December 2011 Ontario Economic Fundamentals
- Thread starter Ally
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Keystone pipeline delay hurts Ontario
This month's postponement of a decision on Trans Canada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline by U.S. President Barack Obama cynically removes a controversy from the 2012 presidential election.
For Canada, including Ontario, it's a game-changer that anti-oil sands activists are celebrating, but which has gob-smacked industry proponents.
What changed is the assurance of ready access to the U.S. crude oil market.
What has changed, too, is the Canadian industry's assumption that environmental activism is just a nuisance with no clout.
Read the full article here.
This month's postponement of a decision on Trans Canada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline by U.S. President Barack Obama cynically removes a controversy from the 2012 presidential election.
For Canada, including Ontario, it's a game-changer that anti-oil sands activists are celebrating, but which has gob-smacked industry proponents.
What changed is the assurance of ready access to the U.S. crude oil market.
What has changed, too, is the Canadian industry's assumption that environmental activism is just a nuisance with no clout.
Read the full article here.
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Auto sales jump 4.4%
Canadians returned to auto dealerships in November, driving the strongest growth in overall vehicle sales since the summer in what is usually a slow sales month for automakers.
Canadian vehicles sales totalled 121,133 units in November, up 4.4 per cent from 115,981 sold a year ago, according to data released by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Thursday.
The improved sales figures are even more impressive considering recent data showing waning consumer confidence and in a month usually sees lacklustre sales due to colder weather and holiday shopping.
Read the full article here.
Canadians returned to auto dealerships in November, driving the strongest growth in overall vehicle sales since the summer in what is usually a slow sales month for automakers.
Canadian vehicles sales totalled 121,133 units in November, up 4.4 per cent from 115,981 sold a year ago, according to data released by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Thursday.
The improved sales figures are even more impressive considering recent data showing waning consumer confidence and in a month usually sees lacklustre sales due to colder weather and holiday shopping.
Read the full article here.
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Michigan voters oppose Detroit-Windsor bridge: Poll
Results of a recently released poll show that likely Michigan voters oppose a plan for a proposed new bridge backed by Gov. Rick Snyder between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
The poll for the Detroit Free Press and WXYZ-TV showed 59 per cent oppose the project, 30 per cent support it and 11 per cent were undecided. Lansing-based EPIC-MRA interviewed 600 people Nov. 13 through Wednesday. Results were released Sunday.
Read the full article here.
Results of a recently released poll show that likely Michigan voters oppose a plan for a proposed new bridge backed by Gov. Rick Snyder between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
The poll for the Detroit Free Press and WXYZ-TV showed 59 per cent oppose the project, 30 per cent support it and 11 per cent were undecided. Lansing-based EPIC-MRA interviewed 600 people Nov. 13 through Wednesday. Results were released Sunday.
Read the full article here.
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Condo proposal could reduce Simcoe rental market
The manager of social housing in Haldimand and Norfolk is uneasy about a proposal that would see two large apartment buildings in Simcoe converted into condominium corporations.
The proposal concerns the conversion of properties at 309 and 315 Cedar St.
Merv Hughes of the Health and Social Services Department says the move would eliminate 90 affordable apartments in a market where such units are already scarce.
Read the full article here.
The manager of social housing in Haldimand and Norfolk is uneasy about a proposal that would see two large apartment buildings in Simcoe converted into condominium corporations.
The proposal concerns the conversion of properties at 309 and 315 Cedar St.
Merv Hughes of the Health and Social Services Department says the move would eliminate 90 affordable apartments in a market where such units are already scarce.
Read the full article here.
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Breslau is ripe for growth
Thomasfield Homes, a Guelph-based developer, has a long way to go before it can hire construction crews, but it has drafted an intriguing plan for a large suburban development near Victoria Street in Breslau. There are compelling reasons for Waterloo Region to direct at least some of its growth to this area.
The company is interested in building 850 residential units on 135 hectares of land near Victoria and Greenhouse Road. About 2,200 residents would live in apartment units, townhouses and single-detached buildings. In addition, the developer foresees retail and office space, possibly a schoolyard, and parkland. This would make the development a fairly self-contained neighbourhood. The retail outlets would also serve other Breslau residents.
Read the full article here.
Thomasfield Homes, a Guelph-based developer, has a long way to go before it can hire construction crews, but it has drafted an intriguing plan for a large suburban development near Victoria Street in Breslau. There are compelling reasons for Waterloo Region to direct at least some of its growth to this area.
The company is interested in building 850 residential units on 135 hectares of land near Victoria and Greenhouse Road. About 2,200 residents would live in apartment units, townhouses and single-detached buildings. In addition, the developer foresees retail and office space, possibly a schoolyard, and parkland. This would make the development a fairly self-contained neighbourhood. The retail outlets would also serve other Breslau residents.
Read the full article here.
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Kitchener lands GO train service, starts Dec. 19th
Londoners may feel like they've been left at the station with Friday's announcement that economic rival Kitchener-Waterloo is getting GO train service, city leaders say.
But the city is still on track to get the low-cost, Government of Ontario commuter rail service, say some, while others suggest the slow trains may not be the way to go.
"It's another link in the chain. Eventually that chain will reach us," an optimistic Coun. Bud Polhill, acting mayor, said Friday. "I think we are one step closer."
Read the full article here.
Londoners may feel like they've been left at the station with Friday's announcement that economic rival Kitchener-Waterloo is getting GO train service, city leaders say.
But the city is still on track to get the low-cost, Government of Ontario commuter rail service, say some, while others suggest the slow trains may not be the way to go.
"It's another link in the chain. Eventually that chain will reach us," an optimistic Coun. Bud Polhill, acting mayor, said Friday. "I think we are one step closer."
Read the full article here.
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Guelph: GO Train pedestrian tunnel is coming soon
Sorry to our Kitchener-Waterloo friends, please send us your news, but Guelph is going to dominate due to the sheer volume of projects on the GO downtown (ha ha ha, what a bad pun!)
Guelph residents recall the Pedestrian Tunnel that was recently closed, only months before the start of GO Service, as well as the very imposing fence that has gone up on both sides of the tracks. This has forced people to stop taking the unsafe shortcut over the tracks but to walk all the way around to get to the VIA Station. But the kiss and ride is currently under construction, and how will people get to the platform from the kiss `n ride? The good news is it appears GO is planning to build the new Tunnel sooner rather than Later ` which Guelph commuters and VIA riders will be elated to hear.
Read the full article here.
Sorry to our Kitchener-Waterloo friends, please send us your news, but Guelph is going to dominate due to the sheer volume of projects on the GO downtown (ha ha ha, what a bad pun!)
Guelph residents recall the Pedestrian Tunnel that was recently closed, only months before the start of GO Service, as well as the very imposing fence that has gone up on both sides of the tracks. This has forced people to stop taking the unsafe shortcut over the tracks but to walk all the way around to get to the VIA Station. But the kiss and ride is currently under construction, and how will people get to the platform from the kiss `n ride? The good news is it appears GO is planning to build the new Tunnel sooner rather than Later ` which Guelph commuters and VIA riders will be elated to hear.
Read the full article here.
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GO trains arrive in Guelph Dec. 19th
GO trains are coming to Guelph in less than a month, despite a whole lot of construction still going on near the downtown train station.
`We really wanted to start before the snow flies, so people don`t have to drive in bad weather this winter` from here to their jobs in Toronto, GO Transit president Gary McNeil said Friday in announcing a Dec. 19 start to the extension of GO service to Guelph and Kitchener.
Construction work that GO Transit is doing near Guelph`s train station will still be going on, but McNeil said he hopes asphalt will be laid by Dec. 19 in the Kiss and Ride lot being built south of the tracks.
Read the full article here.
GO trains are coming to Guelph in less than a month, despite a whole lot of construction still going on near the downtown train station.
`We really wanted to start before the snow flies, so people don`t have to drive in bad weather this winter` from here to their jobs in Toronto, GO Transit president Gary McNeil said Friday in announcing a Dec. 19 start to the extension of GO service to Guelph and Kitchener.
Construction work that GO Transit is doing near Guelph`s train station will still be going on, but McNeil said he hopes asphalt will be laid by Dec. 19 in the Kiss and Ride lot being built south of the tracks.
Read the full article here.
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Bidding wars in Windsor heat up housing market
WINDSOR, Ont. -- After years of slumping prices, power sales and houses sitting on the market for months, it seems unbelievable, but it`s true ` bidding wars are returning to Windsor real estate.
`It`s interesting how this is developing along. Some of my salespeople are hard pressed to explain why it happens when it does,` said Frank Binder, the founder of Royal LePage Binder Real Estate.
`We`re happy the demand is there and it`s returning to a balanced market.`
Read the full article here.
WINDSOR, Ont. -- After years of slumping prices, power sales and houses sitting on the market for months, it seems unbelievable, but it`s true ` bidding wars are returning to Windsor real estate.
`It`s interesting how this is developing along. Some of my salespeople are hard pressed to explain why it happens when it does,` said Frank Binder, the founder of Royal LePage Binder Real Estate.
`We`re happy the demand is there and it`s returning to a balanced market.`
Read the full article here.
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Housing starts in Cambridge rise for seventh month in a row
WATERLOO REGION ` The resale housing market in Cambridge is finishing the year with a bang.
Agents with the Cambridge Association of Realtors sold 243 homes last month, up 24 per cent from the 196 in the same month a year earlier.
It was the seventh month in a row that sales were up on a year-over-year basis.
`The sustained strength of the marketplace reflects the consumer confidence in the region,` Karen Monteiro, president of the association, said in a news release.
Read the full article here.
WATERLOO REGION ` The resale housing market in Cambridge is finishing the year with a bang.
Agents with the Cambridge Association of Realtors sold 243 homes last month, up 24 per cent from the 196 in the same month a year earlier.
It was the seventh month in a row that sales were up on a year-over-year basis.
`The sustained strength of the marketplace reflects the consumer confidence in the region,` Karen Monteiro, president of the association, said in a news release.
Read the full article here.
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25 hard facts on Toronto's Q3 condo market
The Red Pin brings you 25 Hard Facts on Toronto`s Q3 Condo Market sourced from the latest Urbanation report. Urbanation are an authority in GTA`s new condo scene.
In Q3-2011 we saw over 6,318 new condo sales which was the fourth consecutive quarter in which sales exceeded 5,000 units. 33 new projects were launched, totalling 6,563 new units. For next quarter, we could see another 33 project and 8,300 units launched.
Read the full article here.
The Red Pin brings you 25 Hard Facts on Toronto`s Q3 Condo Market sourced from the latest Urbanation report. Urbanation are an authority in GTA`s new condo scene.
In Q3-2011 we saw over 6,318 new condo sales which was the fourth consecutive quarter in which sales exceeded 5,000 units. 33 new projects were launched, totalling 6,563 new units. For next quarter, we could see another 33 project and 8,300 units launched.
Read the full article here.
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Battling the traffic bulge
If your commute is getting you down, it`s only getting worse from here.
The average commute time in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area will jump by a third in 20 years without a major injection into transit, according to expert calculations.
It amounts to an extra 27 minutes a day, 2.25 hours more a week, 4.6 full days a year, that local commuters will spend in their cars battling congestion as the region adds an expected 2.6 million people.
Read the full article here.
If your commute is getting you down, it`s only getting worse from here.
The average commute time in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area will jump by a third in 20 years without a major injection into transit, according to expert calculations.
It amounts to an extra 27 minutes a day, 2.25 hours more a week, 4.6 full days a year, that local commuters will spend in their cars battling congestion as the region adds an expected 2.6 million people.
Read the full article here.
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Debugging Hamilton CityHousing a long haul
It`s a long, slow fight, but CityHousing Hamilton says it`s making inroads with its bedbug problem at a downtown building.
In September, The Spectator interviewed frustrated tenants living in First Place, a King Street East apartment building that at the time was declared to have a building-wide bedbug problem.
Good Shepherd Works won an exclusive, year-long contract to treat bedbug infestations in CityHousing units in March.
Since August, there has been 574 inspections of 474 units in First Place, said Brenda Osborne, CityHousing CEO.
Read the full article here.
It`s a long, slow fight, but CityHousing Hamilton says it`s making inroads with its bedbug problem at a downtown building.
In September, The Spectator interviewed frustrated tenants living in First Place, a King Street East apartment building that at the time was declared to have a building-wide bedbug problem.
Good Shepherd Works won an exclusive, year-long contract to treat bedbug infestations in CityHousing units in March.
Since August, there has been 574 inspections of 474 units in First Place, said Brenda Osborne, CityHousing CEO.
Read the full article here.
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Some condoes have rental restrictions
When I was condo hunting earlier this year, a big consideration was whether I should buy in a complex that allowed rentals.
Condo buildings have bylaws that might restrict whether you can rent your unit out, so it pays to check the bylaws carefully before you make an offer.
Rachelle Berube, President of Toronto's LandlordRescue.ca, believes that for owners who don`t intend on renting, a building that has rental restrictions, or does not allow rentals at all, might be best.
Read the full article here.
When I was condo hunting earlier this year, a big consideration was whether I should buy in a complex that allowed rentals.
Condo buildings have bylaws that might restrict whether you can rent your unit out, so it pays to check the bylaws carefully before you make an offer.
Rachelle Berube, President of Toronto's LandlordRescue.ca, believes that for owners who don`t intend on renting, a building that has rental restrictions, or does not allow rentals at all, might be best.
Read the full article here.
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The Nocturne: The Roncesvalles revival
Last Thursday, The Westerly, a new kitchen and bar described as `New York-meets-Paris in the `40s,` opened across from the Revue Cinema, just below Howard Park Avenue. The beauty of the space starts in the walls (all brick and subway-tiled), moves along the marble bar to the stained hardwood floors and exposed piping, and ends in a 40-person private dining room hidden around the back.
Owned by service-industry veterans Tom Earl and Beth Daveyduke, The Westerly is the latest in a string of 2011 openings that have hit Roncesvalles Avenue, and the most daring to date because of its position on the strip`s most northern end. And just three weeks ago, Maggie Ruhl, owner of Ossington`s Dakota Tavern, and resto-neophyte Greg Boggs unveiled The Ace, a re-purposed `60s diner where most of the original dÃcor (it was once home to a Chinese restaurant) has gone undisturbed for almost 20 years. It`s officially starting to feel like a new, new beginning for the Roncesvalles community, with an influx of exciting places that not only complement the strip`s local watering holes and buy-local daytime operations, but also elevate it to one of the city`s great areas to eat, drink, and be merry.
Read the full article here.
Last Thursday, The Westerly, a new kitchen and bar described as `New York-meets-Paris in the `40s,` opened across from the Revue Cinema, just below Howard Park Avenue. The beauty of the space starts in the walls (all brick and subway-tiled), moves along the marble bar to the stained hardwood floors and exposed piping, and ends in a 40-person private dining room hidden around the back.
Owned by service-industry veterans Tom Earl and Beth Daveyduke, The Westerly is the latest in a string of 2011 openings that have hit Roncesvalles Avenue, and the most daring to date because of its position on the strip`s most northern end. And just three weeks ago, Maggie Ruhl, owner of Ossington`s Dakota Tavern, and resto-neophyte Greg Boggs unveiled The Ace, a re-purposed `60s diner where most of the original dÃcor (it was once home to a Chinese restaurant) has gone undisturbed for almost 20 years. It`s officially starting to feel like a new, new beginning for the Roncesvalles community, with an influx of exciting places that not only complement the strip`s local watering holes and buy-local daytime operations, but also elevate it to one of the city`s great areas to eat, drink, and be merry.
Read the full article here.
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Sun Burned
The parallel-energy universe known as renewables, a place where dollars and economic theory know no bounds and make no sense, looks increasingly like a bubble set to collapse. Or, as I wrote here back in March of 2010: "That eerie hissing you hear may well be the air beginning to seep out of the green energy bubble. The sound is similar to the pfffffft and sshhhhsssssp noises we heard in the early days of the dot-com bubble collapse or the sub prime mortgage meltdown."
News that the pioneer German solar power company Solon filed for creditor protection Tuesday suggests last year's seep of air out of the jolly green subsidy giant has become a great vacuum blowout. The various corporate-welfare seekers that have been straddling the renewable sector will not give up easily or gracefully, but the hot-air balloon that is green-energy economics is rapidly losing the ga-ga popular support it has had for the past decade.
Read the full article here.
The parallel-energy universe known as renewables, a place where dollars and economic theory know no bounds and make no sense, looks increasingly like a bubble set to collapse. Or, as I wrote here back in March of 2010: "That eerie hissing you hear may well be the air beginning to seep out of the green energy bubble. The sound is similar to the pfffffft and sshhhhsssssp noises we heard in the early days of the dot-com bubble collapse or the sub prime mortgage meltdown."
News that the pioneer German solar power company Solon filed for creditor protection Tuesday suggests last year's seep of air out of the jolly green subsidy giant has become a great vacuum blowout. The various corporate-welfare seekers that have been straddling the renewable sector will not give up easily or gracefully, but the hot-air balloon that is green-energy economics is rapidly losing the ga-ga popular support it has had for the past decade.
Read the full article here.
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Thousands of tenants to get rent reductions
About 40 per cent of the city`s tenant households are receiving a bit of relief in the mail: rent reduction notices.
The City of Toronto envelopes are addressed to the `Current Tenant` and clearly marked as rent reduction notices. They contain information about how to decrease one`s monthly rent as early as Dec. 31.
Municipalities are mandated by provincial law to send rent reduction notices to tenants in units where property taxes are decreasing by more than 2.49 per cent. About 20 per cent of tenants` rent goes toward property taxes.
The overall rent reduction on residential rental buildings in 2011 is 0.61 per cent. Applied to the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Toronto ` $1,161 per month ` that`s a monthly reduction of about $7.
Read the full article here.
About 40 per cent of the city`s tenant households are receiving a bit of relief in the mail: rent reduction notices.
The City of Toronto envelopes are addressed to the `Current Tenant` and clearly marked as rent reduction notices. They contain information about how to decrease one`s monthly rent as early as Dec. 31.
Municipalities are mandated by provincial law to send rent reduction notices to tenants in units where property taxes are decreasing by more than 2.49 per cent. About 20 per cent of tenants` rent goes toward property taxes.
The overall rent reduction on residential rental buildings in 2011 is 0.61 per cent. Applied to the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Toronto ` $1,161 per month ` that`s a monthly reduction of about $7.
Read the full article here.
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Toronto house prices hit new record
The Toronto housing market slipped back into sellers` territory in November, helping propel prices even higher to a record average of $481,305.
That`s a 2.1 per cent increase from October and, when adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, almost 10 per cent more than the average GTA home was worth a year ago, according to figures released Thursday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
In fact, November sales across Canada were 7 per cent above the 10-year average for the month, resulting in the fourth highest level of sales on record for what`s typically the slow season, CREA noted.
Read the full article here.
The Toronto housing market slipped back into sellers` territory in November, helping propel prices even higher to a record average of $481,305.
That`s a 2.1 per cent increase from October and, when adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, almost 10 per cent more than the average GTA home was worth a year ago, according to figures released Thursday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.
In fact, November sales across Canada were 7 per cent above the 10-year average for the month, resulting in the fourth highest level of sales on record for what`s typically the slow season, CREA noted.
Read the full article here.
- Joined
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Muskoka Lake condos up for sale - again
Some 19 Lake Muskoka condos near Gravenhurst are up for sale again ` this time the conventional way ` after a recent auction created more bitterness than buzz.
At least two people were told they had the `winning bid,` only to find out a few days later their offer had been rejected by the developer of the Muskoka Wharf project, Evanco Corp.
Toronto resident Cliff Hunt spent hours at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel Dec. 4, waiting to bid on a studio condo-hotel unit that is part of the 106-suite Marriott Hotel on the site. He was delighted to get it for $92,000.
Read the full article here.
Some 19 Lake Muskoka condos near Gravenhurst are up for sale again ` this time the conventional way ` after a recent auction created more bitterness than buzz.
At least two people were told they had the `winning bid,` only to find out a few days later their offer had been rejected by the developer of the Muskoka Wharf project, Evanco Corp.
Toronto resident Cliff Hunt spent hours at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel Dec. 4, waiting to bid on a studio condo-hotel unit that is part of the 106-suite Marriott Hotel on the site. He was delighted to get it for $92,000.
Read the full article here.