’s quite a hot button for people, and it was taking attention away from other solutions in the report."

The report looked at a number of ways to try to make it easier to build affordable housing units in the city, as well as ways to fund them.

Ald. Joe Connelly disagreed even after the idea of a land transfer tax was removed, arguing that affordable housing is a provincial responsibility.

"If we keep getting into the batter’s box, they’re never going to field a team," Connelly said. "If we continue to jump in, guess what? The province is not going to jump in."

A number of aldermen said that while they’d support looking at the issues around increasing the land transfer tax -- which now costs $125 on average -- they weren’t in favour of actually using it.

"I for one would not support a land transfer fee when it comes back," Ald. Linda Fox-Mellway said. "But this is just investigating them all."