Pretty weak.

Is this more to curb AirBnB, or foreign investors?

If anything, I would limit it to foreign owners, or at least out of state owners.

If two houses are side by side and worth the same - one is occupied, one is vacant most of the year. Isn't the owner of the "vacant" house already paying the same taxes as the house next door? If so, then yes I have a problem with it.

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I miss YaHey

Not sure I agree with the vacant house tax but just thinking uphill climb to generate public support. I think it is because homes are being bought up by people from away driving up costs of rental and buying a home

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I just moved from Vancouver and the whole vacant tax thing is simply done to hide the real problems.

The government insists that the foreign ownership of condos is about 4% which is nonsense. For high end condos, it's probably about 50%. Entire condo units in Coal Harbor are owned by Chinese trying to launder their money from China. They use a proxy, usually a relative or student in B.C., to claim it is owned by a resident but the money is really from China. The government knows it so instead of taxing them, and risking the large foreign fees, they introduce a tax against absentee owners. The wealthy Chinese will get a student or someone to make the occasional visit to the condo to avoid the tax but fr the most part, they don't care, they're trying to get their money out of China and a small tax is a drop in the bucket. The tax really hurts Canadians who actually own a condo but also a second home and they can't live in both.

Our government is determined to let the Chinese investors come in to the country and it's a big mistake. Just ask Australia how that has worked out for them.

Forgive my ignorance - what happened to Australia?

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"Life is fragile - we are all just a slip or a car crash away from being a very different person."