Actually, no, there is no compelling evidence it ever worked in Vancouver. The pricing trend was already in place before the tax was announced, a pricing trend that may have related to overseas millionaires realizing simply that they could get more bang for the buck in Toronto than in Vancouver.

Indeed, the compelling evidence that it would not work in Vancouver came from Hong Kong, which tried similar measures years ago and found the same result: The house prices did not budge meaningfully downwards.

Look, once you have established your new equilibrium, it is stuck there, unless your government makes the muscular move of demanding an income-tax based recourse (show us your Canadian provincial and federal income tax returns, and if you do not have such records, your property tax is automatically 20 percent of house value per year).

The foreigner tax was a farce. Far, far more money has been coming in over the years from investor immigrant programs - ie new Canadians.