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Green party Leader Andrew Weaver unveiled an affordable housing platform Tuesday designed to cool the residential real-estate market, increase the supply of affordable accommodation and give the middle class a chance at home ownership.

Launching into the official start of the provincial election campaign, Weaver told a news conference in Vancouver that the measures in total would help to ensure that “everyone, regardless of their background or income, has a roof over their heads and a place to call home.”

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He said the Greens’ vision is in stark contrast to that of the Liberals, who have “allowed our homes to be turned into a speculative real estate market for the very wealthy,” while “ordinary British Columbians are shackled with unmanageable debt.”

Weaver would double the foreign buyers tax on real estate from the current 15 per to 30 per cent provincewide. He asserted that the proposed tax is “not biased against any country, it ensures that people who live in British Columbia and work in British Columbia are able to afford to live here.