Homeowners wanted UBC professor Tom Davidoff to stop talking about property tax increase

The controversy comes as homeowners on Vancouver’s Westside reacted angrily to the BC NDP’s decision to increase the school-tax portion of property taxes for properties worth over $3 million. Following a massive property value run-up that started in 2015, that basically includes every single family home west of Cambie Street.

Attorney General David Eby, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey, announced earlier this week that he had decided to cancel a town hall event because of security concerns. Advertisements from two real estate offices and a letter from the leader of the Opposition had encouraged people to enter the event even if the hall was full or if they didn’t have a ticket.

But homeowners’ ire hasn’t only fallen on Eby, who has long advocated for measures to slow skyrocketing home prices and speculation. Westside residents have also been encouraged to complain to UBC about Twitter commentary from Davidoff.

His name appeared on a sign at a Tuesday protest (‘Buzz off, Davidoff!). Perhaps coincidentally, a huge lawn sign protesting the tax recently appeared across the street from his house, Davidoff said.

https://twitter.com/Meerakati/status/991469239138631680

Point Grey resident Andrew Webb wrote an email Monday to other residents who are affected by the tax, urging them to complain to the university about Davidoff.

“How this American socialist transplant is crafting predatory tax policies for the government, and robbing homeowners of unrealized gains is beyond me and beyond words,” he wrote in the email.

“You need to consider the fact that this guy is teaching our children this stuff at UBC Sauder Business School. Is this representative of a balanced curriculum for the students of families that have grown up in Vancouver and Canada?”

Davidoff has long advocated for loosening single-family zoning to allow for higher-density housing.

He’s also the author, with a group of other academics from UBC and Simon Fraser University, of a proposed tax framework called the B.C. Housing Affordability Fund, which proposed increasing property tax for homeowners who don’t live or work in the province.

In the February budget, the BC NDP government adopted a version of that taxation framework. But they also increased the school tax by 0.3 per cent for homes over $3 million and by 0.4 per cent for homes worth over $4 million. (Davidoff pointed out that that particular policy idea actually comes from SFU professor Rhys Kesselman.)

Davidoff often defends his ideas on Twitter, sometimes irreverently and using thought experiments.

Webb said he took particular offence to a tweet in which Davidoff suggested selling a home for millions of dollars was not really a hardship, and then flippantly responded to a homeowner who protested that if they did sell, it would likely be to a foreign buyer who would leave the house empty.

Matt Ramsey, a communications staffer with UBC, confirmed the university had received about six complaints about Davidoff.

In response, the university sent a letter stating that UBC upholds Davidoff’s academic freedom.

“Central among these rights is the freedom, within the law, to pursue what seems to them as fruitful avenues of inquiry, to teach and to learn unhindered by external or non-academic constraints, and to engage in full and unrestricted consideration of any opinion,” UBC’s statement reads in part.

“Calls to interfere with the communication of scholarly opinions amount to a request to violate University policy. Respectfully, we cannot accede to such requests.”

Davidoff said he thinks his primary job is to be a good researcher and teacher, but “I do think that part of that is informing public discussion,” he said.

“My job is not to be political. The whole point of academic freedom is that I shouldn’t be swayed by incentives to say things that aren’t supported by research.”