Assertions that “condo king” Bob Rennie knew about the province’s foreign buyer tax before anyone else are wrong, according to the office of Premier Christy Clark.
Quoted in a Globe and Mail article Tuesday morning, Rennie claims he knew about the tax three weeks ago, but figured it would be “about five to eight per cent.”
The 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers was announced last week on July 25.
Stephen Smart, press secretary for the Premier, says it is simply not true.
“Any assertion that Bob Rennie was given advance warning of the tax is completely untrue,” Smart said.
The Globe story also claimed the Ministry of Finance kept “almost every minister” in the dark until just before the legislative assembly sitting last Monday.
Rennie currently acts as chair of fundraising for the B.C. Liberals, something he says he’ll resign from if the “optics” aren’t favourable for the party.
He has personally donated $265,150 to the B.C. Liberals since 2005.
Mike Hager, reporter for the Globe and Mail and author of the story “B.C. ministers kept in dark about foreign-buyer tax, politicians say” has since spoken to Rennie. In a series of tweets, Hager says Rennie told him “he never talks privately to Liberal politicians about real estate matters.”
He adds that he only knew the foreign buyer tax was coming after the premier announced their plans around a vacancy tax and that he would resign “if that’s what party wants.”
Rennie has since released a public statement on the matter:
“I did not have or was given any advance knowledge on the foreign buyer tax. I have never spoken to Mike Hager from the Globe and Mail until an hour ago in which I confirmed that I had no prior knowledge. Any speculation to the contrary is untrue.”
In a tweet, Globe reporter Frances Bula claims it was she that talked to Rennie several weeks ago. According to Bula, Rennie has since said that he “spoke too casually” and didn’t make clear that his knowledge of the tax was only an “educated guess.”
Global News reached out to Mike Hager but did not hear back before publication.