A huge portion of BC (and Canada's) economy since the oil price crash has been FIRE, so I would imagine there is no interest in bursting the real estate bubble.

A huge portion of BC (and Canada's) economy since the oil price crash has been FIRE, so I would imagine there is no interest in bursting the real estate bubble. The foreign investor tax is a low-effort attempt to skate through another election and maybe pick up a few bucks on the other side. An actual solution to this problem will involve cooperation between the province and the feds at the very least to handle Canada's lax money laundering laws and the Quebec immigrant investor program, as other posters have said. And you are correct in that there have already been realtors caught and censured in BC for offering to help their clients sidestep this new tax using a white proxy buyer or a cut-out trust. However, an actual solution is likely to also tank real estate values, which is reasonable when you think about how the average single detached home in Van is selling for a huge multiple of average wage.