My earlier comment referred to an early version of the article that suggested the response of the Ontario Government would be solely gathering data.

Reading the article as it appeared around 9:40 pm Pacific Daylight Saving Time on April 19th it appears that Ontario is also prepared to work closely with Local Governments to establish, for appropriate cases, a viable annual surtax system for residential properties left vacant. The BC Government has empowered Vancouver City (only around 20 to 25 percent of the GVRD) to do this but has done little to ensure that an appropriate taxation scheme can be created.

Assuming the Ontario proposal announced April 20th in this regard is as described now in the article, real progress might well be made to increase rental units available and discourage the holding of residential property vacant purely for speculation (and in a way that is neither contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms nor to Canada's free trade agreement commitment.