STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE
Legal push to cut Puerto Rico power company debt delayed


Thu, December 1, 2022 



SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Efforts to restructure some $9 billion in debt held by Puerto Rico’s power company hit a new snag Thursday following multiple failed attempts to end its bankruptcy.

Officials had until Thursday to submit a new proposal on how to cut the Electric Power Authority’s debt — the largest held by any government agency — but a mediation team overseeing negotiations between bondholders and Puerto Rico’s government requested a one-week extension.

Federal Judge Laura Taylor-Swain, who is overseeing the case, approved the extension request, saying it was reasonable and necessary.

Solving the power company’s debt is considered key for Puerto Rico’s economic development as the U.S. territory remains mired in a deep economic slump and investors continue to be spooked by the financial uncertainty and chronic power outages blamed in part on aging infrastructure stemming from decades of neglect and mismanagement.

Puerto Rico emerged earlier this year from the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history after announcing in 2015 that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion public debt following decades of corruption, mismanagement and heavy borrowing. The island's power company is now the only government agency left that has yet to restructure its debt. Many on the island fear that ongoing prickly negotiations might lead to yet another increase in already costly electric bills to finance payments to creditors.

In a court filing Thursday, the mediation team noted that a federal control board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances and representing the island’s government in the bankruptcy case has failed to submit basic data and analyses relevant to ongoing negotiations over the power company’s debt.

The team said that without the information, there could be no further progress toward a consensual resolution.

“Stated differently, good faith negotiations...require transparency from both sides and continued engagement,” the team said in its filing.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, the board said it has cooperated and would continue to cooperate.

The mediation team noted that the board agreed to deliver all information sought by Friday and would be available for questions. It added it was reluctant to request the extension but that forcing the board to file a debt restructuring proposal on Thursday would not be conducive to a consensual resolution.

The request comes after a federal judge overseeing the case ordered a fresh round of mediation talks in late September after an impasse between the board and bondholders. The judge also allowed the board to go to court to determine the amount bondholders should receive.

In March, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi announced that his administration was scrapping a proposed debt restructuring deal for the power company that had been in the works for several years, saying it was neither feasible nor in the island’s best interest.

Dánica Coto, The Associated Press

Cdn. tech sector participation and pay gaps persist and in some cases, worsen: report


Thu, December 1, 2022 



TORONTO — A new report shows women, people of colour and immigrants in Canada's tech sector saw employment and pay inequities persist — and in some cases, worsen — between 2001 and 2016.

The research from the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Toronto Metropolitan University was published Thursday and shows women were increasingly excluded from tech work throughout that period.

"It's infuriating to see that we're exactly where we started 20 years ago now," said Viet Vu, the institute's manager of economic research and lead author of the report called "Further and Further Away: Canada’s unrealized digital potential."

His research showed women had a 6.29 per cent chance of being a tech worker in 2001, but by 2016, that had fallen to 4.91 per cent.

Meanwhile, men had a 20 per cent chance of being a tech worker, which remained unchanged between 2001 and 2016.

In the past 20 years, women have become even more educated, so Vu thinks it isn't aptitude fuelling the exclusion. Instead, he puts some of the blame on workplace attitudes and phenomena that limit their participation like gender violence and sexual harassment.

His research also delved into disparities in pay. He uncovered that men made an average of $3.49 more per hour than women between 2001 and 2016. That equates to an average of $7,200 in lost income every year.

Identifying as a visible minority also lowered one’s pay by an average $3.89 per hour.

The report said an immigrant woman identifying as a visible minority and engaging in tech work without a university degree in Canada, on average, is expected to make $18.5 per hour less than a white, non-immigrant man with a university degree.

That amounts to a difference in $38,000 in annual income.

If the man in this scenario had a university degree, he would make on average $8.94 per hour more.

Researchers also observed no pay gap between immigrant and non-immigrant tech workers in 2001, but by 2016, a gap of roughly $5.70 per hour emerged.

Over the 15-year period studied, the gap amounted to roughly $4.40 per hour.

Such findings made Vu sad because they revealed "massive missed opportunities."

"We could have invested in making tech more inclusive, we could invest in allowing more folks to get into tech work, but we see fairly little done," he said.

He hopes the report will spark change because he sees identifying inequities as the first step in working toward parity.

He also believes the country and its next sector needs to examine why its current investments and strategies haven't yielded results.

"Maybe we can figure out what does seem to work, how we can tweak it, how we can actually fix it... so it doesn't stay status quo anymore."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2022.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

At COP15, business will hear that it can't afford to ignore the biodiversity crisis anymore


Special to Financial Post
Thu, December 1, 2022 

BIODIVERSITY-COP15-gs-1201

By Megan Leslie and Jason Storah

If the numbers surrounding nature were presented as a financial report, they’d stop anyone in their tracks: Our planet’s monitored wildlife populations have plummeted by an average of 69 per cent in the past 50 years. A million plant and animal species now face extinction. We lose 91 hockey rinks worth of forest every minute.

In the face of this acute crisis of biodiversity loss, governments will gather at COP15 — the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Montreal this month — to negotiate the next 10 years of nature protections. This crisis is caused by human activity and exacerbated by climate change, and it is threatening the natural world that sustains our populations and economies.

This crisis is everyone’s business, including, well, businesses.

For most of human history, there’s been a direct line between nature and commerce. Today, at least half of global GDP is critically dependent on healthy functioning ecosystems, whether directly (from the use of resources like water, processes like pollination, or conditions like soil health) or indirect activities — like retail, for example — that rely on those things.

To put it in plain terms, there aren’t many businesses for which dwindling biodiversity does not create serious risks, through resource scarcity, increased costs, supply chain disruptions or less resilience to extreme weather events. Think of the bird who scatters the seed that produces the Douglas fir that’s then harvested, processed into timber, built into a home that is then marketed, sold, heated, serviced, furnished and insured. If the bird disappears, so too does the entire value chain it sustains.

Despite this, most businesses continue to undervalue the role of nature in facilitating what they do. According to KPMG’s 2022 Survey of Sustainability Reporting, less than half of businesses whose operations were threatened by biodiversity loss identified that risk in their corporate reporting.

This won’t hold for long. In a September report that pegged the value of nature-related risk to corporations at $1.9 trillion, Moody’s identified ecosystem health and biodiversity loss as increasing areas of scrutiny for policy-makers and investors alike. And a new multi-national Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures — the members of which represent US$19.4 trillion in assets — is working to codify a globally recognized framework for businesses to disclose nature-related risks, with the support of the UN and several governments.

As stakeholders of all types demand more from companies, it’s clear that every business will soon have to account for its impact in the natural world, one way or another. As stewards of a country with some of the most spectacular nature on earth — in quality and quantity — we have a lot to lose. Canadian businesses have a unique responsibility, and opportunity, to lead the preservation and regeneration of natural systems.

Delegates will assemble for COP15 starting on Dec. 7. We are calling on leaders in the business community to make explicit commitments to biodiversity part of their environmental, social and governance (ESG) plans.

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These commitments should occur on two fronts:

Internal transformation

Remember the adage “think globally, act locally”? We recommend businesses first conduct biodiversity assessments across their full value chains to understand their impacts and dependencies on nature. They should then work to neutralize deleterious activities, nurture beneficial ones, and directly support (financially and otherwise) the biodiversity-enhancing and climate fighting work of Indigenous peoples, NGOs, and community groups. As an example, Aviva has committed to address both deforestation and biodiversity risk, and is currently undertaking this work in its own operations; it also funds restoration efforts by community organizations across Canada, including six projects included in WWF-Canada’s Nature and Climate Grant Program. Many large companies have established formal ESG targets for essential climate change-related initiatives, such as carbon sequestration or emissions reduction. Bay Street may be more comfortable accounting for carbon than for plants and animals, but that’s no reason to not do both.

External leadership

Businesses carry big influence when they assume public leadership on environmental issues: with governments, with the public, with one another. COP15 creates several chances for them to apply this to the biodiversity crisis. As an example, they can join the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, of which Aviva is a member, in urgently advocating for the UN’s Global Biodiversity Framework to clearly require the alignment of all public and financial investments with biodiversity goals. Or they could join more than 300 global companies and financial institutions in supporting the Business for Nature campaign, which is working with governments to make biodiversity assessment and disclosure mandatory. Actions like these represent the best sort of corporate peer pressure: The more high-profile companies publicly prioritize nature in major decisions, the better off we’ll all be.
Ecosystems are interconnected — they must be, in order to thrive. The same is true of corporate efforts to protect our planet. By prioritizing biodiversity alongside aggressive decarbonization, Canadian businesses have a chance to be global leaders, while reducing their risks and protecting their bottom lines. We must do the right thing. Now.

Megan Leslie is president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada. Jason Storah is chief executive of insurance company Aviva Canada.

Economist corrects minister who cited him in defence of dropping rent cap

Thu, December 1, 2022 

Jill Green, the minister responsible for housing and Service New Brunswick, named Richard Saillant, much to his surprise, as an example of an economist who doesn't think rent caps work.

 (Joe McDonald/CBC - image credit)

A New Brunswick economist is setting the record straight after Housing Minister Jill Green cited him as an expert who doesn't think rent caps work.

Richard Saillant said he doesn't oppose rent caps and doesn't believe they discourage housing development, which is what Green suggested in an interview with Information Morning Fredericton.

Green has said that part of the reason the province is not extending the 3.8 per cent rent caps beyond this year is that "most economists" say they don't work and they can harm development.

"Many studies out there, by economists, saying that rent caps don't have the desired effect, and so I've read a number of those," Green told Information Morning Fredericton this week.

When asked to name some of those economists, Green said: "Richard Saillant is an example of an economist that has written about the rent cap, but … this is a standard thing that is written all over North America about rent caps."

Saillant said he was surprised to hear this. He said he believes rent caps can work, if they're not the only affordable-housing measure.

"Rent caps, if they're part of a broader suite of other measures that the government would take, are probably very reasonable compromise," he said.

"I think it should be a temporary but reasonable compromise for helping New Brunswickers meet the housing crisis that we are faced with today."

Saillant said he had to think hard about what Green might have read to get the impression he opposes rent caps.

Jacques Poitras/CBC

The closest thing he could find was a newspaper column from two years ago, where he said rent caps were a "blunt instrument," but would probably be used by the government eventually, he said.

He called them a "blunt instrument" because they alone can't fix the affordable housing crisis, he said.

"Rent caps do not help out with students who are looking for an apartment every year," he said. "They're not protecting those who are looking for a job in a different community. They're not protecting newcomers. These people need help too."

Recently, the province announced $100 million for building 380 affordable housing units and renovating 110, and said it will partly finance an organization focused on finding more rural housing called Housing Hub of New Brunswick Inc.

Economist, researcher, data dispute rent cap's harm on development

Green told CBC on Monday that has hard evidence the rent cap has caused housing development to stagnate: In 2021, construction started on projects that would add 2,600 and new units in the province. In 2022, that number is down to about 1,000 new units.

"I think less than half the units being built this year than last year is evidence," she said.

But Saillant and housing scholar Julia Woodhall-Melnik dispute the conclusion Green is drawing and the blame she's assigning to the rent camp.

Saillant said it's true that construction activity is down outside of the three largest cities, but the rent cap is not the reason.

It's more likely that an extreme reduction in labour and the increased material costs are having the most impact.

"I don't buy that argument for a single minute, the reason being that the overarching constraint on housing supply these days is labour," he said.

"The industry is already operating at full speed, full steam, and they're saying that their critical bottleneck is labour."

John-Ryan Morrison, the Construction Association of New Brunswick's executive director, previously said the cost of materials has gone up more than 80 per cent in the last two years, and New Brunswick would be short about 10,000 construction workers in the next three to four years.

Woodhall-Melnik, who is a housing researcher at the University of New Brunswick, said apartment owners are doing well,despite the cap.

"There is stuff written by economists, planners, urban geographers, folks that do regional studies, housing studies that dictates that, you know, rent caps can work with either minimal or no impact on supply chains," she said.

Statistic Canada numbers show New Brunswick landlords have generated rent increases well above national averages this year, despite the rent cap.

Rents in the province rose 7.9 per cent over the last 12 months ending in October — partly because of new tenants moving into vacant units, fuller buildings, and a series of tax cuts and other concessions by provincial and municipal governments, Woodhall-Melnik said.

New Brunswick's largest landlord Killam Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust reported that earnings in greater Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John all grew at rates above national averages during the first three quarters of 2022.

Saillant said what's needed are skilled immigrant construction workers and large infusions of cash to make affordable housing projects more attractive to developers.

ACLU warns Tenn. hospital over transgender treatment policy

Thu, December 1, 2022 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Civil rights advocates say a Memphis hospital is no longer providing gender-affirming surgeries, a move they argue is illegal and discriminatory.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, Memphis-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare alerted their client, Chris Evans, on Nov. 21 that all gender-affirming surgeries were canceled due to a newly adopted policy. Evans, who the ACLU says suffers from gender dysphoria, had been scheduled for a surgery at MLH less than a week later.

The ACLU claims that MLH's new policy discriminates on the basis of sex, which would violate the nondiscrimination provision the hospital agreed to follow as a Medicaid provider. MLH is also accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act because the ALCU argues they're denying a person with a disability the benefits of a program.

The ACLU demanded in a letter on Wednesday that the hospital “promptly rectify its unlawful actions, and reschedule our client’s surgery, including any other necessary support services, to be performed no later than December 31."

MLH is one of Tennessee's largest providers of Tennessee's Medicaid and uninsured patients. Their website claims they serve more than 128,000 adult Medicaid patients each year.

The ACLU says if the hospital does not respond by Friday, it will file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.

A spokesperson for the hospital did not immediately return an email requesting comment. It is unknown how many gender-affirming surgeries the hospital was previously providing or when the new policy went into place.

The ACLU's letter comes as gender-affirming health care and transgender rights are facing increased scrutiny, particularly in Republican-led states. However, most of the attacks have focused on banning gender-affirming care for minors — rather than calling for hospitals to halt all procedures, even for adults.

Earlier this year, Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced it would pause all gender-affirming care for minors amid outrage about leaked videos showing a doctor touting that gender-affirming surgeries are “huge money makers.” Another video showed a staffer saying anyone with a religious objection should quit.

Tennessee lawmakers have since vowed to ban gender-affirming care for minors during the upcoming 2023 legislative session.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt recently signed off on a law that prohibited the University of Oklahoma Medical Center from using more than $108 million in federal funds for medical treatments for transgender youth.

Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press

Bulgarians protest reinstatement of paper election ballots

Thu, December 1, 2022 

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Hundreds of people attended a street protest in Bulgaria's capital Thursday to oppose a revision of the Election Code that reinstates paper ballots, which the previous reformist government had replaced with voting machines.

The We Continue the Change party and the Democratic Bulgaria political alliance called the protest in Sofia, describing the switch as an attempt by the parties of the “old establishment” to allow the corruption of the election process.

Police cordoned off the Parliament building to prevent the angry demonstrators from storming it, but the protest remained peaceful.

The leader of the We Continue the Change party, Kiril Petkov, called on Bulgarians to stand up for their rights and join the protest.

“Today is the day when the democratic vote of every Bulgarian citizen will be substituted, the day when we open the door to 15% invalid ballots, when the distortion of the vote makes the whole system work corruptly,” he said ahead of the event.

The Election Code amendments were approved last week during an all-night sitting of the National Assembly's legal affairs committee, with support from the center-right GERB party of three-time Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, the Socialist Party and a party representing Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish citizens.

The rushed move comes as a political stalemate in the European Union’s poorest member country has added to the economic woes of many Bulgarians at a time of galloping inflation and rising energy costs.

Bulgaria currently is governed by a caretaker Cabinet with limited powers following its fourth general election in less than two years.

The October election produced another fragmented parliament, where so far fruitless efforts to form a viable governing coalition are likely to result in another election early next year.

The Associated Press

UK
Train strikes: RMT union hopeful of offer to end rail dispute

Fri, December 2, 2022

Mick Lynch

RMT union boss Mick Lynch has said he is hopeful that the government will make an offer that could end the planned rail strikes.

On his way into a meeting with Rail Minister Huw Merriman on Friday morning he said the government would "hopefully… put an offer on the table".

He said he expected the offer to be "modest" but said the dispute was "definitely moving".

"It's definitely different to the last six months," Mr Lynch said.

However, he suggested that the more positive overtures from the government might simply be "window dressing".

On Thursday, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he was trying to "encourage" a deal between employers and trade unions on reforming the rail industry and bringing an end to the strikes.

He said an agreement to "hammer out a deal on reform of the industry" would benefit rail users and train staff.

A number of unions have announced strikes and other forms of industrial action across the rail network in December, which could cause crippling periods of disruption to the network in the run-up to Christmas.

When are the next train strikes?

The RMT union is planning industrial action across four 48-hour periods on 13-14 and 16-17 December, and 3-4 and 6-7 January, which will hit Network Rail and 14 train operators. RMT members will also operate an overtime ban between 18 December to 2 January.

TSSA workers at Avanti West Coast will also strike on 13-14 and 16-17 December.

On Friday, the Unite union said its members employed by Network Rail in electric control rooms would join the strikes, adding that the workers had not received a pay increase for three years.

"It is totally unforgivable that the government thinks it is acceptable to implement a three-year pay freeze on our members who play a critical role in keeping the rail network operating," said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.

Strikes graphic

Road users also face disruption over the Christmas period after workers at the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union announced 12 days of strike action.

The National Highways employees, who plan, design, build, operate and maintain the country's roads, will take part in a series of staggered strikes from 16 December to 7 January.

The PCS said the action came after 124 government departments and other public bodies voted for strike action in a row over pay and conditions.

"We know our members' action could inconvenience travellers who plan to visit their relatives over the festive period, but our members have been placed in this situation by a government that won't listen to its own workforce," said PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.

The union said it would announce strikes in other departments, including the Home Office, in the next few weeks.

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA
NDP wants boycott of G20 events in India's Kashmir region, citing human-rights issues


Thu, December 1, 2022 

OTTAWA — The federal NDP is calling on the Liberal government to ban certain Indian officials from travelling to Canada and to boycott G20 events in India's Kashmir region, citing the country's treatment of minorities.

India started its term Thursday in the rotating presidency of the G20, a forum for the world's largest economies.

The hosting role involves convening meetings throughout the year, which will culminate in a leaders' summit planned for next September in New Delhi.

The NDP said in a press release that it wanted a boycott of India's presidency of the G20, but later narrowed it down to a request that Canada avoid meetings that occur in the region of Kashmir, the site of a protracted conflict with Pakistan.

"The growing number of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic hate crimes, and those toward minorities including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, LGBTQ+ community, women and Indigenous peoples is appalling," NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson told reporters.

"New Democrats are calling on the government to strongly condemn India's discriminatory anti-minority laws, its threats of ethnic cleansing, the persecution of minorities and the arrests of journalists and human-right activists," she said.

The High Commission of India in Ottawa and the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This month, Human Rights Watch reported "a serious regression in human rights and constitutional protections" under Modi, particularly for Muslims.

The group reports that Modi's government is "using draconian sedition, counterterrorism and national security laws to prosecute and harass human rights activists, journalists, students, government critics and peaceful protesters."

In March, India's highest court upheld a ban on Muslim girls wearing headscarves inside schools in the state of Karnataka.

And the human-rights organization says the government has banned foreign funding for thousands of local civil-society groups.

McPherson was joined at a news conference by representatives of the World Sikh Organization and the National Council of Canadian Muslims, who said the government of Narendra Modi is espousing Hindu nationalism that puts others at risk.

Jaspreet Kaur Bal, the Ontario vice president of the Sikh group, called India a fascist state.

"Sikhs in Canada have repeatedly shared concerns of a lack of safety. We have watched as, through foreign interference, the Indian state has brought its far-right ideology and threats into the lives of Canadians," she said.

McPherson said members of Modi's political party "have called for racist and genocidal violence against Muslims and other minorities in India" and said Ottawa should ban such officials from entering Canada.

The NDP referred to a July report by the Canadian Muslims' council that listed 14 senior party members the group accuses of hateful rhetoric and decisions that have displaced Muslims or left them subjected to violence.

Last month, the Trudeau government unveiled plans to form closer ties with India as a key component of its Indo-Pacific Strategy.

"We believe that Canada has an important role to play in ensuring that states with which we engage, and with which we hope to further develop relationships with, have similar human-rights values," McPherson said.

Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma has been critical of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh for attending rallies run by people who support a separatist movement in an area the Sikhs call Khalistan.

Singh's office has said he supports self-determination and hasn't taken a side in that debate. McPherson would not say Thursday whether the NDP supports a united India.

"With regards to how you want to label it, what I want to see is human rights protected around the world," she responded.

"I want that lens to be applied equally to different countries. I don't think right now we do that. We pick and choose, based on our trade relationships, and I don't think that's the way human rights work."

Bloc Québécois critic Stéphane Bergeron suggested that concerns about human rights don't justify boycotting "the most populous democracy on the planet" when other G20 countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have even worse records.

"I'm just trying understand the logic behind this position taken by the NDP without minimizing, underestimating or denying the existence of discrimination in India," he said in French.

The NDP also called for a boycott of Saudi Arabia when it hosted the G20 in 2020.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2022.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Florida pulls $2 billion in retirement funds from BlackRock in anti-ESG stance

Thu, December 1, 2022 at 2:59 p.m.

Yahoo Finance political columnist Rick Newman explains how Florida yanked $2 billion from BlackRock as part of Governor Ron DeSantis's anti-ESG stance.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: The war against woke capitalism continues to rage. The latest battle between Florida Governor and likely Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. The prize, a $2 billion investment. Senior columnist Rick Newman here with how this fight has ended for now. Hey, Rick. What's the latest from DeSantis?

RICK NEWMAN: Well, Florida says it's going to pull $2 billion in assets. And this is money that's in retirement funds. And they have to find somebody to invest that money. So that money is at BlackRock, the giant investing firm. And they said they're going to take that out because they don't agree with BlackRock's ESG focus, the environmental, social, and governmental guidance that BlackRock operates by. But it's unclear what they're going to do with that money.

I mean, are they going to look around for some other finance firm, or investing firm, that has a invest in the sin industry or something like that? You're only going to invest in oil companies, gun manufacturers, and booze, and cigarette companies? I'm not sure I get where this is going. And Florida is not, by any means, pulling all of its money out. That $2 billion is a small part of all the funds that Florida has in its retirement savings account. And it's not a huge hit for BlackRock either.

I did the math on this. BlackRock has $10 trillion in assets under management. And Florida is taking out two billion. So that adds up to about 0.2% of BlackRock assets that they're going to lose on this. But we're going to hear a lot more about this. But because Republican thinks-- Republicans think they can gain political leverage by going after big companies that are a little too socially correct for them.

DAVE BRIGGS: And Larry Fink had some headlines. At the DealBook "New York Times", somebody yesterday actually believed we're going to need hydrocarbons for 70 years. He also said, quote, "I believe stakeholder capitalism is not political, not woke. It is capitalism." We'll see how that resonates. Rick, do you think other states, Republican led obviously, will follow here?

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, there are a couple of others that have already done this. I think Louisiana has done it. I think you'll find some other states that have done this. But I think it's just going to add up to small potatoes because I don't really see what alternatives anybody who has this kind of money to invest really has. And BlackRock says, look. You can't say you want to take your money away from us because our returns are poor.

Our returns are excellent. And there is a case to be made that applying a certain amount of ESG focus actually improves returns. Now there's a lot of debate on that. And it's going to go on. But there was an effort to capitalize on this. There was a bank in Texas that tried to set up and carve out some space here and say, we are the anti-woke lender. You can bank with us if you don't like the way big banks operate. And they went bust about three or four weeks ago. So I'm not sure how solid that market is.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, this is right up Governor Abbott's ally indeed. Senior columnist Rick Newman here with that. Good stuff, my friend. Thank you.

Mortgage costs now eat 67% of income in Canada: National Bank

Michelle Zadikian
·Senior Reporter
Thu, December 1, 2022 

Any meaningful improvements in housing affordability from falling prices has been offset by climbing mortgage rates.

The last time mortgage costs took this big of a bite out of Canadians’ incomes, Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 was topping the Billboard 100 chart.

A new report from National Bank Financial Markets said the cost to own a representative home in Canada required 67.3 per cent of income to service the debt, the most since 1981. A representative home is essentially a benchmark property price determined for each market using Teranet-National Bank Home Price Index data.

By National’s calculations, the five-year benchmark mortgage rate used to determine its affordability metrics rose 75 basis points in the third quarter, heaping an extra $300 onto the monthly mortgage payment for a representative home.

"While this surge was less significant than the one observed in the previous quarter, it propelled the benchmark mortgage rate to its highest level since 2010," Kyle Dahms and Alexandra Ducharme, economists and report authors, said on Wednesday.

While home prices have fallen this year in reaction to higher borrowing rates, mortgage rates have simultaneously risen, offsetting any meaningful improvements in affordability.

The report said the average Canadian would need an annual income of $188,776 in order to afford a home, though that number ranges depending on the region.

In fact, Canada is currently in its longest stretch of deteriorating affordability since the real estate bubble of the late eighties, National said. Affordability fell for 11 consecutive quarters back then. Currently, Canadian housing affordability has declined for a seventh straight quarter.

Affordability deteriorated in all ten markets it tracks, but was worst in Vancouver, Victoria and Calgary. Ottawa-Gatineau, Hamilton, Ont. and Winnipeg had the least deterioration.

However, National Bank sees some improvement on the horizon.

“With our affordability indexes at extreme levels in most markets, we see further declines in housing prices. The slowdown in real estate activity in several markets is expected to result in a cumulative 15% decline in home prices in 2023 from the peak (-7.7% to date),” the report authors said.

“This, combined with a stabilization of the benchmark 5-year mortgage rate, should improve affordability in the coming quarters.”

Michelle Zadikian is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @m_zadikian.