Commentary

The predictable debate around its climate action plan update points to a larger issue facing B.C. and the rest of the country: the need for national strategies to address critical economic challenges that have more than regional interests.

Foreign real estate buyers interested in sinking money into B.C. but less interested in paying the province’s new 15% foreign buyers tax in Metro Vancouver have several options. Farmland is one.

Opportunities are in the air for B.C. But they’re also there for any region with the enterprise to tackle one of the world’s top threats to human health.

Something had to be done, and it was. The open question now is what will be the impact of the province’s snap decision – a flip-flop of sorts – to impose a 15% surcharge on foreign-bought homes in Metro Vancouver.

More regulation might be good for appeasing residents agitating for action on runaway real estate prices, but it’s not so good for resolving that issue and others facing Canadian municipalities.