Feds applaud plan to cool Toronto housing market; won’t make it national policy
WASHINGTON — The federal government welcomes Ontario’s move to tax foreign home buyers in and around Toronto, but says it won’t be replicated on a national level because it’s unnecessary in the vast majority of the country.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said his government was consulted in advance of the move by the Ontario government, which announced a 15-per-cent tax on foreign purchases in the hope of cooling a scorching-hot Toronto housing market.
It was one of multiple moves announced this week as part of a housing plan that replicates Vancouver’s foreign-purchase tax, expands rent control, allows municipalities to tax vacant properties and creates new layers of scrutiny for speculative purchases.
“There was nothing that surprised us in their announcement. We had discussed in broad strokes the measures they were moving forward with,” Morneau said Friday during a visit to Washington.