B.C.'s provincial government says the constitutional challenge put forward by a foreign homebuyer on Metro Vancouver's 15 per cent foreign homebuyers tax is "of questionable merit" and can be resolved without undertaking a full trial.
The provincial government has responded to the potential class action lawsuit launched last September by lead plaintiff Jing Li, a university student from the People's Republic of China now living in Burnaby.
Li says she was caught by the 15 per cent foreign buyers tax — which the province implemented last August to slow down the region's red-hot real estate market — which added $84,000 to the price of a townhouse she had attempted to buy in Langley.
In her claim, Li alleged the province had acted beyond its powers by applying the tax and alleged it had violated foreign treaties and international obligations the federal government had made to other nations.