Clark made the statement during a scrum at Vancouver’s Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade in response to questions on U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

“We believe that people who are seeking refuge around the world should be able to find safe haven here in our province,” Clark said. “We believe that people, the best and the brightest, should be able to come to British Columbia.

“We are going to lift the foreign owners tax on people who have work permits who are paying taxes and living in British Columbia, as a way to encourage more people to come.” 

Although this is interesting news and seems positive at first, I feel this should have been thought of well before the tax was first introduce. This lift now brings many other questions, such as: 

• What about those who had work permits and paid the tax in the past 6 months? Will they now be reimbursed?
• What about those who forfeited their purchase because of the tax and lost their deposit?
• Does this apply to all work permits - short term and long term?

I'm sure many more questions will arise in the next several weeks and the true effect of this tax is still to be determined. But I still feel that the government is way too much involved in BC Real Estate, Greater Vancouver to be specific, while trying to please everyone at the same time. 

Source: Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail