Here is a look at both housing and income.

1. SOCIAL WELFARE
AND AFFORDABLE
HOUSING
BY: PAUL YOUNG, CPA, CGA
OCTOBER 1, 2020

2. PAUL YOUNG - BIO
• CPA, CGA
• Academia (PF1, FA4 and MS2)
• SME – Risk Management
• SME – Close, Consolidate and Reporting
• SME – Public Policy
• SME – Emerging Technology
• SME – Financial Solutions
• SME – Business Process Change
• SME – Supply Chain Management
Contact information:
Paul_Young_CGA@Hotmail.com

3. AGENDA
• Housing Affordable Index
• Key areas of Affordability
• Systemic Issues facing Housing
• Commercial Property available for lease / COVID19
• Social Housing
• Poverty / Social Assistance
• Summary

4. HOUSING
AFFORDABLE
INDEX
Source -
http://www.rbc.com/newsroom/repo
rts/rbc-housing-affordability.html or
https://www.statista.com/statistics/5
91782/house-price-to-income-ratio-
canada/

5. OVERALL COST OF LIVING BY MAJOR AREA
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON AFFORDABILITY SEE THIS PRESENTATION - HTTPS://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/PAULYOUNGCGA/AFFORDABILITY-
HAVE-THE-LIBERALS-IMPROVE-THE-LIVES-OF-CANADIANS

6. BLOG – 2017
• http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/housing-canada-policy-market-1.4413882?cmp=news-digests-canada-and-world-morning
• Key Quotes “This week, as the federal Liberals roll out their latest plan to fix housing in Canada, they face a Sisyphean task, one they're unlikely to complete.
• While the new government strategy makes a welcome political gesture toward solving problems created by the high cost of housing, there is evidence that the problem is bigger, more complicated and
more intractable than any government can handle, even with this latest decade-long multi-billion-dollar plan.
• Have I not said for many years that it is not one policies, but many that drive the real estate market in Canada?
Here are few examples:
• Economic prospects – more and more jobs are moving to large urban areas as economic opportunities continue to dry up in rural areas - http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-census-2016-
big-cities-getting-bigger-as-smaller-cities-getting-smaller/. The issue is agenda 2030 is driving people to big cities at the expense of rural areas - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/agenda-2030-
new-world-order-canada-november-2017
• Hydro Rates – Canada has some highest hydro rates, especially in rural areas - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/rural-hydro-customers-fear-rate-cuts-wont-be-enough-1.4008113. Local
businesses have complained about the high hydro rates - http://blackburnnews.com/midwestern-ontario/midwestern-ontario-news/2016/09/15/mpp-worries-local-grocery-stores-will-close-due-high-
hydro-rates/
• Availability of Land – Large urban areas lack land for development. Many rural areas are impacted by green belt legislation - http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page13783.aspx
• Valuation of housing – There is not enough work done to assess valuation. The valuation should be driven by other factors like GDP growth, wage growth, inflation, etc. Wages have grown little over the
past 20 years and yet, housing has in some cases triple in value - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/job-market-canada-october-2017
• Low Interest rates have led people to enter the market when they may not been able to in the past - https://www.nbc.ca/content/dam/bnc/en/rates-and-analysis/economic-analysis/housing-
affordability.pdf
• Cost of building houses also needs to be reviewed, i.e. building permits, materials, labour cost, etc. The initial cost of the property is what should be used for the valuation including tying it to
renovations as well as other areas (wage growth, inflation, GDP, etc.)
• Many people rent out their basement to pay for their cost of housing. Municipalities need to get tougher on apartment rentals. CRA also needs to ensure the rental income is being properly reported on
tax returns.
Areas done right:
• Mortgage Terms – The government did get this policy right in terms of not allowing 30-35 mortgages
• Mortgage down payment is another area the government go right in terms of curbing mortgage debt.
• Foreign ownership penalties were also done right as well. However, it should be noted the impact has been limited. Australia imposed something similar and the results still did little reduce the cost of
housing in their country - https://theconversation.com/foreign-ownership-of-housing-how-do-australia-and-new-zealand-compare-87089
• Source - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/real-estate-canada-october-2017-82521307

7. COVID19 AND SOCIAL HOUSING
• “In Toronto, downtown office vacancies rose to 4.7 per cent, from 2.7 per cent in the second quarter, while
Vancouver’s downtown office market recorded a 4.6 per cent vacancy rate, up from 3.3 per cent. Of the 371,612
square meters of newly vacant office space, the commercial real estate firm said sublease listings accounted for
40 per cent. ”Source - https://www.canadianinvestor.com/2020/09/30/downtown-office-vacancy-rates-rising-in-
canada-as-commercial-subleases-flood-market/
• Hospitality sector like hotels/motels are facing reduction in occupancy-
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2020/08/12/covid-19-hospitality-industry-in-financial-trouble-pleads-for-federal-aid/
The federal government is planning on converting hotels and motels to social housing -
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-motels-hotels-billion-1.5733424

8. SOCIAL HOUSING STRATEGY
• https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/expanded-national-housing-strategy-to-include-new-rent-subsidies/article37046894/?click=sf_globefb
• Liberals are again buying off voters with taxpayers’ money “The federal government will announce direct rent support for low-income Canadians in addition
to spending billions on traditional and new forms of social housing as part of the Wednesday release of its long-awaited national housing strategy.
• The above does not fixed the issues with low income Canadians. In fact the liberals have hurt low income more with their tax policies -
http://torontosun.com/news/national/two-thirds-of-low-income-canadians-paying-more-tax-fraser-study. FYI – The so-called carbon tax being forced down
on to the provinces will also hurt the poor as housing costs will also go up. Australia removed the carbon tax as it was doing nothing for emission, but forcing
the costs up for its citizens - http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/australia-s-carbon-tax-repealed-after-2-years-1.2709642
• I will always be about solutions, but one-off policies like this from the Liberals do not fixed the issue with housing:
• Availability of land, taxes, building costs, hydro rates (https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/real-estate-canada-october-2017)
• People moving to cities (part of agenda 2030 - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/agenda-2030-new-world-order-canada-november-2017
• Employment market – Jobs are churning and part-time - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/job-market-canada-october-2017
• Canada plans to add more immigrants without any real strategy to align immigration with skills gap - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/government-
policies-education-skills-development-canada-november-2017
• Liberals are not creating the condition for business investment, i.e. high taxes, regulatory burden to get projects off the ground, lack of money for
infrastructure, etc. - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/election-promise-goods-to-market-canada-october-2017 or
https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/building-permits-canada-september-2017
• The money promised needs to be matched by the provinces. Many provinces are cash starved as such pony up additional money for housing maybe difficult
for them - http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/liberals-look-to-ease-affordability-concerns-with-release-of-housing-strategy “Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau said the reason much of the money won't be spent until after the next election in 2019 is because the federal government needs to
take the time to get the details right and satisfy myriad local, provincial and territorial needs. Another Source -
https://boom997.com/news/3876471/national-housing-strategy-not-far-enough/
•
• It would be nice if people question the Liberals more than they do when it comes to their various policies.

9. SMOKE AND MIRRORS – SOCIAL HOUSING
Source - http://spacing.ca/national/2017/04/05/hulchanski-trudeaus-housing-spending-smoke-mirrors/

10. SOCIAL ASSISTANCE / POVERTY
• http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/about-450k-children-in-families-reliant-on-social-assistance-report-finds-1.3687153
• Justin Trudeau keeps speaking in the house that his government has reduced poverty rates in Canada. The reality there
is no data that supports Trudeau claim in terms poverty reduction. The whole statement comes from the Liberal 2015
election campaign - https://www.liberal.ca/realchange/fighting-poverty/.
• The reality is that since 2015 the low income has seen tax credits removed as part of the government eliminating tax
credits. Fraser Institute has said 61% of the bottom 20% are paying more taxes since Trudeau took office -
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/effect-of-federal-income-tax-changes-on-families-in-the-bottom-20-
percent-of-earners.pdf
• Harper actually help wage growth - http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/william-watson-turns-out-the-harper-
government-was-actually-terri fic-for-wage-growth
• Source - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/low-income-and-poverty-canada-november-2017

11. BLOG – CANADA
EMPLOYMENT
• Canada could see 600K jobs not returning due to businesses
shutting down
• Unemployment likely will stay stubbornly between 9.5% to
10.5% for the next few years
• People under 35 will be impacted the most if the government
continues to push their green agenda.
• Job quality will not improve unless all levels of governments put
more focus on the goods-producing sector
• Source – Global GDP - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/what-is-
next-for-the-global-economy-september-2020
• Source - Here is a look at wages and employment -
https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/analysis-of-wages-and-
employment

12. UNIVERSAL BASIC
INCOME
• The COVID19 led to massive unemployment which forced the government to introduced
programs like CERB
• It is important to review social welfare to ensure the programs are effective. The
risk if UBI is pushed there could be people that have little incentive to look for a
new career
• Career Management - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/career-
and-job-management or Finland failures
https://www.businessinsider.com/finland-basic-income-experiment-
reasons-for-failure-2019-12 or
https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/failures-of-socialism-238542106
or https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/designing-social-programs-
and-tax-fairness-policies
• EI training was never set up to more than 1 year. Training for the next generation of
jobs will require training beyond 1 year
• Human capital management -
https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/human-capital-management-of-
existing-and-future-employees
• EI fund was in surplus prior to COVID19.
• https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/policy-employment-and-cerb-
analysis-and-commentary
• CERB had many issues as it was poorly constructed in terms of who qualified for
support
• https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/poor-cerb-targeting-wastes-billions

13. SUMMARY
• Regressive taxes like carbon taxation due little to fix emissions but add more cost to
people. It is consumer spending that plays a key role when it comes to GDP growth -
https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/the-real-truth-about-emissions-and-carbon-
taxation . Canada retail sales continue to struggle due to cash flow issues with household
budget - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/retail-sales-canada-july-2020
• The role of government is to provide social programs. Social programs should be targeted
in ways to improve the outcomes for Canadians . Youth want a career and not a handout -
https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/youth-employment-and-career-management.
• All levels of government need to focus on policies that will support good-paying jobs in
the areas of goods-producing, technology, medical, education and supply chain
management - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/canadas-gdp-july-2020
• Government needs to reform itself including reviewing all its program to ensure they are
effective - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/how-to-reform-the-public-sector-in-
canada-and-around-the-world
• Too many governments are pushing the green economy without proper businesses cases.
Ontario failed with green economy due to poor implementation of policies.
• https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/raw-materials-clean-technology-products
or https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/ev-electrical-vehicles-all-you-need-to-
know-238428364 or https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/canada-global-
emissions-and-climate-change