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OTTAWA – Federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will represent Canada at former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s state funeral this week.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was scheduled to visit Japan and attend Tuesday’s funeral, but cancelled those plans to oversee recovery efforts after post-tropical storm Fiona ravaged much of eastern Canada and parts of Quebec.Describing Abe as a friend and ally of Canada, Champagne says the former Japanese prime minister played an important role bringing the two countries closer together.Trudeau was slated to meet current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as Japan prepares to take over as president of the G7 and the Liberal government finalizes its new Indo-Pacific strategy.In an interview with The Canadian Press, Champagne says he doesn’t know if he will meet Kishida on behalf of Trudeau.But he says in addition to paying respects to Abe, he expects to meet Japanese officials to discuss the bilateral relationship and areas of mutual co-operation.“Certainly, I think Prime Minister Kishida knows how deeply engaged we have been, certainly on the industrial, commercial and economic front,” he said.“And we’ll be meeting with a number of people. I just don’t know if the meeting with the prime minister will still be happening.”Champagne was in Japan delivering a speech to business representatives in Tokyo when Abe was assassinated by a gunman in July.The industry minister says it was a surreal moment when he learned the former Japanese prime minister had been killed.“I was literally giving a speech,” Champagne said. “I was like three-quarters into it and suddenly I started to see people looking at their phones. And someone came to the podium and advised me that something very tragic had happened.”Abe’s state funeral is a sensitive topic in Japan, where such memorials are uncommon and the late leader’s legacy remains disputed.Abe, a conservative nationalist in a country that embraced pacifism after the Second World War, was assassinated with a homemade firearm nearly three months ago.In a reflection of deep divisions, an elderly man reportedly set himself on fire to protest the funeral, and more demonstrations are expected in the coming days.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2022.⁠— With files from The Associated Press.SHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)Sign InRegisterConversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the

TORONTO – A few weeks ago, Carly Soares needed a dress for a wedding and fast.“I tried going shopping at the mall, but noticed there was a scarce collection of formal dresses,” the 30-year-old said. “It was actually very surprising. It’s still the pandemic-loungewear kind of vibe throughout a lot of retail stores.”The dresses she did come across were either too casual or too expensive, so she decided to rent one from a dress rental boutique, something she had never tried before.And after a positive first experience, Soares said she would definitely do it again.Clothing rental has become more mainstream over the last decade with the rise of the sharing economy, but the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t kind to these types of retailers.As pandemic restrictions lifted, however, some Canadian rental businesses saw a boost in traffic.While experts believe there is still more opportunity in the space, they are warning that growth might be subdued as Canadians change their shopping habits and priorities in an environment of hot inflation and rising interest rates. There are other challenges as well, including getting more people on board with the idea of essentially sharing clothes, people’s mindset around the type of clothing suitable for rewear, environmentally-conscious consumers questioning how environmentally-friendly fashion rental truly is, and the logistics of inventory.“We’ve been conditioned to purchase something, wear it, throw it out. Changing that to appreciate that rental opportunity is something that does take quite a lot of time,” said Daniel Drak, assistant professor at the Parsons School of Design.One of the most prominent clothing rental businesses, if not the most, is U.S.-based Rent the Runway, founded in 2009, which quickly became a hit with women who wanted access to designer clothing but didn’t want to spend tons of money on outfits they might wear once or twice.In Canada, a rush of new clothing rental businesses began popping up in the years leading up to the pandemic, offering everything from special occasion wear to workwear to maternity wear to everyday wear, but like many companies in the small business retail sector, getting through the last two years was a challenge.Canadian companies like Rent Frock Repeat, workwear rental business Dresst and Montreal’s Station Service have all ended their run over the last couple of years.It’s a “very challenging” market to be in, said Julie Kalinowski CEO of Toronto-based The Fitzroy, which offers special occasion dress rentals at a more affordable price.According to Drak, Gen Z will be the generation that really moves the industry forward because of their excitement around shopping resale, whether it’s for economic reasons, aiming to reduce clothing waste or to find one-of-a-kind pieces.He said now is the time for existing and emerging Canadian clothing rental businesses to lean into that popularity and make resale a part of their business model, which some have started to do.The global resale apparel market was valued at US$14 billion last year, according to Statista, and is projected to grow to US$51 billion by 2026.Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) assistant professor Anika Kozlowski said making genuine efforts to reduce clothing waste and reduce emissions stemming from clothing production, and operating as a local business in order to do so, might also be a good strategy, especially considering Canada’s smaller population.This would involve a strong understanding of the community the business operates in, the use of high-quality Canada-made items from ethical brands, finding ways to clean and repair clothes in a way that isn’t harmful to the environment, and avoiding long-distance shipping.That’s something Blyth Gill is working on with Vancouver-based Tradle, an e-commerce baby clothing subscription business that allows parents to rent and exchange clothes for each growth spurt.“Because babies outgrow clothes quickly, the need to have and exchange clothes has a really short cycle,” he said.Tradle works with local, high-quality brands, avoiding fast fashion brands. And when the clothes can no longer be reused, they won’t be thrown away, but instead recycled or broken down.The company launched right before the pandemic, which Gill said was definitely a learning experience.“Naturally, when we didn’t know as much about COVID-19, people were probably thinking, ‘sharing clothes? I don’t know,’” he said.But Gill said he’s happy that phase is now behind them and is excited for the next stage of the business’ growth.The Fitzroy’s Kalinowski is quite optimistic as well.“Since the last reopening, it’s been crazy, it’s been a boom, it’s been probably our best sales yet. It’s been a big year for weddings, all the events are back on, all the galas are back on. We just had the Toronto International Film Festival, one of our busiest weeks. So it’s been crazy busy.”Gabriella Iamundo, 31, uses fashion rental for special occasion wear, but doesn’t really see herself using it for everyday clothing, athleisure wear or workwear, or subscribing to a service, a sentiment TMU’s Kozlowski said is likely pretty common across the board.“I rented (special occasion wear) for the first time probably four or five years ago, maybe a little bit longer than that, and it just became something I thought was good for events,” Iamundo said.“To be honest, it’s pretty common in my circle of friends to check (rental services) out to at least see what the options are, especially before having to go buy something.”When looking further ahead, Parsons’ Drak sees bigger, traditional brands starting their own rental segments – which U.S.-founded Urban Outfitters has done – or acquiring existing businesses in the space, which would shake up the market.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2022.SHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. 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TORONTO – Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week:MarketsStock markets in Canada and the U.S. were under pressure last week after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point and forecast more hikes are to come. Investors will be watching to see where markets go now.Dye & Durham resultsDye & Durham Ltd. will release its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results after the close of markets on Monday and hold a conference call with investors. The company called off its proposed acquisition of Australian company Link Group last week, but said it has a “robust pipeline” of merger and acquisition opportunities.Railway hearingsThe U.S. Surface Transportation Board will hold three days of hearings starting on Wednesday into the proposed merger between Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Kansas City Southern Railway Co. The public hearings will be held at the board’s headquarters in Washington.GDP reportStatistics Canada will release its figures for gross domestic product by industry for July on Thursday. The initial estimate for the month suggested real GDP edged down by 0.1 per cent for the month as output fell in the manufacturing, wholesale, retail trade and utilities sectors.Travel changesThe federal cabinet order enforcing mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirements at the Canadian border is set to expire on Friday. Current border restrictions mean most foreign nationals are not allowed to travel to Canada unless they have completed a primary series of an approved COVID-19 vaccine, unless they qualify for an exception.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2022.Companies in this story: (TSX:DND, TSX:CP)SHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)Sign InRegisterConversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the

By definition, personal savings is the difference between personal disposable income and personal consumption expenditure. Therefore, savings is the residual — what’s left of one’s disposable income after satisfying one’s consumption needs.So even if it sounds like a truism, a saver is someone who has the capacity to save. That is, someone with relatively high disposable income — an income in excess of what they need to satisfy their basic, and not-so-basic, consumption needs.Consequently, those unable to save are the ones with relatively low disposable income — an income sometimes short of what they need to satisfy even their relatively lower consumption needs. And among this group of non-savers, some may even have to go into debt to satisfy their consumption needs while others may be forced to reduce their consumption to levels most may consider unacceptable.Now, when there is inflation, everyone is affected independently of their incomes. Indeed, inflation reduces everyone’s real disposable income — that is, income’s purchasing power falls with inflation.Mind you, not all are affected in the same way.On the one hand, individuals with relatively high disposable income do not need to reduce their consumption levels when prices go up. Actually, they will be able to continue consuming as much as before — although paying more now, and thus saving less.On the other hand, some lower-income individuals may need to go deeper into debt to maintain their levels of consumption, while others may have to reduce their levels even further.Therefore, it appears that inflation hurts low-income individuals the most — and this is the group that will benefit from the $4.6-billion inflation-relief package recently announced by the federal government.While not surprising, some conservative commentators and politicians’ reaction to this government support initiative seems misguided. Believing that inflation is always due to too much money chasing too few goods, their reaction was as expected. For instance, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is on the record saying that the “problem with spending more money as a solution to inflation is that it simply pours more gasoline on the inflationary fire.”Poilievre is right that the government package is not a solution to the inflation problem. But, in any case, it doesn’t pretend to be either. It’s just a relief package, a Band-Aid. In other words, it simply intends to alleviate the impact of inflation on the most vulnerable members of society.But if this package is not a solution to today’s inflation problem, neither is raising the rate of interest. We must understand that the source of today’s inflation is neither excess demand nor undue wage increases, and thus today’s inflation is not a job for the Bank of Canada. Hence, with its tight monetary policy, the Bank is not attacking the domestic source of inflation — namely, profiteering by large corporations — while pulling the economy into an unnecessary recession.And without a doubt, interest rates hikes will worsen the situation of lower-income Canadians the most. Indeed, those let go first in a recession are usually the less skilled, lower-wage workers. Additionally, by increasing debt-service costs, higher interest rates contribute to reducing further the standard of living of indebted low-wage workers.At the same time, higher rates of interest benefit the savers — that is, those higher-income Canadians with capacity to save. Indeed, higher interest rates contribute to increasing their incomes, thus helping to offset some of the cost inflation may have imposed on them. At the end, interest rate hikes translate into an income transfer from borrowers to lenders, a redistribution of income towards the rentier class.But Poilievre is right that the $4.6-billion package represents an injection of new money in the economy — as it’s always the case with any government expenditure. But this is a very small addition, representing just 0.2 per cent of GDP — so it cannot fuel inflation in any significant way, if at all. And Poilievre’s argument is not that lower-income Canadians do not deserve to be helped during these difficult times — rather, he implies that by raising inflation the government package will somehow make their situations worse.Mmmm … doesn’t this sound rather familiar? Doesn’t it remind you of the argument against minimum wage increases because they would reduce employment and harm those intended to be helped? Oh, it does.However, if the intention is to alleviate lower income Canadians from the harm of inflation, why doesn’t the government listen to conservative criticism and implement this relief package without increasing the amount of money circulating in the economy? That is, if the package implies an injection of $4.6-billion of “new” money, why doesn’t the government remove at the same time $4.6-billion of “old” money from the economy? This way, the inflation-relief package would not pour “more gasoline on the inflationary fire.”And if any government expenditure represents an injection of “new” money, any government tax represents a withdrawal of “old” money. Therefore, I would propose to finance this relief package with a tax increase on those who, in addition to being the least affected by inflation, also benefit the most by the increase in interest rates — that is, a higher tax on the high-income Canadian savers.Mmmm … that’s an idea. But no doubt an idea that conservatives like Poilievre will dislike even more.Gustavo Indart is a professor emeritus in the economics department at University of Toronto.SHARE:

Despite the challenges facing Ontario’s health-care system more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the president and CEO of Toronto’s biggest hospital network remains remarkably optimistic.“It’s been a very, very trying time,” says University Health Network president and CEO Kevin Smith. “Obviously, the shortage of nurses has been at the forefront of this discussion.”But UHN is coming out of the pandemic’s first two years in a decent financial position thanks to the provincial government’s help, Smith says. “They’ve made us whole throughout COVID,” Smith says. “We haven’t had to worry nearly as much about losing funding.” Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospital, as well as the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and the Michener Institute of Education all comprise the University Health Network. Like a university spread across several campuses, each of these facilities operates under the same executive leadership team — with Smith at its head. Shoring up the province’s health-care system won’t be easy. Ontarians are worried about the possibility of an increasingly privatized system, and Queen’s Park’s attempt to free up hospital beds — Bill 7 — will allow for the transfer of elderly hospital patients to nursing homes not of their choosing.But Smith believes there is a way for UHN, and Canada’s health-care system as a whole, to move forward in spite of COVID’s many lasting obstacles. He spoke to the Star about nursing agencies, how the University Health Network’s two foundations stepped in during the pandemic, and his thoughts on the health-care privatization debate: I’m sure you have a lot of worries on your mind. What’s one that is keeping you up at night that folks outside the health-care system might not understand?I think the biggest worry I have is a two-edged sword. How do we get people who need care what they need in a timely fashion? A number of the multi-organ transplant patients that, 10 years ago, wouldn’t have survived are living vibrant lives today because of programs at University Health Network. They’re among the best outcomes in the world. That’s fantastic.But at the same time, we’re creating this huge population of patients who will need very specialized care for the rest of their lives. Historically, we haven’t built a system like that. People have had shorter life expectancies and haven’t had as many comorbid diseases. How will we manage to continue to care for those individuals, while meeting the needs of new patients and not generating adequate numbers of medical graduates to do the work?Where do you look for inspiration to solve those problems? I find solace talking to colleagues. I hosted Gianrico Farrugia, the CEO of the Mayo Clinic, last week. We both appear on the list of top 10 hospitals of the world. I was heartened by the fact that the issues Gianrico and his colleagues are struggling with are identical to ours. They have a different funding system. They have different issues around equity and access. But when it comes to the challenges of operating a health system and caring for individuals, there is no difference whatsoever. Do they have the same issues around hiring nurses?They absolutely do. We are also both seeing that even if nurses are willing to stay in the clinical workforce, many are suggesting they want to work in a less clinically intensive environment. And then, of course, there are a large number of clinic staff who would rather work in an agency world where they have more control over their schedule.This is not unique to Canada at all. I can’t take you to a perfect health-care system anywhere in the world, and I wish I could. There are trade-offs, and Canada made some choices on trade-offs in different ways. We have among the best outcomes in the world, which is great. The problems we have are consistent with the other G7 and G15 countries in terms of health-care access, quality and cost.Is there anything more that UHN can do to hire and retain nurses permanently without resorting to agencies?I think there is. We’ve put together a task force to focus on those big problems of health care with human resources, particularly in nursing. I had a meeting with our leadership team that is working with our ethics professionals to ask where we can legitimately recruit nurses from without damaging the health status of places that might be in a worse shape than Canada. There are jurisdictions in the world that overproduce nurses for export — Cuba would be one environment.We’re actively engaging in international recruitment and working with the Canadian government to fast-track candidates. We’re actively looking in refugee environments where those who are trained as nurses can be rapidly processed as refugees and then evaluated against North American practice standards. Concurrently, we’re also looking at extending some of the regulated providers. What is it that nurses still do that perhaps others who are less highly trained and skilled than nurses could be trained to do?And then lastly, but certainly not least, it’s a very exciting time in health care to think about technology, digital health, artificial intelligence, and home-based care. If we could get patients treated for what historically might have been treated in hospital, that means we can get more done in an acute care environment.There’s been a lot of talk in Ontario about the possibility of more health-care privatization. That seems to worry a lot of people. Does it worry you?It doesn’t worry me nearly as much as the words: “universal accessibility.” Thirty per cent of our system has been in private hands for a very long time — dental care, eye care, drug care, parts of the long-term-care system. I think the clarification that would take a lot of the sting out of this debate would be the words: “You will not suffer because of your economic situation in terms of access.”I know there are those who feel very, very strongly that if there’s any profit margin in a business that it should be driven back into the system. I’m a bit more sanguine about that. If someone can provide outstanding service, really good outcomes, high quality of work, and they can do that within a private structure while meeting universal accessibility, I’m prepared to experiment with that.Do you think people should be forced to move into a long-term-care facility that’s far away from their family, as per Bill 7?Ideally, no. If they have to because of limited access to acute care services — that there are people who really need to be in those beds and their outcome will be compromised if they don’t get care — then I do think we have to look at other solutions. I don’t think any system would say you could stay in a place with very limited capacity, even if you no longer needed the services of that people, when others who do need them are unable to access it. Hospitals foundations have received lots of donations over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Is UHN having to lean on its foundations for funding?Our foundations have been absolutely remarkable, no question about that. One of the most important things they were able to do was offer resources for hotel rooms when employees were ill, or for people who were really struggling with transportation. Many generous donors have stepped up.But I have to say, the government has really met our needs economically during COVID. They’ve been very easy to work with. We’ve had the things we needed funded, funded. Obviously, that’s going to get more challenging as we go back to more normal times, especially recognizing that we have a shortage of people and our nursing colleagues have been very clear about their expectations of significant increases through collective bargaining. They’re significant at a time when inflation and other pressures make it difficult for government to think about tax increases.Our two foundations, UHN Foundation and the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, raise about $250 million a year. It’s their investment that allows us to invest in research and innovation, scholarship, education and training. We don’t get funded differently than other hospitals when it comes to clinical care. So if we value having one of the world’s top five cancer centres — it’s our foundations that help us do that. There are a lot of catch-up effects from the pandemic that are still playing out — trauma, long COVID, addiction issues. When do you think you’re going to return to normal as a hospital? Do you expect to deal with these lingering issues for years or decades?I think we’re on our way to more normal. Don’t forget, we always deal with capacity issues. We often would be running at 110 or 120 per cent pre-pandemic. We’re approaching 100 per cent occupancy now. I think the big change is we have a new disease. It’s not a disease that’s going away, and we didn’t size our system to accommodate COVID, long COVID, and the sequelae of COVID. We’ve seen monkeypox of late, and I think most of us believe the risks of antibiotic use and infectious disease are higher up the list of risks than they once were.As a result of COVID, we lived in a changed world. It’ll open up the doors to new professions and new opportunities. It’ll open up — I hope — the door to reconsidering where and how we deliver care. But it will also challenge, in Canada and around the world, the funding of a health-care system that’s already very expensive. I think it’ll also help us consider what patient-centred care looks like, and what clients expect of us as a system.Health care is not insulated from the broader evolution of society. It’s quite new for us in health care to frequently deal with uncivil patients. Incivility to health-care workers is at an all-time high, at a time when they are considering whether they want to continue in the profession. That’s one of the greatest concerns I have. How do we bring back a two-way stability — to our patients, and from our patients, and build a high-quality work environment for people who we need to keep in the profession? They’re feeling quite overwhelmed.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.SHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. 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The Bank of Canada said this month that it still sees “a path to a soft landing” for the Canadian economy, meaning no recession. But RBC Economics, Desjardins Group, and Oxford Economics, among others, expect a recession next year. So, it’s worth asking how long and punishing a 2023 downturn would be. What will the Canadian economy look like a year from now? A wise man said it is dangerous to make predictions, “especially about the future.”But here goes. Housing: Forecasters expect a further drop in housing prices over the next year, by about 14 per in Ontario and B.C., from their February 2022 peak. That could decrease Canadian household wealth by more than $1 trillion, according to RBC Economics. That sounds faintly apocalyptic. But that loss represents only a portion of the $2.4 trillion increase in household equity accumulated in the pandemic housing boom. The house-price swoon hasn’t ended. But at some point next year most of the inflationary excesses will finally have been wrung out of the housing market.And there is a floor under house prices. It consists of, among other factors, record immigration flows, a low likelihood of overbuilding, and greater affordability due to lower prices. Economists at Desjardins say that 2023 could see improved housing affordability and a stabilization in the market by late in the year. And that should “lay the groundwork for a more sustainable recovery thereafter.”Inflation: By this time next year, inflation will be on its way down to the Bank of Canada’s 3 per cent target for the end of 2023, from its June peak of 8.1 per cent. The inflation rate has already slipped to 7.0 per cent in August. There’s scant reason to doubt the Bank of Canada’s resolve in destroying inflation. By some measures, the bank is waging the most aggressive fight against inflation among its central bank peers, having imposed a 13-fold increase in the cost of borrowed money in just six months since March. The bank will keep raising rates into 2023 and possibly beyond until it sees inflation restored to its normal rate of 2 per cent. A housing market that is now slumping is draining inflationary pressure from the economy. So is the decline in gasoline and diesel prices, which could fall more in 2023 with forecasters predicting a lower world oil price in the $70 (U.S.) to $75 (U.S.) range, down from the record $114 (U.S.) in May. That’s due to expected reduced demand caused by anticipated sharp economic slowdowns in Europe and China. The resulting drop in transportation costs will lower prices for most things next year. But food prices will remain stubbornly high, largely because of diminished crop yields in Western Canada, the Niagara Peninsula, war-ravaged Ukraine, and other major agricultural regions. Recession: If a coming economic slump next year qualifies as a recession — which is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth — it will be among the mildest and briefest recessions on record. For instance, RBC Economics expects modest negative GDP growth in the middle quarters of 2023, but that the economy will eke out almost 1.0 per cent growth for the year. And 2024 should see a return to 1.5 per cent to 2.0 per cent GDP growth, normal for a major economy. Canada is already in an economic slowdown. The first signs of weakness in GDP growth and the job market since the economic recovery began were recorded this summer .The unemployment rate next year is forecast at about 6.6 per cent, up from the historic low of 5.1 per cent in May. That’s still two per cent lower than the peak joblessness in the most recent major downturn, the Great Recession of 2009-2011. Sectors most vulnerable to job loss include those tied to housing. These are construction, building materials, renovation supplies, furniture and appliances, and financial services. But hiring will remain strong amid a skills shortage that will outlast a recession, notably in a short-staffed health-care sector and in tech. In 2023, employers will continue recruiting experts in robotics, artificial intelligence, and other tech advances that can improve their efficiency and productivity. And while Americans have begun to spend their pandemic savings, Canadians have yet to tap their estimated $300 billion pandemic cash hoard. “This suggests that Canadian consumers can display more resilience even in the face of higher prices” than their American counterparts, TD Economics says. We might think of 2023 as a necessary “pause year” after the supercharged economic growth of the 18 months starting last year, which begat today’s 40-year-high rate of inflation. Others, more cynical, will see a 2023 slowdown as a reckoning for putting so much of our faith in housing as an investment rather than shelter. But whatever they call this return to normality, meaning sustainable rather than disruptive growth, we’ll take it. SHARE:

At a time of prolonged uncertainty and disruption, the deeply ingrained human drive to own a home and exert some control over a patch of personal space has become more compelling than ever.In an Ipsos study commissioned by Peerage Realty Partners earlier this year, 75 per cent of Canadian homeowners said their home became more important to them during the pandemic; 65 per cent felt a stronger emotional connection to their home overall.The personal imperative to own a home is increasingly offset by the daunting challenge of affordability. This is thrown into stark relief by census data just released by Statistics Canada that reveals in 2021, the number of Canadians who owned the home in which they lived declined, while the number of renters increased significantly.This information was generally received with a shrug of acceptance given the surge in residential real estate prices across the country over the past few years. Realistically, the more recent increase in mortgage rates is likely to further accelerate the trend in 2022.That decline to 66.5 per cent ownership in 2021 from 69 per cent a decade ago, means Canada is still aligned with the data from the U.S. and other developed countries. The fact that millennials (ages 25 to 40) now comprise the bulk of renters at almost 33 per cent comes not as a great surprise given rising interest rates and the down payment stress tests imposed by regulators.But for those who focus on the broader social context of this trend, further exclusion foreshadows a complex long-term threat to healthy, sustainable communities.First and foremost, there is ample evidence that owning a home rather than renting one has a direct correlation to financial well-being and the ability to bridge the wealth gap. This is more important than ever at a time when significant economic polarization increasingly delineates and destabilizes Canadian society.Owning a home is a powerful tool for savings and asset appreciation, something that government policies, such as capital gains exemptions for a principal residence, actively reinforce. According to information shared by StatsCan in March, real estate accounts for almost 60 per cent of total assets for Canadians younger than 35, while that share ranged from 55.7 per cent for those aged 35 to 44 years. For those 65 and older, it’s 40.5 per cent because this cohort has had more time to diversify their asset portfolio.For families, ownership allows greater security and control over housing costs. As the available supply of rental properties is squeezed, Statistics Canada noted that the cost of renting has soared by 17.6 per cent over the past five years. That’s almost twice the 9.7 per cent cost increase experienced by homeowners.Second, studies indicate that neighbourhood engagement, specifically the standard of neighbourhood maintenance, increases with the number of owner-occupied dwellings. Practically speaking, renters have less incentive to take on home and neighbourhood improvements given that the benefits directly accrue to the landlord.That engagement factor also extends to homeowner involvement with local organizations, support for local businesses, and community causes. In turn, these contribute to an impetus to vote and interact with elected officials — a reality that is not lost on successive governments and their ownership-friendly rhetoric and policies.Third, mindful of privilege and several other variable factors, there is a body of work — including research from Habitat for Humanity — linking the welfare of children growing up in the relatively stable environment of owner-occupied homes with regular school attendance, higher secondary school graduation rates, and higher cognitive test scores.As affordability and availability erode the opportunity to benefit from owning a home, the time has come to consider new and inclusive ways to help make that happen. The new Tax Free First Home Savings Account introduced in the last budget is one step forward — as are the co-ownership and hybrid financing models that have been refined and reinforced for the current market.After all, the long-term benefits to getting more creative about the ways to put more families into their own homes extends to the broader community and its future resilience.Trevor Maunder is the CEO of Peerage Capital, a private investment firm that focuses on real estate services and real estate investment.SHARE:

There was a brief time in the late 2010s during which the social media titans seemed unassailable. Facebook and Instagram in particular — companies with user bases that dwarfed the populations of entire continents — seemed so utterly dominant that it was hard to see how anyone or anything might unseat them.Then along came TikTok. The short-form video platform wildly popular with generation Z has gone from obscure lip-synching app to a cultural force with well over a billion users.What is perhaps most remarkable about TikTok’s rise is that it has made Facebook and Instagram seem very vulnerable.Now, one finds oneself asking not, “Can anything stop Facebook?” but, instead, “Can anyone challenge TikTok?”The answer to that is yes — and the challenger is not a traditional social media app, but YouTube.This week, the massive, Alphabet-owned video site announced upcoming changes: its Shorts feature — essentially, short-form video à la TikTok — will be part of the YouTube partner program starting in 2023, and ad revenue will be shared with content creators.That suddenly makes YouTube much more attractive to creators — the relatively new class of worker who makes a living producing video content.What YouTube’s move also does, however, is squeeze Instagram into a sort of no man’s land where it may well face increasing headwinds succeeding either as a social media platform or TikTok competitor.YouTube Shorts are a bigger deal than they may appear, mostly because their small, digestible format makes them very popular — sometimes more so than longer-format videos. YouTube’s vice-president of creator products, Amjad Hanif, stated that Shorts get 30 billion views a day and 1.5 billion people are viewing them every month.One key, though, is the way in which they might help smaller creators rather than those already established. For example, Canadian Kyle Roswell’s YouTube channel dedicated to coffee has respectable views for longer videos, with some in the hundreds of thousands; his most popular Short, on the other hand, has 13 million views.That kind of difference can mean the difference between a YouTube being a side hustle and a job. While YouTube’s top channels may resent the need to now dedicate time to a new, shorter format, smaller creators have a lower barrier to entry to an audience and revenue.It also means YouTube is firmly aiming its sights at TikTok, who for its part introduced revenue-sharing earlier this summer. That arrangement, however, is only available to the top four per cent of accounts, and it is quite plausible that YouTube’s broader reach may make it more accessible and profitable.In this back-and-forth between short-form video, however, Instagram may get lost in the mix.Over the past couple of years, Instagram has pivoted to try to deal with the threat of TikTok, shifting to videos called Reels and deprioritizing its early focus on photos and sharing among friends.It’s not going well. The Wall Street Journal reported that a leaked internal document from Instagram stated that users are not spending much time on Reels and, worse, “most Reels users have no engagement whatsoever.”Beyond the traditional sense of companies competing on features, part of what is happening here is that different platforms have different cultures and functions.The revelation of TikTok was that it mostly ignored the idea of following friends and family and instead was more like short-form TV: open the app and be entertained by people you don’t personally know. YouTube is similar, with the difference being the inclusion of longer-form videos. It isn’t really social media — it’s just media, almost like the evolution of or successor to TV.Instagram is different because it started life as a place to see photos of what friends were up to. That’s why when the app copied Snapchat’s stories — short, disappearing photos and videos — it was very successful, because it complemented the existing approach of keeping up with one’s social circle.In trying to compete with TikTok, however, Instagram finds itself stuck in a no man’s land, neither functional competitor nor the social app it once was.Looked at in that light, it’s no wonder the once-unassailable app is now looking much more, well, assailable.For its part, YouTube appears to have made a very smart move, though we wait of course to see how it plays out in the real world. If nothing else, what makes YouTube’s approach clever is that it knows what it is: a site or app that people turn to for video on things that interest them.It’s a clarity of purpose that it shares with TikTok — and one that Instagram appears to be lacking. And what once seemed unthinkable — that the social media giants may in fact fade — now seems just that much more possible.Navneet Alang is a Toronto-based freelance contributing technology columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @navalangSHARE:

When Thancharin Wutt landed at Pearson International Airport on Aug. 19, two weeks before the start of college classes, she was, essentially, homeless.It wasn’t for a lack of trying. The 20-year-old from Thailand started house-hunting soon after she received her acceptance letter from Toronto’s George Brown College in May. She found seven one-bedroom units available to rent near her campus, just north of the Annex.Securing one of those units would prove problematic.Landlords and real estate agents told Wutt that because she was an international student she was considered a high-risk tenant as she didn’t have a guarantor in the country to pay her rent if she fell behind. It didn’t matter that Wutt could produce documents proving she had more than $50,000 in her bank account. Those documents were from Thailand, and the realtors told Wutt they couldn’t recognize them, Wutt said.Entering Toronto’s red hot rental market, Wutt was competing on an uneven playing field with domestic students and working professionals who had credit and employment histories in Canada, lowering her chance of securing a unit. One by one, each of seven realtors she contacted told Wutt that to allay landlords’ concerns — and even be considered as a potential tenant — she would need to pay an upfront deposit equivalent to six months’ rent. This practice is illegal in Ontario. Under the province’s Residential Tenancies Act, the rent deposit a landlord may collect must not be more than one month’s rent or the rent for one rental period, whichever is less. The money must be applied to the last period of the tenancy. But as Toronto’s rental housing sector continues to tighten, more landlords are employing the illegal tactic, often engaging in discriminatory practices and exploiting international students, who are unfamiliar with Ontario’s rental laws and for whom English is not their first language, housing experts and advocates say.Meanwhile, the same experts warn that these rental deposit demands, largely targeting foreign nationals and quietly enabled by realtors, are harming both Toronto’s numerous post-secondary institutions and its reputation as a welcoming place for international students pursuing higher education. “It’s very common,” Laurent Levesque, executive director of Unité de travail pour l’implantation de lodgement étudiant (UTILE), a Québec affordable student housing non-profit organization. “International students, not only do they not know their rights or the law that protects tenants, but they also don’t have much leverage or ability to negotiate,” he said. “So they’re basically being extorted in some cases by landlords.”Tim Hudak, CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association, said its important for all parties — renters, landlords and realtors — to know their rights and responsibilities.“Where the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 applies, a landlord is breaking the rules by requiring more than one month’s worth of rent and prospective tenants should file a complaint with the Landlord and Tenant Board,” he said in a statement to the Star. “Even in instances where a prospective tenant is offering more than one month’s rent upfront, a landlord is legally not permitted to accept the offer as per the rules of RTA.” Joseph Richer, registrar at the Real Estate Council of Ontario, which oversees and enforces all rules governing real estate professionals in the province, said realtors and salespeople must comply with all sections of the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, including both the Residential Tenancies Act and the Commercial Tenancies Act. “There is a shared responsibility between the landlord and the registrant. The only rent a property owner can request is the first and last month’s rent and a refundable key deposit,” said Richer in a statement to the Star. “Anyone with evidence that a RECO registrant is violating these rules should file a complaint with RECO.”RECO said it receives, on average, fewer than 10 complaints of that nature each year, though it has increased slightly over the past two years. Dania Majid, a staff lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO), said, anecdotally, the practice of landlords requiring multiple rent payments upfront has gained traction this year, as the rental market heated up, leading to fewer vacancies. In the second quarter of 2022, vacancies in purpose-built rentals hit 1.4 per cent, down from 5.1 per cent in the same period last year, according to an analysis from market research firm Urbanation. “Vacancies are at a very low level, which means tenants are desperate and landlords have their pick of tenant,” she said. “There’s a huge power imbalance for tenants and they’re generally in a position where they’re forced to take it or leave it, because if they don’t comply with the demand, even if it is illegal, they might not get the unit.”Hemashri Ramachandra Maheshkumar, a graduate student from India, said she was almost scammed by a landlord, whom she believes was targeting foreign students on Facebook. Maheshkumar, like Wutt, arrived in Toronto earlier this summer without any permanent housing. While staying at an Airbnb, she joined several Facebook groups for off-campus student housing. When she reached out to a landlord of an available unit, the owner asked Maheshkumar to pay a $400 security deposit upfront — just to view the apartment. “You can view it anytime once you fill the form and secured it by paying the refundable security deposit for you to have your receipt with the electronic code to access the mailbox,” wrote the landlord in a message to Maheshkumar. The owner said the security deposit was needed because they did not live in the area and could not accompany potential tenants to the apartment for tours. The landlord has since deleted the Facebook profile and is unreachable for comment.Certain that her $400 would not be returned, Maheshkumar didn’t fall for the potential scam. “A couple of my friends who moved to the U.S. told me to be very, very aware of these people,” she said. However, she feels other international students, desperate for housing and perhaps unaware of local rental laws, could easily fall for the trap. For Wutt, some of the rental deposit requests for a single-room apartment amounted to $12,000. “Would you be able to give (a) deposit of three month(s) now and three month once (you) land here?” reads a text from a realtor Wutt shared with the Star. “I talk(ed) to other realtor but he said he can (only) look into it if you can do it. Please let me know asap,” the text continued.“Just to be clear, most landlords would want first and last months rent and then the extra four months,” reads another text exchange from another realtor.Unwilling to agree to the rental deposit requests, Wutt turned down each unit. When she stepped onto her flight to Canada, Wutt didn’t have a place to call home. She ended up crashing at a friend’s house in North York, while desperately continuing her search for housing before the school year began. “It was so hard for me to get a room, I was really stressed out and I didn’t have anywhere to stay,” she said. “It feels like no one cares about us (international students). So, unless we can pay that six months’ rent upfront, we can’t get a room,” she said.It was only when Wutt found a roommate — a Canadian student with a parent in the country who could act as a guarantor — that she was able to find a unit that didn’t require an exorbitant rental deposit.“The only reason I got this room is because my roommate is Canadian,” said Wutt.Majid, the tenant rights lawyer with ACTO, believes Wutt’s experience is a “textbook” case of discrimination. Under the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s policy on human rights and rental housing, prospective tenants cannot be refused an apartment based on factors such as their race, citizenship, place of origin or age. Although a landlord may ask for a tenant’s rental history, credit references and credit checks, “a lack of rental or credit history should not be viewed negatively,” the commission states on its website. RELATED STORIESMajid said she’s seen many cases of international students, especially newcomers, who have been discriminated against by landlords. She’s heard of students with an accent or a non-Caucasian name being told by landlords over the phone that a unit is no longer available, only to have a white friend call the next day and find the unit is still, in fact, available for viewing. Some settlement agencies for newcomers have resorted to employing white, male staff members to call landlords and realtors to schedule apartment viewings due to this bias, Majid said.“When racialized clients make that phone call, especially if they have an accent from a country in the Global South, they may not even get to the viewing stage,” she said. Nemoy Lewis, an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s school of urban and regional planning, said according to his research, renters who are Black or South Asian face the most discrimination in the market. Often, racialized renters will successfully proceed through the application phase up until landlords ask for photo identification, which is when applicants from certain demographic backgrounds will be declined, he said. “I’ve seen that myself, firsthand,” said Lewis, who is Black. “When I presented my documents, presented income, everything was great. But once I was requested for my ID, the deal just fell apart.”Lewis fears the discrimination in the rental market and lack of affordable student housing will impact Toronto’s reputation as a centre for higher education, particularly among groups of working-class foreign students who may not otherwise have the means to afford more expensive housing options in the city. “We’ve been trying to encourage and attract more international students to the country and yet we don’t have a whole lot of affordable housing options to support them,” he said. After her experience looking for housing and seeing the lack of affordable rental units in the city, Maheshkumar said there are days she regrets moving to Canada. “I can’t tell you how much I wanted to go back,” said Maheshkumar, who now lives in a basement unit in Scarborough and commutes 90 minutes each way to Humber College. Lewis believes the onus is on both governments and post-secondary institutions to build more dedicated student housing. But ultimately, there needs to be more protections and enforced laws that prevent illegal behaviour from landlords and realtors, he said. “We need to revisit some of the rules and oversights that govern the rental process to ensure there’s greater transparency, and that we’re discouraging these discriminatory practices and penalizing those who engage in it.”SHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)Sign InRegisterConversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the

Hotel rates are surging after travel roared back this summer. A room at Toronto’s Annex Hotel cost on average $250 before the pandemic. Now, it’s $300. “We saw a healthy rebound in normal guest behaviour during the second quarter, as more people decided to travel into the city,” said Ryan Killeen, chief operating officer at the Annex, a boutique property on Brunswick Avenue. “We have 24 rooms and are running at nearly 100 per cent occupancy through October.” He said bookings picked up in March 2022, and have remained steady. “We’re just pricing it to where the market is at. Right now, most hotels are charging $100 to $200 more per night,” Killeen said. “Some of our rooms are going for $400. We’re not price gauging, we’re marketing ourselves accordingly.”The boost in prices is helping projected hotel revenue for 2023.In Canada, June and July saw revenue per available room — a key indicator of hotel performance that divides the average day rate by occupancy rate — exceed 2019 levels, and August is expected to follow suit, according to a recent report from CBRE Canada, a commercial real estate services and investment firm. CBRE projects that the national revenue per available room will reach $97 by the end of 2022, just shy of the 2019 national average of $106. Looking ahead, by 2023 Toronto will reach $129 per room, up significantly from $114 in 2022. Travel has bounced back amid loosening restrictions largely due to leisure travel, especially from domestic and U.S. visitors, and the rebooting of festivals and events such as Pride, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Canadian National Exhibition, said Nicole Nguyen, senior director of CBRE’s hotel division.“Operators saw really strong volumes of people coming to travel again and downtown Toronto had incredible rate growth,” she said. The average daily rate also increased this year to keep up with inflation and the higher cost of goods and services, said Wayne Smith, interim director of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Ted Rogers School of Management. “Wages drastically increased to keep pace with market demand and the cost of business increased dramatically,” he said. “Hotels are coming off of two years of very little business. With little in savings and prices skyrocketing, rates are going to go up.” Quebec is expected to lead the hotel recovery in Eastern Canada with rate and occupancy gains of 17 per cent in 2023. Ontario growth is projected to be a more modest nine per cent, but with significant growth expected in Niagara Falls tourism at 19 per cent year over year. While leisure travellers helped boost Canadian hotel occupancies over the summer, international, corporate and group travel (conferences), have been slower to return. Markets dependent on business travel, including Toronto, continue to face challenges, the report notes. “Rates are higher, which is why revenues look so positive, but occupancy is still down below pre-pandemic levels in Toronto,” said Andrew Weir, executive vice-president of Destination Toronto. In 2019, the city’s hotels had 74 per cent occupancy, which is projected to settle at 68 per cent in 2023, CBRE notes.Conferences have also returned after two years but many are rebooked from 2020 and 2021 dates, meaning it’s a delayed reaction, he said.“We’re seeing rescheduled conferences. In the years ahead we might see a gap because many people didn’t book spaces and accommodations in the pandemic,” Weir said, adding that conferences are booked years in advance. International travel has also taken a dive as Canada’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and random testing at the border are still deterrents for many wanting to visit the country. Those restrictions are due to be lifted at the end of this month. And some countries still have outbound travel restrictions, such as China, which doesn’t allow citizens to travel abroad for non-essential reasons.In 2019, China was the largest international market, apart from the U.S., that came to Toronto with 300,000 visitors, Weir said. “Right now we’re basically at zero visitors from China. It’s hard to make that up. We’re not going to get those numbers just from domestic travel,” he added.The report is optimistic that demand will continue to surge and rates recover in urban and rural destinations, but for cities like Toronto, business and international travel are key in the economic recovery of the hospitality sector.Killeen predicts hotel rates will level off as the cost for rooms right now “feels a bit inflated” but the elevated rates are help make up for pandemic losses. “We are seeing an increase in earnings, while at the same time, inflation has made costs go up,” he said. “Like any business you need to ride the wave and adjust costs to compete with the market and right now that means higher rates. Whether it’s sustainable, that’s another story.” SHARE:JOIN THE CONVERSATION Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)Sign InRegisterConversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the