Americans should be exempt from Canada's foreign housing tax, members of U.S. Congress say

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is urging the State Department to ask that Americans be exempted from Canada's tax on foreign property owners.

The group has written to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to complain that Ottawa is unfairly punishing U.S. citizens who own vacation properties north of the border. 

The so-called underused housing tax took effect at the start of the year to discourage foreign real estate speculators from driving up housing prices. 

But 11 members of Congress from six different states — Democrats and Republicans alike — say it's unjust to require U.S. cottage owners to pay the one per cent levy.