Montreal prices accelerate as sales reach new record
Home prices in Montreal continued to grow as sales reached new heights last month, according to the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board. The median price of a single-family home in the market increased by 7% on a year-over-year basis in December, reaching $327,450. Meanwhile, the median price of plexes grew by 8% during the same time frame to settle at $525,000, and that of condos by 3% to $272,863. These coincided with the market’s achievement of a new home sales record for December, growing...
read morePremier Doug Ford To Attend North American International Auto Show In Detroit
Ontario’s Government for the People is taking the message to global auto industry leaders that Ontario is open for business. Premier Doug Ford and Todd Smith, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, announced they will attend the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. While there, they will meet with executives from the world’s leading auto manufacturers as well as labour representatives, and make it clear that Ontario is open for business....
read moreWebequie First Nation completes multiple housing projects
The federal government announced the completion of recent housing projects in the indigenous community of Webequie First Nation in Ontario. Bob Naulat, MP for Kenora, on behalf of the Jane Philpott, Minister of Indigenous Services, joined Chief Cornelius Wabasse and the community of Webequie First Nation to celebrate the completion of several recent housing projects. These include 14 new modular homes, two new four-plexes, five single-family homes, and renovations to 14 existing homes. The...
read moreThese could be the world’s biggest economies by 2030
Seven of the world’s top 10 economies by 2030 will likely be current emerging markets. The prediction for a shake-up of the world’s gross domestic product rankings comes in new long-term forecasts by Standard Chartered Plc, which includes a projection for China to become the largest economy by 2020, using purchasing power parity exchange rates and nominal GDP. India will likely be larger than the U.S. in the same time period while Indonesia will break into the top 5 economies. “Our...
read moreCalgary housing market ‘remarkably resilient’ despite low oil prices
Calgary’s housing market has fared fairly well despite record-low oil prices that have plagued the country’s energy sector in recent months, according to real estate firm Royal LePage. “Calgary [has been] remarkably resilient in one way,” Phil Soper, the president and chief executive officer of Royal LePage told BNN Bloomberg in an interview Friday, noting prices are about 10 per cent off their 2014 peak. In its latest home price survey released Friday, Royal LePage said all cities in Alberta...
read morePot Sector Focus Shifts From Legalization to Legitimacy
After a wild year for the cannabis sector, it’s appropriate that 2019 kicks off with a focus on Aphria Inc., the Canadian pot producer that was attacked by short sellers and is now the target of a hostile takeover bid. Aphria reports results for the fiscal second quarter on Jan. 11, and there will undoubtedly be plenty of questions on the conference call about the allegations from short sellers that it overpaid for “worthless” assets in Latin America. Aphria called the claims by Quintessential...
read moreAmazon should disrupt gas stations, says Wall Street’s biggest bull
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN.O 5.01%) is a dominant player in industries as diverse as cloud computing, streaming media, and of course e-commerce, but the next business it should set its sights on is decidedly more old fashioned: gas stations. That view comes courtesy of DA Davidson, which wrote that the company could benefit from expanding its portfolio of physical stores — which already includes “pop-up” stores and the Whole Foods grocery chain — as “another means for it to advance its...
read moreEconomists renew prediction for lower interest rates for Canada in 2019
Ahead of the Bank of Canada’s first policy meeting of the year, scheduled for next week, Capital Economics is back at it again. The notoriously bearish economic research firm is predicting, once more, that the central bank will slash interest rates this year. It’s the exact opposite of what most observers are calling for. “For now, as we expect the Bank’s forecasts to be… more upbeat than our own, we would not be surprised if the Bank of Canada continues to argue that it needs to raise...
read more‘Less than meets the eye’: Canada adds 9,300 jobs amid weak wages
The country’s unemployment rate stuck to its 43-year low of 5.6 per cent last month as the economy closed out 2018 by adding 9,300 net new jobs, Statistics Canada said Friday. But even in a job market that has tightened over the past year the agency’s latest data release shows the key indicator of wage growth continued to show weakness in December. Year-over-year average hourly wage growth for permanent employees was 1.49 per cent — up slightly from its November reading of...
read moreCPP and corporate income tax changes
Effective January 1, 2019, employers of all sizes need to deduct a slightly larger contribution to the Canada Pension Plan from their employees’ paycheques, and to make a slightly larger employer contribution themselves. The contribution rate is up from 4.95% to 5.10%, the same as the new employer’s contribution. The federal Finance Department estimates that the average additional contribution will be $81 per year from each of the employee and the employer. In gradual increments, the...
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