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Currently, Ontario only charges foreign buyers with a one-time 15% speculation tax (NRST) based on the value of the property.

The NDP plan would keep that tax, but add a second annual speculation tax that applies to both foreign and domestic property owners.

The NDP speculation tax is based on the B.C. model, currently threatened with a class-action lawsuit by out-of-province homeowners.

B.C. had to ratchet back the scope of its speculation tax after it hit its own residents particularly hard, including those with vacation properties.

Ontario NDPers say they would work to ensure their version of the tax does not apply to family cottages, and that it doesn’t negatively impact rental stock.

“It will not apply to homes or residences that are rented out,” an NDP spokesman said. “It would apply to properties that have been left vacant for a significant period of time.”

Like the B.C. tax proposal, the Ontario NDP plan to begin with an annual speculation tax of $5 per $1,000 of assessed value, rising to $20 per $1,000 of assessed value.

But in B.C., the government was forced to maintain the lower tax level for provincial residents indefinitely, and it later became public that two-thirds of those paying the speculation tax lived in B.C.

The B.C. government expects to bring in $487 million over three years through this tax, roughly the same amount that the Ontario NDP plans to bring in every year.

The NRST only took in $173.8 million between April 21, 2017 and Feb. 16, 2018.

The new NDP speculation tax would apply everywhere the NRST does – Toronto, Barrie, Brant, Brandford, County of Dufferin, Durham Region, Guelph, Haldimand County, Halton, Hamilton, City of Kawartha Lakes, Niagara, Northumberland, Orillia, Peel Region, Peterborough and region, County of Simcoe, Waterloo, County of Wellington, and York Region.

aartuso@postmedia.com