Victoria will not go ahead with a foreign buyers tax after all, even though the tax was given a tentative green light at an earlier committee meeting. But during a council meeting on Thursday April 27, councillors voted four to four (Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe didn't vote due to conflict of interest). If it had passed at this council meeting, Victoria would have asked the province to impose the 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers in the city. Victoria is facing a housing affordability crisis, but Mike Nugent from Victoria's Real Estate Board — who spoke against the tax at the council meeting — said a foreign buyers tax wouldn't help. "I don't think that this [tax] will do anything in the City of Victoria to stop escalating prices," she said.

Source: CBC News May 01, 2017 19:18 UTC