The Detroit times., 1911-10-30
lNADIAA CITIES USE
land VALUE TAX PLAN
AND ARE PROSPEROUS
Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton
and Other Places Refuse to
Tax Improvements.
IN EFFECTS YEARS.
system Is Similar to Single Tax
Buildings and Improve
ments Exempt.
In EFFECT,16 YEARS

VANCOUVER, b. c., Oct 3O.--One
hears a lot about the single tax ex-
Deriment I'm Canada.
There Is no single tax in Canada,
and the system that is miscalled sin.
sic tax Is not an experiment-nnless
IS years continued success makes for
| uncertainty.
II is land value tax and so is SINH
F. lar 10 single tax. II exempts build
ings and improvements from taxation
and so Is like single tax But where
ne the single tax would provide rev.
enue from no other source than from
land values, Vancouver does have
other incomes-liquor licenses, etc.
Single tax means that all revenue
for public need shall be raised by a
tax on land values and by nothing
else. The Canadians adopted about
one-half of the single tax theory
when Vancouver. Victoria and Al
berta province removed the penalty
for progress; for individual initiative;
for improvements" that American
cities and states impose.
Western Canada has tried TO en-
courage home building, business and
manufacturing; SO western Canada
has decided that to encourage man
to do a thing il was not necessary
nor helpful to fine him for his efforts.
Vancouver, Victoria. Edmonton and
lot OF other western Canadian
cities and towns. refuse TO tax I'M
movements OF any sort, and the prov
ince OF Alberta does likewise.
A $4,000 house and a $1,000 lot will
pay in Vancouver a tax of $50 year
1t 20-mill rate.
A $4,000 house and a $1,000 lot, at
20-mill rate will pay tax of about
$50 year in Portland. Ore. and a
X bit more In Seattle: competitors with
+ Vancouver for oriental trade and for
manufacturing establishments.
A 10-acre tract OF idle land In the
city limits OF Vancouver will pay
2O-mill tax on the land value OF adj
joining improved property on lot
basis: or say so lots at $1,000 lot
EQUALS 100000 assessed valuation.
and at 20 mills that equals tax OF
$2,4OO.
Al 1O-acre tract of similar land in
American coast cities will pay on an
average acreage basis OF wild land,
not mere than $500 an acre. Which
+ Is $4,000 at 20 mills, or tax OF 500.
Now the difference between $4,000
and 800 equals the difference between
the load American cities place on the
home builder, and what the Canadian
cities like Vancouver impose.
B II also represents the difference in
B incentive given the Speculation in idle
lands Washington, Oregon. Cali
fornia and in British Columbia and
Alberta.
British Columbia imposes poll tax
OF SO per man per year: an income
tax on incomes from $1,000 a year
mn. an inheritance tax; various cor
poration taxes and business, or occn-
nation. taxes on certain dealers. But
the sum OF these burdens falls very
Nightly on the average man, aud the
nine men out of ten who work pay
only about a fourth the taxes in west
ern Canada that they do in the Amer
team western cities on the same valua-
ton of property.
How has the land value tax affected
Vancouver?
The best indication is that after
year of its benefits Vancouver's only
rival In British Columbia, Victoria,
saw the point and adopted the same
system.
The land tax has not either ended
Speculation or cut prices of city prop
erty. Vancouver lots and cites are
today selling for more. than they are
in any other western city except Los
Angeles and San Francisco, and in
proportion TO population Vancouver
property costs more than il does in
any American city
What the exemption of improve
ments and the placing of its fair
share of the tax burden on idle land
has done in Vancouver has been TO
force building and cut wide open the
( idle land trust that was paying ridicu-
lous leYies. and making millions each
year by the city growth and the
energy of the other fellow.
The value o. new buildings erected
IN Vancouver in the first Il months
after the adoption of the land tax re-
form jumped from S7,25S, 565 10 3d.
f50.365. making Vancouver the fourth
city in Canad- last year in building
+ actiyity. and giving her the greatest
percentage gain of any coast city.
Vancouver in three years has about
.loubled her business district and
from lively town has evolved into a
. great city.