"Why would a permanent residents/investors declare themselves as foreigners?"

Hello?

A better question is this: Why does the Canadian media hide, from Canadians, how much OVERSEAS MONEY is flooding into real estate here?

You realize, right, that money from foreign buyers (holding a foreign passport) is a fraction of the total amount of overseas money flooding into Canada's housing market?

And you realize, right, that Prime Ministers from the 1980s to today have been opening those floodgates to maximum width, for overseas money to flood in?