CANADA’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE APPROACHING ‘WORRYING LEVELS’: SENIOR ECONOMIST
A senior economist at job-search website Indeed says that Canada’s unemployment rate is approaching “worrying levels” as employment growth continues to lag behind the number of new participants in the labour force. “The story really is that the job numbers aren’t keeping up with that soaring size of the labour force and it’s resulting in a weaker employment situation,” Brendon Bernard told BNN Bloomberg in a Friday interview. Bernard’s comments came immediately after Statistics Canada released...
read moreWEEK OF SEPTEMBER 9 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
Ever wondered what a half billion dollars of taxpayer money wasted looks like – well the people of British Columbia are getting pretty familiar with the feeling....
read moreNOVA SCOTIA PROPOSES EXTENDING FIVE PER CENT RENT CAP UNTIL 2027
Nova Scotia introduced a bill Friday to extend the province’s rental cap which currently sits at five per cent per year. The temporary rent increase cap, originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, would be in place until Dec. 31, 2027, according to the proposed bill. “The low vacancy rate in Nova Scotia is creating challenges when it comes to the availability and the choice for tenants to decide where they want to live and how they want to live,” said Service Nova Scotia Minister...
read moreTORONTO CALLS ON RESIDENTS TO WEIGH IN ON A NEW RENOVICTIONS BYLAW
The city of Toronto is set to gather feedback from the public this month on a plan for a new bylaw that would crack down on illegitimate evictions. City staff hope the feedback from both tenants and landlords will help in drafting the renovictions bylaw. Renovictions occur when a landlord illegitimately evicts a tenant, claiming they require a rental unit for renovations or repairs. That can lead to significant rental increases or refusing to allow tenants to return to their homes, according...
read moreBANK OF CANADA’S TIFF MACKLEM FORECASTS RENT DECREASES, BUT RISE IN HOME PRICES IS POSSIBLE
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem says rental prices could come down in Canada, but that does not mean home prices are going to drop. Average monthly rental rates have already started to decline for studio condos across the country. And student housing landlords in university cities such as Kingston have reported a drop in demand after the federal government’s decision to slash the number of study permits available for foreign students. “With mortgage rates coming down, hopefully with more...
read moreWEEK OF SEPTEMBER 2 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
On August 29th, CMHC announced it was halting dividend payments to the federal government – why and what does this mean....
read moreRENT SUPPLEMENT CHANGES COMING AFTER HUNDREDS IN N.S. RECEIVE MORE THAN THEIR ACTUAL RENT
Changes are being made to a joint provincial-federal rent supplement program after hundreds of its clients in Nova Scotia received payments that exceeded their actual rent. The province said about 860 applicants currently receive benefits that are higher than the amount they pay for rent, under the Canada-Nova Scotia Targeted Housing Benefit, a program introduced to help people struggling with rising rental costs during the housing crisis. “I think that’s been going on since the...
read moreAMERICAN INVESTMENT FIRMS POUR BILLIONS INTO CANADIAN REAL ESTATE MARKET
The American real estate titan Hines Interests LP recently announced it is looking to invest $2 billion in Canadian real estate, focusing on apartment rental developments. Hines currently has $3.7 billion in assets under management in Canada. The nearly 70-year-old, privately held company has operated in the country for over two decades and has a mix of commercial and residential projects in its Canadian portfolio. As housing prices in Canada have increased dramatically for several years,...
read moreCANADA TO ROLL OUT NEW STEEL TARIFFS, HOME BUILDING COSTS TO RISE
Canadian home building costs surged as rates were cut, and stimulus fueled record demand. Policymakers assured households that it was just supply shortages and the inflation was transitory. Supply chains will scale up and prices will come down, eventually. That day is finally here for steel. It turns out that was never the goal. Earlier today, the Government of Canada (GoC) announced it will impose import tariffs for steel imported from China, the world’s largest producer. The politics of the...
read moreIMMIGRATION NEEDS TO RETURN TO PRE-TRUDEAU LEVELS TO SLOW POPULATION GROWTH: POILIEVRE
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, currently the favourite to win the next Canadian election, says the country needs to slow its soaring population growth to better align with the growth in housing, jobs and health care. “We have to have smaller population growth, there’s no question about it,” Poilievre told reporters Thursday. He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been adding new residents at “three times the rate of the housing stock.” “We need to have a growth rate that is below the...
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