ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Politics

    • Mortgage loan rules are changing in Canada

    Share
    OTTAWA -

    Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced changes to mortgage rules she says are aimed at helping more Canadians to purchase their first home.

    "It is going to put the dream of home ownership in reach for more young Canadians," Freeland told reporters Monday, announcing changes she said will come into force in December.

    The price cap for insured mortgages will be boosted for the first time since 2012, moving to $1.5 million from $1 million, to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.

    "That is going to have a real impact for thousands, even millions of Canadians," Freeland said.

    The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.

    On Aug. 1 eligibility for the 30-year amortization was changed to include first-time buyers purchasing a newly built home. Freeland said this change better reflects the housing market while "giving first-time homebuyers a leg-up."

    She pushed back on suggestions that the measures will only further inflate housing prices. She said boosting the price cap for insured mortgages reflects how Canada's gross domestic product has grown over years.

    "It needs to keep up with the increase in the size of the Canadian economy," Freeland said. "That's just a recognition of economic reality."

    Justice Minister Arif Virani is also releasing drafts for a bill of rights for renters as well as one for homebuyers, both of which the government promised in its budget five months ago.

    Virani says the government intends to work with provinces to prevent practices like renovictions, where landowners evict tenants and make minimal renovations and then seek higher rents.

    Ottawa also wants to boost transparency by making sales price history available on title searches, and protect potential buyers from blind-bidding.

    "What we find is important is ensuring that there's a level playing field when you're trying to rent a place to live, or to actually get to the stage of buying a home," Virani said.

    The government is touting the measures it announced Monday as the "boldest mortgage reforms in decades," and it comes after a year of criticism over high housing costs.

    The Liberals have been slumping in the polls for months, including among younger adults who say not being able to afford a house is one of their key concerns.

    Freeland says she plans to table a Fall Economic Statement but would not say when. Such a move may lead to a confidence vote in the Commons, following the NDP ending a formal agreement to prop up the minority Liberal government in such votes.

    She also said the government is "absolutely not" considering a home-equity tax on primary residences above a certain value, when asked about government engagement with a group that promotes such a policy.

    This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

    IN DEPTH

    Opinion

    opinion

    opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster

    A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?

    opinion

    opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

    When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

    CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

    A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.

    Court documents filed in the case of a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec for an alleged plot to kill Jews in New York City reveal the RCMP didn't have enough evidence to hold him in Canada.

    Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.

    DEVELOPING

    DEVELOPING Exploding electronic devices kill 20, wound 450 in second day of explosions in Lebanon

    Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday that at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded by exploding electronic devices in multiple regions of the country. The explosions came a day after an apparent Israeli attack targeting pagers used by Hezbollah killed at least 12 and wounded nearly 3,000. Here are the latest updates.

    What to know about the deadly electronic explosions targeting Hezbollah

    Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people. Here's what we know so far.

    Canada

    • A B.C couple has been ordered to stop living in a motorhome on the property where their under-construction home – which they were first given a permit to build more than six years ago – has become an “eyesore,†according to a recent court decision.

    • Court documents filed in the case of a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec for an alleged plot to kill Jews in New York City reveal the RCMP didn't have enough evidence to hold him in Canada.

    • A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.

    • A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.

    • Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.

    World

    Politics

    Health

    Sci-Tech

    • Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    • Ontario Provincial Police are warning social media users about recent scams.

    Entertainment

    Business

    Lifestyle

    • Two lucky people in Ontario and Quebec will split Tuesday’s record-breaking $80-million Lotto Max jackpot.

    • The Michelin Guide's famous inspectors have ventured outside Toronto's city limits.

    Sports

    • Matthew Tkachuk estimated that he tells a story about Johnny Gaudreau's exploits, both the on-ice and off-ice variety, to somebody at least once a week.

    • A'ja Wilson and rookie Caitlin Clark smash WNBA records

      Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson and Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark both broke WNBA records Sunday, with Wilson becoming the first player to score 1,000 points in a single season and Clark breaking the rookie scoring record.

    • Vancouver Canucks forward Dakota Joshua revealed Tuesday he underwent cancer treatment over the summer, and will not be ready to play when the team's training camp begins later this week.

    Autos

    • Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.

    • The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."

    • A Winnipeg man is asking for help after a classic car that has been a part of his family since the 1950s was stolen from his garage.

    Local Spotlight

    An ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey named Goliath is missing from its longtime home at a veterinary hospital south of Calgary.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

    It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

    A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

    David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

    Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

    A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.

    If you take a look to the right of Hilda Duddridge’s 100th birthday cake, you’ll see a sculpture of a smiling girl extending her arms forward.

    Two sisters have finally been reunited with a plane their father built 90 years ago, that is also considered an important part of Canadian aviation history.

    • The theft of an e-bike customized for a girl with complex health needs while her father was picking her up from school was caught on camera in Surrey, according to authorities.

    • British Columbia's police oversight agency says there are no grounds for criminal charges against four Mounties after a man's arm was broken during an arrest on Vancouver Island.

    • Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    • Two people are dead following an early-morning shooting at a park in a quiet neighbourhood in Keswick, York Regional Police say. Police confirmed just before 11 a.m. that they were investigating a double homicide at Bayview Park. YRP said they responded to the sounds of gunshots at the park just before 7:30 a.m.

    • Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.

    • A heavy police presence could be seen at a property in the southeast Calgary community of Valleyfield on Wednesday.

    • A Calgary man has been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference in relation to an incident with a 12-year-old child that took place in the southeast Calgary community of Walden.

    • Alberta's transportation minister says the City of Calgary's decision to wind down the Green Line LRT project is "unfortunate†— but he isn’t completely closing the door on the transit initiative.

    • Photographs of eyeglasses with an apparent broken arm, a purse with a "severed" strap and a reusable bag filled with groceries at the bottom of a staircase were among those shown to the jury at the first-degree murder trial of Hamid Ayoub Wednesday morning.

    • A search is underway in the Ottawa River for a 30-year-old woman reported missing while kayaking near Pembroke, Ont.

    • Ottawa City Council has voted to maintain O-Train Line 1 service at current levels to give OC Transpo additional time to study ridership patterns this fall.

    • A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.

    • Thanks to a generous donation, the Montreal Children’s Hospital will now be able to double the number of cancer trials it offers to young patients.

    • For the first time in nine months, Christian Boivin and his family say they're encouraged that Montreal police arrested four people suspected of selling the kind of drugs that killed their 15 year-old son, Mathis Boivin, last year.

    • A 52-year-old man is facing sexual assault charges in connection with the assault of a teen boy.

    • A man wanted in connection with the death of his partner has been arrested.

    • A woman has pleaded guilty in connection with a fire that sent two seniors to hospital.

    • Transport Canada has ordered a bankrupt tidal power company and a bankruptcy trustee to produce a plan to remove four huge moorings abandoned in the water near Walton, N.S.

    • A Woods Harbour, N.S., man is facing dozens of charges after police seized weapons and drugs from South Shore homes last Friday.

    • A streak of sunny and hot mid-September weather set new high temperatures records in the Maritimes.

    • More than $300,000 worth of stolen vehicles were seized from a Winnipeg compound earlier this month, police announced Wednesday.

    • Another voice has joined the public war of words between a Manitoba MLA ousted from caucus and the premier who backed the decision to scrap him from the team.

    • Manitobans are getting another reminder of how long wait times are for diagnostic images.

    • Alena Marie Pastuch has plead guilty to charges in relation to the theft of over $4 million in an investment scheme beginning in 2006.

    • The Government of Saskatchewan has said it will not accept asylum seekers under a recent federal proposal to relocate them across Canada.

    • Fraudulent phone calls targeting older people are circulating the Pilot Butte, Sask. area, RCMP said.

    • Police are hoping the public can help them locate three missing people from Kitchener.

    • The federal government is reducing its 2025 international student study permits by another 10 per cent from the 2024 target.

    • Residents in Blair say they’re concerned with the potential noise and traffic that will come with the newest Amazon fulfilment centre set to open this month.

    • May 9, 2022 was the day Blayne McKay thought he was going to die. He called his wife to say goodbye, after getting electrocuted at the SaskPower Island Falls Hydroelectric Station, about 100 kilometres northwest of Flin Flon.

    • A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.

    • Catherine Sanche says her cousin and best friend Emily Sanche never feared her boyfriend Thomas Hamp would hurt her in the weeks leading up to her death in February 2022.

    • Some Greater Sudbury Police officers will wear body-worn cameras as part of a pilot project beginning in 2025.

    • North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.

    • A detour is now available after Highway 101 closed in both directions between Foleyet and Highway 144, police said Wednesday.

    • The funding will see the province contribute up to 73 per cent in total costs for the Dorchester Wastewater Pipe Integration project.

    • Neil Lumsden has signed his organ donor card for decades, so the decision to do his part for concussion research was a no-brainer.

    • Around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 10, OPP, EMS, and local fire services were called to the scene of a two-vehicle collision on Egremont Road in Warwick Township.

    • A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

    • Check your lottery tickets because someone who purchased a ticket in Grey County is an overnight multi-millionaire, having won half of the historic lottery jackpot.

    • York Regional Police say two people are dead after a shooting at a park in the community of Keswick.

    • The Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Kingsville has been given clearance to study ducks and geese with use of GPS transmitter technology.

    • Local high school students have been granted a unique opportunity through their enhanced construction program.

    • A new home-grown automotive reality television series has premiered on Bell Fibe TV.

    • British Columbia's police oversight agency says there are no grounds for criminal charges against four Mounties after a man's arm was broken during an arrest on Vancouver Island.

    • Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    • British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says minimum nurse-to-patient ratios meant to improve care and strengthen the health-care system have now been established for most hospital settings.

    • Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.

    • More than a year after a missing Kamloops, B.C., woman’s body was found, her son has been arrested and charged with her murder, Mounties announced Friday.

    • A woman suffered life-threatening injuries after being stabbed during a home invasion in Kelowna, according to authorities.

    • Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.

    • The City of Lethbridge's encampment response team continues to see a rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the summer months.

    • Two 16-year-old boys have been charged with arson following a fire at a Lethbridge building earlier this month.

    • North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.

    • Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.

    • A 50-year-old man in the Sault has been charged following an assault on Saturday that involved the use of a hammer.

    N.L.

    Stay Connected
    Follow CTV News