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Montreal home sales, prices rise in May despite steady rates and economic uncertainty

Montreal home sales, prices rise in May despite steady rates and economic uncertainty

MONTREAL - Home sales in the Montreal-area rose again in May compared with the same month a year ago, as the city's real estate board says both activity and price growth show no signs of tapering off.
The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says 4,992 homes in the region changed hands last month, up 10.2 per cent from 4,532 sales in May 2024.
Charles Brant, the board's market analysis director, says it marks the third straight month of similar year-over-year sales growth despite mortgage rates remaining in a holding pattern and 'ongoing economic uncertainty.'
Brant says there are also 'no signs of a lull in price growth' as around one in seven homes sold above the asking price last month.
The median price for all housing types in the Montreal area was up year-over-year, led by an 8.7 per cent increase in price of a single-family home to $625,000. The median price of a plex rose 5.1 per cent to $825,000 and the median price of a condominium increased 4.3 per cent to $427,500.
There were 7,596 new listings in the Montreal area last month, up 11.2 per cent from a year earlier, as active listings rose 2.4 per cent to 18,920.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025.

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Continued failure to consult on uranium exploration a harmful mistake: Mi'kmaw Chiefs
Continued failure to consult on uranium exploration a harmful mistake: Mi'kmaw Chiefs

Hamilton Spectator

timean hour ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

Continued failure to consult on uranium exploration a harmful mistake: Mi'kmaw Chiefs

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia's continued failure to consult with First Nations on uranium exploration is a mistake that will further erode the province's relationship with Mi'kmaq communities, says the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs and a lawyer from Sipekne'katik First Nation. Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Tamara Young said the Mi'kmaq people were neither consulted nor notified when Nova Scotia introduced then passed a bill that opens the province up to potential uranium mining and fracking. 'The lack of consultation is unacceptable and goes against the UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples),' Young said in a statement to The Canadian Press on Wednesday. The assembly has said they will continue to oppose both uranium exploration and hydraulic fracturing until their environmental concerns have been addressed. 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Continued failure to consult on uranium exploration a harmful mistake: Mi'kmaw Chiefs
Continued failure to consult on uranium exploration a harmful mistake: Mi'kmaw Chiefs

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Continued failure to consult on uranium exploration a harmful mistake: Mi'kmaw Chiefs

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's continued failure to consult with First Nations on uranium exploration is a mistake that will further erode the province's relationship with Mi'kmaq communities, says the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs and a lawyer from Sipekne'katik First Nation. Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Tamara Young said the Mi'kmaq people were neither consulted nor notified when Nova Scotia introduced then passed a bill that opens the province up to potential uranium mining and fracking. 'The lack of consultation is unacceptable and goes against the UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples),' Young said in a statement to The Canadian Press on Wednesday. The assembly has said they will continue to oppose both uranium exploration and hydraulic fracturing until their environmental concerns have been addressed. The provincial government added uranium to its list of priority critical minerals May 14, and it issued a request for exploration proposals for three sites with known deposits of the heavy metal. Interested companies had until Wednesday to submit their proposals. Premier Tim Houston has said the legislative changes are needed to help the province withstand economic challenges from American tariffs. 'We recognize there are international pressures and influences affecting our economy, but any resource development in Mi'kma'ki must include our consent and participation as we are the rightful owners of these lands, waters and resources,' Young said in the statement, speaking as co-lead of the environment, energy and mines portfolio on behalf of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs. Rosalie Francis, a Mi'kmaq lawyer whose firm is based out of Sipekne'katik First Nation, said the province risks further damaging their relationship with Mi'kmaq communities and sabotaging the potential uranium industry by failing to consult adequately and early. 'By choosing not to consult, it scares away investors, destroys the relationship and gets us back to starting at zero,' Francis said in an interview Tuesday. 'It all comes down to trust, and this completely diminishes any kind of trust that's essential to the relationship between the first for the Mi'kmaq and the province.' Nova Scotia has opened up three plots of land for uranium project proposals: an 80-hectare site in Louisville in Pictou County; a 64-hectare site in East Dalhousie in Annapolis County; and a 2,300-hectare site in Millet Brook in Hants County. Much of this is on private land. The government has previously said companies selected by the province would have to seek permission from landowners to explore. 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The company said at the time the project experienced challenges and delays, referring to opposition the project faced from Indigenous protesters and allies who opposed the company's plan to remove large, underground salt deposits by flushing them out with water from the nearby Shubenacadie River. The plan also called for dumping the leftover brine into the tidal river, where it would flow into the Bay of Fundy. In March 2020, a decision by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ordered the province to resume consultations with Sipekne'katik First Nation on the matter and determined the former environment minister was wrong when she concluded the province had adequately consulted with the First nation about the project. 'The province should have walked away from that decision and said: 'OK, lesson learned.' The project never went forward. All the gas investors looked at it and said: 'This is just a mess now. Let's just walk away,'' Francis said. The lawyer said it will be telling in the coming weeks if the province chooses to engage with Mi'kmaq communities or "if the province will march along in the same way it did before." "Either we'll have a success story or we'll have another Alton Gas play out," she said. Shiri Pasternak, a criminology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and co-investigator of a research project called Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism, said the situation in Nova Scotia mirrors the expedited extraction movement that's happening across the country. "What's happening to the Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia is really proliferating as an attack on Indigenous and environmental rights across the country right now," she said in an interview Tuesday. Pasternak said Nova Scotia is one of several provinces working to speed up extraction and development projects — moves that are supported by the federal government. 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Habitat for Humanity begins construction on Southfield housing duplex
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Yahoo

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