Law Preventing Non-Canadians From Buying a Home: Legault Government Concerned

Legault’s government is concerned about collateral damage from a new federal law that prohibits non-Canadians from buying residential buildings for immigrants who choose Quebec. Minister Christine Frechette does not intend to sit idly by.

• Also read: The federal government must prioritize Francophone immigrant files, according to Minister Christine Frechette

“It’s a stick in the wheels of people who want to live and work here,” said its spokesman Alexander Hague.

The federal legislation, which took effect on January 1, is intended to combat real estate speculation by foreign investors, which inflates home prices. But he is punishing immigrants already well-established on his heels who want to buy a house to live in.

Such is the case of Anne Boyan and her young family, who arrived from France last April and saw that their dream of becoming landlords had failed. Despite the signed pre-holiday purchase pledge, an employee who works as a nurse in a hospital post will not be able to obtain a semi-detached house, located a few steps from her children’s school.

And she is not the only one. Only in Desjardins, one hundred buyers are affected by this new law.

“These are French-speaking people who want to live in Quebec in French,” the minister’s office in Quebec insists.

Christine Frechette is due to meet soon with her federal counterpart, Sean Fraser. The topic will be on the agenda. “We find that worrying. We will inform him of our concerns about this situation.

Already, in Ottawa, both the Bloc Québécois and the NDP have asked Justin Trudeau’s government to go back to the drawing board. According to them, the new law misses its target and requires swift regulatory amendments in order to target foreign real estate speculators only.

Bloc Quebec MP Gabriel St-Marie argued, “This law was intended to attack speculators, not families and individuals who aim to make a living in Quebec and contribute to our society.”