To the editor:
Re: "Foreign ownership helps drive dysfunctional housing market," Jan. 18.
It's high time there was an open public dialogue about the many facets of globalization, which are deleterious to the interests and prospects of many working Canadians; about the resulting economic and demographic effects of the "quota system in disguise" that is Canada's immigration system; about the issues surrounding unfettered foreign ownership of Canadian real estate.
As a working Canadian consumer, I am dismayed by a system that not only allows but effectively encourages the wealthy to "buy their way" into Canada (and I suspect with monies which are often "dirty"); by profiteering corporations that dismiss Canadian employees and move their production to foreign countries where their products are produced more inex-pensively, yet import these products and sell them for the same prices they charged when the products were manufactured here; by significant shifts in Canada's demography over which there is much unspoken concern; by the difficulties created for young Canadians who are hindered in putting down roots and starting families because they have been priced out of home ownership; by the seeming lack of principle in doing open business with and supplying raw materials to the economies of totalitarian regimes, thereby supporting their continuing tyrannies.
Many realtors, if they had the courage to speak out, could tell many stories about distasteful or cleverly improper dealings with the realities and practices associated with various aspects of the real estate market.
Dan Huzyk, Vancouver
