Is Toronto's real estate market crashing? Home prices will keep dropping, experts say — but it won't feel like any crash we've had before
Toronto's real estate market is facing its sharpest decline since the 1990s, something the boomer generation might remember well, but subsequent generations not so much.
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Toronto Star
23 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Lawyer calls on Canada to speed up visa approvals as situation worsens in Gaza
ST. JOHN'S - A Toronto immigration lawyer says family members of Canadians are dying in Gaza as the federal immigration department drags it heels approving visas through a special program launched in 2024. Debbie Rachlis said Canada must speed up the approval process for the temporary special measures visa it is offering to members of Palestinian Canadians' families who are trying to flee the violence in Gaza.
Winnipeg Free Press
23 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
In the news today: Bank of Canada expected to hold key rate again
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed… Bank of Canada expected to hold key rate again Avery Shenfeld doesn't think the Bank of Canada will cut its benchmark interest rate at its decision on Wednesday, but if it does, he said it will be a 'pleasant surprise.' 'There's always a chance that they'll surprise with the rate cut,' the chief economist of CIBC said. Most economists are also expecting the Bank of Canada will hold its policy rate steady at 2.75 per cent for a third consecutive decision later this week. Stubbornness on the inflation front and surprise strength in the labour market have quashed arguments for further easing since the central bank's June decision. The Canadian economy gained an unexpected 83,000 jobs in June, Statistics Canada reported earlier this month, driving the unemployment rate lower for the first time since January. Shenfield expects Canada's tariff dispute with the United States led to an economic contraction in the second quarter of the year. Here's what else we're watching… US-EU deal sets a 15% tariff on most goods and averts the threat of a trade war with a global shock The United States and the European Union agreed on Sunday to a trade framework setting a 15% tariff on most goods, staving off — at least for now — far higher import duties on both sides that might have sent shock waves through economies around the globe. The sweeping announcement came after President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland. Their private sit-down culminated months of bargaining, with the White House deadline Friday nearing for imposing punishing tariffs on the EU's 27 member countries. As with other, recent tariff agreements that Trump announced with countries including Japan and the United Kingdom, some major details remain pending in this one. Trump said the EU had agreed to buy some $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest $600 billion more than it already is in America — as well as make a major military equipment purchase. He said tariffs 'for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%' and meant that U.S. exporters 'have the opening up of all of the European countries.' Von der Leyen said the 15% tariffs were 'across the board, all inclusive' and that 'indeed, basically the European market is open.' Lawyer says Canada must hasten Gaza visa approvals A Toronto immigration lawyer says family members of Canadians are dying in Gaza as the federal immigration department drags it heels approving visas through a special program launched in 2024. Debbie Rachlis said Canada must speed up the approval process for the temporary special measures visa it is offering to members of Palestinian Canadians' families who are trying to flee the violence in Gaza. Rachlis represents dozens of applicants to the program and said she is involved with 'at least five cases' in which people have died waiting for word on their visa. She lobbied for the special measures program as a member of the Gaza Family Reunification Project. Canada opened the multi-step program offering temporary residents visas to members of Canadians' families trapped in Gaza on Jan. 9, 2024. It closed on March 26, after the program's cap of 5,000 visa applications had been accepted for processing. Fewer than 1,200 visas had been granted as of June 21, said Jeffrey MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. That's less than a quarter of the visas Canada said it would hand out. N.S. disabilities reform behind in housing plan There's been a surge in the number of Nova Scotians with complex disabilities stuck in temporary housing, according to recent figures released by the province. This rise in what are called 'temporary shelter arrangements,' or TSAs, operated by for-profit and non-profit agencies has occurred despite a plan by the province to decrease their use over the past two years. The Department of Social Development describes the temporary housing as being needed whenever a person with a complex disability is in urgent need of housing, and options for a permanent home have been 'explored and exhausted.' Usually, the person is placed in an apartment, with one-on-one care, but without a long-term plan to improve their lives. The province introduced a sweeping, five-year reform plan for the care and housing of people with disabilities in 2023. It was the result of a landmark court decision that found there was systemic discrimination against people with disabilities. The plan called for a sharp decrease in the number of people with disabilities in temporary housing arrangements by 2025 but the opposite has occurred. Motion expected on closure of B.C. injection site Council in Nanaimo, B.C., is scheduled to hear a motion that could result in the city asking a provincial health authority to close a local overdose prevention site. Coun. Ian Thorpe is expected to bring forward the motion at Nanaimo's council meeting today that will ask to 'formally request' Island Health to close the site on Albert Street, next to city hall. Mayor Leonard Krog says he expects the motion to be debated and deferred to enable experts and those with an interest on the issue to come before council at a later time before a decision is made. The site has generated enough concerns about disorder and violence nearby that city staff previously proposed building a 1.8-metre-high fence that was intended to protect those at city hall. Nanaimo council decided against the proposal at a committee meeting earlier this month, with Krog saying he was unsure about the fence's effectiveness as well as the 'really problematic message' it would send about the challenges of disorder in the area. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
23 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Lawyer calls on Canada to speed up visa approvals as situation worsens in Gaza
ST. JOHN'S – A Toronto immigration lawyer says family members of Canadians are dying in Gaza as the federal immigration department drags it heels approving visas through a special program launched in 2024. Debbie Rachlis said Canada must speed up the approval process for the temporary special measures visa it is offering to members of Palestinian Canadians' families who are trying to flee the violence in Gaza. Rachlis represents dozens of applicants to the program and said she is involved with 'at least five cases' in which people have died waiting for word on their visa. She lobbied for the special measures program as a member of the Gaza Family Reunification Project. 'We are all aware of many, many situations where people who were waiting for visas to come to Canada have died and have been killed,' Rachlis said in a recent interview. That includes people who have died of starvation, or injuries from bombings, and people who have been killed while lining up to get rations, she said. 'They are all preventable and terrible deaths.' Canada opened the multi-step program offering temporary residents visas to members of Canadians' families trapped in Gaza on Jan. 9, 2024. It closed on March 26, after the program's cap of 5,000 visa applications had been accepted for processing. Fewer than 1,200 visas had been granted as of June 21, said Jeffrey MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. That's less than a quarter of the visas Canada said it would hand out. Eight hundred and forty-one people had arrived in Canada from Gaza as of June 8, MacDonald said in an email. The visa program requires applicants to submit biometric information — including fingerprints and photos — collected in-person at an IRCC office. There is no such office in Gaza. The Canadian Press has spoken to several Palestinian Canadians who paid thousands of dollars for their family members in Gaza to pay private agents for passage across the border in Cairo, where there is a Canadian immigration office to collect biometric data. The Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt has been closed since May 2024. 'The primary challenge continues to be the ability for people to exit Gaza,' MacDonald said. 'Movement out of Gaza remains extremely challenging and may not be possible at this time, as countries and other actors set their own entry and exit requirements.' 'We continue working closely with local authorities — at every level — to facilitate the exit of people in Gaza and to advocate for their safety,' he added. Rachlis noted that other western countries have dropped the biometrics requirement. She wondered why Canada wouldn't do the same, especially as the situation for Palestinians in Gaza worsens. Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid because it says Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule, without providing evidence for that claim. Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including by close allies who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned. Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the Israeli government for its 'failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza' and criticized its handling of humanitarian aid in Gaza as a 'violation of international law.' On Sunday, the Israeli military on began a daily 10-hour pause in fighting in three areas of Gaza, to 'increase the scale of humanitarian aid' entering the territory. Health officials in Gaza said at least 37 Palestinians were killed in separate strikes from late Saturday into Sunday, including 22 people seeking aid. The situation in Cairo is also precarious for those waiting for visas, Rachlis said. She has many clients who managed to get to Cairo and complete the biometrics requirement. They've been waiting for a year or more for word on their visa application status, she said. They have no medical care in Egypt and their children cannot go to school, she said. They are largely living off the fundraising efforts of charities and their families in Canada. 'We need to speed up processing for folks who are in Egypt,' she said, adding that she believes much of the delay stems from the 'intense scrutiny' applicants to the visa program are subject to. Applicants are asked to supply their social media accounts, details about scars and other marks on their bodies, information on everyone they are related to — including through marriage — and every passport they have ever had. Last year, The Canadian Press obtained a letter sent to an applicant by a Canadian immigration officer which asks if they had 'ever provided medical care to injured Hamas members.' It is a violation of the Geneva Convention for medical workers to deny care to someone injured in a war zone. Rachlis said families need quicker information about their applications so they can make arrangements and get to safety. 'Families need answers,' she said. 'They need answers about what happened with this program and why it seems to have been set up to fail.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025. — With files from The Associated Press
