Ghostly capital of Karabakh lies abandoned


AFP
October 2, 2023


A new road sign reading 'Khankendi', the Azeri name for the former separatist stronghold - Copyright AFP Mandel NGAN
Daphne ROUSSEAU

Intact but abandoned, the capital of the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh lies eerily silent after the hasty departure of tens of thousands of residents.

Its name “Stepanakert” could be seen on a sign in Armenian letters in white on a red background, just beyond an Azerbaijani checkpoint on a road into the city.

Nearby, a bright-blue new road sign stands, reading “Khankendi” — the Azeri name for the former separatist stronghold at the heart of a 30-year conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh surrendered to an Azerbaijani military offensive last month and since then almost the entire population of the territory has fled to Armenia.

Armenian separatists, who had controlled the region for three decades, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Baku following a one-day Azerbaijani offensive.

The presence of the winning side is still discreet and only a few Azerbaijani police officers could be seen patrolling the city.

But the Azerbaijani mobile phone network already works perfectly in some areas and red cars of the country’s operator Bakcell could be seen at work at antenna masts.

– 55,000 inhabitants –

Buildings, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets lay empty and deserted in a city that once had 55,000 inhabitants.

Many have been smashed up with empty shelves — signs of looting or hasty departures.

There is no longer any Armenian flag visible and the only civilian seen was a haggard man, carrying a scythe accompanied by a pack of six German shepherd dogs.

The city looks like it has been hit by an invisible catastrophe, entirely intact and with no evidence of fighting or bombing.

The Soviet-style factories, the building sites of new houses for the middle class, the vegetable gardens and even the livestock have all been left abandoned.

Among the few signs of life are the numerous Russian peacekeepers — a contingent sent in 2020 as part of a peace deal to end a six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh.

They could be seen in tanks, cars, on foot and even on bikes in the city suburbs.

Nobody on the Azerbaijani side could say exactly how many residents remain in the city.

But the separatist government said in a statement on Monday that some officials will stay until search operations for people killed and missing have been completed.

Danger is never far away in the city.

– ‘It’s finally over’ –

Some distance from the city, Azerbaijani officials brought a group of journalists to a field next to its former airport, currently a Russian peacekeeper base.

The officials said there were 100 hectares of cannabis there, which they said had been used to fund the separatist government.

Asked why the cannabis was growing next to a Russian base, interior ministry official Aykhan Mustafayev said: “An investigation is underway. We are not making any comment”.

As the officials were showing the cannabis field, a Russian military helicopter flew in and settled beyond the barbed wire on the landing strip of the former airport.

Admiring the surrounding scenery, Mustafayev said: “It is emotional. After years of sorrow, years of disbelief finally this is over.

“As the ministry of internal affairs, we can now establish control over the whole territory,” he said.

Vote on Indigenous rights opens in much of Australia


By AFP
October 3, 2023

A volunteer hands out voting brochures outside a voting centre in central Sydney on October 3, 2023. Early voting opened on October 3 across a swathe of Australia on a reform that would recognise Indigenous people in the 1901 constitution for the first time. -

 Copyright AFP/File Dibyangshu SARKAR

Sharon MARRIS

Early voting opened Tuesday across a swathe of Australia on a reform that would recognise Indigenous people in the 1901 constitution for the first time.

The proposal — which would also give First Nations people the right to be consulted on policies that affect them — has only minority support after slumping in the polls.

“We’re fighting to keep an extra layer of bureaucracy out of our constitution,” said 60-year-old “no” campaigner Dee Duchesne as early voting began in Sydney.

People who are unavailable to vote on the October 14 referendum day can opt to cast a ballot early.

Polling stations opened Tuesday across New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. They opened the previous day in the rest of the country.

Outside a polling station in central Sydney, campaigners for both sides handed out pamphlets.

A supporter of the proposal to give Indigenous people a so-called Voice had written “yes” in chalk on the pavement.

“I want to recognise our first Australians, and this is how they have asked to be recognised. I think the Voice is a very simple thing to ask for,” said Karen Wyatt, a 59-year-old volunteer for the “yes” camp.

Trevor Veenson, a 36-year-old nurse, told AFP he would be voting “no”.

“To me, it’s divisive, it’s causing more problems than necessary,” he said of the referendum.

“Why change something that’s not broken?”

Librarian Yasmin Tadich, 50, was hoping there would be a “groundswell” of support for the “yes” vote.

She told AFP: “It’s time to recognise the longest living culture in the world… we need to embrace and value Indigenous First Nations people.” More than two centuries after the white settlement of Australia, Indigenous people are still far more likely to die young, live in poverty and be imprisoned.

Proponents of the constitutional amendment say listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders would help to craft policies that work.

Opponents say the plan lacks detail, creates unnecessary bureaucracy, opens a racial divide, confers special privileges on Indigenous people and would do little to improve their lot.

If voters have to choose one way or the other, recent surveys indicate the “yes” camp is at just over 40 percent and the “no” side at nearly 60 percent.

A Guardian Essential survey released Tuesday indicated a slight uptick for the “yes” camp but the “no” side remained in the lead.

Australian Indigenous rights vote fuels racism

By AFP
October 3, 2023

Recent surveys indicate support for the referendum has plummeted over the past year - Copyright AFP/File ANGELA WEISS

Kate TAN

A referendum aimed at elevating the rights of Indigenous Australians has instead triggered a torrent of racist slurs and abuse, with toxic debate spreading online and in the media.

The October 14 vote will decide whether to finally recognise First Nations peoples in the constitution.

Their ancestors were in Australia for 60,000 years before British colonial rule began in the late 1700s.

The reform would give Indigenous communities the right to advise parliament — a so-called “Voice” — to help address entrenched inequalities including poorer health, weaker education, and higher rates of incarceration.

But recent surveys indicate support for the referendum has plummeted over the past year and will likely fail.

The debate has stirred uncertainty about the reform’s scope and impact. It has also stoked racial tensions.

“It has involved personal attacks, labelling of people as ‘un-Australian’ and perpetuating racially based stereotypes,” Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan told AFP.

“I am disappointed that the way some people have engaged in the debate has stoked racial tensions and caused harm to First Nations peoples.”

Racist conduct had gone largely unchallenged in the public domain, he said.

“Racism should never be accepted as part of the exchange of ideas in public debate.”

Voters have to choose one way or the other, and recent surveys indicate the “yes” camp is at just over 40 percent and the “no” side at nearly 60 percent.

It is a near reversal of the situation a year ago.

Opponents have criticised the proposal for a lack of detail and for creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

But opposition leader Peter Dutton, one of the leading campaigners against the Voice, also warned it would “re-racialise” Australia.

Referendum supporters accused Dutton of disinformation and scare-mongering.

– ‘Catastrophic breakdown’ –

Indigenous-related racism reports have spiked since July, according to University of Technology Sydney criminology professor Chris Cunneen, who leads a project that documents such incidents.

The share of racism complaints in the “Call It Out” register related to the referendum had climbed to about 30 percent since July, he said.

In previous months, the rate was eight percent.

“We have also seen an increase in reports of racism online on social media and in the media during the same period,” Cunneen said.

“Combined these make roughly more than half of all reports.”

A national mental health helpline for First Nations peoples, 13YARN, painted a similar picture.

It recorded a 108-percent increase in callers reporting abuse, racism and trauma from March-June compared to a year earlier, a spokesperson said.

University of Queensland communications professor Timothy Graham examined thousands of Voice-related posts on X, formerly Twitter.

He found a “catastrophic breakdown of public communication about the referendum across the entire Australian media ecology”.

“X/Twitter is overrun with confusion, misinformation, and incivility — this occurs in what can only be described as a vicious feedback loop between politicians, partisan media, and social media,” he told AFP.

– Online abuse –

Samala Cronin, an Indigenous woman of Butchulla heritage in Queensland, knows how it feels.

In August, an old video of her went viral.

It showed her in a heated row with an elderly couple about a parcel of land over which Aboriginal people have “exclusive native title”.

“I got about 3,000 notifications from Facebook and I thought: ‘Oh my God’,” she told AFP at the time. It has since racked up thousands more reactions on the platform.

The comments were littered with racist insults.

The country’s online safety watchdog, the eSafety Commission, said it had recorded a small but noticeable rise in the proportion of adult cyber abuse complaints from First Nations people in the first half of this year.

“We’re also hearing from community stakeholders that online abuse is ratcheting up as we approach the referendum,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told AFP.

She urged all Australians to “discuss and debate this issue respectfully, without stooping to slurs, racist remarks, hate speech or abuse”.

Turkey’s Kavala says life term confirmation ‘does not value law’

By AFP
September 29, 2023

A Turkish court in April sentenced the 65-year-old to life in prison for attempting to overthrow then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's governmen

t - Copyright Anadolu Culture Center/AFP/File Handout
Fulya OZERKAN

Turkish civil society leader Osman Kavala on Friday said a decision by the top appeals court that upheld his life sentence disregarded law and human life.

A Turkish court in April sentenced the 65-year-old to life in prison for attempting to overthrow then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government during large-scale protests in 2013.

The ruling for the Paris-born philanthropist, who has been jailed since 2017, sparked protests from governments around the world, including the United States, Germany and France, and international rights advocates.

Turkey’s top appeals court on Thursday upheld the life sentence for Kavala while overturning prison sentences for three other civil society leaders in the same case, who were subsequently released on probation.

Enis Berberoglu, an opposition lawmaker who has served time in prison, visited Kavala on Friday in Silivri on the outskirts of Istanbul, where many government critics are jailed.

“(Kavala) told me he saw the court decision on television last night while writing a letter,” Berberoglu told AFP.

“When he was writing ‘if I had to stay here longer’ … he saw the flash on TV and wrote in the letter ‘I think I will stay long'”, the lawmaker said.

Berberoglu said Kavala’s reaction to the ruling was: “This decision is a result of an understanding that does not value law or human life”.

But the lawmaker noted: “I saw him in good morale.”

– ‘Politically motivated’ –

Kavala was one of tens of thousands of Turks who were either jailed or fired from their jobs in purges that followed a bloody coup attempt against Erdogan when he was already president in 2016.

He was first charged with funding a wave of protests in 2013, which presented one of the biggest challenges for Erdogan.

A court acquitted and released him in February 2020 — only for the police to rearrest him before he had a chance to return home to his wife.

Another court then accused him of being involved in the failed 2016 putsch.

European officials and human rights activists have condemned the confirmation Kavala’s sentence.

The decision “further increases the concerns of the European Union regarding the Turkish judiciary’s adherence to international and European standards,” said Peter Stano, spokesman for the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell.

As an EU candidate nation “Turkey is expected to comply with democratic standards and practices,” he added.

“Every day that Osman Kavala is imprisoned is one day too many”, the German Foreign Ministry said on the X social network, formerly Twitter.

Amnesty International slammed Thursday’s court verdict as “politically motivated” and “an attempt to silence independent voices.”

“This appalling decision is a devastating politically-motivated blow for human rights,” its campaigns director for Europe Ruth Tanner said in a statement.

“The appeal court’s decision defies all logic given that the prosecuting authorities have repeatedly failed to provide any evidence to substantiate the baseless charges laid against them.”

– ‘Empty talk’ –

Ankara has flouted a succession of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in recent years, notably concerning two anti-Erdogan figures: Kavala and Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas.

Erdogan, who again won elections in May, has reaffirmed Turkey’s commitment to resume long-stalled negotiations to join the European Union but Brussels says it wants to see concrete progress on democracy and rule of law.

The European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor also slammed the ruling against Kavala.

“It’s in these kind of things where we should test Turkey’s real will to reactivate the EU accession process,” he commented on social media.

“Good-will statements are empty talk if not accompanied by real actions. Sadly the actions keep undermining Turkey’s EU prospects. This is a big step further away from the EU,” he said on X.

UK’s high speed rail row overshadows Conservative party conference

By AFP
October 3, 2023

Sunak's Conservatives are holding what could be their last annual conference before the next general election - Copyright AFP/File ANGELA WEISS
Joe JACKSON with Helen ROWE in London

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday dodged questions over the future of the UK’s second high-speed train line as the issue overshadowed his Conservative party’s annual conference.

Sunak’s finance minister Jeremy Hunt sent speculation about the northern section of the HS2 train line into overdrive last month when he said costs were “getting totally out of control” and refused to comment on whether it might be axed.

The colossal and increasingly controversial infrastructure project is intended to link London with the central city of Birmingham and northern England.

It would be only the UK’s second high-speed train line after the one leading to the Channel Tunnel, linking England’s southeast with northern France.

Estimated at £37.5 billion ($46 billion) in 2013, the cost has since soared to around £100 billion.

Refusing to be drawn on reports he was about to scrap the northern part of route from Birmingham to Manchester, Sunak said the expense of HS2 had gone “far beyond” what had been predicted.

“I know there’s lots of speculation on it but what I would say is… the sums involved are enormous and it’s right that the prime minister takes proper care over it,” he told Times Radio.

“It’s obviously not my money -– it’s taxpayers’ money and we should make the right decisions on these things.”

– ‘Levelling up’ –

Cancelling the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the project could leave Sunak’s government open to accusations of abandoning the party’s much-touted “levelling up” policy.

The policy aims to reduce economic inequalities across the country, including between the north and the more prosperous London-centred south.

Alongside Brexit, it was a key promise of the Tories’ 2019 general election campaign, helping them to secure a landslide win in former heartlands of the main opposition Labour party in the north of England.

At the party conference in Manchester on Monday, Conservative mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street made an impassioned last-ditch appeal to the premier not to cancel the northern section of the rail link.

“You will be turning your back on an opportunity to level up -– a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” he told reporters.

“You will indeed be damaging your international reputation as a place to invest,” he said, adding that he did not rule out resigning over the issue.

Work on the first section of HS2 between London and Birmingham began in April 2020, with the first trains due to run between 2029 and 2033.

The Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said cancelling the link would leave people in northern England “second class citizens”.

“If they’re about to pull the plug, that would just be a desperate act of a dying government with nowhere left to go,” he said.

Sunak’s Conservatives, in power since 2010, are holding what could be their last annual conference before an expected general election next year.

Labour is well out in front in opinion polls amid a cost of living crisis, stubbornly high inflation and widespread industrial unrest that is hitting services including health and transport.

Sunak is widely expected to make an announcement about HS2 in his keynote address to the conference on Wednesday.

UK
London Tube workers suspend planned strikes

ByAFP
Published October 3, 2023

Tube workers have staged a series of strikes over pay since early last year - Copyright AFP/File ANGELA WEISS

Workers on the London Underground on Tuesday suspended their latest round of strike action over pay and conditions after a breakthrough in talks.

Tube staff had been due to walk out on Wednesday and Friday, threatening to disrupt travel for millions of passengers, as it coincided with similar stoppages on the rail network.

But the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said the strike by 3,000 of its members had been suspended after “significant progress” in negotiations with bosses.

Talks to resolve the long-running dispute have been taking place between the two sides with the help of the conciliation service ACAS.

“RMT has managed to save key jobs, prevent detrimental changes to rosters and secure protection of earnings around grading changes,” the union said.

“The significant progress means that key elements have been settled although there remains wider negotiations to be had in the job, pensions and working agreements dispute.”

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch hailed the development as vindication of “the unity and industrial power” of members.

Unions across the UK economy have held strike action since last year to push for better pay and conditions, due to the soaring cost of living.

On Tuesday, there were strikes by bus drivers, hospital doctors and radiographers, train drivers and refuse collectors.

The Conservative government, which is holding its annual conference this week, has insisted that union demands are unaffordable, as it tries to drive down inflation.

 

Mastercard, Block back group to lobby for Canada finance reforms

BNN Bloomberg

Payment firms including Mastercard Inc. and Block Inc. are banding together with fintech companies to press Canada to move faster on rules that may boost competition in financial services. 

More than 40 companies have joined forces to launch Fintechs Canada, a lobby group that will push for so-called open-banking rules and other regulations they say would enable more innovation in a financial sector that’s dominated by a handful of domestic banks. 

Open banking is a regulatory system that makes it easier for consumers to share their financial data with third parties -- reducing barriers to switching from one financial provider to another. Many countries, including Australia and the U.K., offer some form of it. In the U.S., the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is trying to move ahead with long-awaited measures in that direction. 

Canada has been slowly moving ahead with consultations on an open-banking framework. Data protection and consumer privacy are key issues. In March, the federal government named lawyer and consultant Abraham Tachjian as its czar on the topic. But the process is moving too slowly for some firms. 

‘Grey Zone’

“Regulatory barriers to entry in Canada’s financial sector remain high, making it hard for fintechs to operate and grow in Canada,” Alex Vronces, executive director of the lobby group, said in an interview. “My worry is that the future of responsible innovation is at risk.”

Equifax Inc., Block’s Square payment division, online brokerage Wealthsimple Inc. and Power Corp. of Canada’s Portage Ventures unit are all listed as members of the group, according to a draft statement seen by Bloomberg. It replaces a smaller organization known as Paytechs. 

An open-banking framework would eventually bring more options for consumers, Vronces said. 

“It’s going to bring the entire industry out of that kind of gray zone, and make it clear that customers have a right to access their data for other financial services than their main financial institution,” said Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, chief executive officer of Flinks and a board member of Fintechs Canada.  

Montreal-based Flinks provides infrastructure for companies to access the bank data of their clients, and is potentially one of the winners of a open-banking system. It’s majority-owned by National Bank of Canada, the country’s sixth-largest commercial bank.

At the Canadian Club of Toronto last week, the head of the Canadian Bankers Association expressed concerns about payment providers operating in the absence of a proper regulatory structure. 

“Payment services providers deal directly with consumers, so the absence of consumer protection is a significant shortcoming,” CBA CEO Anthony Ostler said. “Let’s be clear: we don’t want the next FTX or Celsius coming from Canada’s payment ecosystem.”

Officials from Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s department didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

Microsoft CEO says unfair practices by Google led to its dominance as a search engine

Suman Naishadham, The Associated Press

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, left, departs federal court in Washington on Monday. , Photographer: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg

 

WASHINGTON — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Monday that unfair tactics used by Google led to its dominance as a search engine, tactics that in turn have thwarted his company's rival program, Bing.

Nadella testified in a packed Washington, D.C., courtroom as part of the government's landmark antitrust trial against Google's parent company, Alphabet. The Justice Department alleges Google has abused the dominance of its ubiquitous search engine to throttle competition and innovation at the expense of consumers, allegations that echo a similar case brought against Microsoft in the late 1990s.

Nadella said Google's dominance was due to agreements that made it the default browser on smartphones and computers. He downplayed the idea that artificial intelligence or more niche search engines like Amazon or social media sites have meaningfully changed the market in which Microsoft competes with Google.

Nadella said users fundamentally don't have much choice in switching out of default web browsers on cell phones and computers.

“We are one of the alternatives but we’re not the default,” he said.

Google's lead litigator John Schmidtlein questioned Nadella about instances when users switched from Bing to Google even when Microsoft's search engine had default status on their devices — arguing that Microsoft made missteps with Bing that prevented it from rivaling Google.

When questioned, Nadella denied that Bing's adoption of artificial intelligence had led to dramatic shifts in its market share. Google has argued that artificial intelligence programs like chatbot ChatGPT have increased competition in the search engine market.

“Even the app store downloads are interesting but not ... something you write home about,” Nadella said about Microsoft's revamped search engine enhanced with artificial intelligence.

Nadella was called to the witness stand as the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in the past quarter-century moved into its fourth week of testimony before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who isn’t expected to issue a decision in the case until next year.

The Justice Department's antitrust case against Google centers on deals the company struck with Apple and other device makers to use Google’s search engine.

In the 1990s, Microsoft faced accusations it set up its Windows software in ways that walled off applications made by other tech companies, just as Google is now facing accusations of shelling out billions of dollars each year to lock in its search engine as the go-to place for finding online information on smartphones and web browsers.

In an ironic twist, the constraints and distractions posed by the government’s antitrust case against Microsoft helped provide a springboard for Google to turn its search engine into a dominant force. By the time Microsoft started its scramble to develop its own search engine, Google had already become synonymous with looking things up on the internet.

But Microsoft nevertheless has poured billions of dollars trying to mount a serious challenge to Google with Bing and, at one point, even tried to buy Yahoo for more than $40 billion in a bid that was rejected while Steve Ballmer was still the software maker’s CEO.

Nadella, who was working at Microsoft during the late 1990s antitrust showdown with the Justice Department, succeeded Ballmer as CEO in 2014. During his tenure, he has steered to Microsoft huge gains in personal and cloud computing that have boosted the company’s stock price by nearly nine -fold since he took over while creating more than $2 trillion in shareholder wealth.

Despite all that success, he hasn’t been able to make any significant inroads in search against Google, with Bing still a distant second in the market.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Liedtke in San Ramon, California, contributed to the report.

 

More landlords converting units into short-term rentals

Iva Poshnjari, BNN Bloomberg

Some Ontario landlords are looking to change their long-term rental units into short-term leases where they stand to make more profit and face fewer challenges with the province’s backlogged tribunal, according to two landlords with groups representing rental operators.
 
The trend comes as Canada grapples with a shortage of housing that’s driving rents and mortgage costs higher.
 
Amid these sky-high rental costs and lengthy delays at the Ontario Landlord Tenant Board, landlords fear they could get stuck paying for their own mortgages without the help of reliable rental income from tenants, Davelle Morrison, broker at Bosley Real Estate Ltd., told BNNBloomberg.ca in a phone interview. 
 
“It takes landlords eight months just to book an appointment with the tribunal if their tenants are giving them problems and (they) often feel the board’s rules are not on their side,” said Morrison, who is also president and chair of the Licensed Short-Term Accommodators of Prince Edward County. 
 
The tribunal delays leave many landlords stuck paying higher mortgage costs amid the heightened interest rate environment, Morrison said – and that’s prompting some Ontario landlords to take their properties off the long-term rental market and list them as short-term rentals.
 
“These landlords know that if they have a short-term rental property, they get the rights back in their favour, they have more control over their own properties, and quite frankly they can make more money,” she said. 
 
Morrison said there is a rise in landlords with long-term rental properties looking to switch to short-term leases that can be found on websites such as Airbnb Inc. and Vrbo, depending on the licenses and jurisdictions they are operating their property in. 
 
Rose Marie, vice chair of the Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario (SOLO), has also observed the trend of landlords looking to switch long-term rentals into short-term offerings.
 
More tenants are unable to keep up with rent as costs rise, Marie said, telling BNNBloomberg.ca that delays at the tribunal meant to mediate such issues are putting landlords in a financial pinch while they wait for their cases to be heard.
 
She said the wait time can lead to bankruptcies or prompt some landlords to sell off their properties, “as they are unable to evict a non-paying tenant in time.”
  
Many of the landlords she works with are looking to move into the short-term rental space as a result of those pressures, Marie added.
 
“The people who are providing housing are not being supported or incentivized to continue to operate long-term rental properties in these conditions,” Marie said in an interview. 

In an emailed statement to BNNBloomberg.ca, Tribunals Ontario said it recognizes processing times at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) “are longer than we wish them to be.”

“We understand the impact that delays have on those who access our services,” the statement said.

A spokesperson said the tribunal is working with the government to increase the number of adjudicators to address the backlog of cases. 

HOUSING SHORTAGE AND RISING COSTS
 
As Canada contends with a shortage of housing and skyrocketing rental costs, some have blamed short-term rentals for worsening the problem.
 
The rise of short-term rentals within a neighbourhood has been linked to an overall increase in rent, according to research led by David Wachsmuth, Canada research chair in urban governance at McGill University. 
 
“The evidence is clear, that commercial short-term rentals increase housing costs,” Wachsmuth told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview. 
 
In the last year, the number of short-term rentals has grown incredibly quickly in British Columbia – almost 20 per cent year-over-year – and the result is a lot less housing available for long-term residents in B.C., he explained, along with a boost to the rent they can expect to pay.
 
“For every additional commercial short-term rental that a neighbourhood has per 100 rental units, we should expect to see the average monthly rent to go up by $49,” Wachsmuth stated.
 
He recommended that cities in Canada experiencing severe housing shortages should consider banning short-term rentals and just focus on home sharing, where a landlord can rent out a room from their primary property.
 
AIRBNB SAYS THEY’RE NOT TO BLAME
 
Airbnb said its platform and similar services should not be blamed for higher rents in Canada.
 
“The reality is, Airbnb listings in Canada represent less than one per cent of our country’s overall housing supply and the majority of Canadian Airbnb hosts list their home as a way to support their own housing affordability," Nathan Rotman, policy lead for Canada at Airbnb, told BNNBloomberg.ca in an email on Wednesday. 
 
He argued cities such as Toronto have regulations around short-term rentals, but that hasn’t stopped rent from rising 25 per cent in Toronto this year.
 
"While we’re always willing to work with government to address community concerns, we know that strict home-sharing regulations have not alleviated the housing crisis in some of Canada’s largest cities,” he said. 

This is the Canadian city where rental 

affordability has worsened the most

Ben Cousins, BNN Bloomberg

While rent prices have skyrocketed in cities across Canada, Moncton, N.B, is actually where affordability has dropped the most.

A new study from Online Mortgage Advisor compared one-bedroom rental prices between 2018 and 2022, with the change in average worker salaries in the same time frame. It found that rent in Moncton is now eating away at 11.31 per cent more of residents’ salaries than it was four years ago, making it the biggest increase in the country.

Moncton’s change in affordability is more than five percentage points worse than the second city on the list, Windsor, Ont., where rents increased to cover 6.23 per cent more of renters’ salaries.

Toronto renters paid 45.51 per cent of their salaries on rent in 2022, which is actually an 11.75 per cent improvement from 2018, the largest in the country. It also marks the biggest affordability improvement in North America, the study said.

According to the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto climbed $266 between 2018 and 2022, meaning the improved affordability was likely due to wage increases in the city. 

Meanwhile, rental affordability improved by 10.78 per cent in Brampton, Ont., and by 9.73 per cent in Vancouver. 

VICTORIA WORST FOR OWNERSHIP

When it comes to buying a property, Online Mortgage Advisor compared the square metres an average salary could afford in 2018 compared to 2022 and found residents in Victoria are being priced out the fastest.

Average earners in Victoria could only afford 4.5 square metres of property in the city, a drop of two square metres since 2018.

Meanwhile, Edmonton saw the second-biggest purchase affordability improvement in the world, at an additional 8.1 square metres, while Calgary’s additional 2.9 square metres was sixth in the world.

AFFORDABILITY MEASURES

The research comes as the Canadian government tries to control housing affordability in the country.

Earlier this month, the federal government announced a cut to the GST on all new rental builds, a move developers have largely praised.

One-third of Canadians unsure if they’re covered for climate risk

John Shmuel, managing editor, RATESDOTCA

Hot, dry weather worsened by climate change made much of Canada into a tinderbox that ignited this summer, leading to the country’s worst wildfire season on record. 

These fires pose growing threats to both lives and property — but a new survey from BNN Bloomberg and RATESDOTCA found that many Canadians are not familiar with the right insurance coverage to ensure their homes are protected from such climate risks. 

The survey, conducted by Leger in early September, asked 1,538 Canadians if they had contacted their insurance provider in light of the climate disasters that impacted the country this year. It found that only 14 per cent of Canadians contacted their insurer to review their coverage. 

Meanwhile, 33 per cent said that they did not contact their insurer and are unsure whether they have adequate coverage to protect them from climate risks. 

Not fully understanding your home insurance coverage can have dire consequences in the event of a claim. For instance, most home insurance policies will cover damage from forest fires, which is one consolation for those who had their homes damaged or destroyed by wildfires in places such as Kelowna, B.C., and Halifax this summer. 

But there are other coverages that are not included in a basic home insurance policy. As climate threats intensify, that puts homeowners who are not aware at risk. For instance, a basic home insurance policy in Canada will not cover overland floods — that is, water that seeps into your home as a result of a sudden rainstorm or an overflowing river. This includes water damage from hurricanes, which are predicted to increasingly hit Atlantic Canada in the coming years. 

Concern about climate change is more pronounced among young people. About one in three surveyed people between the ages of 18 to 34 said they had contacted their insurer to confirm they were properly covered against climate risks, while only 10 per cent of those aged 55 and older did the same.

When it came to taking action, only seven per cent said they had taken out additional endorsements, such as overland flood coverage, to protect against climate risks. But among young people (those aged 18-24), this number rose to 24 per cent. 

An earlier BNN Bloomberg and RATESDOTCA survey conducted in May found that younger people were also more likely to consider climate change risks when choosing the location of their home. The survey found that 64 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 factored in climate, compared to only 27 per cent of those aged 55 and older. 

Climate change should be top of mind when factoring in location, because more insurers in Canada are raising premiums for areas at higher risk of forest fires or floods. In some cases, they’re declining to insure properties altogether. Being aware of this is important for all potential homeowners when buying a property. 

BNN Bloomberg has teamed up with RATESDOTCA to take the pulse of Canadians every month on key pocketbook issues. This is the latest instalment in monthly special coverage.  

Rogers ordered to open TTC wireless network to all carriers by Oct. 3: Minister

Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press

The federal government is forcing Rogers Communications Inc. to grant BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. access to its cellular network in Toronto's subway by Oct. 3 if they don’t yet have their own systems up and running by then. 

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said at Toronto City Hall that the deadline is part of new spectrum licence conditions, designed to bring cellphone and data services to the entire subway network by the end of 2026.

The licence conditions that came into effect Monday require Rogers to provide immediate access to the infrastructure and share technical details. The conditions also establish that carriers have a collective responsibility to provide wireless services on the TTC, and that they're expected to work together to meet the deadlines.

"The message is simple. Enough is enough. That is the message that I'm sending to the telcos on behalf of millions of TTC riders who have been very, very patient," Champagne said, adding that the government could impose penalties or licence suspensions if the deadline isn't met.

Currently, only Rogers and Freedom Mobile customers have access to the network, though all riders have 911 access. 

The minister has also set a Dec. 20 deadline for mobile carriers, including rivals Bell and Telus, to reach commercial agreements with Rogers about financial terms.

And while the Oct. 3 deadline covers only the existing network, Ottawa is requiring service be in place for all stations within six months of the commercial agreements being reached. Service will need to be in place for 80 per cent of tunnels within two years, and full system coverage by the end of 2026.

The deadlines come after months of tense back-and-forth negotiations between Rogers and rivals Bell and Telus on how to move forward. The companies have been deadlocked over the best technical approach, as well as financial terms, for providing coverage to all subway riders.

Bell and Telus both want a joint build of the subway's 5G network using a consortium model similar to Montreal's Metro system, rather than a pay-for-access approach. Rogers has not publicly committed to either model.

The roughly three-week timeline to bring some level of coverage for all riders comes after Rogers unexpectedly launched 5G wireless service for its own customers in Toronto's downtown subway stations and tunnels in August. The move came despite ongoing talks with the government and drew frustration from Bell and Telus.

All three telecoms said they welcomed the deadlines announced Monday that will force the others to the table.

“This approach reflects what we've been proposing all along — to bring 5G services to all riders as quickly as possible," Rogers spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said in a statement.

"Bell and Telus have been dragging their heels and  the federal government is now forcing them to work with us in earnest to make connectivity possible for all riders."

She added the company will continue to work to build out the TTC network to expand access and that it has shared engineering and technical information with Bell and Telus.

Telus spokesman Richard Gilhooley said the company was pleased with the decision to compel Rogers to provide access.

"Minister Champagne's order will significantly improve public safety and fair competition. It is regrettable that it took his action to force Rogers to do what they had promised to do months ago," he said in a statement.

Bell spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis said it is a good day for Toronto as the news will mean greater connectivity, convenience and safety.

"With the federal government now forcing Rogers to finally work with other carriers, we look forward to providing our customers with underground wireless coverage in the coming weeks," she said in a statement.

While past negotiation efforts have yet to yield results, Champagne said he expects the companies to meet the Oct. 3 deadline. 

"They know me by now. I'm not the type of guy you want to mess with. I think they figured that out," he said. 

"But above that, they don't want to mess with millions of Torontonians."

It has been more than a decade since the TTC signed a deal to enable cell service in the subway, but the reluctance of the major wireless providers to sign on to the system owned by BAI Communications meant few had access.  

Only after Rogers bought the Canadian arm of BAI Communications in April did the federal government have the jurisdiction to act on the issue, Champagne said. 

"The message could not be stronger, and I expect them fully to comply with that. If they fail to do so, we will take enforcement action." 

 

Major wireless carriers now active on Toronto's subway network after months of talks

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press

More than a decade after embarking on a plan to offer wireless service on the Toronto subway, the TTC has joined the global ranks of transit systems where riders can make phone calls, send text messages or browse the web underground — regardless of their mobile carrier.

Major carriers Bell Canada and Telus Corp., along with their low-cost brands Virgin and Koodoo, began offering cellular service in the busiest sections of the Toronto subway system on Monday, giving their customers the same access already enjoyed by riders with Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc.'s Freedom Mobile.

The Rogers-owned 5G wireless network is available to passengers in the Line 1 stations and tunnels in the so-called Downtown U from Union Station north to St. George and Bloor-Yonge, plus Spadina and Dupont stations. Users are also able to access the network in 13 stations on Line 2, along Bloor Street from Keele station to Castle Frank, plus the tunnels between St. George and Yonge stations. 

Rogers acquired the cellular network in the subway system from BAI Canada earlier this year and has been working to upgrade it.

The winding road to Monday's milestone began in 2012, when the TTC, as part of a public procurement, awarded Australia-based BAI a $25-million contract that would see it develop a wireless network in the Toronto subway system.

But BAI and the TTC only managed to sign on one carrier, Wind Mobile. Later rebranded Freedom Mobile, its customers had been the only riders since 2015 with access to mobile service on select TTC platforms and tunnels.

Elsewhere, other major cities zoomed past Toronto on similar projects as the TTC subway lagged behind.

New York City launched underground mobile service at its first six subway stations in 2011 through a partnership with BAI subsidiary Transit Wireless. By 2017, there was cell service at all underground subway stations in the city, while the tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan became its first to have full cellular and data connectivity three years later.

In 2013, Canada's four major carriers launched a $50-million project to build a cellular network in Montreal's Metro system, which was completed by 2020.

But co-operation between the rival telecoms has been hard to come by in Toronto.

The service to all carriers comes after months of tense back-and-forth negotiations between Rogers, Bell and Telus over the best technical approach, and financial terms, for the coverage.

Bell and Telus wanted a joint build of the TTC's mobile network using a consortium model similar to that of Montreal's Metro, rather than a pay-for-access approach. Rogers has not publicly committed to either model.

While that dispute remains unresolved, the federal government set a deadline of Tuesday for all TTC subway system passengers to have cellular connectivity, regardless of their carrier. It also set a Dec. 20 deadline for the companies to negotiate commercial agreements to provide service on the subway over the long term.

“Our dedicated team of technologists designed and introduced an immediate solution that added capacity, so Bell and Telus could join the network,” said Rogers chief technology and information officer Ron McKenzie in a press release.

In an interview, Bell vice-president of wireless networks Mark McDonald said he was optimistic that Bell and Telus would get their way as they continue to negotiate with Rogers.

"I really don't know why they've been reluctant," he said of Rogers's lack of commitment to a consortium build.

"It's a precedent. It is the standard model in Canada. So I believe that everybody will realize that's the right path forward to bring the highest quality network in the subway, to share those costs."

Telus spokesman Richard Gilhooley said in a statement his company would be "working hard to expand the number of stations and tunnels covered in the coming months."

Monday's news was welcomed by Shelagh Pizey-Allen, executive director of the TTCriders advocacy group, who said it still took too long to reach the milestone given the ongoing safety issues on the transit system.

"It's still kind of shocking how long it's taken to get to this point, but we're glad that the federal government stepped in, that the new mayor asked the federal government to step in, and that everyone will have access to cell service in the subway," she said.

"People report that the subway is the place where they feel the least safe on the TTC network and it's because people feel isolated."

Rogers bought the Canadian arm of BAI Communications and the rights to provide wireless service on the subway in April. It then announced plans to upgrade the existing infrastructure installed by BAI at most downtown subway stations and build 5G capability for the entire network of stations and tunnels — a process it expects to take two years.

Rogers vowed to make the system accessible for other carriers to provide coverage to their customers. That included honouring BAI's previous contract with Freedom Mobile.

Rogers customers have had cellular service on the subway since the company activated high-speed 5G wireless service on Aug. 23. The move came while Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne was considering changes to the conditions of licence for the major telecoms in order to ensure all TTC customers could access Rogers's upgraded cellular network.

Bell and Telus had urged the federal minister to prevent Rogers from giving its own customers a head start on using the network.

But after launching service before Champagne ruled on the issue, Rogers then argued in a submission to Ottawa that the federal government should not force it to turn off access for its own customers — a position accepted by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).

"As ISED’s objective … is to ensure access to wireless services for Canadians throughout the TTC Subway System, it would be contrary to ISED’s objectives to prevent or remove services once they have been offered," it said in its ruling last month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2023.