BROAD 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...
read moreLANDLORDS SIGN ON TO HALIFAX’S NEW RENTAL REGISTRY, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF UNITS LISTED
The deadline for landlords in the Halifax Regional Municipality to register their rental properties has come and gone, with tens of thousands of units now catalogued under a long-awaited new bylaw. The municipality said 10,360 registrations have been received so far, representing 66,590 rental units. Since the April 1 deadline, no landlords have been fined for failing to comply with the mandatory registry. Brynn Budden, a spokesperson for HRM, said staff are using an education-based approach...
read moreWEEK OF MAY 6 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
The capital gains tax debate – is it really a debate? We analyze and include historical perspectives.
read moreA GROUP OF TENANTS HAVE BEEN ON A RENT STRIKE FOR A YEAR AND SAY THERE’S NO RESOLUTION IN SIGHT
Dozens of Dozens of tenants of Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park area have now been withholding their rent for one year, and it’s unclear when the dispute will end. Last May, approximately 100 households at 71, 75, and 79 Thorncliffe Park Dr. launched a rent strike after they said that their landlord refused to withdraw applications for an above-guideline rent increase. Starlight Investments, which co-owns the buildings in question with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP...
read moreCANADIAN RENTERS NOT CONFIDENT TRUDEAU’S POLICY WILL EASE HOUSING CRISIS: POLL
Canadian renters are not confident in Trudeau’s housing policy outlined in the latest federal budget, a new poll says. A majority of respondents are aware of the Liberal government’s housing measures but most were either not confident in or unsure about its ability to ease housing woes, according to the survey, carried out by rentals.ca. “While there is a clear recognition of the government’s efforts, the prevailing skepticism and concern among renters highlight the challenges ahead,” the...
read moreCMHC REVEALS HOUSING MARKET OUTLOOK FOR 2024
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has released its highly anticipated Housing Market Outlook, offering a bleak forecast for the housing market, with rising costs and shrinking supply set to create significant challenges, especially for renters. The CMHC report traces the current affordability issues back to interest rate hikes implemented in 2022 to combat inflation. While necessary for macroeconomic stability, these hikes have eroded affordability for potential homebuyers....
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