Canada Tightens Real Estate Tax Loophole For Foreign Investors

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau has announced new measures designed to help stabilize Canada's housing market, particularly in overheated areas such as Vancouver and Toronto.

Among them will be the closure of a loophole some foreign residents are using to avoid paying capital gains tax on investment homes.

Going forward, only people who used their home as a principal residence will be eligible for the government's exemption, Morneau said.

"We want that exemption to be appropriately interpreted," he told reporters.

"We need to have the beneficial owner of the home being here in Canada, we have to have that owner living in the home as their principal residence."

Real Estate Risk In Toronto, Saskatoon And Regina Flagged by CMHC

CMHC flags housing market risks in Toronto, Saskatoon, Regina. The federal housing agency says there is a risk of correction in Canadian housing markets in several cities, especially Toronto, Saskatoon and Regina,  because of overvaluation and overbuilding of real estate.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation looks at housing markets in 15 Canadian cities every quarter, in an effort to detect housing bubbles.

World decline in oil price to impact Canada real estate in 2015

The Canadian Press - A for sale sign sits outside a home in Vancouver on April 8, 2010. Royal LePage says the price of a Canadian home is expected to rise by a relatively modest 2.9 per cent on average in 2015

By Alexandra Posadzki, The Canadian Press

Royal LePage says the price of a Canadian home is expected to rise by a relatively modest 2.9 per cent on average in 2015 as price appreciation slows across the country.

Toronto is expected to lead the pack when it comes to price increases this year, with the realtor saying the average home price in Canada's largest city is forecast to rise by 4.5 per cent, although that would be well behind last year's pace.

Vancouver is expected to see the second-biggest average jump in prices, up 2.8 per cent, followed by a 2.4 per cent gain in Calgary, 0.6 per cent in Montreal and 0.5 per cent in Halifax among several of the major centres surveyed across the country.

'Canada Is In Serious Trouble' As Debt, House Prices Climb,

Daniel Tencer | Huff

It was little more than a year ago that Deutsche Bank declared Canada’s housing market to be the most overvalued in the world, and on Thursday the German-based bank doubled down on its bearish assessment of Canada.

Residential real estate in Canada is overvalued by 63 per cent, according to research from Deutsche Bank chief international economist Torsten Slok.

Lucky! 7yr old girl walks away from plane crash in Kentucky; 4 others killed

Below is what Kentucky State Police posted on their Facebook page... 

The Kentucky State Police are responding to a report of a plane crash near the area of KY 810 South in the Suwanee community of Lyon County At approximately 6:30 pm CST, a 911 call was received from a Lyon County resident. The caller told police that a 7-year-old female had walked to his home reporting that she had been involved in a plane crash. The juvenile was in distress and was transported to a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries. 

Over 160,000 Evacuated From Worst-Ever Floods In Malaysia

Reuters
The number of people evacuated due to Malaysia's worst-ever floods jumped to more than 160,000 on Saturday, as Prime Minister Najib Razak reached the worst-hit state after cutting short a vacation in the U.S.

Najib arrived in Kelantan, which has the biggest problems among eight affected states, following his return from Hawaii on Friday after public criticism he had been absent as flooding worsened.

On Saturday, Najib announced an additional 500 million ringgit ($143.31 million) will be spent to aid victims after the flood subsides, following an initial government allocation of 50 million ringgit two days ago.

Ottawa couple son stranded in India after immigration application error

CBC
A couple from India with permanent resident status is fighting to change Canada's immigration laws after being separated from their three-year-old son over what they describe as an application error.
Bhavna Bajaj, who now lives in Ottawa, told CBC News she was pregnant when she and her husband Aman Sood applied for permanent residency in 2011.

By the time the Canadian government accepted their application last year, they had a new son, Daksh.
The couple said their immigration consultant told them to head to Canada and sponsor their son after they arrived.

But Bajaj said once they landed, they were told they had broken the law by not revealing they had a son in India.

"We are crying every day, craving for our child," Sood said.

Foreign Owned Condo Rentals A Small Part Of Canada Housing Market

Rob Atkins /Getty Images

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says only a small minority of the condos for rent in most major urban areas have foreign owners, although some neighbourhoods in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal are higher.

The CMHC says its first survey of foreign ownership of condos for rent found a wide range within the 11 major markets that were tracked, from a high of 2.4 per cent in Toronto and 2.3 per cent in Vancouver to a low of only one-tenth of a percentage point in several cities.

The survey suggests, however, that certain areas of Montreal had Canada's highest concentration of rental condos under foreign ownership — at 6.9 per cent.

Parts of Vancouver had about 5.8 per cent of rental condos under foreign ownership while in Toronto's centre core the rate was about 4.3 per cent.

Canada Household debt hits record high

Credit cards are displayed in Montreal on December 12, 2012. A sustained period of low interest rates has allowed Canadians to rack up record levels of debt which, along with tumbling oil prices, pose a threat to the country's financial stability, economists say. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Alexandra Posadzki CPA sustained period of low interest rates has allowed Canadians to rack up record levels of debt which, along with tumbling oil prices, pose a threat to the country’s financial stability, economists say.

The total amount of credit market debt — which includes mortgages, non-mortgage loans and consumer credit — held by Canadian households hit a record high in the third quarter, climbing to 162.6 per cent of disposable income from a revised 161.5 per cent in the second quarter.

That means Canadians owed about $1.63 for every dollar of disposable income, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.

“The Bank of Canada has a lot on its plate in terms of assessing risk to the Canadian economy,” Leslie Preston, an economist at TD Economics, said in a note.

Canada real estate market could fall like oil

A pump jack and a house northwest of Calgary. Experts in the oil industry seemed not to see the fall in prices coming. Could the same thing be happening again with house prices? (The Canadian Press)

Don Pittis, CBC News
Recent reassuring comments about the Canadian housing market remind me of similar blandishments when oil prices began to fall.

I wouldn't want to overemphasize the parallels between houses and petroleum. Indeed, there are many differences in the two markets, which I will expand upon in a moment.

But first the similarity. It is that, just as with oil, so many of the people we expect to know what is happening refuse to admit that house prices can go through big declines as well as big increases.

Read full story on CBC

Court cleared US father of murdering drunk driver who killed his two young sons

David Barajas (pictured above) has been acquitted by a jury in Texas court after he allegedly shot dead the man who killed his two young sons, David Jr 12, and Caleb, 11. Barajas had been standing trial over the shooting death of Jose Banda, 20, who was found dead in his car shortly after an accident in Houston, Texas.

According to prosecutors, David Barajas and his sons had been driving home on the day of the incident when they ran out of fuel near their home. He then asked his two sons to get down from the car and help push it. As the boys were pushing the car, a drunk Banda crashed into the back of his car instantly crushing his sons to death. Prosecutors say an angry Barajas returned home to retrieve his gun which he then used to shoot Banda with a single gunshot to the head.

When Barajas went to court for the killing, he was found not guilty of the murder.

According to USA Today, a jury found that there was not enough evidence to convict the father and there were celebrations in court. After the verdict, Barajas said;

"I thank God. This has been hard on me and my family. A lot of weight's been lifted off my back. I'm hurt about it. It hurt me from the beginning, on top of the hurt that I was already feeling because of my sons."

Police searched Barajas house where they found an empty gun holster and ammunition. However, a gun was never found and forensics tests found no trace of gunpowder on his hands.

German evicted for squeaky swing set sex prop

A German court says a landlady was within her rights to evict a man for persistently using a squeaky swing set in his apartment late at night as a sex prop.

The court in Munich said Friday the unidentified man installed the “very old” chain swing set in his apartment in 2012 and regularly disturbed his neighbours with “sexual, athletic and squeaking noises” late into the night, causing multiple complaints.

It noted his rental agreement included a clause to be quiet between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

In upholding the landlady’s decision to evict him, the court focused on the tenant’s use of the swing set, saying its use late at night “would no longer correspond to normal rental use, and must therefore not be tolerated as socially acceptable.”

Oddities: When A House Doesn't Sell, The Price Goes Up

Bidding wars have become commonplace in the Toronto housing market, with many realtors saying they hit a fever pitch this spring.

Though “sellers love it,” largely because they drive up the price of houses, many observers argue it’s a sleazy practice, particularly when sellers low-ball the price of a house to get buyers excited — only to see the price inflated enormously by a crowd of bidders.

In perhaps the most egregious example yet, a five-bedroom house in the Yonge and Lawrence area listed for $699,000 this past April, well below the going rate for a standalone house in the area, where most these days are listed above $1 million.

The house attracted 72 offers and sold for nearly double the asking price — $1.36 million.
But as spring moved into summer, apparently the bidding wars slowed down, according to an article in the Globe and Mail. Which means that some buyers are putting their houses on the market at a lowballed price, and not getting the huge markup they had been expecting.

Their reaction? Take the house off the market, and relist at a higher price.

Labour Market Sucks, Goodnews is Canadians Average Net Worth Up 8%

The labour market may be sluggish, but Canadians’ net worth is on the rise, according to a new report

The average net worth per Canadian household was $442,130 at the end of 2013, up 7.7 per cent from the previous year, according to Environics Analytics.

The growth is attributed to a rise in real estate and investment values. It helped that household debt increased by a modest 2.3 per cent, as consumer debt remained flat.

The numbers suggest that Canadians have bounced back from the 2008 global economic crisis, even though unemployment rates are higher-than-normal in many regions.

“Overall, 2013 was an excellent year for Canadian balance sheets,” Peter Miron, a senior research associate at Environics Analytics, said in a news release.

Alberta issues new birth certificate to Transgender 12-year-old who was born a girl

A 12-year-old transgender Alberta boy has been granted a new birth certificate that recognizes him as male.

Wren Kauffman was presented with the new document on Sunday in Edmonton during a Pride festival brunch hosted by the city's mayor.

The province's culture minister, Heather Klimchuk, made the presentation.

A spokesperson for the minister says the new certificate simply has a "M" instead of an "F."

Kauffman had filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission over the inability to change the sex on his birth certificate.

Alberta law states that transgender persons must have reassignment surgery before they can change the sex on their birth certificates, but Premier Dave Hancock said in April that the surgery requirement will be dropped.

Tragic! Canadian Doctor Murdered In Pakistan While Visiting Parents' Graves

Canadian cardiologist Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar was killed in Pakistan Monday while visiting the graves of his parents.

The brother of a Canadian cardiologist gunned down in Pakistan in front of his wife and two-year-old son says Mehdi Ali Qamar had just arrived in Pakistan to do volunteer work at a hospital.

Police say two gunmen riding a motorcycle shot Qamar 10 times at close range in the town of Chanab Nagar, adding that Qamar's wife and son were not harmed.

Hadi Ali Chaudhary says his brother and his family arrived in Pakistan several days ago from their home in Ohio and planned to treat patients at the Tahir Heart Institute in Rabwah.

Chaudhary says Qamar — who had lived in Ohio for about a decade — his wife and son were visiting the graves of his parents when he was killed on Monday.

Chaudhary says Qamar, 51, who had been living in Ohio for about 10 years, will be flown back to Canada for burial in Toronto.

A Foreign Affairs spokesman says they are in contact with local authorites to gather more information. Police have said they don't have a motive for Qamar's slaying, but the family says he was killed for being a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada community.

"The government of Pakistan, they made a law against our community that these are non-Muslim, and because of that law ... anybody can kill the person who is non-Muslim," Chaudhary said.

Qamar knew of the danger he faced, his brother said, but regularly went to the region for three or four weeks at a time to volunteer at the hospital, visit family and help the poor.

"That's the kind of generous man he was," Chaudhary said.

The Qamar's eldest son had remained in Ohio, and his other son was in Pakistan but not with his parents at the time of the shooting.
          
Jason Elsea, from the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Columbus, Ohio, said Qamar lived in Pickerington and had a practice in Lancaster. Qamar had recently taken a sabbatical to volunteer at the heart hospital. 

11 Years Girl Who Refused Abortion After Rape Gives Birth To Twins

AN 11-YEAR-old Senegalese girl who was raped but denied an abortion has given birth to twin boys.
not allowed to terminate her pregnancy due to the country’s ban on abortion has given birth to twin boys.

The child, who was 10 at the time of the sexual attack, gave birth in the seventh month of her pregnancy back in February, according to The Guardian.

She was denied a termination because Senegal's current abortion law, which is one of the strictest among the African nations, only allows the procedure if two doctors certify that the mother's life is in immediate danger.

The country’s abortion ban is based on an old penal code that dates back to 1810.

A doctor or pharmacist found guilty of having a role in a termination faces being struck off, while a woman found guilty of abortion can be jailed for up to 10 years, according to the Senegalese women lawyers' association.

British Columbia: Mother Arrested For Kidnapping

Two Alberta girls are safe and their mother has been arrested after an Amber Alert issued Wednesday morning garnered public tips that helped police locate the trio in British Columbia's Fraser Canyon.

By evening, RCMP said girls, ages 6 and 12, were located in Boston Bar, B.C., about 215 northeast of Vancouver.

Their mother, 48, who does not have legal guardianship, faces two counts of abduction.

Acting on information from the public, police said they located the three and took them into custody without trouble.

"The two girls are OK and investigators are working with the Ministry of Children and Family Development with respect to their care," B.C. RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen said in a news release.

The alert was cancelled just hours after police in Alberta warned that their investigation led them to believe the girls could be in grave danger.

UK: Eat More For Less, How To Knock 90% Off Food Bills

'Times are hard but you don’t have to fork out to eat well': Frugal foodie knocks 90% off bills - now her guide to gourmet meals for pennies has become an internet hit

• Kate knows the right time to grab luxury ingredients from the bargain bins
• Shops daily, usually in the evening, to get the reduced items
• Eats things weeks past their sell-by dates and freezes as much as possible
• Cut-price cookery tips have become an internet favourite with thousands
• Cooks luxury dishes such as roast goose and kiwi, mint and lime sorbet

A keen home cook has revealed the secret of making gourmet meals for pennies - by finding the right time to grab her 'luxury' ingredients from the bargain bins at Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

Bargain-hunter Kate Barrett, 36, cooks up cut-price haute cuisine with formerly expensive meat and fish that has been dropped into the reduced aisles at pricey stores.

 

Kate - who describes herself as a 'frugal foodie' - even ignores sell-by dates and eats food weeks after it has supposedly gone out of date.

Closing Down Toronto's Last Abattoir

For decades, Toronto has been known as Hogtown, but the city could see its last pig slaughterhouse close next week.

On Tuesday, a Toronto judge will be asked to appoint a receiver to sell the assets of the abattoir that has been idled in bankruptcy protection, ending 100 years of pork production on the downtown site.

The move, if unopposed by creditors, will mean the end of the plant that accounts for about 25 per cent of Ontario’s pork output.

Toronto, formerly the cattle and pig stockyards for much of Southern Ontario, was once home to four large pig plants, earning the Hogtown nickname.