Not All Heroes Wear Capes When fire broke out at a 36-unit apartment building in Shediac, New Brunswick, early on October 29, resident superintendent Erica Nan Hepditch moved quickly to help her neighbours escape. Alerted by a tenant banging on her door around 4 a.m.,...

Evidence-Based Decisions—Except on Rent Control? DID YOU KNOW? Approximately 93% of economists surveyed agreed that rent ceilings reduce the quantity and quality of available housing. Only 6.5% disagreed. Two decades later, another panel of leading economists...

Bank of Canada raises policy rate to 2.5% as inflation pressures persist The Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 2.5% on October 28, its first increase since July 2023. Governor Tiff Macklem said persistent energy-price...

Rent Control Cannot Force Rental Housing Providers to Stay in Business DID YOU KNOW? Governments can legislate limits on rent increases, but they cannot legislate rental housing providers into remaining in business. For approximately two decades before Nova Scotia...

Economic and fiscal outlook — October 2026 The Parliamentary Budget Officer forecasts Canadian economic growth of 0.9% in 2026 and 1.5% in 2027, reducing its previous projections as tariffs and trade uncertainty weigh on the outlook. The federal deficit is projected...

Nova Scotia records Atlantic Canada’s largest commercial property-tax rate gap Commercial properties in Nova Scotia face municipal base tax rates averaging 2.46 times residential rates, the highest average among the four Atlantic provinces examined in CFIB’s 2026...

Rental revenue pays for more than a mortgage Providing a rental home requires ongoing spending on property taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance, labour, administration and financing. These costs continue to change even when rent increases are restricted....

Yukon to eliminate rent control, allow no-cause evictions The Yukon government has introduced legislation to remove its rent cap and permit no-cause evictions with six months’ notice. If approved, the changes would take effect on December 1, 2026, when housing...

Nova Scotia university enrolment continues to drop, new statistics show Nova Scotia university enrolment fell 3.3% to 45,758 students as of October 1, 2026, a decline of 1,544 students from a year earlier. Falling international enrolment following federal study-permit...

Rent caps can widen the gap between staying and moving A rent cap that applies during an existing tenancy protects renters who remain in the same homes, but it does not control asking rents for new tenancies. When regulated rents fall far behind current market costs,...