The office of B.C. Premier John Horgan is disputing a claim made by Langford's mayor that he was threatened over his attempt to get the city exempted from the controversial speculation tax.

Stew Young said Thursday that he planned to add letters from community members concerned over the speculation tax to a council agenda last year.

But he claimed that an economist working for the province on the tax caught wind of the letters, and warned him against putting them forward.

"He said if you put these letters on your council agenda, you will never get out of the spec tax. So I put them on my council agenda after that meeting, because I had to," Young said on CFAX 1070. "And guess what? Langford is not out. So is that not a threat? Is that not how this finance ministry deals with people?"

Two other sources including business owner Blake MacKenzie backed up Young's claims that he was threatened.

"It got to a weird point," McKenzie told CTV News. "He kind of just put his pen down and kind of sat back and said 'We're not going to be able to help you if you're going to take this public, and you're not going to get what you're looking for if this is what happens.' It was a warning."

But in a statement to CTV News, the premier's office put forward a different recollection of the meeting.

"Clearly the mayor misinterpreted the staff person's comments," the statement said. "Two longtime civil servants that were present at the meeting confirmed that there were no inappropriate comments made. While the Mayor made his disagreement with the policy known, all government staff conducted themselves in a professional manner."

When presented with the statement Friday, Young did not change his story.

"The lies coming out of the ministry's office, I'm appalled by," he said.

The ministry says the regions covered by the speculation and vacancy tax were selected solely because they are the largest urban centres with the most significant housing affordability challenges.

The tax targets those with more than one home that leave a property empty for most of the year. On a $1-million house, B.C. residents could face a $5,000 bill.

Langford property owners, along with more than a million other homeowners in B.C., will soon get a letter that will tell them how they could opt out of the tax.