Dec 9 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Storytelling platform Wattpad says it will open what it calls a second headquarters in Halifax to tap into the city's talent pool as the company grows. The company said Monday that starting early next year it will have a team based out the 60,000-square-foot Volta innovation hub in the city's downtown core to […]
Dec 1 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — When Chris Pollard wanted to list his Toronto condo, he decided to try a private sale in his neighbourhood first. And thanks to a Supreme Court decision last year against the Toronto Real Estate Board, he and his wife were able to look up how much similar units had sold for in the […]
Nov 26 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — Toronto still dominates Canada's tech scene but smaller markets are making inroads as companies compete to find talent, a new report says. The report by real estate services firm CBRE notes that while Toronto's tech talent pool grew by 54 per cent between 2013 and 2018 to reach 228,500, numerous smaller cities have also notched strong […]
Nov 21 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz wasn't asked about climate change risks at a discussion about economic change and emerging risks on Thursday, so he brought them up himself. "It's about the transition risk, right, as everyone's portfolio and all their lending practices kind of converge on a different climate trend line, that that […]
Nov 21 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — When an annuity of almost a thousand dollars a month stopped coming in to Neil Hewton's 94-year-old mother, she just thought it was supposed to end. It was only months later, when her son had to take over her finances after a health scare, that he caught the strange cutoff in payments. "It's kind of flukey […]
Nov 19 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — The Ontario government has introduced a bill to update regulations for realtors that includes new enforcement tools, rules on business structures, and more disclosure of competing bids for homes. Government and Consumer Services Minister Lisa Thompson said the bill is a needed update to rules put in place in 2002. "It's been nearly 20 years since the […]
Nov 19 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — The Ontario government has introduced a bill to update regulations for realtors that includes new enforcement tools, rules on business structures, and more disclosure of competing bids for homes. Government and Consumer Services Minister Lisa Thompson said the bill is a needed update to rules put in place in 2002. "It's been nearly 20 years since the […]
Nov 18 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — An Ontario tribunal has upheld rules passed by the City of Toronto on short-term rentals like Airbnb. The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal said in a ruling released Monday that it has dismissed an appeal by several residents who objected to the rules that put limits on how people can rent out their properties. The city put the rules in […]
Nov 18 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — An Ontario tribunal has upheld rules passed by the City of Toronto on short-term rentals like Airbnb. The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal said in a ruling released Monday that it has dismissed an appeal by several residents who objected to the rules that put limits on how people can rent out their properties. The city put the rules in […]
Nov 15 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — Canada has for a second year denied visas to numerous researchers hoping to attend an artificial intelligence conference in Vancouver, but has reversed some of those denials after coming under pressure to review them. Black in AI, a group promoting black representation in the field, started to publicly raise concerns recently after about a third of researchers set to attend its […]
Nov 13 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Home Capital Group Inc. shares surged Wednesday after the company announced better-than-expected earnings and a share buyback program. The alternative lender's shares ended up $4.15, or 14.3 per cent at $33.15 on the Toronto Stock Exchange to mark a significant rebound from a share plunge two years ago when the company's future was in doubt. In […]
Nov 5 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Home sales in Canada's two most valuable real estate regions rose in October as a rebound in the market continued due in part to falling interest rates. Greater Vancouver home sales were up by 45.4 per cent in the month compared with a year earlier, while Greater Toronto Area home sales were up by 14 per cent. […]
Nov 4 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — Matthew Boukall remembers a couple of years back at a conference in Calgary, where someone got confused over the difference between condo and rental apartment builds. "People had only seen condo apartments for so long, that they forgot people built rental," said Boukall, a vice-president at real estate services firm Altus Group. Decades of […]
Oct 31 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — A contentious development on Toronto's waterfront proposed by Sidewalk Labs has cleared a major hurdle after Waterfront Toronto's board unanimously approved terms for a scaled-back vision of the project. The two sides had set a deadline of Thursday to resolve key issues including the project's size, privacy and data issues, developer selection, and public transit commitments before […]
Oct 31 2019 — Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press — TORONTO — A contentious development on Toronto's waterfront proposed by Sidewalk Labs has cleared a major hurdle after Waterfront Toronto's board unanimously approved terms for a scaled-back vision of the project. The two sides had set a deadline of Thursday to resolve key issues including the project's size, privacy and data issues, developer selection, and public transit commitments before […]