B.C. condo marketer Bob Rennie accused of advance knowledge of foreign real estate buyer tax

The B.C.NDP is accusing the province's top condo marketer, Bob Rennie, of gettingadvance notice ona new 15-per cent tax on foreign homebuyers but Rennie is adamantly denying the allegation.

In a letter to Premier Christy Clark, Eby said it was "easy to speculate" why the government would do such a thing: Rennie is the chair of the B.C. Liberals'fundraising committee but also the so-called "Condo King" and an influential real estate marketer.

"This information is highly valuable," Eby said on Tuesday. "He's almost uniquely positioned to profit from the information, [which] raises a whole lot of questions: who told Mr. Rennie, did he use the information, did he act on it, did he tell anyone else?"

"If this had been stocks, and Mr. Rennie had received this information, someone would be reviewing his stock transactions to make sure he didn't profit."

Eby said he wants a full investigation to be conducted, but Renniesaidthe accusations are baseless.

"I did not have or was given any advance knowledge on the foreign buyer tax,"Renniesaid in a statement. "Any speculation to the contrary is untrue."

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Rennie denies accusations

Eby based his accusations on aGlobe and Mailarticlewritten by journalist Mike Hager, in whichRennie seems to say, in a paraphrased quote, he had a three-week heads up on the new tax.

Hager told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn thatRennie'sexact words, as recorded by his colleague and article co-writer Frances Bula, were:

"Three weeks ago, I knew there was going to be a tax on foreign ownership. I didn't know it would be 15 per cent, I thought it would be fivetoeight percent. All the polling showed people were frantic and wanted a tax on foreign ownership."

Hager saidafter the article was published and Eby called a press conference demanding an investigation about what Rennie knew, Rennie called him up and said he was using the word "knew" in a figurative sense and was instead merely speculating.

Bula could not be reached for comment. Hager saidhe stands by her work.

Premier Christy Clark said very few people knew about the tax and those whodid were sworn to secrecy.

The Ministry of Finance, in a statement, saidthe tax was developed "with all appropriate confidentiality measures in place."

"The Ministry of Finance provided no advance information regarding this measure to anyone except those officials within government who were directly involved in the development and implementation of the legislation and tax measure," the statement read.

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast