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He sleeps in a van but drives a Tesla: life on wheels in Vancouver’s camper community

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van but drives a Tesla

At the end of his day, Lucas Philips drives to his home overlooking Spanish Banks Beach in Vancouver, near some of the most expensive real estate in Canada.

He climbs out of his black Tesla and soaks up what he calls his “million-dollar view.”

But Philips is no wealthy property owner. His home is a Vanguard campervan berthed in a beachside parking lot.

He spends most of his life on wheels, working as an Uber driver in his leased Tesla. He’s trying to get ahead, and lives in his “sweet motor home” while taking online courses in the hope of getting a job in computer science.

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Philips, who immigrated from Turkey five years ago, thinks himself lucky to share the view with mansion owners without draining his savings.

He’s a member of a community of Vancouverites living in vans, trailers and other recreational vehicles parked across the city.

Some, like Philips, use it as an economic strategy to cut costs as they plot a course to prosperity.

Others have opted for a nomadic lifestyle, and plan to move on.

But more people are sleeping in vehicles as a last resort, as they try to stave off full-blown homelessness in the notoriously expensive city.

Philips said in an interview in November that he used to pay monthly rent of $1,600 for a one-bedroom suite in North Vancouver. When his rent went up to $2,300, he decided it didn’t make sense.

“The rent prices are just skyrocketing and it’s really feeling not that great when you pay for rent with half of your income,” he said.

So, he bought a van and started living at Spanish Banks in October. Side benefits to the savings were that it made him feel closer to nature, and he enjoyed the van community’s friendly vibe.

He said he hoped to move back into an apartment this year to better focus on his studies.

However, others have embraced life on wheels.

Retired Californian mechanical engineer Alex Mosson, 58, was parked last week at Spanish Banks in a beige recreational vehicle he called his “tiny house.”

He offered wine from a rack as he prepared a pot of clam chowder, with bacon and sourdough bread fresh out of the oven.

Newly arrived in Canada, he was joined by girlfriend Massie McCloud, 52, a retired airline pilot who lives in Kitsilano. They were planning to spend a few more nights in Vancouver, then Whistler, then head for Mexico, where Mosson used to live. In March, they plan to return for a cross-Canada journey, said McCloud.

“Don’t get other people jealous,” interjected Mosson.

McCloud likened the RV to “a giant backpack.”

“You have all your things with you,” she said. “Part of the reason we are both excited about doing this trip is that we both had really confined lives for the last several years,” said McCloud, who added that she is recovering from long COVID.

But not everyone on wheels has a choice.

Over several visits to Spanish Banks, many residents appeared to be living out of cars and pickups, ill-equipped for the purpose.

Their windows were screened with makeshift curtains for privacy, their back seats and truck beds packed with possessions.

The residents approached in these situations were more cautious.

November rain dripped off the face of one man as he made repairs to his white box truck, strewn in black graffiti. He declined to give his name for an interview, saying he found his circumstances humiliating.

Dean Kurpjuweit, president of Vancouver’s Union Gospel Mission said vans and trailers have become a way for some working people to stay in the city amid high conventional housing costs.

But the mission “will never advocate for living in vans as an alternative housing solution,” he said.

“We buy trailers to go on vacations. … But nobody wants to permanently (live there),” he said.

Kurpjuweit said his group had helped people move from recreational vehicles into supportive housing.

He said there is a difference between the “wilderness experience” of an RV, compared with cramped and inconvenient long-term life in the city.

Living for an extended period in a trailer in Vancouver is mostly due to the “reality of the housing market here,” said Kurpjuweit.

Local residents said in summer and early fall that hundreds of people were living in vehicles at Spanish Banks. Dozens were still there in the fall, even after the City of Vancouver started warning people to move on, although their numbers dwindled with the onset of winter.

There are other campers in less scenic locations, clustered near big-box stores or scattered on quiet side streets.

Keith Light, 76, used to own a home on Pender Island, a 40-minute ferry ride to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. But for more than half a year he’s lived in a recreational vehicle, now parked outside an east Vancouver Canadian Tire store.

In 2021, Light sold his island home to pay off debts. He said this week that it wasn’t until he’d relocated to Metro Vancouver that he realized housing costs were “ten times higher” than on Pender.

He lived with a friend, who got “a little tired” of his presence after about a year, and he moved out in May.

“So, I got online and found this R.V. I got a pretty good deal on it, and it cost me $19,000,” said Light, who lives on a monthly pension of $1,900.

He said it was comfortable but not a permanent solution.

For one thing, the van has no electricity. Light said two external generators had been stolen and the vehicle’s built-in generator didn’t work.

There’s also a sense of insecurity faced by most vehicle dwellers.

It’s illegal to park a large vehicle on the street or in parks in Vancouver between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., including at Spanish Banks, although exceptions apply.

Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Eva Cook said in a statement that illegally parked RVs remain a “challenging issue” in many communities.

Since October, 47 notices reminding owners of parking rules were issued and most vehicles parked overnight at Spanish Banks had moved, she said.

Cook said it was still working to “educate” users that overnight parking isn’t allowed in parks.

Paul Kershaw, a policy professor at the University of British Columbia’s school of population, said many people living in vans are “just as smart and as hard-working” as homeowners.

But some have been born too late and are now locked out of Vancouver’s real estate market or are facing prohibitive rent on even a one-bedroom apartment.

Vancouver remains the most expensive place to rent in Canada, with the average price of a one-bedroom apartment now going for $2,633 per month, according to the National Rental Report issued last month.

Saving up for a home is also out of reach for many.

“In the mid-’70s, it took the typical young person five years of full-time work to save a 20 per cent down payment on an average-priced home. Now it takes 17 years,” said Kershaw.

Jenny Tan, a city councillor in Maple Ridge, east of Vancouver, is all too familiar with the region’s high housing costs.

She used to live in Vancouver’s West End in a trailer, an experience that compelled her to get into politics to try to make things “a little more affordable.”

“I will be super honest, if I had a choice, I wouldn’t be doing it for fun,” she said.

She lived in her trailer for three years as “cheerfully and optimistically” as she could, equipping it with a projector and hosting board games with friends.

“But look, I wouldn’t have chosen that if there was a one-bedroom apartment that I could rent somewhere,” said Tan.

She said she ended up in a trailer in 2017 after doing “all the right things in life” by graduating from university and landing a decent job.

With money tight, living in her trailer was better than paying rent. But the downsides outweighed any sense of fun.

“Living in a trailer, you are constantly in fear, stressed about losing your spot, about the bylaw officers,” she said. “For the years I lived in my trailer, I had no hot running water.”

Tan eventually moved into her parents’ house and considered her trailer life a learning experience. “But it was not the thing I would have chosen,” said Tan.

In east Vancouver, Light agrees.

Living in an RV is better than sleeping on the street, but what he really wants is a permanent home.

He said a renter should have to pay no more than 30 per cent of their income to put a roof over their head.

“I’m really, really hoping that I can get a bachelor suite or one-bedroom in one of these subsidized housing units in Vancouver,” said Light.

He said he spent a year on the waiting list with BC Housing.

“But unfortunately, the only way the places come up are basically when somebody dies. And that’s pretty bad. That’s also a sad thing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2023.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

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Canada Child Benefit payment on Friday | CTV News – CTV News Toronto

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More money will land in the pockets of Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit (CCB) installment.

The federal government program helps low and middle-income families struggling with the soaring cost of raising a child.

Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees who are the primary caregivers for children under 18 years old are eligible for the program, introduced in 2016.

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The non-taxable monthly payments are based on a family’s net income and how many children they have. Families that have an adjusted net income under $34,863 will receive the maximum amount per child.

For a child under six years old, an applicant can annually receive up to $7,437 per child, and up to $6,275 per child for kids between the ages of six through 17.

That translates to up to $619.75 per month for the younger cohort and $522.91 per month for the older group.

The benefit is recalculated every July and most recently increased 6.3 per cent in order to adjust to the rate of inflation, and cost of living.

To apply, an applicant can submit through a child’s birth registration, complete an online form or mail in an application to a tax centre.

The next payment date will take place on May 17. 

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Capital gains tax change draws ire from some Canadian entrepreneurs worried it will worsen brain drain – CBC.ca

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A chorus of Canadian entrepreneurs and investors is blasting the federal government’s budget for expanding a tax on the rich. They say it will lead to brain drain and further degrade Canada’s already poor productivity.

In the 2024 budget unveiled Tuesday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government would increase the inclusion rate of the capital gains tax from 50 per cent to 67 per cent for businesses and trusts, generating an estimated $19 billion in new revenue.

Capital gains are the profits that individuals or businesses make from selling an asset — like a stock or a second home. Individuals are subject to the new changes on any profits over $250,000.

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The government estimates that the changes would impact 40,000 individuals (or 0.13 per cent of Canadians in any given year) and 307,000 companies in Canada.

However, some members of the business community say that expanding the taxable amount will devastate productivity, investment and entrepreneurship in Canada, and might even compel some of the country’s talent and startups to take their business elsewhere.

WATCH | The federal budget hikes capital gains inclusion rate: 

Federal budget adds billions in spending, hikes capital gains tax

3 days ago

Duration 6:14

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled the government’s 2024 federal budget, with spending targeted at young voters and a plan to raise capital gains taxes for some of the wealthiest Canadians.

Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), said the capital gains tax has overshadowed parts of the federal budget that the business community would otherwise be excited about.

“There were definitely some other stars in the budget that were interesting,” he said. “However, the … capital gains piece really is the sun, and it’s daylight. So this is really the only thing that innovators can see.”

The CCI has written and is circulating an open letter signed by more than 1,000 people in the Canadian business community to Trudeau’s government asking it to scrap the tax change.

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke and president Harley Finkelstein also weighed in on the proposed hike on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Former finance minister Bill Morneau said his successor’s budget disincentivizes businesses from investing in the country’s innovation sector: “It’s probably very troubling for many investors.”

Canada’s productivity — a measure that compares economic output to hours worked — has been relatively poor for decades. It underperforms against the OECD average and against several other G7 countries, including the U.S., Germany, U.K. and Japan, on the measure. 

Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers sounded the alarm on Canada’s lagging productivity in a speech last month, saying the country’s need to increase the rate had reached emergency levels, following one of the weakest years for the economy in recent memory.

The government said it was proposing the tax change to make life more affordable for younger generations and fund efforts to boost housing supply — and that it would support productivity growth.

A challenge for investors, founders and workers

The change could have a chilling effect for several reasons, with companies already struggling to access funding in a high interest rate environment, said Bergen.

He questioned whether investors will want to fund Canadian companies if the government’s taxation policies make it difficult for those firms to grow — and whether founders might just pack up.

The expanded inclusion rate “is just one of the other potential concerns that firms are going to have as they’re looking to grow their companies.”

A man with short brown hair wearing a light blue suit jacket looks directly at the camera, with a white background behind him.
Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, said the proposed change could have a chilling effect for several reasons, with companies already struggling to access and raise financing in a high interest rate environment. (Submitted by Benjamin Bergen)

He said the rejigged tax is also an affront to high-skilled workers from low-innovation sectors who might have taken the risk of joining a startup for the opportunity, even taking a lower wage on the chance that a firm’s stock options grow in value.

But Lindsay Tedds, an associate economics professor at the University of Calgary, said the tax change is one of the most misunderstood parts of the federal budget — and that its impact on the country’s talent has been overstated.

“This is not a major innovation-biting tax change treatment,” Tedds said. “In fact, when you talk to real grassroots entrepreneurs that are setting up businesses, tax rates do not come into their decision.”

As for productivity, Tedds said Canadians might see improvements in the long run “to the degree that some of our productivity problems are driven by stresses like housing affordability, access to child care, things like that.”

‘One foot on the gas, one foot on the brake’

Some say the government is sending mixed messages to entrepreneurs by touting tailored tax breaks — like the Canada Entrepreneurs’ Incentive, which reduces the capital gains inclusion rate to 33 per cent on a lifetime maximum of $2 million — while introducing measures they say would dampen investment and innovation.

“They seem to have one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake on the very same file,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

WATCH | Could the capital gains tax changes impact small businesses?: 

How could capital gains tax increases impact Canadian small businesses? | Power & Politics

2 days ago

Duration 12:18

Some business groups are worried that new capital gains tax changes could hurt economic growth. But according to Small Business Minister Rechie Valdez, most Canadians won’t be impacted by that change — and it’s a move to create fairness.

A founder may be able to sell their successful company with a lower capital gains treatment than otherwise possible, he said.

“At the same time, though, big chunks of it may be subject to a higher rate of capital gains inclusion.”

Selling a company can fund an individual’s retirement, he said, which is why it’s one of the first things founders consider when they think about capital gains.

LISTEN | What does a hike on the capital gains tax mean?: 

Mainstreet NS7:03Ottawa is proposing a hike to capital gains tax. What does that mean?

Tuesday’s federal budget includes nearly $53 billion in new spending over the next five years with a clear focus on affordability and housing. To help pay for some of that new spending, Ottawa is proposing a hike to the capital gains tax. Moshe Lander, an economics lecturer at Concordia University, joins host Jeff Douglas to explain.

Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, says he was disappointed by the change — and that it sends the wrong message to Canadian industries like his own.

He wants to see the government commit to more tax credit proposals like the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses, which he said would incentivize business owners to stay and help make Canada competitive with the U.S.

“We’ve had a lot of difficulties attracting investment over the years. I don’t think this will make it any better.”

Tech titan says change will only impact richest of the rich

A man sits on an orange couch in an office.
Ali Asaria, the CEO of Transformation Lab and former CEO of Tulip Retail, told CBC News that the proposed change to the capital gains tax is ‘going to really affect the richest of the rich people.’ (Tulip Retail)

Toronto tech entrepreneur Ali Asaria will be one of those subject to the expanded capital gains inclusion rate — but he says it’s only fair.

“It’s going to really affect the richest of the rich people,” Asaria, CEO of open source platform Transformer Lab and founder of well.ca, told CBC News.

“The capital gains exemption is probably the largest tax break that I’ve ever received in my life,” he said. “So I know a lot about what that benefit can look like, but I’ve also always felt like it was probably one of the most unfair parts of the tax code today.”

While Asaria said Canada needs to continue encouraging talent to take risks and build companies in the country, taxation policies aren’t the most major problem.

“I think that the biggest central issue to the reason why people will leave Canada is bigger issues, like housing,” he said.

“How do we make it easier to live in Canada so that we can all invest in ourselves and invest in our companies? That’s a more important question than, ‘How do we help the top 0.13 per cent of Canadians make more money?'”

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Canada Child Benefit payment on Friday | CTV News – CTV News Toronto

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More money will land in the pockets of Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit (CCB) installment.

The federal government program helps low and middle-income families struggling with the soaring cost of raising a child.

Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees who are the primary caregivers for children under 18 years old are eligible for the program, introduced in 2016.

300x250x1

The non-taxable monthly payments are based on a family’s net income and how many children they have. Families that have an adjusted net income under $34,863 will receive the maximum amount per child.

For a child under six years old, an applicant can annually receive up to $7,437 per child, and up to $6,275 per child for kids between the ages of six through 17.

That translates to up to $619.75 per month for the younger cohort and $522.91 per month for the older group.

The benefit is recalculated every July and most recently increased 6.3 per cent in order to adjust to the rate of inflation, and cost of living.

To apply, an applicant can submit through a child’s birth registration, complete an online form or mail in an application to a tax centre.

The next payment date will take place on May 17. 

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