Kelowna West MLA Ben Stewart (left) and West Kelowna Mayor Doug Findlater stand in front of the Goat's Peak site in West Kelowna, Friday, May 11, 2018.

(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

WEST KELOWNA - One of the developers behind a West Kelowna residential project says they are stopping all work on the 1,000-unit project known as Goat’s Peak until there is a change of government and a repeal of the speculation tax.

West Kelowna Mayor Doug Findlater and Kelowna West MLA Ben Stewart made the announcement at a roadside press conference today, May 11, where they distributed a letter from Steve Henderson of the Staburn Group.

“We are about to submit a rezoning and subdivision application for the first phase of over a hundred lots, with roads and services costs exceeding $8 million,” Henderson says in the letter. “We have no stopped all engineering, planning and design work and put the whole on the shelf until a change of government.”

Henderson branded the speculation tax, which adds one per cent of assessed value to houses that don’t meet occupancy requirements, as “dishonest.”

Findlater and Stewart also ripped into the tax and West Kelowna’s inclusion in it. The speculation tax was introduced by the NDP in the February provincial budget and included Kelowna and West Kelowna in with the Lower Mainland, Nanaimo and Victoria.

Findlater said he hasn’t managed to meet directly with Ministry of Finance officials, although he said the government was aware of West Kelowna’s concerns and had asked for more information.

The mayor has argued West Kelowna is playing catch-up as a young municipality and needs the extra revenue generated by development — almost $1 million last year — for infrastructure upgrades.

Stewart said the decision by Goat’s Peak to delay the development is just the most obvious example of the negative effects of the speculation tax and that he’s heard of others that are delaying investment decisions.

If the B.C. Liberals were to form government again, Stewart said axing the speculation tax would be on the 100-day list for repeal.

City of West Kelowna chief administrative officer Jim Zaffino in a updated analysis of the potential impact of the tax said the city’s economy is more like Penticton and Vernon than Kelowna and “equally fragile”.

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