NDP promising action against real estate-related money laundering
Posted April 5, 2017 5:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) With the average price of a home in Metro Vancouver now topping more than $900,000, BC’s New Democrats are promising to take action to make housing more affordable.
That includes stronger safeguards against the illegal dumping of cash in this province.
Housing Critic David Eby says, if elected May 9th, the NDP will set up a task force to investigate money laundering and tax evasion. “buying luxury properties through numbered corporations and offshore trusts.”
He says he doesn’t understand why the Christy Clark government hasn’t already taken action.
“We have had so many red flags in our real estate market about the source of funds, who is actually buying property and where the money is coming from…. Between the tax avoidance, allegations of tax evasion and links to criminal conduct –both locally and internationally– I do not understand why this provincial government still refuses to delve into these issues.”
In December of 2014, Canada’s money-laundering watchdog, Fintrac, warned the Canadian Real Estate Association to upgrade monitoring for suspicious transactions and it’s been two years since the NDP and local media started exposing several shady deals in Metro Vancouver.
The average price of a home in Greater Vancouver is now more than $919,000.
That’s up more than $100,000 from this time a year ago.
