The speculation tax was a Provincial level election promise by the NDP. Interestingly since it is a minority government that governs with the support of the BC

The speculation tax was a Provincial level election promise by the NDP. Interestingly since it is a minority government that governs with the support of the BC Green party, the legislation needed to be tweaked slightly to gain Green Party support. The City of Vancouver implemented an empty homes tax, which has similar impacts on demand, but they had to ask the province for new powers in order to levy that.