This is Patrick’s bio
You've been writing cheques on the first of every month for 18 months. Then a letter arrives from TD or RBC addressed to "Occupant," informing you the property is under a Power of Sale. Your landlord stopped paying the mortgage six months ago. You had no
The 47,000 jobs Canada added in April should have mattered. A decade ago, that kind of headline number would have guaranteed an interest rate conversation. In 2026, it barely registers as noise. The Bank of Canada will hold the overnight rate at 5.00% on Wednesday. That's
The structural problem isn't the interest rate. It's the appraisal. Roughly one in ten Toronto mortgage holders will fail to qualify for refinancing when their terms expire in 2026, according to Bank of Canada projections. The conventional story frames this as a rate shock, families locked
Treasury investors are demanding higher compensation for holding long-term U.S. debt, and they're doing it before Donald Trump has signed a single executive order. The 10-year yield has oscillated between 3.8% and 4.7% through late 2024, with the upper range driven less by
A mortgage is a promise to pay. Refinancing is a promise to keep paying under new terms. For roughly 10 per cent of Toronto borrowers approaching renewal in 2026, the second promise is about to become impossible to make. The Bank of Canada's recent stability report puts a
The government issued roughly 11 million one-time payments today, deposited alongside the regular GST credit in a move that surprised almost no one who tracks federal politics. The payment was called a "grocery rebate" in most media coverage, which is not technically accurate. What arrived was a
The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 4.75% this week, and the decision surprised almost no one. Markets had priced in the pause. Economists nodded in agreement. The more interesting signal wasn't the rate itself, it was what the Governing Council said about shelter costs,
Most balcony violations happen within the first six months of ownership. You buy a condo, inherit 80 square feet of concrete, and start making it livable. Three weeks later you get a letter from the property manager citing Section 7.4(b) of the bylaws you never read. The frustrating
Canadian developers spent the last decade ignoring modular construction, mass timber, and district energy systems. The economics didn't justify the risk. Labour was available, interest rates were low, and traditional concrete-and-steel schedules worked fine when borrowed money cost 2.5%. That calculation has reversed. The shift
The Canada Revenue Agency processes roughly 47,000 formal service complaints annually, but those are the ones that made it through. The number of taxpayers who gave up somewhere in the three-tier resolution process is not tracked. The Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsperson has opened a systemic examination
The unemployment rate dropped to 6.6% in May. Bond yields spiked. If you're shopping for a mortgage, that sequence just cost you money. Canada added 87,800 jobs last month, the strongest single-month gain since early 2024. Economists expected the labor market to hold flat or
May's job report sounds like good news. 88,000 positions added, construction booming, full-time roles expanding. The headline makes it look like Canada's labor market has finally turned a corner after a sluggish start to 2026. The reality is more textured than the headline suggests,