BC has relatively low property taxes for the area. But you can't raise them now or all the current homeowners would revolt as their taxes goes to unsustainable levels. Nearby seattle's king county has a tax rate of %1, texas has rates around %2, while saanich is %0.4. The UK doesn't even really have property taxes, just council taxes which charge flat rates for things like garbage collection AFAIK.
http://www.saanich.ca/assets/Community/Documents/Property~Ta...
You also cannot just say 'recently foreign buyers pay a higher tax continuously' due to various obvious discrimination and unfairness issues as these people convert into citizens. So you get stuff like the unoccupied residence tax (which should triple IMO to make it exceed texas's property tax rates) and the foreign purchase tax.
I think fears of racism is what partly delayed a lot action that has happened recently. This has been an issue 10-15 years in the making at the least.
My goal would be to eventually raise property taxes to make them negative investments unless rented out on an active basis, and divert those new taxes into something like the singaporean HBD flats.