NEW BRUNSWICK ELECTION: GREENS AND LIBERALS MAKE PLEDGES ABOUT HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Both the Liberals and the Greens announced plans to make housing more affordable if they are elected to govern on Monday. In Fredericton, Green Party Leader David Coon said his party would reform the property tax system to ensure residents are not hit by large property tax or rent increases. Coon said property assessments in New Brunswick continue to soar because they are tied to industrial rates, a system the Greens would change if elected. “No one should ever be taxed out of their home,”...
read morePBO PROJECTS DEFICIT EXCEEDED LIBERALS’ $40B PLEDGE, ECONOMY TO REBOUND IN 2025
The federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below the promised $40-billion cap in the last fiscal year, the parliamentary budget officer said on Thursday. The budget watchdog estimates in its latest economic and fiscal outlook that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year. The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall. “Based on our analysis, the...
read moreFOR THE FIRST TIME IN 25 YEARS, MAJORITY OF CANADIANS SAY THERE IS TOO MUCH IMMIGRATION
Public support for the number of newcomers coming into Canada has declined for the second consecutive year, according to a new national survey, just as Justin Trudeau’s government gets set to announce its new immigration targets. Almost six in 10 Canadians believe Canada accepts too many immigrants, the survey of roughly 2,000 people in September said, an increase of 14 percentage points from last year and 31 percentage points from 2022. “For the first time in a quarter-century, a clear...
read moreWEEK OF OCTOBER 14 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE AND SPECIAL GUEST JILLIAN KATZENBACK
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, join Vanessa Topple and Jillian Katzenback with a preview of the Top Ten rankings according to the 2024 national edition of theANNUAL. To make things more interesting, this preview includes behind the scenes footage and bloopers. Happy...
read moreFEDS LAUNCH MORTGAGE REFINANCING PROGRAM TO BOOST SECONDARY SUITES AND EASE HOUSING CRUNCH
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that starting January 15, 2025, Canadians will be able to access up to 90% of their home’s value through default-insured mortgage refinancing to build secondary suites. This new program marks a revival of a similar initiative that was discontinued in 2016, when the federal government tightened mortgage insurance rules to cool the overheated housing market. The reintroduction of this option is part of a broader effort to address the current...
read moreCONDO INVESTORS PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE IN CANADA’S TIGHT RENTAL MARKET
Statistics Canada’s latest data drop exposes the hidden backbone of Canada’s rental market: investors. Condos built between 2016 and 2022 are increasingly investor-owned, quietly providing lifelines for renters in a housing market desperate for supply. While Toronto is severely lacking in purpose-built rentals, investor-owned condos are bridging a gap that would otherwise leave thousands of people without affordable housing. In the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), encompassing the City...
read more3 HOUSING EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON WHAT’S MISSING IN NEW BRUNSWICK HOUSING POLICY
A rent cap, tax reform and funding for a broader spectrum of housing are three of the keys to solving New Brunswick’s housing woes, according to people with close eyes on the sector. “The crisis is continuing,” said Julia Woodhall-Melnik, a housing researcher with the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. Rents are up about 10 per cent in the last year, encampments have grown around cities and unaffordability has increased in rural areas, she said. Woodhall-Melnik is in...
read moreB.C. ELECTION 2024: 12 HOT TOPICS AND WHERE EACH PARTY STANDS
Wondering who to vote for in the 2024 B.C. election? Here are brief summaries of where the B.C. NDP, Conservative Party of B.C. and Green Party of B.C. stand on 12 major issues, and highlights of what they are promising British Columbians: Affordable housing and rental housing B.C. NDP: The NDP are promising to expand on many policies they have put in place since David Eby became premier, including additional density near transit stations, upzoning single-family lots to allow four to six...
read moreWEEK OF OCTOBER 7 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
This week, AI offered insight to the housing crisis. Will it help solve the crisis, well, no but it does expose issues we’ve been covering for years....
read moreONTARIO’S BIG CITIES SAW INVESTORS BUY UP TO 85% OF CONDOS, FUELED BY GOVERNMENT INCENTIVES
Canadian real estate is increasingly being scooped up by investors, and incentives play a large role. That was the take in the latest report from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) at Statistics Canada (Stat Can). The agency’s latest numbers show that up to 85% of condo apartments in Ontario’s ten largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs) were investor-owned in 2022. More surprisingly, the CHSP attributes this boom in part to large, single corporate investors fueled by government...
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