Cabinet yesterday wrote numerous loopholes into the Liberal government's promised crackdown on foreign real estate speculators, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“We’ll crack down on the predatory speculators that stack the deck against you,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an August 24, 2021 campaign speech. “No more foreign wealth parked in homes that people should be living in.”.The Liberal Party in a campaign document A Home For Everyone said it would “ban new foreign ownership of Canadian houses for the next two years to ensure Canadians have access to purchasing homes.” Parliament on June 23 passed the Prohibition On The Purchase Of Residential Property By Non-Canadians Act..The Act bans any foreigner from buying “directly or indirectly any residential property” in Canada under threat of $10,000 fines. However cabinet yesterday used its regulatory powers to write numerous exemptions into the Act that takes effect January 1..The law now does not apply to property obtained by foreigners through gifts, death, divorce or bankruptcy settlements. It also exempts purchases by refugees, legal immigrants or foreign students “demonstrably working toward permanent residency.”.Vacation properties are also exempt. Cabinet in a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement said it did not know how many foreigners are still subject to the ban. “Data collection on foreign buyers is limited,” said the housing department. “Specific figures on foreign buying activity are not available at the national level.”.Cabinet despite its campaign promise repeatedly opposed an outright ban on foreign speculators. Ministers voted against a June 9, 2021 Conservative motion in the Commons for “a temporary freeze on home purchases by non-resident foreign buyers who are squeezing Canadians out of the housing market.”.The motion passed by a vote of 180 to 147. “Will the government take concrete action?” asked Conservative MP Brad Vis (Mission-Matsqui, B.C.), sponsor of the motion..Liberal MPs also rejected a similar February 28 motion at the Commons finance committee to strictly enforce a two-year ban on foreign speculators in residential real estate. “I have to say one of my frustrations over the last six and a half years has been the slow pace which the Liberal government undertakes to meet its own commitments,” said New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, Man.)..Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz (Davenport, Ont.) said an outright ban was onerous. “There are American families that do own property and have for years and years and years on the Canadian side,” said Dzerowicz. “They might even have within the family 100 years a home.”
