How Canadians can shop for local apparel
The trade war with the United States continues as more tariffs are expected to come next week. Jimil Ataman, a professor in the department of human ecology at the University of Alberta, sat down with Radio Active host Min Dhariwal to talk about ways Canadians can buy locally produced clothes.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Dreaming of a lakeside cottage but can't afford it? Co-ownership could open that door
A lakeview cottage with cosy rooms, a sandy beach nearby and a dock to gaze into the sunset was the dream for Corrine Evanoff. 'For years, I've been on this journey of trying to find a cottage that would work for us,' she said. But Evanoff and her husband didn't want to incur the burden of constant cottage maintenance — spending vacation days fixing decks and pruning trees. They opted instead to rent over the years, still hoping to one day buy. Then, it happened. They found a cottage not too far from home — for a fraction of the price they thought they'd have to pay, thanks to fractional ownership. Also called co-ownership, it allows people to buy a share of a property with others, whether it's family, friends or even strangers. Affordability sits at the heart of fractionally owned cottages. Many Canadians still find themselves priced out of the market, even as cottage prices have declined from peaks seen during the pandemic. Re/Max brokers and agents anticipate a national average price increase of about 1.8 per cent across the Canadian recreational market in 2025, a May report by the real estate firm, showed. On their first visit to check out a prospective cottage last fall, Evanoff recalled walking into a lake-facing cottage with large windows at Frontenac Shores in Cloyne, Ont., about 300 kilometres northeast of Toronto, and was sold. 'We sat in these Muskoka chairs on the beach and our feet are in the water, and I just felt the stress shredding off me,' she said. 'This is the dream that I've been dreaming for all these years … and this is within reach.' Evanoff and her husband now own one-tenth of a million-dollar cottage, costing them less than $100,000 for their share — and affording them five weeks a year at the property. Fractional ownership of a cottage is not like a timeshare, said Realtor Mike Lange, who has been dealing with co-owned cottages for about seven years in Kawartha Lakes, Ont. 'With a timeshare, you put your name in requesting a location, you have no guarantee that that's going to be available,' he said. 'There's been a lot of heartaches over them over the years.' Timeshare properties can be owned by for-profit corporations, leaving less autonomy for those staying there. Don Smith, who co-owns a property in Kawartha Lakes, bought into a cottage in the mid-2000s after he saw a newspaper ad about fractional cottage ownership. 'I was in the staff room reading the newspaper as a mathematics and computer studies teacher,' he recalled. 'As a math teacher, that caught my eye: What's this fraction all about, this cottage, this idea?' For the Smiths, fractional ownership wasn't a financial investment but a lifestyle investment that has paid off over the past two decades. 'This is where my daughter learned to swim, that's where my daughter learned to kayak, that is when my daughter had learned to appreciate animals.' But it may not be for everyone. Smith said fractionally owned cottages are usually 100 per cent debt-free. That means new co-owners typically can't secure a mortgage against the property from traditional banks and will have to rely on personal loans or a line of credit to buy their share. Personal touches to the cottage can also be missing with fractional ownership and people can't just show up at any time, he said. 'It's not like you can personally put all your favourite pictures and put all of the junk that you don't want in your home garage and take it up there and leave it,' Smith said. Real estate developer John Puffer has years of experience building cottages and selling them in fractional ownership arrangements in Ontario's cottage country regions. When he first got into the business, Puffer assumed the buyers would mostly be people in their 30s with young families. Instead, they happened to be people in their 50s and 60s, buying cottage shares for their adult children and grandchildren, or people who don't want to commit the dollars and worry about maintenance. 'That is part of the Canadian cottage experience in Ontario … that's where families congregate at the cottage and (it's) multi-generations,' said Puffer, president of Chandler Point Corp. Tanya Walker, litigation lawyer and managing partner at Walker Law, suggests potential buyers should get a good contract lawyer and treat the contract 'as if it's a pre-nuptial agreement' before signing on to be a co-owner. She said buyers going into fractional ownership should ask questions about who the other co-owners are, the voting rights people get for their share and what happens when they want to sell their stake. Walker added it's also important to look into who manages the property, the financials of the property as well as how much time you'll get to use the cottage and when. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Puffer said people really have to understand what they're buying into. He suggested people read the contract and find out who's in control, what their obligations are, and talk to people who already own. For Evanoff and her husband, it will be their third time heading up to the Frontenac Shores cottage next month. 'It's like, wow! That just seems like a gift,' she said. 'This (fractional ownership) seems like the best-kept secret but I think it's going to catch on … and you're going to see a lot of people tap into this market.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2025.
Toronto Sun
5 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Letters to the Editor, June 15, 2025
Sunday letters Photo by Illustration / Toronto Sun SCHEER IS READY This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Canada has failed itself in the last few elections. The NDP self-exploded after the death of Jack Layton, a staunch, common-sense politician who was favoured to take Canada by storm prior to his passing. Jagmeet Singh was not a leader but an opportunist. One thing for sure, dental is in Canada to stay — thank you, Jagmeet, even though your party was destroyed for sleeping with the devil. As for the Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer has done his time in the galley and this time is ready to take the helm. Wayne Robertson Chatham (Time will tell. Poilievre will likely be back in House of Commons in the next few months and has to keep his party united and ready for the next election – hopefully with many lessons learned from the last one) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. FREE SPEECH UNDER THREAT Canada's popular podcaster and superb scholar Jordan Peterson has been warning Canadians for months that Mark Carney is a grave threat to free speech in this country. Peterson believes that Carney will resurrect democracy-crushing Bill C-63, the so-called Online Harms Act, which will greatly threaten free speech in Canada. During the election campaign, Carney banned independent media from attending his events: Hence one could conclude that independent news outlets are at risk of being censored or shut down. Additionally, increased funding for the CBC will only serve to promote Liberal propaganda. Both Peterson and America's renowned academic scholar and historian Victor Davis Hanson have pointed out that Carney is a Marxist who has expressed admiration for Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Canada beware: Free speech and democracy are at risk. Harley Whitlock Brantford (It's terrible legislation – but the Liberals will get the NDP's support) TIME FOR A REPUBLIC I strongly support Canada becoming a republic and ending recognition of the governor general, Charles and Camilla, and William and Kate. Forget the King. Forget the monarchy. I'd rather have Donald Trump than Charles. And U.S. liquor should be back on the shelves and the misguided handgun legislation should be repealed. Jason Hutton Windsor (You're right about the booze – bring it back) World World Golf Golf Sunshine Girls
Toronto Star
9 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Ottawa's GST/HST relief for first-time new home buyers is a broken promise — and too little, too late for GTA
Two weeks ago, the federal government unveiled a measure designed to improve housing affordability: a targeted GST/HST rebate for first-time buyers of newly built homes. Unfortunately, this narrowly focused policy is not just inadequate, it's a broken promise decades in the making. The new proposal offers a full GST/HST rebate for first-time buyers of new homes up to $1 million, with a partial rebate for homes priced between $1 million and $1.5 million. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW While this may sound generous on paper, it ignores the reality for hundreds of thousands of Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and lower mainland British Columbia, where average prices for new homes exceed these thresholds. In practice, very few buyers in these two key regions will benefit. The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) has made its position clear: this initiative is both geographically biased and far too narrow in scope to meaningfully impact affordability. But what makes this situation worse is the federal government's failure to uphold a commitment it made to Canadians more than three decades ago. When the new GST was being designed in late 1980s, very specific thought went into how the tax would apply to new homes and how the rebate structure would be put together to ensure that the tax would not impact affordability. Business Opinion What's behind the GTA's housing crisis? Two studies shine a light on the problems By addressing approval delays, reducing municipal fees, and focusing on construction of homes, A federal technical paper released in 1989 by then-Finance Minister Michael Wilson outlines those homes under $350,000 would receive a rebate of up to 36 per cent of GST paid, tapering off to zero at $450,000. As seen on Page 19 of this technical paper, the government also committed to reviewing and adjusting these thresholds every two years to keep pace with economic and housing market conditions. That review and adjustments never happened. At the time, the government estimated that 95 per cent of new homes would qualify for at least a partial rebate, with 90 per cent receiving the maximum. This promise helped sell the tax to Canadians with the reassurance that GST would not be a barrier to home ownership. Today, that assurance rings hollow to buyers in the GTA, where average new home prices have long since eclipsed those 1990s thresholds and so now virtually no homes in the region qualify for a rebate. What was supposed to support 95 per cent of new homebuyers now supports close to 0 per cent. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average price of a single-detached home in Ontario has increased from $276,000 in 1990 to $1,023,000 in 2023, an increase of 270 per cent. Over the same period, the net federal HST collected on these homes increased by 479 per cent, from $8,832 to more than $51,000. This isn't just a statistic; it's a growing burden. That additional $43,000 in taxes, when rolled into a standard 25-year mortgage at 4 per cent, results in an extra $220 in monthly payments, $24,000 in additional interest, and a total financial hit of more than $66,000 over the life of the loan. And that's for a typical new home, not a luxurious mansion. In fact, by failing to update the rebate thresholds as promised, the federal government has quietly extracted nearly $4 billion in additional GST/HST revenue from new homebuyers in Ontario alone — most of it in just the last decade. Business Opinion Sky-high development charges make new home building in the GTA near impossible. Here's what needs to change Failure to cut building costs by modernizing the Development Charges Act, writes Dave Wilkes, The federal government's recently proposed GST/HST relief on new homes for only first-time buyers does not even begin to address the real problem. First-time buyers represent just five-to-10 per cent of new home purchases in the GTA. The rest, like young families upsizing and seniors downsizing, get no help. Plus, the proposed program is geographically biased, as the average price for a condo in the GTA is more and $1 million and the average price of a single-family home (including townhouse and semis) is more than $1.5 million — meaning even those who qualify in the GTA will receive less relief than buyers in lower-cost markets, despite paying more for the same (or lesser) product. The government acknowledges that GST/HST contributes to unaffordability but stops short of meaningful action, so if the federal government is serious about addressing the housing crisis, it needs to start by removing the barriers it helped build. This means expanding GST/HST relief to all new home buyers, not just first-time buyers, and adjusting the rebate thresholds to reflect today's housing markets across the country. This isn't radical, it's simply delivering on a promise made in 1989 and long overdue.
