LAST DAYS OF THE NIMBY: HOW OTTAWA’S HOUSING PUSH IS REWRITING THE RULES OF DEVELOPMENT
Last month, city councillors in Calgary settled in for what would turn out to be the city’s longest-ever public hearing. Over the course of 12 days, more than 700 residents and stakeholders paraded through council chambers at city hall to share their views ahead of a vote on sweeping changes to the city’s zoning rules. The question was whether to implement blanket rezoning that would pave the way for more housing density in the 60 per cent of the city allocated to single-family dwellings. An...
read moreWEEK OF MAY 20 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
CMHC released its annual report. The report showed how its meeting the mandates of the NHS which is the 10-year plan launched in 2017 by the federal government. So, what are we to draw from their conclusions – well like the housing crisis we’re in – government intervention is having an impact on the results.
read moreLARGE HALIFAX LANDLORDS REPORT DOUBLE-DIGIT OPERATING INCOME GROWTH IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2024
Two landlords owning thousands of apartments in Halifax have reported strong growth for the first three months of 2024 in net operating income, or revenues after subtracting the expenses of operating a building. In its latest public financial reports released last week, Killam Apartment REIT reported about $15.24 million in net operating income for its Halifax apartments — an increase of nearly 12 per cent versus last year. Meanwhile, CAPREIT reported a nearly 14 per cent increase to about...
read moreONTARIO’S ECONOMY TO SEE WORST NON-RECESSION GROWTH SINCE EARLY 80S: FAO
Canada’s largest provincial economy is unlikely to be the driver of an economic boom any time soon. The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) of Ontario released its economic and budget outlook for 2024, and it was not very rosy. The non-partisan government agency, tasked with providing the public with independent analysis and forecasts of the economy, says the province has been significantly underperforming global growth. Ontario’s economy is forecast to expand at one of the slowest rates in...
read morePROVINCE GRANTS VANCOUVER’S REQUEST TO CAP RENT HIKES IN SROS
The B.C. government will grant the City of Vancouver’s request to implement so-called “vacancy control” on single-room occupancy buildings.The province’s move, which Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon called an “urgent action to reduce the displacement of vulnerable tenants” in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, was welcomed by both housing activists and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim. The City of Vancouver contacted the province earlier this year to make an urgent request, Kahlon said, raising “serious...
read moreBROAD SUPPORT FOR SASKATOON’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING PLAN, BUT LANDLORD GROUP OFFERS WARNING
An affordable housing program with faults is better than no program at all, a city hall committee heard while discussing how Saskatoon will distribute $41.3 million from Ottawa’s housing accelerator fund. “No funding formula is perfect. We’ll take what we can get,” said Angela Bishop, board chair of the Camponi Housing Corporation, a Métis-led non-profit. Bishop told the committee Camponi has a shovel-ready project waiting for funding and more than 300 families on the...
read moreWEEK OF MAY 13 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
The fight between the Federal government and the Ontario government over affordable housing funding took a negative turn this week.
read moreKINGSTON CITY COUNCIL LOOKS AT NEW PLAN TO IMPROVE LOCAL RENTAL MARKET
Kingston city council is set to discuss a new plan aimed at improving the city’s rental market and opening up affordable rental units across town. The Rental Housing Community Improvement Plan is a new approach that city officials are hoping to take in order to address the local housing crisis. Outlined in a report that will be tabled to council on Tuesday, the plan includes offering tax grants and exemptions to vacant property owners in order to incentivize them to build multi-unit...
read moreIMMIGRATION-FUELLED GROWTH HITS THE HOUSING CRISIS WALL IN CANADA, AROUND THE WORLD
Across much of the developed world, one of the most dependable drivers of economic growth is faltering. For decades, the rapid inflow of migrants helped countries including Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom stave off the demographic drag from aging populations and falling birth rates. That’s now breaking down as a surge of arrivals since borders reopened after the pandemic runs headlong into a chronic shortage of homes to accommodate them. Canada and Australia have escaped recession...
read morePOPULATION BOOM HITS LIVING STANDARDS IN CANADA’S OIL PROVINCE
Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta saw its economy shrink to 2004 levels on a per-person basis as the region’s population swelled, according to economist Charles St-Arnaud. Alberta’s gross domestic product per capita fell 2.2 per cent in 2023, the second-fastest decline out of any Canadian province, St-Arnaud, chief economist at the Alberta Central association of credit unions, said in a note to investors. The drop was driven by population growth of 4.1 per cent, well outpacing the 1.5 per...
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