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“This issue of low-income buyers buying million-dollar properties has been identified as an issue since the census that was done in 2011. This is an ongoing issue for Metro Vancouver and yet we have Revenue Canada whistleblowers coming forward saying there has been a deliberate decision not to pursue this kind of activity in our real estate market,” said Eby.

Eby also cites a B.C. NDP access to information request that he said shows a “spike in attempts to smuggle millions in cash and bank notes through Vancouver’s airport. Smuggled cash totals are up 50 per cent year over year for the last two years. Confiscated cash from China at YVR in 2015 is more than 2014’s total for all countries combined.”

Eby believes lax oversight is only making the problem worse.

“I’m really worried that the provincial government will not take any action unless the federal government does first,” said Eby. “If we continue to wait for the federal government that will be the equivalent of doing nothing. There will be no action taken and these kinds of incidents will continue to escalate.”

Eby said the 15-per-cent foreign buyer’s tax isn’t enough to address “sophisticated” tax evasion schemes in the real estate market.

“The very definition of tax evasion is that you are avoiding taxes. You know what the rules are and you set up structures to avoid paying taxes so the idea that a new tax is somehow going to address tax evasion is completely mistaken.”

Eby’s office window on West Broadway is papered with notes from residents and constituents detailing their housing woes in both the rental and buyers’ markets. Eby says the 15-per-cent foreign buyers’ tax was “too little, to late.”

“A lot of these activities that I’m identifying escalate prices, cause prices to go up for families trying to find housing, but it also benefits people. It makes a lot of money for people who are involved in the development industry.”