Should Vancouver adopt a 'mansion tax?' Here's what one councillor proposes

A Vancouver councillor is pushing for the city to adopt what she's calling a "mansion tax" - a progressive tax that would impact owners of the city's most expensive properties.

A Vancouver councillor is pushing for the city to adopt what she's calling a "mansion tax."

Jean Swanson has a motion coming up before council that will call on the province to change the city charter. If her motion is approved on the municipal level and then in Victoria, it would give the City of Vancouver the ability to levy a progressive tax.

Under the current system, the city can only charge one rate for property taxes, meaning whether you own a studio condo or a $70-million mansion, you're paying the same rate in property taxes, she said.

Obviously the dollar amount is different, but Swanson proposed a change to the percentage as well.

She said her theory is similar to that in place with income taxes, where different brackets pay different rates each year.

Exactly what it would look like is yet to be determined, she said, but gave an example in an interview with CTV News Monday.

"We figured, if you tax people with houses worth over $5 million one per cent extra, and over $10 million two per cent extra, we could get about $225 million extra a year," Swanson said in a video call.