Month: April 2019

MONTREAL — After years of boom times, Canada’s housing markets are at a turning point. Rising interest rates and tough new mortgage rules have taken some steam out of the market. But job growth is strong and wages are rising steadily, suggesting there will be homebuyers around to keep the market humming.

So which way are things going? That’s really anyone’s guess. But one thing is clear: After years of — let’s face it — unsustainable growth, things in Canada’s housing markets are looking a little messy when it comes to things like prices and mortgages.

Below are 10 charts illustrating just how out of whack things have become. Vancouver’s housing market is looking especially WTF these days, which is why it gets a bit more attention in these charts than other places.

Canadians have never had to shell out more of their income to own a home

This chart, which uses data from The Economist magazine, shows the ratio of house prices to incomes in Canada over the past four decades. Never have house prices been so disproportionately high when compared to what people are earning. Only years of rock-bottom interest have made this situation “affordable” for homeowners. Which is why rising interest rates should be — and are — a major concern among Canada’s policymakers.

Condo construction is at an all-time high …

Construction of condos in Canada is at record highs, which for some experts is a warning of falling house prices ahead, though others disagree, given Canada’s suddenly accelerating population growth. Meanwhile, single-family home construction is in the dumps, driven in part by a near-total collapse of detached home construction around Toronto. Canadians in the largest cities are moving into condos, whether they like it or not.

… But young families don’t want to live in them

And apparently they don’t like it. In a survey of “young urban families” last year, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada found that 83 per cent of this group would prefer to live in a detached home, if money were no object. Only five per cent would choose to live in a condo. But with detached homes in Canada the least affordable they’ve ever been, 43 per cent of this group have given up on ever owning a detached home, the survey found.

You need to be a one-percenter to own an “average” Vancouver home

There’s nothing “average” about buying an average-priced home in Vancouver these days. According to estimates from National Bank Financial, it now requires an income of $238,000 to qualify for a conventional 20-per-cent down mortgage on average Vancouver home. That’s not much less than the $246,000 you would have to earn to be in the top one per cent of earners in the city.

Despite the slowdown in the market, prices remain very high, and now rising interest rates and the new mortgage “stress test” have further pushed up the amount of income a household needs to qualify for a mortgage.

… Because Vancouver homes are comically overpriced

This chart from Royal Bank of Canada shows that the cost of home ownership in Vancouver, as a share of income, is the highest ever. For detached homes (the top line), costs are far beyond any previous historical precedent. But condo costs (bottom line) — while elevated compared to historic norms — are not actually outside their normal historic range.

Vancouver’s new distinction: Worst housing market

Vancouver used to dominate the lists of world’s hottest housing markets like few other cities in recent memory, but those days are history. Global real estate agency Knight Frank’s most recent real estate index ranked Vancouver at rock bottom among 43 world cities. How the mighty have fallen.

There aren’t enough new residents to prop up Vancouver’s market

Demographic shifts are about to give Vancouver real estate a bit of a kick in the pants. The region’s population of homebuyers — meaning adults — is currently growing at a much slower pace than has been the historic norm. Combine this with the above-mentioned record-setting levels of condo construction and the also above-mentioned unreasonably high prices, and it looks like Vancouver’s housing correction could go on for a while yet.

… But Toronto has as much as it can handle

Toronto’s housing market is in an uneven slump, with some parts of the market sliding (detached homes) while others keep performing strongly (condos). But the experts are saying don’t expect a major decrease in house prices, because the city is seeing accelerated growth in its adult population. Growth is now near a 15-year high, which ought to put a floor under any price declines in this era of mortgage stress tests and rising interest rates.

Mortgage growth is at historic lows

Those mortgage stress tests sure have had an impact. The value of mortgages on Canadian lenders’ books rises year after year no matter what, through recessions and boom times alike. Last year, that growth fell to its lowest level since the 1990s.

Investment condos often lose money

Buying an investment condo has become the national pastime for Canadians with cash, but with prices at these levels, they’re no guarantee of profit.

A study by CIBC and Urbanation last year found that 44 per cent of the condos taken possession of in 2017 in Toronto would rent out for less than the cost of ownership (assuming a 20-per-cent down mortgage). CMHC looked at the high-rise condo towers in Montreal’s downtown core and concluded the same is true for 75 per cent of them.

We weren’t able to find estimates for Vancouver, but given how realtors there are busy trying convince people negative cash flow can be a good thing, we’re guessing it’s pretty much the same there.

Investors can still turn a profit if the resale value rises. But house prices have stopped rising. Buyer beware.

Watch: The extreme measures Canadians go through to buy a home

The first still for the upcoming Hellboy reboot staring David Harbour has officially arrived.

Premiered by Empire, this exclusive first look gives us a glimpse at a hornless Hellboy running down a hallway with his Right Hand of Doom. This image and more will be included in Empire Magazine’s January 2019 issue, complete with an interview with the film’s director, Neil Marshall.

“It was always a case of, ‘When in doubt, go back to the source material.’ Some of the stuff is pretty sick,” said Marshall in the interview. “More violent and more bloody. We weren’t making it with handcuffs on.”

Empire describes this version of Hellboy as being gore-soaked and R-rated, which falls in line with Harbour’s own description of the film being “darker” than Guillermo del Toro’s two Hellboy films. This follows earlier sneak peeks at Harbour as Hellboy, including the first official poster of the film.

Alongside Harbour, Milla Jovovich is set to play the Blood Queen, the film’s main villain. Though originally scheduled for a January premiere, Lionsgate pushed back Hellboy’s release date to April 12, 2019.

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

WASHINGTON — North of the border, Canada’s hard-won free-trade deal with the United States and Mexico is considered a matter of existential importance, heavy with implications for workers, businesses and governments of all political stripes.

For Nancy Pelosi, it’s a punchline.

The California Democrat has been riffing on the uncertainty around what to call the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA — a moniker that reflects President Donald Trump’s contempt for the original North American Free Trade Agreement. Ottawa now seems to prefer CUSMA, while others fall back on NAFTA 2.0, new NAFTA or, simply, NAFTA.

“Whatever they’re calling it now, the trade agreement formerly known as Prince — no, I mean, formerly known as NAFTA — is a work in progress,” Pelosi quipped to chuckles at a Capitol Hill news conference last month introducing newly elected members of her party in the House of Representatives.

But seriously, folks: its name notwithstanding, uncertainty, doubt and mixed feelings will only continue to shroud the agreement well into the new year, especially with an ambivalent Pelosi expected to emerge as leader of an emboldened Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

With the 2020 election in their sights, Democrats are girding for pitched battles against their GOP rivals on a number of fronts, and will be disinclined to give Trump any legislative wins, despite all the post-midterms talk of bipartisan co-operation and reaching across the aisle.

The deal includes elements aimed at the centre-left folks in Congress, including environmental protections and a requirement that by 2023, 45 per cent of auto parts be made by workers being paid at least $16 an hour. Mexico must also pass a host of labour-law reforms that support and protect women, unions and migrant workers.

But the agreement lacks enforcement teeth — a deal-breaker, Pelosi and other Democrats say, if the forthcoming legislation to enact it doesn’t provide some.

“The president needs to talk to Congress on this, and we can go back to the table with the Mexicans and the Canadians and do stronger labour standards,” Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, widely touted as a likely challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, told CNN.

“This doesn’t live up to the promise the president said, that it would be a renegotiated NAFTA, helping workers and stopping outsourcing, because it doesn’t do that yet. I’m hoping that it will.”

Enter David MacNaughton, the genial Canadian ambassador whose outreach efforts were heralded as critical to the success of the USMCA talks. He’ll again take the stage in the new year to convince Democrats — freshman and old-school free-trade foe alike —that the deal is the best medicine for all three countries.

The mission is the same — “to make sure that people in the United States understand the importance of the economic relationship with Canada — how big a market we are for them, how much our economies are integrated, and also all the other things we do together,” MacNaughton said.

“To the degree that we can make sure they understand the importance of the relationship, and some of the things that are in the agreement that are going to enhance the relationship from an economic point of view and help the United States, we’re going to do that.

“The first priority, however, right now: get rid of the steel and aluminum tariffs. So that’s No. 1.”

Trump’s so-called Section 232 tariffs, named for the clause in U.S. trade law that allows them on national security grounds, are no joke in Ottawa. They nearly scuttled last month’s USMCA signing ceremony in Argentina, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to display his signed certificate for the cameras.

And with Canadians headed to the polls next October, 2019 will be a crushing disappointment to anyone hoping it would bring a reprieve from all the trade talk.

The new NAFTA has its detractors in Canada. The federal Conservatives and NDP say the governing Liberals gave too much market access to U.S. dairy farmers, caved on demands for longer protections for drug patents and blinked on the threat of tariffs on autos not built on American soil.

And in the U.S., last month’s deep job and production cuts at General Motors — 14,000 jobs, including 8,000 salaried workers, and five idled plants, including one in Oshawa, Ont. — has some Rust Belt lawmakers on Capitol Hill feeling like they’re being sold a bill of goods.

“If we’re going to see more plants going to Mexico, I’m not going to support NAFTA 2.0,” said Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell.

But it’s folly to blame the cuts on a trade deal that hasn’t taken effect yet, said Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturer’s Association.

“If USMCA was in effect today, with (Section) 232 tariffs, with tariffs on China, General Motors — from a business point of view — couldn’t import more profitably than it could produce domestically. That’s coming, but it’s not here.”

It won’t dominate American headlines, but in Canada, USMCA will surely be a campaign-trail fixture in 2019, said Carlo Dade, a policy expert and director of the Trade and Investment Centre at the Canada West Foundation.

Dade said he expects the bulk of Canadian voters will support the agreement in an election campaign that could echo the pitched battle of 1988, which hinged on the original Canada-U.S. free trade agreement.

“The only thing they dislike more than having NAFTA is the thought of not having NAFTA,” Dade said.

“We saw this with the polling — Canadians for years were consistently complaining about NAFTA, then as soon as Trump said he was seriously thinking about withdrawing, the polls switched.

“I think that dynamic will emerge again.”

I just came back from a dinner party.

A simple sentence with a seemingly simple meaning, unless you have anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) like I do.

The party was a get-together with friends. It was a cold, snowy day and I would rather have stayed in bed, bundled up in the warm blankets, but I knew my family wanted me to go. I mustered up enough energy to get ready and head out onto the icy roads.

We were greeted kindly at the door when we arrived. I took a moment to mentally prepare for the sometimes-awkward conversations which will unfold. Normally I can mingle and make small talk, but I was feeling “off” — like my brain was on overdrive, with the two sides of my brain battling it out like fighters in the ring.

The logical half of my brain is rational and wise, and also funny at times (if I do say so myself). But my PTSD brain is irrational and wild, swirling inside my head like a tornado of self-defeating thoughts. It has ruined many events for me in the past — I hate it.

So on this day, I was determined to have my logical brain win the fight. Alas, it doesn’t always work out that way. A look at my internal dialogue will show you exactly why there’s nothing “simple” about parties when you have anxiety and PTSD.

First comes the anxiety

Logical brain: “Everyone goes to dinner parties. They are fun and a great way to meet new people.”

PTSD brain: “I don’t understand why anyone wants to leave the house, let alone go to a house filled with strangers. I will have to talk to about… something. And why do people like meeting other people, anyway?”

PTSD has injured a part of my brain known as the amygdala, which causes unexpected anxiety. As a result, my body’s fight or flight response is “on” even when it’s not needed. Back in humanity’s primal days, we needed this response to stay safe from predators. Those days are gone, but my PTSD brain doesn’t want to believe it.

Changes in routine can be a painful process

Logical brain: “Pick a nice outfit to wear and get ready. You don’t need a nap today. This is a productive day with lots of opportunity.”

PTSD brain: “I don’t like clothes. Pajamas are my wardrobe. Why would I want to have a shower? That takes at least 15 minutes. I DO need a nap — like, right now! Why am I awake? Opportunity is so overrated.”

Another part of my brain affected by PTSD is my prefrontal cortex. This area controls my reasoning and tries to limit or filter what I should be irritable about — because this part of my brain doesn’t work effectively anymore, I can get upset with the smallest change in my schedule/routine.

Stigma can make me feel unwelcome

Logical brain: “OK, you made it to the house. Go in, smile and make small talk with people.”

PTSD brain: “I’m frozen in my car. Come on, legs — don’t be embarrassing. OK, I made it out of the car. There is a stranger at the door. I wonder if they will judge me by my tattoos? How many hours do I need to be here again? Small talk doesn’t escape my lips at all. I bet people think I’m weird.”

The stigma surrounding mental illness and mental injury can convince me that people are looking down on me, when really they may actually see me as strong and brave because I have challenged my fears and made it to the party.

It’s difficult to remember the last time I had fun

Logical brain: “Act normal. It’s just a dinner party. Remember how much fun you used to have at them?”

PTSD brain: “I can feel tears welling up in my eyes. My eyes are burning, and I worry that if I make eye contact with anyone I will be a blubbering mess. I don’t remember what it’s like having fun at these functions.”

Another part of my brain which is affected by my PTSD is my hippocampus. It’s responsible for processing and storing memories — my brain finds it difficult to remember when something I did was fun, or remembering anything about it at all.

It gets better

Logical brain: “Don’t forget, you have anxiety and PTSD — things aren’t as easy as they used to be.”

… But they sure can still be amazing. I have been blessed to experience so much post-traumatic growth over the last few years. I have learned how to cope with my symptoms and I find some of my personality has become more confident and strong because I push past most of my fears and manage to be successful in many of the goals I set — and I have been known to set a few!

PTSD brain: “I miss you, logical brain.”

Logical brain: “I miss me, too.”

Have you been affected personally by this or another issue? Share your story on HuffPost Canada blogs. We feature the best of Canadian opinion and perspectives. Find out how to contribute here.

The titles to the four upcoming sequels to Avatar — still the highest-grossing movie of all time at the worldwide box office nearly a decade after its release — have reportedly been revealed.

BBC News claims it “has seen documentation regarding future Avatar plans which makes reference to four specific projects.”

According to the outlet, the sequels titles are Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: The Seed Bearer, Avatar: The Tulkun Rider and Avatar: The Quest for Eywa.

As the BBC points out, “Eywa in The Quest for Eywa appears to be a reference to the deity and goddess of the Na’vi people who inhabit Pandora.”

20th Century Fox had not responded to our request for confirmation at time of publish, but we will update this report should we hear back from them.

Avatar 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, 2020, Avatar 3 on December 17, 2021, Avatar 4 on December 20, 2024, and Avatar 5 on December 19, 2025.

For more on director James Cameron’s sci-fi saga, read up on the history and future of the Avatar sequels, find out what Cameron revealed about Kate Winslet’s character, and check out these 13 movie sequels that took forever to get made.

I usually respect a colleague who jumps to the top of the class in a conversation with a client or in a team meeting with a better idea or solution than mine. It’s compelling to hear someone offer an idea you’ve never thought of that’s both relevant and well-researched.

But my respect can turn to resentment when he or she offers a bald-faced correction to my idea or recent work. That resentment can intensify as they “top” me with their accomplishment or opinion. It’s not so much the fact that their idea is timely and helpful — it’s the way they present it that can suck the wind out of your (and the meeting’s) sails.

Here are five tips for helping one-uppers to maintain mutual respect and help everyone do their best work.

Try to understand their behaviour

If you can understand the roots of a one-upper’s behaviour you will be better able to manage it.

In my workplace experience, one reason one-uppers act the way they do is because they can be insecure, or display a compulsive need for attention and praise. I know this because I’ve been guilty of it myself. When starting a new assignment working with a client’s internal team, I sometimes tried a little too hard to make my mark. This made other team members feel intimidated by me — an outside contractor who seemed to be trying to take their jobs by showing them up.

If you’ve ever been put off by a one-upper’s apparent lack of civility, it can be partially explained by the strategy of “the best defence is a good offence.” They may be naturally (and insufferably) competitive and feel the need to dominate every work or social situation. This kind of one-upper may take the form of a self-appointed office cop who belittles others, not unlike a fact checker at an insurance company I recall who was so patronizing that no one could tolerate him.

Gently bring it up

When on a contract, a client diplomatically suggested that I not complete work too quickly because it bothered others on the team — including my manager. Sometimes one-uppers don’t mean to diminish others. In my case, the subject matter was familiar to me and it was hard to slow my pace. Still, I appreciate that they brought the issue up with me.

Whether you are a colleague or manager of a one-upper, meet over coffee and have a couple of examples of their behaviour ready to share. Then, instead of “Why are you always trying to one-up others?” you can say “I’ve noticed you like to add to others’ ideas with your own on a regular basis. Have others ever mentioned this to you?” Talk about how this can make you (and others feel), and give them a chance to respond.

Consider their feelings

It won’t help anyone to fuel a one-upper’s resentment by making a show of calling them out, especially in a group setting. I once witnessed a manager try to one-up an employee by criticizing their work in a management meeting. The employee was embarrassed and took her boss to task until another manager intervened and got the meeting back on track.

This mistake risks hurting your coworker and could make them think twice before sharing their ideas. To stay conciliatory, a manager might consider saying in private, “I appreciate you have some great ideas and we want to hear them. They might come across better if you could keep others’ pride in their work in mind when you share them.”

Suggest better ways to share ideas

Some competitive and ambitious people see only the goal ahead, not the collateral damage they may cause in its pursuit — whether it’s a promotion, a need to be respected, or to single-handedly drive the success of the team or business.

Helping them script their response may be useful if done in a way that doesn’t patronize them. For example, a one-upper may instinctively say something like, “Joel has missed the mark on this and we need to consider my approach instead.” Joel will probably feel humiliated and may choose to hold back in future meetings or discussions.

You can suggest the one-upper begin the conversation with a more diplomatic, “Joel raises a lot of good points, some of which I hadn’t considered. With that in mind, I’d like to suggest another angle for us to consider.”

Give them props for taking a better approach

Notice the new energy in the room when former one-uppers think before they speak. They may agree that conversations and meetings now feel more productive — and relaxed. They’ll feel a part of the team without having to outshine others. The whole team will feel this change — I recall how a recovering one-upper raised team morale simply by acknowledging the work of others before she weighed in herself.

There’s no need to candy-coat constructive criticism in the workplace. You aren’t part of a support group. But how you build on someone’s idea and why you are doing it are equally important in any results-oriented workplace or career.

Have you been affected personally by this or another issue? Share your story on HuffPost Canada blogs. We feature the best of Canadian opinion and perspectives. Find out how to contribute here.