When did the Property Transfer Tax get started and who was in charge of the B.C. government then? Just wondering.

—Karl Vandegoede

OUR ANSWER: Karl, you can thank B.C.’s 28th premier, Bill Vander Zalm, for the tax.

Vander Zalm served from 1986 to 1991 and it was his Social Credit government that brought in the tax in the spring of 1987 as part of its first budget.

Back then, the tax was called the “property purchase tax” and it added a one-per-cent levy on the first $200,000 of any residential or commercial real estate transaction and two per cent above that.

As you can imagine, it was about as popular as the HST is today.

In fact, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver took out a full-page newspaper ad urging Lower Mainland residents to write letters of protest to their MLAs. It called the tax "an unprecedented attack on the rights of property owners in B.C.”

UNRELATED FOOTNOTE: Remember the recent query from a Valleyview resident who asked about the bagpipe music she occasionally hears in her neighbourhood?

In our answer, we named well-known piper Kevin McDonald as the musician in question, and went on the assumption that the person who inquired was a fan of the bagpipes.

Well, we’re happy to report that the reader emailed again the other day to say, “Thanks for printing the answer to my question about the Valleyview bagpiper. We do love to hear the music and appreciate finding out where it's coming from. Keep on piping, Kevin!”