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OTTAWA — A prominent lawyer on constitutional and tax law is planning to challenge B.C.’s new tax on foreign homebuyers.

“There’s a huge problem with this legislation,” Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati said Thursday. “It’s clearly offensive on its face.”

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Galati, a former tax specialist in the federal Department of Justice, has developed a public profile on cases such as the successful challenge of the former Conservative government’s appointment of Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Galati expects to be supplied clients for a test case by Vancouver immigration lawyer Larry Wong, who on Thursday said B.C.’s 15-per-cent foreign buyers’ tax comes from the same mindset that has fuelled Donald Trump’s drive for the presidency.

“The new normal is the Donald Trump new normal of taking action according to one’s feelings — ‘Oh, these foreigners, their money is not clean,’ based on their feeling that, ‘How could one make so much money or pay for such overvalued real estate?’” Wong said.