A ‘for sale’ sign outside a home in Toronto. Changes planned to Canada’s mortgage rules will take effect Dec. 15, and represent the first significant relaxation of the country’s mortgage rules after more than a decade of increasingly tougher requirements.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of the Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.
Ottawa to ease mortgage rules in bid to help buyers afford pricier homes
Ottawa announced a new set of mortgage rules aimed to make buying a home more attainable for young Canadians. Starting Dec. 15, the price cap for insured mortgages will increase to $1.5-million, up from $1-million. First-time homebuyers will be allowed to take out an insured mortgage with a 30-year amortization for all types of homes. And more buyers will be allowed to take out an insured mortgage with a 30-year amortization on a preconstruction home. Not all investors are eligible. The new policies are seen as an attempt by the Trudeau government to win over young voters who have been priced out of home ownership by high prices and higher interest rates, Rachelle Younglai and Bill Curry report. Industry experts said that the announcement is already attracting prospective buyers back into the market.
Do you have any questions about the new mortgage rules? On Monday, reporters Rachelle Younglai and Erica Alini will host a Q&A to answer how the new rules could affect Canadians’ plans to buy a home. Ask your questions here.
Rogers buys BCE’s stake in MLSE for $4.7-billion
Rogers Communications Inc. announced this week that it is buying out Bell’s 37.5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) for $4.7-billion. The deal would give Rogers 75-per-cent ownership of the sports conglomerate that owns the NHL’s Maple Leafs, NBA’s Raptors, CFL’s Argonauts and MLS’s Toronto FC. The transaction values MLSE at $12.5-billion, setting a new high-water mark for the price of Canadian sports franchises. Why did BCE decide to sell its MLSE stake to arch-rival Rogers? Tim Kiladze reports that BCE CEO Mirko Bibic was under pressure to pay down $39-billion in debt and was forced to sell the prized asset in order to generate some much-needed cash. Meanwhile, Andrew Willis reports on how Rogers secured the MLSE deal.
Decoder: Canadians are heading home earlier from nights out, thanks to high prices
It seems that Canadian consumers are increasingly calling it an early night due to the stiff prices for drinks and the high cost of dining out. In six of Canada’s largest cities, the share of daily transactions made at bars, cafés and restaurants between the hours of 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. shrank during the spring months when compared with the same period in 2022. For example, 38 per cent of transactions that took place at night in Toronto establishments from April to June. That’s down from 41.5 per cent in 2023. High alcohol costs are partly to blame. Jason Kirby takes a closer look at the figures in this week’s Decoder.
Canada’s inflation rate cools to 2% in August, hitting Bank of Canada’s target
Canada’s annual inflation rate cooled to 2 per cent in August, returning to the Bank of Canada’s 2-per-cent target for the first time since 2021. The Statistics Canada Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed a cooling of inflationary pressures on several fronts – a drop in prices of gasoline, telephone services and clothing and footwear. It marks a milestone for central bankers in their journey to restore price stability and a significant moment for the Canadian economy after the worst inflation surge in a generation, Matt Lundy reports. Earlier this week, financial markets were pricing in a roughly 50-50 chance that the Bank of Canada cuts its benchmark interest rate by a half-point at its next meeting on Oct. 23.
TD Bank CEO Bharat Masrani to retire, Raymond Chun to take over
Toronto-Dominion Bank has made many headlines in recent weeks, but the latest news comes from a shakeup within the C-suite. The bank’s current chief executive Bharat Masrani is set to retire, and Raymond Chun – the head of Canadian personal banking – will take over as CEO at the company’s next annual general meeting in April. Canadian bank CEOs tend to retire after a decade and Mr. Masrani has been in the role for 10 years. Mr. Chun’s rise through the ranks of TD Bank has been so rapid that many Bay Street watchers might have missed his ascent, Jameson Berkow reports. It has been barely three years since Mr. Chun first joined TD’s top executive team in 2021. The news comes after Bay Street had been expecting Mr. Masrani to step aside for months in response to TD’s money laundering scandal in the United States.
Canadian employers take an increasingly harder line on returning to the office
Many employers across Canada are taking a harder line on remote work as more start to mandate that staff come into the office a minimum number of days a week, Rachelle Younglai and Clare O’Hara report. Starting this month, the federal government is requiring employees to be in the office three times a week, up from twice a week previously. Meanwhile, in the private sector, Canada Life, Manulife Financial Corp. and Telus Corp. have also increased the number of required in-person days. Employers are threatening to discipline or terminate employees if they refuse to comply, but the move has sparked protests by one of the unions representing federal civil servants. It’s not just Canadian employers – Amazon announced earlier this week that employees will need to be in the office five days a week, starting next year.
The remote-work revolution is hitting resistance as some large Canadian employers ratchet up requirements for their staff to be in the office. For instance, how many days per week must federal civil servants and Canada Life staff now be physically present in the workplace?
a. Two
b. Three
c. Four
d. Five
b. Three. Starting this month, the federal government and Canada Life are requiring employees to be in the office three days per week, up from two previously. Similarly, Telus Corp. has informed call-centre employees they will have to work in person at least three times a week.
Get the rest of the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz here, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.