B.C. Renters Face Biggest Rate Hikes In A Decade
An extra $1,080 a year on a median one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver. The B.C. government has released its 2019 rental guidelines dictating exactly how much landlords can hike the rent by, and tenants may want to brace themselves. The maximum allowable rental increase for 2019 is 4.5 per cent, up from this year’s cap of four per cent and the biggest allowable increase since 2004, when hikes were limited at 4.6 per cent. The rental increase is based on the provincial government’s...
read moreMexico Goes to U.S. to Advance Nafta Deal With or Without Canada
Mexico’s chief Nafta negotiator headed to Washington as the nation reiterated that it’s prepared to pursue a new bilateral trade deal with the U.S. even if it ends up leaving out Canada. Kenneth Smith Ramos and his team plan to work on wording of the U.S.-Mexico trade agreement that President Donald Trump intends to sign by the end of November. His visit is the first by a high-level Mexican negotiator since the two nations announced a framework deal at the end of August. Meanwhile, Canadian...
read moreGreenhouse growers uproot other crops for a stake in lucrative cannabis market
LINCOLN, Ont. — Inside this southern Ontario greenhouse, workers delicately clip each stem of a potted orchid onto thin, black stakes jutting out from its soil, marking the finishing touches on the final floral harvest before turning over a new leaf: marijuana. The Lincoln, Ont. facility, which was purchased by Newstrike Resources Ltd. last year and will be filled with cannabis plants in the coming months, is one of many across Canada where traditional crops are being uprooted as...
read moreOntario urges Morneau to be ‘bold’ amid competitiveness fears
Two members of Doug Ford’s cabinet are urging Finance Minister Bill Morneau to take “bold action” in his fall economic update to address a drumbeat of warnings about eroding Canadian competitiveness, according to a letter exclusively obtained by BNN Bloomberg. Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli and Jim Wilson, the province’s minister of economic development, sent a letter to their federal counterparts on Friday urging them to focus on capital investment expensing as a...
read moreBelleville: Housing Crisis Main Theme of Mayoral All-Candidates
Belleville Mayoral candidates will face residential landlords in the Quinte region at an upcoming all candidates meeting. The Quinte Region Landlord Association is hosting a Belleville mayoral all candidates meeting on Monday September 24 6:30pm in Belleville. The main theme of the meeting will be the local housing crisis and how landlords are being handcuffed by government policy to improve the situation. “We have a lot of upset members who would like to ask about key municipal issues which...
read moreCanada’s Unemployment Rate Jumps To 6% As Country Sheds 52,000 Jobs
Ontario led the way with a very large loss of 80,000 jobs. The momentum in Canada’s job market is fading. The country’s unemployment rate rose to 6 per cent in August, from a four-decade low of 5.8 per cent the month before, recording a surprise loss of 51,600 jobs, Statistics Canada said Friday. Economists had been expecting an increase of around 5,000 jobs for the month. The losses almost completely erased the 54,000 jobs created in July. Ontario led August’s drop, shedding...
read moreRent control is doing little to curb Toronto’s soaring rents
Do stricter rent control laws slow the increase in residential rents? Housing advocates and left-leaning governments believe they do. However, recent data from Ontario appears to offer further proof that this is not the case. In April 2017, Ontario’s then-Liberal government introduced the Rental Fairness Act, which expanded rent control to all private rental units. The Act restricted rent increases to 1.5 per cent in 2017 and introduced additional provisions to protect tenants from being...
read moreBank of Canada holds interest rate at 1.5% amid NAFTA negotiations
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz held borrowing costs steady Wednesday as policy makers await the outcome of NAFTA negotiations, but reiterated “gradual” hikes will eventually be warranted because the economy is at capacity. The Ottawa-based central bank left its overnight benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.5 per cent on Wednesday, as expected by 20 of 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey, after raising a quarter percentage point at its last decision in July. The statement introduces...
read morePhasing in Energy Efficiency: Why Your Multifamily Building Needs Fixed Over Slider Windows
The average aluminum window cannot outlast the economic life of an apartment building. As such, building owners will look at replacing their windows at least once within the building’s first 50 years of existence. The landlord benefits from energy savings due to less air leakage through the windows and tenants are able to live more comfortably with a more air tight seal. Aluminum sliding windows are being phased out for a window that captures the best of both worlds: great ventilation and even...
read moreRentals.ca August 2018 Rent Report
While the media often talks about the skyrocketing rent prices in Vancouver and Toronto, in August, most major Canadian cities saw a drop or a minor increase month-over-month. The largest jumps were actually in suburban communities and smaller cities. Aside from Halifax – where rent has crept up for one bedrooms – the East Coast is holding steady. National Rankings Looking at housing in terms of overall rental prices rather than rent increases and decreases, it’s clear that Toronto and...
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