Podcasts about Greater Vancouver

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - The Canadian Federal Election is over and we have.... the exact same thing as before. But how will it effect the real estate market?In this episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey discuss the election and the current real estate market.Enjoy!- - -

Friday May 2 has been declared an official day of remembrance and mourning in British Columbia after last weekend's horrific attack on a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver. To date, 11 people died and dozens more remain wounded after a 30-year-old man drove an SUV into a crowd at the city's Lapu Lapu festival on April 26. The suspect has been charged with multiple counts of second-degree murder, but the investigation continues. Leaders of the Filipino community say they feel deeply touched by the heartfelt outreach and solidarity being shown by Canadian Jewish groups. In Vancouver, Jewish residents have mounted prayer vigils and also set up an emergency fundraising campaign. The outpouring of support is being described as an example of kapwa, the Filipino tradition of solidarity and unity, as that community processes the grief while seeking answers on how the mental health system failed so badly to prevent the massacre. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we're joined by two members of Canada's Filipino community, who also share deep ties with the country's Jews: David Decolongon, who works in Vancouver for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), has family and friends who attended the festival and witnessed the horrific attack; and Primrose Madayag Knazan, from Winnipeg, is an award-winning Filipinx-Jewish author and playwright with expertise on how the Philippines helped rescue European Jews during the Holocaust. Related links Where to donate through the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver's  Filipino Community Emergency Support Fund. When Canadian Jews fundraised in 2013 to help disaster relief efforts in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan struck the country, in The CJN. When the Philippines rescued 1,200 European Jews during the Holocaust, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - This week we speak with returning guest Doug Porter, Chief Economist at BMO and official "Friend of" The Tom Storey Show to discuss what Canada's economy might look like after the 2025 Federal Election. Enjoy!- - -

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - On this week's episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey discuss Banks across Canada increased their penalties on fixed rate mortgages, because too many people were breaking their higher rates for a little lower payment and some cost of living relief. Enjoy!- - -

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - New Multiplex Zoning in BC has changed the face of Single Family Lots forever, but at what cost?In this episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey meet Adil Dinani ti discuss challenges that developers face trying to navigate this new housing solution. Connect with Adil:Web: https://www.dinani.ca/- - -

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - Listings are seemingly taking FOREVER to sell across Canada and this could be a result of mortgage rates offered to new home buyers being offered at much higher rates than those offered upon renewal. In this episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey speak with Nuvola Capitanio, Real Estate Advisor with Engel & Völkers to try to make sense of the current housing market. Enjoy!Connect with Nuvola:Web: https://www.nuvolacapitanio.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nuvolabc_realtor/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nuvolabc_realtor/videos- - -

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - Has the Canadian Government FAILED Indigenous people in this country by not addressing their housing needs?In this week's Episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey speak with Aaron Pete of the Chawathil First Nation and host of the Bigger than Me Podcast to discuss Indigenous housing, homelessness and reservations. Connect with Aaron:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@biggerthanmepodcast/videos- - -

Host Ethan Astaneh speaks with Dan Wurtele and Ryan Dash, partners at The Vancouver Life Real Estate Group. Dan and Ryan lead a team of award-winning real estate advisors helping clients navigate the evolving Greater Vancouver market—and beyond. In this episode, they offer a timely and comprehensive overview of the Canadian residential real estate landscape, from buyer, balanced, and seller market dynamics to the ripple effects of the mortgage maturity wall. They discuss how major cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, and Victoria are faring, and why condo markets in particular are facing headwinds. The conversation also explores Vancouver's landmark multiplex rezoning changes and how they're creating a new sub-asset class—and new opportunities—for homeowners, developers, and investors alike. Dan and Ryan also share strategic advice for buyers navigating the presale market and offer perspective on what to expect as interest rates and economic uncertainty continue to shape activity in 2025. Highlights  2:20 – Are we in a buyers, sellers, or balanced market? 7:56 – Price dynamics in real estate markets across Canada 14:03 – Spring market forecast 20:41 – Mortgage renewal situation in Canada 28:07 – Bill 44 multiplex rezoning 35:33 – Thoughts on the pre-sale marketplace Sign Up for our Newsletter

Scott Demark, President and CEO of Zibi Community Utility, joins thinkenergy to discuss how our relationship with energy is changing. With two decades of expertise in clean energy and sustainable development, Scott suggests reimagining traditional energy applications for heating and cooling. He shares how strategic energy distribution can transform urban environments, specifically how district energy systems optimize energy flow between buildings for a greener future. Listen in.   Related links   Scott Demark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-demark-83640473/ Zibi Community Utility: https://zibi.ca/ Markham District Energy Inc: https://www.markhamdistrictenergy.com/ One Planet Living: https://www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/ Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en   To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa Transcript: Trevor Freeman  00:07 Welcome to thinkenergy, a podcast that dives into the fast, changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com   Speaker 1  00:29 Hi everyone. Welcome back. One of the overarching aspects of the energy transition that we have talked about several times on this show is the need to change our relationship with energy, to rethink the standard way of doing things when it comes to heating and cooling and transportation, etc. This change is being driven by our need to decarbonize and by the ongoing evolution and improvement of technology. More things are becoming available to us as technology improves on the decarbonization front, we know that electrification, which is switching from fossil fuel combustions to electricity for things like space and water heating vehicles, etc, is one of the most effective strategies. But in order to switch out all the end uses to an electric option, so swapping out furnaces and boilers for heat pumps or electric boilers, switching all gas cars to EVs, etc. In order to do that in a way that is affordable and efficient and can be supported by our electricity grid, we need to think about multi strategy approaches, so we can't just continue to have this one way power grid where every home, every business, every warehouse or office tower satisfies all of its energy needs all the time directly from the grid with no adaptability. That isn't the best approach. It's not going to be affordable or efficient. We're not going to be able to do it fast enough. The multi strategy approach takes into account things like distributed energy resources, so solar and storage, etc, which we've talked about many times on this show, but it also includes approaches like district energy. So, district energy is rethinking how energy flows between adjacent buildings, looking for opportunities to capture excess energy or heat from one source and use that to support another. And that is the focus of today's conversation. To help us dive into this topic, I'm really happy to welcome Scott Demark to the show. Scott has been a champion of sustainability, clean energy solutions and energy efficiency in the Ottawa real estate and development industry for over 20 years now, he has overseen many high-performance development projects and was one of the driving forces behind the Zibi development in downtown Ottawa, and most applicable for today's conversation the renewable district energy system that provides heating and cooling to the Zibi site. Scott is the president and CEO of the Zibi community utility, as well as a partner at Thea partners. Scott Demark, welcome to the show.   Scott Demark  03:15 Thanks. Nice to see you. Trevor,   Trevor Freeman  03:17 So, Scott, why don't we start with definitions are always a good place to start. So, when we talk about a district energy system, give us a high-level overview of what exactly that means.   Scott Demark  03:27 Sure, a district energy system is, is simply the connection, or interconnection of thermal energy sources, thermal energy sinks. And so really, in practical terms. It means, instead of buildings having their own furnace and cooling system, buildings connect to a hydronic loop. A hydronic loop is just pipes filled with water, and then the heat or the cooling is made somewhere else, and that heat or lack of heat cooling is in a pipe. They push the pipe to the building, and then the pipe extracts the heat or rejects the heat to that loop. And so it's simply an interconnection of us as sources and sinks for federal energy.   Trevor Freeman  04:14 And I guess one of the important concepts here is that buildings often create heat, not just through a furnace or not just through the things that are meant to create heat, but, you know, server racks, computer server racks, generate a lot of heat, and that heat has to go somewhere. So oftentimes we're cooling buildings to remove heat that's being created in those buildings, and then other buildings nearby need to be heated in order to make that space comfortable. Is that fair to say?   Scott Demark  04:42 Yeah, absolutely. Trevor, so, an office building in the city of Ottawa, big old government office building, you'll see a pretty big plume on the roof in the winter time. That's not just kind of the flue gas from a boiler, but rather it is actually chillers are. running inside to make cooling, and they're just selling that heat to the atmosphere, even on the coldest day of the year. So, it's people, you know, people are thermal load. Computers are thermal load, and so is solar gain. You know, January is pretty dark period for us, meaning low angle sun. But by this time in a year, you know, or at the end of February, there's a lot of heat in that sun. So, a glass building absorbs a lot of sun. An office building will need cooling on the sunny side of that building a lot of the time, even in the dead of winter.   Trevor Freeman  05:31 Yeah. So, a district system, then, is taking advantage of the fact that heat exists, and we don't necessarily need to either burn fossil fuels or even if it's a, you know, a clean system, we don't have to expend energy to create heat, or create as much heat if we could move that heat around from where it's kind of naturally occurring to where we need it.   Scott Demark  05:54 That's right at the very core of a district energy system. You're going to move heat from a place that it's not wanted to a place that it is wanted. And so in our example of the office building, you know, on the February day with the sun shining in and the computers all running, that building's getting rid of heat. But right next door, say there's a 20-story condo. Well, that 20 story condo needs heating and it also needs domestic hot water. So, year-round, domestic hot water represents 30, 35% of the heating load of any residential building, so at all times. So, a district energy system allows you to take that heat away from the office building and give it to the residential building, instead of making the heat and dissipating that heat to the atmosphere in the office building. So, yeah, it's, it's really a way to move, you know, from sources to sinks. That's, that's what a district energy system does well.   Trevor Freeman  06:48 So we've kind of touched on this a little bit, but let's dive right into, you know, we talk a lot on the show about the energy transition. This, this push to, one, move away from fossil fuel combustion to meet our energy needs. And two, shifting from a kind of static, centralized energy system like we have right now, big generators, large transmission lines, etc., to more of a two-way flow, distributed energy system. What is the role of district energy systems within that transition. How do they help us get closer to that sort of reality that we talk about?   Scott Demark  07:27 I think the biggest way that they help is economies of scale. Okay, so by that, I'll explain that. Imagine there's a lot of technology that's been around a long time that is very scalable to the building level, but most of them are fossil fire. Okay, so the cheapest way to heat a building in Ottawa is to put a gas fired boiler in. That's the cheapest capital cost, first cost, and it's also the cheapest operating cost, is to put a gas boiler in. That industry is well established. There's lots of trades who could do it. There's lots of producers who make the boilers. When you start to try and think about the energy transition and think about what you may do to be different, to be lower carbon, or to be zero carbon, those industries are just starting right. Those industries don't exist. They don't have the same depth, and so they don't have the same cost structure, and often times they don't scale well down to the building. And therefore, a district energy system aggregates a bunch of load, and so you can provide a thermal energy so at scale that becomes affordable. And that is, you know, a very good example of that would be where, you know, you might want to go and recover heat from some process, and we'll talk about Zibi as the example. But if he wanted to go recover heat from some process and bring it in, it doesn't make sense to run a pipeline to a source to heat one building. You can't make financial sense of it, but if you're heating 20 buildings, that pipeline, all of a sudden, makes sense to take waste heat from somewhere, to move it somewhere else. The other advantage is that truly district energy systems are agnostic to their inputs and outputs for heat. So, once you've established that hydronic loop, that interconnection of water pipes between buildings, what the source and what the sources, doesn't matter. So, you may have at one point built a district energy system, and Markham District Energy System is a great example of this market District Energy System was built on the concept of using a co-generation facility. So they burned natural gas to make electricity, they sold electricity to the grid, and they captured all the waste heat from that generation, and they fed it into a district energy system. Well, here we are, 20 plus years later, and, they're going to replace that system, that fossil fired system Augment, not fully replaced, but mostly replace that system with a sewer coupled energy recovery and drive those heat recovery chillers to a sewer system. So, they're putting a very green solution in place of a former fossil solution. They don't have to rip up the pipes, they don't have to change anything in the buildings. They only have to change that central concept. Now, again, Markham could never do that at a one building scale. They're only that at the community scale.   Trevor Freeman  10:21 So, you mentioned, I want to pick on something you said there. You talked about a sewer heat energy system. They're pulling heat from the sewer. Just help our listeners understand high level kind of, why is there heat there for us to pull? Like, what's the what's the source there?   Scott Demark  10:38 Yeah. So, when we shower, when we flush toilets, all of that is introducing heat into a sewer system. So, we're collecting heat from everybody's house into the sewer system. The sewer system also sits below the frost line. So, call it Earth coupled. You know it's the earth in Ottawa below the frost line sits around eight, eight and a half c and so at that temperature and the temperature of flushing toilets, we essentially get a sewer temperature in the on the coldest day of the year, that's around 10 10, and a half degree Celsius. And obviously, for lots of the year, it's much warmer than that. And so I think, you know, a lot of people are kind of familiar with the concept of geo exchange energy, or that. Lot of people call it geothermal, but you exchange where you might drill down into the earth, and you're taking advantage of that eight, eight and a half degrees, I'll see. So, you're exchanging heat, you can reject heat to the earth, or you can absorb heat from the earth. Well, this is the same idea, but you accept or reject from the sewer. But because the sewer is relatively shallow, it is cheaper to access that energy, and because it's warm, and on the coldest day, a couple of degrees make a big difference, Trevor, and most of the year so much warmer, you're really in a very good position to extract that heat, and that's all it is. You are just accepting or rejecting heat. You don't use the sewage itself. It doesn't come into your building. You have a heat exchanger in between. But that's, that's what you do.   Trevor Freeman  12:10 Yeah, great. And I, we've talked before on the show about the idea that, you know, for a air source, heat pump, for example, you don't need a lot of heat energy to extract energy from the air. It can be cold outside, and there is still heat energy in the air that you can pull and use that to heat a building, heat water, whatever. So same concept, except you've got a much warmer source of energy, I guess.   Scott Demark  12:34 Yeah, exactly. And you know, Trevor, when you look at the efficiency curves of those air source heat pumps, you know, they kind of drop off a cliff at minus 20. Minus 22 in fact. You know, five or six years ago, they that that was dropping off at minus 10. So, we've come a long way in air source heat pumps. But imagine on that coldest, coldest day of the year, you're still your source is well above zero, and therefore your efficiency. So, the amount of electricity you need to put into the heat pump to get out the heat that you need is much lower, so it's a way more efficient heat exchange.   Trevor Freeman  13:07 Great. Thanks for that, Scott. I know that's a bit of a tangent here, but always cool to talk about different ways that we're coming up with to heat our buildings. So back to district energy. We've talked through some of the benefits of the system. If I'm a building owner and I'm have the decision to connect to a system that's there, or have my own standalone, you know, traditional boiler, whatever the case may be, or even in a clean energy one, a heat pump, whatever. What are the benefits of being on a district system versus having my own standalone system for just my building.   Scott Demark  13:42 Yeah, so when you're wearing the developer's hat, you know they're really looking at it financially. If they have other goals around sustainability, great, that will factor into it. But most of them are making decisions around this financially. So, it needs to compete with that. That first cost that we talked about the easiest ways, is boilers, gas fired boilers is the cheapest way. And so, they're going to look to see it at how. How does this compare to that? And so, I think that's the best way to frame it for you. And so, the difference here is that you need to install in your building a cooling system and a heating system. In Ottawa, that cooling system is only used for a few months a year, and it's very expensive. It takes up space, whether you're using a chiller and a cooling tower on the roof or using a dry cooler, it takes up roof space, and it also takes up interior space. If you do have a cooling tower, you have a lot of maintenance for that. You need to turn it on and turn it off in the spring, on and fall, etc., just to make sure all that happens and you need to carry the life cycle of that boiler plant. You need to bring gas infrastructure into your building. You generally need to put that gas boiler plant high in your building. So up near the top, and that's for purposes of venting that properly. Now that's taking real estate, right? And it's taking real estate on the area that's kind of most advantageous, worth the most money. So you might lose a penthouse to have a boiler and chiller room up there. And you also, of course, lose roof space. And today, we really do try to take advantage of those rooftop, patios and things, amenities are pretty important in buildings. And so, when I compare that to district energy at the p1 level, p2 level in your building, you're going to have a small room, and I really do mean small where the energy transfer takes place, you'll have some heat exchangers. And small, you might have a space, you know, 10 or 12 feet by 15 to 18 feet would be big enough for a 30-story tower, so a small room where you do the heat exchange and then Trevor, you don't have anything in your building for plants that you would normally look after. So, when you look at the pro forma for owning your building over the lifetime of it. You don't have to maintain boilers. You don't have to have boiler insurance. You don't have to maintain your chillers. You don't have to have life cycle replacement on any of these products. You don't need anybody operating those checking in on the pressure vessels. None of that has to happen. All of that happens on the district energy system. So, you're really taking something you own and operate, and replacing that with a service. So, district energy is a service, and what, what we promised to deliver is the heating you need and the cooling you need. 24/7. The second thing you get is more resilience, and I'll explain that a little bit. Is that in a in a normal building, if you if the engineers looked at it and said, you need two boilers to keep your building warm, then you're probably going to install three. And that is kind of this, and plus one sort of idea, so that if one boiler goes down, you have a spare. And you need to maintain those. You need to pay for that. You need to maintain those, etc. But in district energy system, all that redundancy is done in the background. It's done by us, and we have significantly more redundancy than just n plus one in this example. But overall, you know, if you have 10 buildings on your district energy system, each of those would have had n plus one. We don't have n plus 10 in the plant. And so overall, the cost is lower, I would say, if you look at it globally, except the advantages you do have better than N plus one in the plant. So, we have higher resiliency at a lower cost.   Trevor Freeman  17:39 So, we know there's no such thing as a miracle solution that works in all cases. What are the best use cases for district energy system? Where does it make a lot of sense?   Scott Demark  17:50 Yeah, in terms some, in some ways the easiest things, Pretty work. Doesn't make sense. So, so it doesn't make sense in sprawling low rise development. So, the cost of that hydronic loop those water pipes is high. They have to fit in the roadway. It's civil work, etc. And so, you do need density. That doesn't mean it has to be high rise density.  You know, if you look at Paris, France, six stories district energy, no problem. There's, there's lots and lots of customers for that scale of building. It doesn't have to be all high rise, but it does, District Energy does not lend itself well to our sprawling style of development. It's much more suited to a downtown setting. It also kind of thrives where there's mixed use. You know, I think the first example we were talking about is office building shedding heat, residential building needing heat. You know, couple that with an industrial building shedding heat. You know, these various uses, a variety of uses on a district energy system, is the best, because its biggest advantage is sharing energy, not making energy. And so, a disparity of uses is the best place to use that. I think the other, the other thing to think about, and this is harder in Canada than the rest of the world, is that, you know, it's harder on a retrofit basis, from a cost perspective, than it is in a in a new community where you can put this in as infrastructure. Day one, you're going to make a big difference. And I'll, you know, give a shout out to British Columbia in the Greater Vancouver area. So, the district, you know, down in the Lower Mainland, they, they kind of made this observation and understood that if they were going to electrify, then District Energy gave economies of scale to electrify that load. And they do a variety of things, but one of the things they do is, is kind of district you exchange system so, so big heat pumps coupled to big fields, and then spring heat made a bunch of buildings. But these are green field developments Trevor. So, as they expand their suburbs. They do need to build the six stories. They very much have kind of density around parks concept. So now Park becomes a geo field. Density around the geo field, but this infrastructure is going in the same time as the water pipes. It's going in at the same time as the roads, the sidewalks, etc. You can dramatically reduce your cost, your first cost related to that hydro loop, if you're putting it in the same time you're doing the rest of the services.   Trevor Freeman  20:27 So, we're not likely to see, you know, residential neighborhoods with single family homes or multi-unit homes, whatever, take advantage of this. But that sort of low rise, mid rise, that's going to be more of a good pick for this. And like you said, kind of development is the time to do this. You mentioned other parts of the world. So, district energy systems aren't exactly widespread. In Canada, we're starting to see more of them pop up. What about the rest of the world? Are there places in the world where we see a lot more of this, and they've been doing this for a long time?   Scott Demark  21:00 Yeah. So, I'd almost say every, everywhere in the northern hemisphere, except North America, has done much more of this. And, you know, we really look to kind of Scandinavia as the gold standard of this. You look to Sweden, you look to Denmark, you look to Germany, even. There's, there's a lot of great examples of this, and they are typically government owned. So, they are often public private partnerships, but they would be various levels of government. So, you know, if you, if you went to Copenhagen, you'd see that the municipality is an owner. But then their equivalent of a province or territory is actually a big part of it, too. And when they built their infrastructure ages ago, they did not have an easy source of fossil fuels, right? And so, they need to think about, how can we do this? How can we share heat? How can we centralize the recovery of heat? How can we make sure we don't waste any and this has just been ingrained in them. So there's massive, massive District Energy loops, interconnecting loops, some owned by municipalities. Someone probably, if you build the factory, part of the concept of your factory, part of the pro forma of your factory is, how much can I sell my waste heat for? And so, a factory district might have a sear of industrial partners who own a district energy loop and interfaces with the municipal loop all sort of sharing energy and dumping it in. And so that's, you know, that's what you would study. That's, that's where we would want to be, and the heart of it is, just as I said, we've really had, you know, cheap or, you know, really cheap fossil fuels. We've had no price on pollution. And therefore, it really hasn't needed to happen here. And we're starting to see the need for that to happen here.   Trevor Freeman  22:58 It's an interesting concept to think of, you know, bringing that factory example in, instead of waste heat or heat as a byproduct of your process being a problem that you need to deal with, something you have to figure out a way to get rid of. It becomes almost an asset. It's a it's a, you know, convenient commodity that's being produced regardless, that you can now look to sell and monetize?   Scott Demark  23:21 Yeah, you go back to the idea of, like, what are the big benefits of district energy? Is that, like, if that loop exists and somebody knows that one of the things the factory produces is heat, well, that's a commodity I produce, and I can, I can sell it, if I have a way to sell it right here. You know, we're going to dissipate it to a river. We may dissipate it to the atmosphere. We're going to get rid of it. Like you said, it's, it's, it's waste in their minds and in Europe, that is absolutely not waste.   Trevor Freeman  23:49 And it coming back to that, you know, question of, where does this make sense? You talked about mixed use. And it's also like the, you know, the temporal mix use of someone that is producing a lot of heat during the day when the next-door residential building is empty, then when they switch, when the factory closes and the shift is over and everybody comes home from work, that's when that building needs heat. That's when they want to be then taking that heat to buildings next to each other that both need heat at the same time is not as good a use cases when it's offset like that.   Scott Demark  24:23 Yeah, that's true. And unless lots of District Energy Systems consider kind of surges in storage, I know our system at CB has, has kind of a small storage system related to the domestic hot water peak load. However, you can also think of the kilometers and kilometers and kilometers of pipes full of water as a thermal battery, right? So, so you actually are able to even out those surges. You let the temperature; the district energy system rise. When that factory is giving all out all kinds of heat, it's rising even above the temperature. You have to deliver it at, and then when that peak comes, you can draw down that temperature and let the whole district energy system normalize to its temperature again. So you do have an innate battery in the in the water volume that sits in the district energy system   Trevor Freeman  25:15 Very cool. So you've mentioned Zibi a couple times, and I do want to get into that as much as we're talking about other parts of the world, you know, having longer term district energy systems. Zibi, community utility is a great example, right here in Ottawa, where you and I are both based of a district energy system. Before we get into that, can you, just for our listeners that are not familiar with Zibi, give us a high level overview of what that community is its location, you know, the goals of the community. And then we'll talk about the energy side of things.   Scott Demark  25:46 Sure. So Zibi was formerly Domtar paper mills. It's 34 acres, and it is in downtown Ottawa and downtown Gatineau. About a third of the land mass is islands on the Ontario side, and two thirds the land mass is on the shore, the north shore of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, both downtown, literally in the shadows of Parliament. It is right downtown. It was industrial for almost 200 years. Those paper mills shut down in the 90s and the early 2000s and my partners and I pursued that to turn it from kind of this industrial wasteland, walled off, fenced off, area that no one could go into, what we're hoping will be kind of the world's most Sustainable Urban Community, and so at build out, it will house, you know, about six, 7000 people. It will be four and a half million square feet, 4.24 point 4 million square feet of development. It is master planned and approved, and has built about, I think we're, at 1.1 million square feet, so we're about quarter built out. Now. 10 buildings are done and connected to the district energy system there. And really, it's, it's an attempt to sort of recover land that was really quite destroyed. You can imagine it was a pretty polluted site. So, the giant remediation plan, big infrastructure plan. We modeled this, this overall sustainability concept, over a program called one planet living which has 10 principles of sustainability. So, you know, you and I are talking a lot about carbon today, but there's also very important aspects about affordability and social sustainability and lifestyle, and all of those are incorporated into the one planet program, and encourage people to look up one planet living and understand what it is and look at the commitments that we've made at Zibi to create a sustainable place. We issue a report every year, kind of our own report card that's reviewed by a third party that explains where we are on our on our mission to achieve our goal of the world's most sustainable community.   Speaker 1  28:09 Yeah. And so I do encourage people to look at one planet living also. Have a look at, you know, the Zibi website, and it's got the Master Plan and the vision of what that community will be. And I've been down there, it's already kind of coming along. It's amazing. It's amazing to see the progress compared to who I think you described it well, like a bit of an industrial wasteland at the heart of one of the most beautiful spots in the city. It was really a shame what it used to be. And it's great to see kind of the vision of what it can become. So that's awesome,   Scott Demark  28:38 Yeah, and Trevor, especially now that the parks are coming along. You know, we worked really closely with the NCC to integrate the shoreline of Zibi to the existing, you know, bike path networks and everything. And, you know, two of the three shoreline parks are now completed and open to the public and they're stunning. And you know, so many Ottawa people have not been down there because it's not a place you think about, but it's one of the few places in Ottawa and Gatineau where you can touch the water, you know, like it's, it's, it's stunning,   Trevor Freeman  29:08 yeah, very, very cool. Okay, so the next part of that, of course, is energy. And so there is a district energy system, one of the first kind of, or the most recent big energy, District Energy Systems in Ottawa. Tell us a little bit about how you are moving energy and heating the Zibi site.   Scott Demark  29:29 Yeah. So first, I'll say, you know, we, we, we studied different, uh, ways to get to net zero. You know, we had, we had a goal of being a zero carbon community. There are low carbon examples, but a zero carbon community is quite a stretch. And even when you look at the Scandinavian examples, the best examples, they're missing their energy goals, largely because some of the inputs that are District Energy System remain false so, but also because they have trouble getting them. Performance out of the buildings. And so we looked at this. We also know from our experience that getting to zero carbon at the building scale in Ottawa is very, very difficult. Our climate is tough, super humid, super hot. Summer, very cold, very dry, winter, long winter. So, it's difficult at the building scale. It's funny Trevor, because you'd actually have an easier time getting to zero carbon or a passive house standard in affordable housing than you do at market housing. And that's because affordable housing has a long list of people who want to move in and pay rents. You can get some subsidies for capital and the people who are willing to pay rent are good with smaller windows, thicker walls, smaller units and passthroughs, needs all those kinds of things. So when down at Zibi, you're really selling views, you're competing with people on the outside of Zibi, you're building almost all glass buildings. And so it's really difficult to find a way to get to zero carbon on the building scale. So that moved us to district energy for all the reasons we've talked about today already. And so, when we looked at it for Zibi, you really look at the ingredients you have. One of the great things we have is we're split over the border. It's also a curse, but split over the border is really interesting, because you cannot move electricity over that border, but you can move thermal energy over that border. And so, for us, in thinking about electrifying thermal energy, we realized that if we did the work in Quebec, where there is clean and affordable electricity, we could we could turn that into heat, and then we could move heat to Ontario. We could move chilled water to Ontario. So that's kind of ingredient, one that we had going for us there. The second is that there used to be three mills. So originally Domtar three mills, they sold one mill. It changed hands a few times, but it now belongs to Kruger. They make tissue there so absorbent things, Kleenexes and toilet paper, absorbent, anything in that tissue process that's a going concern. So, you can see that in our skyline. You can see, on cold days, big plumes of waste heat coming out of it. And so, we really saw that as our source, really identified that as our source. And how could we do that? So, going back to the economies of scale, is, could we send a pipeline from Kruger, about a kilometer away, to Zibi? And so, when we were purchasing the land, we were looking at all the interconnections of how the plants used to be realized. There are some old pipelines, some old easements, servitudes, etc. And so, when we bought the land, we actually bought all of those servitudes to including a pipeline across the bridge, Canadian energy regulator licensed across the bridge into Ontario. And so, we mixed all these ingredients up, you know, in a pot, and came up with our overall scheme. And so that overall scheme is relatively simple. We built an energy recovery station at Kruger, where just before their effluent water, like when they're finished in their process, goes back to the river. We have a heat exchanger there. We extract heat. We push that heat in a pipe network over to Zibi. At Zibi, we can upgrade that heat using heat recovery chillers, to a useful temperature for us, that's about 40 degrees Celsius, and we push that across the bridge to Ontario, all of our buildings in Ontario, then have thin coil units. They use that 40-degree heat to heat buildings. The return side of that comes back to Quebec, and then on the Quebec side, we have a loop and all of our buildings in the Quebec side, then use heat pumps so we extract the last bit of heat. So, imagine you you've returned from a fan coil, but you're still slightly warm. That slightly warm water is enough to drive a heat pump inside the buildings. And then finally, that goes back to Kruger again, and Kruger heats it back up with their waste heat comes back. So that's our that's our heating loop. The cooling side is coupled to the Ottawa River. And so instead of us rejecting heat to the atmosphere through cooling towers, our coolers are actually coupled to the river. That's a very tight environmental window that you can operate in. So, we worked with the minister the environment climate change in Quebec to get our permit to do it. We can only be six degrees difference to the river, but our efficiency is, on average, like on an annual basis, more than double what it would be to a cooling tower for the same load. So, we're river coupled with respect to cooling for the whole development, and we're coupled to Kruger for heating for the whole development. And what that allows us to do is eliminate fossil fuels. Our input is clean Quebec electricity, and our output is heating and cooling.   Trevor Freeman  34:56 So, none of the buildings, you know, just for our listeners, none of the buildings have any. sort of fossil fuel combustion heating equipment. You don't have boilers or anything like that, furnaces in these in these buildings,   Scott Demark  35:06 no boilers, no chillers, no   Trevor Freeman  35:09 that's awesome. And just for full transparency, I should have mentioned this up front. So, the zibi community utility is a partnership between Zibi and Hydro Ottawa, who our listeners will know that I work for, and this was really kind of a joint venture to figure out a different approach to energy at the city site.   Scott Demark  35:28 Yeah, that's right, Trevor. I mean the concept, was born a long time ago now, but the concept was born by talking to Hydro Ottawa about how we might approach this whole campus differently. You know, one of hydro Ottawa's companies makes electricity, of course, Chaudiere Falls, and so that was part of the thinking we thought of, you know, micro grids and islanding this and doing a lot of different things. When Ford came in, and we were not all the way there yet and made changes the Green Energy Act. It made it challenging for us to do the electricity side, but we had already well advanced the thermal side, and hydro, you know, hydro makes a good partner in this sort of thing. When a when a developer tells someone, I'd like you to buy a condo, and by the way, I'm also the district energy provider that might put some alarm bells up, but you put a partnership in there with a trusted, long term utility partner, and explain that, you know, it is in the in the public interest, they're not going to jack rates or mess with things. And then obviously, just, you know, hydro had such a long operating record operating experience that they really brought sort of an operations and long-term utility mindset to our district energy system.   Trevor Freeman  36:45 So, looking at a system like the Zibi community utility or other district energy systems, is this the kind of thing that can scale up over time? And, you know, I bring this up because you hear people talk about, you know, a network of district energy systems across a city or across a big geographic area. Are these things that can be interconnected and linked, or does it make more sense as standalone district energy systems in those conditions that you talked about earlier?   Scott Demark  37:17 Very much the former Trevor like, and that's, you know, that's where, you know, places like Copenhagen are today. It's that, you know, there was, there was one district energy system, then there was another, then they got interconnected, then the third got added. And then they use a lot of incineration there, in that, in that part of the world, clean incineration for garbage. And so then an incinerator is coming online, and so that incinerators waste heat is going to be fed with a new district energy loop, and some other factory is going to use the primary heat from that, and then the secondary heat is going to come into the dictionary system. So, these things are absolutely expandable. They're absolutely interconnectable. There are temperature profiles. There's modern, modern thoughts on temperature profiles compared to older systems. Most of the old, old systems were steam, actually, which is not the most efficient thing the world, but that's where they started and so now you can certainly interconnect them. And I think that the example at Zibi is a decent one, because we do have two kinds of systems there. You know, I said we have fan coil units in in the Ontario side, but we have heat pumps on the other side. Well, those two things, they can coexist, right? That's there. Those two systems are, are operating together. Because the difference, you know, the difference, from the customer's perspective, in those two markets are different, and the same can be true in different parts of the city or when different sources and sinks are available. So, it is not one method of doing district energy systems. What you do is you examine the ingredients you have. I keep saying it, but sources and sinks. How can I look at these sources and sinks in a way that I can interconnect them and make sense? And sometimes that means that a source or a sink might be another district energy system,   Trevor Freeman  39:12 Yeah, systems that maybe work in parallel to each other, in cooperation with each other. Again, it's almost that temporal need where there's load high on at one point in time and low on the other point in time. Sharing is a great opportunity.   Scott Demark  39:26 Yeah, absolutely   Trevor Freeman  39:27 great. Okay, last question for you here, Scott, what is needed, maybe from a regulatory or a policy lens to encourage more implementation of district energy systems. How do we see more of these things happen here in Canada or North America?   Scott Demark  39:45 The best way to put this, the bureaucracy has been slow to move is, is what I'll say. And I'll use Zibi as that example. When we when we pitch the district energy system. At Zibi, we had to approach the City of Ottawa, and we had to approach the city at Gatineau, the City of Ottawa basically said to us, no, you can't put those in our streets. Engineering just said, no, no, no, no. And so, what we did at Zibi is we actually privatized our streets in order to see our vision through, because, because Ottawa wasn't on board, the city of Gatineau said, Hmm, I'm a little worried. I want you to write protocols of how you will access your pipes and not our pipes. I want to understand where liability ends and starts and all of this kind of stuff. And we worked through that detail slowly, methodically with the city of Gatineau, and we came to a new policy on how district energy could be in a public street and Zb streets are public on the Gatineau side today, you know, come forward 10 years here, and the City of Ottawa has a working group on how to incorporate District Energy pipes into streets. We've been able to get the City of Ottawa to come around to the idea that we will reject and accept heat from their sewer. You know, Hydro Ottawa, wholly owned company of the City of Ottawa, has an active business in district energy. So Trevor, we've come really far, but it's taken a long time. And so, if you ask me, How can we, how can we accelerate district energy, I think a lot of it has to do with the bureaucracy at municipalities. And you know, we're we see so much interest from the Federation of Canadian municipalities, who was the debt funder for zcu. We have multiple visits from people all over Canada, coming to study and look at this as an example. And I'm encouraged by that. But it's also, it's also not rocket science. We need to understand that putting a pipe in a street is kind of a just, just a little engineering problem to solve, whereas putting, you know, burning fossil fuels for these new communities and putting it in the atmosphere, like the genies out of the bottle, right, like, and unfortunately, I think, for a lot of bureaucrats, the challenge at the engineering level is that that pipe in the street is of immediate, complex danger to solving that problem, whereas it's everybody's problem that the that the carbons in the atmosphere. So, if we could accelerate that, if we could focus on the acceleration of standards around District Energy pipes and streets, the rights of a district energy company to exist, and not to rant too much, but give you an example, is that a developer is required to put gas infrastructure into a new community, required, and yet you have to fight to get a district energy pipe in the street. So there needs to be a change of mindset there, and, and, and we're not there yet, but that's where we need to go.   Trevor Freeman  43:07 Yeah, well, it'll be interesting. You know, in 10 years, let's talk again and see how far we come. Hopefully not 10 years. Hopefully it's more like five, to see the kind of change that you've seen in the last decade. But I think that the direction is encouraging, the speed needs a little bit of work, but I'm always encouraged to see, yeah, things are changing or going in the right direction, just slowly. Well, Scott, we always end our interviews with a series of questions to our guests, so as long as you're okay with it, I'll jump right into those. So, the first question is, what is a book you've read that you think everybody should read?   Scott Demark  43:41 Nexus? Which is by Harare. He's the same author that wrote sapiens. Lots of people be familiar with sapiens. And so, Nexus is, is really kind of the history of information that works like, how do we, how do we share and pass information? And kind of a central thesis is that, you know, information is, is neither knowledge nor truth. It is information, and it's talking a lot about, in the age of AI, how are we going to manage to move information into truth or knowledge? And I think it, you know, to be honest, it kind of scared the shit out of me reading it kind of how, how AI is impacting our world and going to impact our world. And what I thought was kind of amazing about it was that he really has a pretty strong thesis around the erosion of democracy in this time. And it's, it was, it was really kind of scary because it was published before the 2024, election. And so it's, it's really kind of both a fascinating and scary read. And I think really something that everybody should get their head around.   Trevor Freeman  44:59 Yeah, there's a few of those books recently that I I would clear or classify them as kind of dark and scary, but really important or really enlightening in some way. And it kind of helps you, you know, formalize a thought or a concept in your head and realize, hey, here's what's happening, or gives you that kind of the words to speak about it in this kind of fraught time we're in. So same question. But for a movie or a show, is there anything that you think everybody should watch   Scott Demark  45:29 That's harder. I think generally, if I'm watching something, it's for my downtime or own entertainment, and pushing my tastes on the rest of the world, maybe not a great idea. I if I, if I'm, if I'm kind of doing that, I tend to watch cooking shows, actually, Trevor. So, like, that's awesome. I like ugly, delicious. I love David Chang. I like, I like, mind of a chef, creativity behind a chef. So those kinds of things, I'd say more. So, if there was something to like that. I think somebody else should, should watch or listen to I have, I have a real love for Malcolm Gladwell podcast, revisionist history. And so if I thought, you know, my watching habits are not going to going to expand anybody's brain. But I do think that Malcolm's perspective on life is, is really a healthy it's really healthy to step sideways and look at things differently. And I would suggest, if you have never listened to that podcast, go to Episode One, season one, and start there. It's, it's, it's fantastic.   Trevor Freeman  46:39 Yeah, I agree. I'll echo that one. That's one of my favorites. If we were to offer you or not, but if we were to offer you a free round-trip flight, anywhere in the world, where would you go?   Scott Demark  46:50 That's hard. So much flight guilt, you know, I know it's a hard assume that there's carbon offset to it. It's an electric plane.   Trevor Freeman  47:00 That's right, yeah,   Scott Demark  47:01 the we, my family, had a trip planned in 2020 to go to France and Italy. My two boys were kind of at the perfect age to do that. It would have been a really ideal trip. And so, I've still never been to either of those places. And if I had to pick one, probably Italy, I would really like to see Italy, mafuti. I think it would be a fantastic place to go. So probably, probably Italy.   Trevor Freeman  47:25 My favorite trip that I've ever done with my wife and our six-month-old at the time was Italy. It was just phenomenal. It was a fantastic trip. Who's someone that you admire?   Scott Demark  47:36 I have a lot of people, actually, a lot of people in this, in this particular space, like, what would I work in that have brought me here to pick one, though I'd probably say Peter Busby. So, Peter Busby is a mentor, a friend, now a business partner, but, but not earlier in my career. Peter Busby is a kind of a, one of the four fathers, you know, if you will, of green design in Canada. He's an architect, Governor General's Award-winning architect, actually. But I think what I, what I really, appreciate about Peter, and always will, is that he was willing to stand up in his peer group and say, hey, we're not doing this right. And, you know, he did that. He did that in the early 80s, right? Like we're not talking he did it when it cost his business some clients. He did it when professors would speak out against him, and certainly the Canadian Association of architecture was not going to take any blame for the shitty buildings that have been built, right? And he did it. And I remember being at a conference where Peter was getting a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian architects Association, and so he's standing up, and people are all super proud of him. They're talking about his big life. And he kind of belittled them all and said, you're not doing enough. We're not doing enough like he's still he's still there. He's still taking the blame for where things are, and that things haven't moved fast enough, and that buildings are a massive part of our carbon problem, and probably one of the easier areas to fix. You know, we're talking about electric planes. Well, that's a that's a lot more difficult than it is to recover energy from a factory to heat a community, right? I admire him. I learn things from him all the time. He's got a great book out at the moment, actually, and, yeah, he'd be right up there on my in my top list,   Trevor Freeman  49:54 Awesome. What is something about the energy sector or its future that you're particularly excited about?   Scott Demark  50:00 I wish you asked me this before the election. I I'm feeling a little dark. Trevor, I think there needs to be a price on pollution in the world. Needs to be a price on pollution in America, in Canada, and I'm worried about that going away. in light of that, I'm not, I'm not super excited about different technologies at the moment. I think there are technologies that are helping us, there are technologies that are pushing us forward, but there's no like silver bullet. So, you know, a really interesting thing that's coming is kind of this idea that a small nuclear reactor, okay, very interesting idea. You could see its context in both localized electricity production, but all the heat also really good for district entry, okay, so that's an interesting tech. It obviously comes with complications around security and disposal, if you like. There's our nuclear industry has been allowed to drink like it's all complicated. So, I don't see one silver bullet in technology that I'm like, That's the answer. But what I do see, I'll go back to what we were talking about before, is, you know, we had to turn this giant ship of bureaucracy towards new solutions. Okay, that's, that's what we had to do. And now that it's turned and we've got it towards the right course, I'm encouraged by that. I really am. You know, there are champions, and I'll talk about our city. You know, there's champions in the City of Ottawa who want to see this happen as younger people have graduated into roles and planning and other engineering roles there. They've grown up and gone to school in an age where they understand how critical this climate crisis is, and they're starting to be in positions of power and being in decision making. You know, a lot of my career, we're trying to educate people that there was a problem. Now, the people sitting in those chairs, it they understand there's a problem, and what can they do about it? And so I am, I am excited that that the there is a next generation sitting in these seats, making decisions. The bureaucracy the ship is, is almost on course to making this difference. So I do think that's encouraging. We have the technology. We really do. It's not rocket science. We just need to get through the bureaucracy barriers, and we need to find ways to properly finance it.   Trevor Freeman  52:34 Right? I think that's a good place to wrap it up. Scott, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate this conversation and shedding a little bit of light, not just on the technical side of district energy systems, but on the broader context, and as you say, the bureaucracy, the the what is needed to make these things happen and to keep going in that right direction. So thanks a lot for your time. I really appreciate it.   Scott Demark  52:56 Thank you, Trevor, good to see you.   Trevor Freeman  52:57 All right. Take care. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of The thinkenergy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe. Wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback, comments or an idea for a show or a guest, you can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - Sellers are taking the brunt of a slow Canadian real estate market and Buyers could be taking advantage of the situation with lowball offers... but they aren't. In this Episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey catch up on the market and find out how bad it really is!Enjoy. - - -

Canada's special representative on combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, just brought out a new guide to address anti-Muslim racism in our country. Among the key strategies it identifies is the need to share resources, support networks and advocacy tools. The Maru Society of BC is launching stopislamophobia.ca, an education and outreach campaign in Greater Vancouver and across British Columbia. We speak with Zool Suleman, lawyer and executive director of the Maru Society.

We discuss the border crisis, issues stemming from the Charter and international crime groups. Calvin Chrustie is a former senior operations officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), where he served for over 32 years, specializing in transnational organized crime, intelligence, and international hostage negotiations. He retired in 2017 as the Officer in Charge of Transnational Organized Crime Major Projects for Greater Vancouver. With extensive experience in complex investigations and crisis management across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Asia, Chrustie led Canada's International Negotiators Team, handling terrorist and criminal kidnappings. He is trained by the FBI and Scotland Yard in hostage negotiation and received the 2016 International Policing Award from the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs for his work combating transnational crime and kidnappings.Nathan Romas is a Canadian police officer with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), where he has served in various capacities, including as a patrol supervisor. Beyond his policing role, he is a director with the Edmonton Police Association, advocating for officers' interests. Romas is also the creator and host of The Quiet Professional, a podcast.Cornerstone Forum ‘25https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone25/Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastSilver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: SNP@silvergoldbull.comText Grahame: (587) 441-9100Bow Valley Credit UnionWebsite: www.BowValleycu.comEmail: welcome@BowValleycu.com Use the code “SNP” on all ordersProphet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: SNP@prophetriver.com

A group that advocates for better transit in Greater Vancouver says that if new funding isn't found to sustain TransLink's operations by April, we could be facing a 30% cut in rail service and a 50% cut in bus service and leaving some neighbourhoods without a single bus route. Denis Agar is the executive director of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders. He joins Lorraine Chisholm to talk about their campaign to Save The Bus.

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - Real Estate listings in Toronto and across Canada are skyrocketing to inventory levels we have not seen in years. Could this be a bad thing for the real estate market? or is there more to the story? In this week's episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey speak with President of Royal LePage Signature, Chris Slightham, to discuss the market and buying opportunities that are presenting themselves in todays market. - - -

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - As rents drop, institutional landlord are starting to offer incentives like 1 or 2 free months of rent. This is putting condo landlords in a tough spot as sales reach the lowest point in Canadian history since 1996. In this week's episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey speak with Shaun Hildebrand, President of Urbanation Inc. to discus purpose built rentals, institutional landlords and Torontos decimated presale condo market. Connect with Shaun:Web: https://www.urbanation.ca/- - -

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarraschBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStorey*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - Mortgage delinquencies are UP 50% since pre-pandemic levels. Is this the time when the Canadian housing bubble finally pops?In this week's episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey discuss the Canadian real estate market and who is winning or losing in today's uncertain times. - - -

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - Higher mortgage costs are coming and so are higher costs on... everything, including agriculture and farm lands. In this episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey catch up with their good friend and TOP TTSS guest, Cody Kraus of C21 Local Home Team in Southern Ontario to discuss.... well, all sorts for stuff. Connect with Cody:Web: https://c21localhometeam.ca/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecodykraus- - -

The Canadian housing market is experiencing one of its most dramatic shifts in recent history, as the gap between government promises and market realities continues to widen. While policymakers have focused on demand-side measures like home-flipping taxes, actual housing starts have declined significantly. Meanwhile, an unprecedented number of rental units are entering the market, leading to falling rental prices.Despite political rhetoric about increasing housing supply, overall housing starts have dropped 19% since their peak in 2021, now sitting at 239,000. However, rental unit construction is surging—up 44% year-over-year—comprising nearly half of all new starts. A record-breaking 144,000 rental units are currently in development, which is already having a profound effect on the market.Rental rates, which had been rising for 38 months straight, have now fallen for four consecutive months, with national averages dropping from a peak of $2,196 in January 2024 to $2,100 today. Shared accommodation listings have surged 42% year-over-year, with rates declining 7.6%, signaling a shifting dynamic in the rental market.While rental construction is booming, single-family home (SFH) completions tell a different story. In January 2025, only 3,800 SFHs were completed—the lowest monthly total since 1997. This ongoing supply crunch suggests that SFH prices may hold firm, even as the condo market weakens.Inflation in Canada remains relatively stable, sitting at 1.9% in January, marking six consecutive months at or below the Bank of Canada's 2% target. However, the vast majority of inflation—1.3%—is being driven by shelter costs. Mortgage interest costs, a key driver of inflation, have been slowing, with the most recent increase at just 0.2%, the weakest since April 2022.Employment Insurance (EI) claims are rising at an alarming rate. Nationally, claims increased 14% year-over-year, from 245,000 to over 280,000, while Ontario saw a 29% jump, from 76,000 to 98,000. These numbers suggest weakening economic conditions, which could drag down GDP growth in the months ahead.On the mortgage front, December saw a staggering 90% year-over-year surge in mortgage originations, largely due to renewals. Many homeowners who locked in ultra-low rates five years ago are now facing a 35% payment shock, putting additional strain on household finances.At the same time, housing inventory is surging. January saw an 11% month-over-month increase in new listings—the largest ever recorded. BC led the way with a staggering 29% increase. Pre-sale condo inventory in Greater Vancouver has nearly doubled from 7,000 to 12,000 units, pushing total available homes in the region above 25,000. This supply surge is making price increases unlikely in the near term.February data indicates a shift in market momentum. After months of year-over-year sales growth, February saw a 12% annual decline in sales activity. Prices are also softening, with median home prices in Greater Vancouver dropping $20,000 to $900,000—a 10% decline from peak values. _________________________________ Contact Us To Book Your Private Consultation:

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tomBook a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStoreyBook a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch*** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! ***Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/Promo Code: TOMSHOW*** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS- - - Could a US/Canada Trade War destroy the housing market and increase housing costs at the same time?In this week's episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey get new perspective of the Vancouver market and development by speaking with Dan Wurtele of The Vancouver Life Real Estate Group and eXp Realty. Connect with Dan: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheVancouverLifeWeb: https://thevancouverlife.com/- - -

rWotD Episode 2844: Khalsa Diwan Society Vancouver Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Saturday, 15 February 2025 is Khalsa Diwan Society Vancouver.The Khalsa Diwan Society Vancouver (KDS; Punjabi: ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਦਿਵਾਨ ਸੋਸਾਇਟੀ ਵੈਨਕੂਵਰ) is a Sikh gurdwara organization in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Founded in 1906, it is the oldest Sikh society in Greater Vancouver, and its original location was the largest gurdwara in North America. The current gurdwara is located at the intersection of Southwest Marine Drive and Ross Street, in South Vancouver.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:18 UTC on Saturday, 15 February 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Khalsa Diwan Society Vancouver on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Kajal.

**Start Your Realty Ninja Website** Free Trial: https://www.realtyninja.com/tom Book a call w/Tom for Toronto: https://calendly.com/TomStorey Book a call w/Steve for Greater Vancouver: https://calendly.com/stevekarrasch *** Ontario Agents! Get Your Custom Branded TRESA Explainer Video TODAY! *** Order Here: https://tresavideo.ca/ Promo Code: TOMSHOW *** Need Home or Property Insurance? *** Use SQUARE ONE: Tenants, Landlords and Home Owners Save $20 with Square One Insurance using this link: https://www.squareone.ca/thetomstoreyshow?offer_code=TTSS - - - January is off to a slow start in Canadian Real Estate, listings are stacking up, sales are low and prices have dropped. Given the market, should Buyer's not be taking advantage? Or will they wait for the frenzy to return. In this week's episode of The Tom Storey Show, Steve Karrasch and Tom Storey discuss these aspects of the Canadian Real Estate Market and more. Enjoy. - - -

In this episode, we explore our predictions for the 2025 Vancouver Real Estate Market, diving deep into the economic and financial trends that will shape the year ahead. With Canada's GDP growth expected to remain moderate, driven by immigration and resource exports, the potential for a mild recession looms if elevated interest rates continue to slow consumer spending and business investment. We analyze the possibility of economic turbulence while discussing key signals in sectors like housing, manufacturing, and retail. Meanwhile, Canada's population growth is expected to drop considerably from before but will still be pushing the annual growth, to what extent remains to be seen. This sustained influx will fuel housing demand but could strain infrastructure and services.On the employment front, the unemployment rate, currently at 6.8%, is projected to remain somewhat stable within the 6.5%-8% range. While population growth could create new job opportunities, sensitive sectors like construction and tech may see some challenges. Inflation, sitting at 1.9%, is anticipated to close the year between 2.0% and 2.5%, assuming stable monetary policy and limited disruptions in energy prices or supply chains. This outcome largely depends on US trade policy which has yet to be sorted out. The Bank of Canada's interest rate, currently at 3.25%, is forecasted to ease slightly by year-end if inflation targets maintain and economic growth softens. In tandem, mortgage rates are likely to decline as well, with variable & potentially fixed rates dropping too. Despite these adjustments, Canada's mortgage arrears rate, historically low at around 0.15%, may see a slight uptick as households adjust to higher payments on renewals.Turning to real estate, we predict a steady recovery in sales volumes, with activity returning near the 10-year average, barring any significant rate fluctuations. The sales-to-active listings ratio which is currently signaling balanced market conditions may tick up into a Seller's market with more interest rate fluctuations. Inventory levels may see modest growth too as many who did not sell in 2024 will return to the market to try again. In the pre-sale market, developers are projected to cautiously release new projects, reflecting a gradual increase in buyer confidence. After an 8% decline in rental rates during 2024, the rental market is expected to stabilize though this will largely depend on immigration levels and the overall performance of the economy.In this episode we also highlight the top markets poised to outperform the Greater Vancouver region in 2025. We look at Surrey and Langley as they continue to attract buyers with affordability and infrastructure investment among a list of other locations that we strongly endorse. Tune in and find out which areas those are!This episode provides a comprehensive roadmap for navigating the opportunities and challenges of Vancouver's 2025 real estate market. Whether you're a buyer, seller, or investor, these insights will help you stay ahead in a shifting landscape. Tune in to learn more about what to expect and how to make informed decisions in the year ahead or book a one-on-one exploratory call with us and we'll help guide you through this recovering marketplace. _________________________________ Contact Us To Book Your Private Consultation:

In today's influencer-driven landscape, even the most experienced agents are losing deals to newer agents who do one thing differently - posting great content online.  The market doesn't just reward expertise - it rewards expertise, visibility and consistency, and that can be shown through the content we put out.  Social media content is a valuable asset in our businesses - especially in a down market. It is the marketing vehicle that validates us in the eyes of the consumer, fuels lead generation, reduces our marketing costs and makes us profitable.  In a tough market, it's tempting to pull back on our marketing efforts, but that actually cuts off a valuable revenue stream. This is the perfect time to double down on marketing and pour into our social media and sphere of influence.  How do we create content that guarantees current and future business? How do we leverage hyper-local, hyper-branded content?  In this episode, I'm joined by the CEO and co-founder of Roomvu, Sam Mehrbod. He shares how their platform (and partnership with ConstantContact) helps agents turn content into a solid source of business.    Things You'll Learn In This Episode  Entertaining, educational and enduring  If we're consistent about content creation, it can validate us and reduce our marketing costs. What kind of content should we post to achieve this? Hyperlocal and hyper-branded content Consistency and visibility are really important in today's real estate market. How does Roomvu help busy agents accomplish this in less time? Never stop marketing  The current real estate market has made many agents slow down or step to the sidelines. Why is this a huge mistake?  How to turn social media into a revenue stream Why do real estate agents who invest in content outearn and outlast everyone else?  Guest Bio Sam Mehrbod is an innovative entrepreneur in real estate technology. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Roomvu, he leads a platform that supports over 200,000 REALTORS® across the USA and Canada by delivering hyperlocal, personalized video content. As a TOP 1% REALTOR® in Greater Vancouver, Sam was recognized as a Medallion Club Member from 2018 to 2023 and ranked in the top 10% of REALTORS® in Greater Vancouver in 2018, 2019, and 2021. As a Forbes Council Member, Sam has shared his insights in prestigious outlets such as the Vancouver Sun, Business in Vancouver, the Daily Hive, Western Investor, CKNW Radio, and Forbes Magazine. To learn more, visit https://www.roomvu.com/.  About Your Host ​​Licensed Managing Broker, REALTORS®, avid volunteer, and Major Donor, Marki Lemons Ryhal is dedicated to all things real estate. With over 25 years of marketing experience, Marki has taught over 250,000 REALTORS® how to earn up to a 2682% return on their marketing dollars. Six-time REALTOR® Conference and Expo featured attendee, one of 100 speakers selected to speak the REALTOR® Conference & Expo five times, and an Inman closing Keynote Speaker. Marki's expertise has been featured in Forbes, Washington Post, http://Homes.com , and REALTOR® Magazine.   Check out this episode on our website, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and don't forget to leave a review if you like what you heard. Your review feeds the algorithm so our show reaches more people. Thank you! 

Welcome to the first episode of The Vancouver Life Real Estate Podcast for 2025! As we kick off the new year, we start this year by reflecting on an intriguing 2024 in Greater Vancouver real estate. Today, we're unpacking December's freshly released market stats, analyzing how 2024 wrapped up, and exploring what's on the horizon for 2025.This is a special double-header episode where we'll revisit our 2024 real estate predictions to see where we were right, where we missed the mark, and what new trends are setting up 2025 to be a dynamic and potentially surprising year.Highlights from December reveal some fascinating trends. Sales reached their highest December total in three years, up 32% year-over-year, though still 15% below the 10-year average. New listings surged 26% year-over-year, marking the highest December total in three years. Inventory remains elevated, with December's levels the highest since 2018 and 25% above the 10-year average•The Sales-to-active ratios show balanced market conditions for the eighth consecutive month, with townhomes and apartments pushing us into the upper limits of a Balanced market.In terms of pricing, Vancouver's housing market defied more pessimistic predictions, with all three price metrics—HPI, median, and average prices—rising year-over-year. Notably, median prices climbed 4.5%, just 2% shy of the all-time high.As we dive deeper, we'll also compare Vancouver's performance to Toronto's market and national trends. While BC lagged behind the national average home price increase of 7.4%, it still holds the title for the highest average home price in Canada. Tune into the rest of the episode and find out where we right and where we went wrong as we review the predictions we made for 2024. _________________________________ Contact Us To Book Your Private Consultation:

In this edition:• Ukrainian Food Flair: Recipe for Festive Red Cabbage Salad• Feature Interview: Pawlina in conversation with Svitlana Kominko of Maple Hope Foundation• Feature Interview: Oksana Poberezhnyk in conversation with Ukrainian singer Oksana Mukha• Ukrainian Proverb of the Week• Other items of interestYour host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Note: The Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this inspiring episode, Maggie Perotin interviews Jennifer Jennifer Illsley-Hall, founder of Deliberate Decisions, a professional organizing company. Jennifer shares her remarkable journey from accidentally discovering her natural organizing talents to building a successful professional organizing business in British Columbia, Canada. Tune in to this episode to learn how vulnerability, trust, and professional guidance can transform both clients' lives and business growth.Key Highlights: [00:01:00] - Jennifer's origin story: How an accidental closet organization led to a business [00:04:00] - Why hiring a professional organizer makes sense [00:05:00] - The importance of vulnerability in transformation [00:07:00] - Powerful transformation story of one of Jennifer's clients[00:13:00] - Jennifer's business transformation through coaching [00:18:00] - Overcoming the fear of public speaking [00:22:00] - The power of strategic partnerships [00:25:00] - Future vision and business growthKey Takeaways: • Not everyone has natural organizing abilities - it's a unique skill set worth outsourcing • Professional organizing often addresses deeper life transitions and emotional needs • The importance of building trust and creating safe spaces for clients • How business coaching can transform both personal confidence and business results • The value of pushing through comfort zones for business growthNotable Quote: "Vulnerability is absolutely key to a really awesome transformation." - JenniferAbout Jennifer Illsley-Hall and Deliberate Decisions: Jennifer serves clients throughout the Lower Mainland and Greater Vancouver area, specializing in: • Home organization • Downsizing/Upsizing assistance • Moving services • Estate clearings • Professional declutteringConnect with Jennifer: https://www.deliberatedecisions.ca/IG - https://www.instagram.com/deliberatedecisions/LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-illsley-hall-professional-organizer/Ready to Transform Your Business Like Jennifer? Book a free consultation with Maggie Perotin at https://stairwaytoleadership.com/ and discover how business coaching can help you achieve similar results. Jennifer doubled her revenue in just one year - you could be next!

In this edition:• Ukrainian Food Flair: Recipe for pears in custard sauce, Ukrainian style• Knyzhka Corner Book Review: The Battle for Ukrainian* • Latest news from Ukraine• Ukrainian Proverb of the Week• Other items of interest• Plenty of great Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:*affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emily Pickett from the Vancouver Humane Society discusses the tragic life and death of Jenga the giraffe, who died at the Greater Vancouver Zoo on October 23rd, as well as ongoing welfare concerns at the zoo.

In this edition: • Ukrainian Food Flair: Recipe for "Cool Kovbasa" courtesy a listener in Ukraine• Knyzhka Corner Book Review: Travels in a Young Country by British author Michelle Lawson• Ukrainian Proverb of the Week• Other items of interest• Plenty of great Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.*affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Feature Interview: Oksana Poberezhnyk in conversation with Sofia and Taras in Kyiv, who share their most recent experiences as volunteer workers on the front lines of UkraineUkrainian Food Flair: Sour cherry compoteUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and Patreon.New! The Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West CoastAlso available (signed) copies at CHLY studios in downtown Nanaimo (on the China Steps) Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Feature Interview: Oksana Poberezhnyk in conversation with Sofia and Taras in Kyiv, who share their most recent experiences as volunteer workers on the front lines of UkraineFeature Interview: Odesa klezmer and urban folk band Kommuna LuxUkrainian Food Flair: Sour cherry compoteUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.*affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Herring and potato saladFeature interview: Vova, the clarinetist with the Odesa klezmer and urban folk band Kommuna Lux currently touring the west coast, with upcoming performances in Victoria and Vancouver . Ukrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsNew! The Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West CoastAlso available (signed) copies at CHLY studios in downtown Nanaimo (on the China Steps) Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Herring and Potato SaladUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.*affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Royal LePage has released its Q3 Home Price Update and Market Forecast. In this video interview, Phil Soper, President and CEO of Royal LePage, discusses the state of house prices in Canada, demand in the market, inventory levels and what to expect in the future. PRESS RELEASE TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2024 /CNW/ – According to the Royal LePage House Price Survey released today, the aggregate1 price of a home in Canada increased 1.6 per cent year over year to $815,500 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, however, the national aggregate home price decreased 1.1 per cent, following sluggish activity in most – though not all – markets through the summer months. Coast to coast, sales volumes began to pick up in September, and more than one third (38%) of regional markets covered in the report recorded positive aggregate price gains in the third quarter over the previous quarter. “Despite three cuts to the Bank of Canada's overnight lending rate, buyer demand nationally remains weak, particularly among two key groups: first-time homebuyers and small investors,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive officer, Royal LePage. “First-time buyers, who are more sensitive to interest rates, are adopting a wait-and-see attitude. With home prices essentially flat and interest rates steadily declining, they perceive no penalty in postponing their purchase. _______________________________ 1 Aggregate prices are calculated using a weighted average of the median values of all housing types collected. Data is provided by RPS Real Property Solutions and includes both resale and new build. “Similarly, small investors who typically buy condominiums to rent out and supply much of Canada's rental housing, are also hesitant. Elevated rates have made the financials unworkable, with carrying costs surpassing rental income. While historically some landlords accept negative cash flow temporarily when properties are appreciating in value, the current flat prices do not justify many investments,” said Soper. “We believe that both groups will re-enter the market in significant numbers as property values begin to rise again. With further rate cuts from the Bank of Canada likely this year, we anticipate prices will appreciate more quickly, eliminating the advantages of waiting for first-time buyers and making calculations more favourable for investors. “Total listings on royallepage.ca, Canada's most visited real estate company website, reached a historical high in September, up 19 per cent year over year,” continued Soper. “Clearly, existing homeowners are ready to move. And, all buyers have more choice and less competition than is typical in our growing nation. The market recovery is underway and will continue to gain strength into 2025.” The Royal LePage National House Price Composite is compiled from proprietary property data nationally and regionally in 64 of the nation's largest real estate markets. When broken out by housing type, the national median price of a single-family detached home increased 2.0 per cent year over year to $850,400, while the median price of a condominium increased 0.5 per cent year over year to $590,200. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, the median price of a single-family detached home decreased modestly by 1.2 per cent, while the median price of a condominium decreased 1.1 per cent. Price data, which includes both resale and new build, is provided by RPS Real Property Solutions, a leading Canadian real estate valuation company. “With rates dropping, we see positive signs for sidelined buyers. As confidence grows and buyers anticipate rising prices, we expect a significant increase in activity. Given the building demand – both organic and from immigration – the 2025 spring market may start as early as late January or early February, a pull-ahead phenomenon we've seen in previous market turnarounds. The stage is set for a busy year ahead.” New lending rules will ease affordability challenges and unlock opportunity for homebuyers In recent weeks, a series of new regulations impacting mortgages and lending practices in Canada were announced. Starting on December 15th, all purchasers of new construction homes and all first-time buyers will be able to acquire an insured mortgage with a 30-year amortization period.2 In addition, the federal government announced an increase to the insured mortgage cap from $1 million to $1.5 million. ______________________________ 2 Federal government announces landmark adjustments to mortgage rules for first-time buyers in Canada, September 17, 2024 Following the announcement of these changes, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) revealed that, beginning November 21st, it will eliminate the mortgage stress test for uninsured borrowers who plan to switch lenders upon renewing their loan, provided they maintain the same amortization schedule and loan amount.3 “These changes will have more impact on the early 2025 market than many anticipate. Expect a material bump in activity,” said Soper. “In addition to assisting first-time buyers, raising the cap on insured mortgages expands opportunities for move-up buyers in higher-priced markets, thereby freeing up inventory for new homeowners entering the market. “While these updated mortgage rules are a timely strategy to alleviate some affordability pressure, they are not a silver bullet for the fundamental issue that persists: Canada urgently needs more housing supply. Continued efforts to boost inventory are essential for fostering a sustainable and healthy real estate market for future generations.” According to a recent Royal LePage survey, conducted by Hill & Knowlton,4 84 per cent of Canadians belonging to the adult generation Z and young millennial cohort – those aged 18 to 38 – believe that home ownership is a worthwhile investment. Among those who do not currently own a home, 75 per cent say they are planning to purchase a property as a primary residence; nearly half (40%) of them say they plan to do so within the next five to ten years. In the report, Soper noted: “The youngest cohort of homebuyers in Canada have no shortage of barriers on their path to ownership. Though the cost of borrowing has begun to come down, chronic supply shortages have kept housing prices from dropping, even as demand softened under the weight of high interest rates. Despite these hurdles, the next generation of homebuyers remains committed to their pursuit of owning real estate, and are remarkably optimistic that they can make their dream a reality.” According to The Conference Board of Canada's latest report,5 consumer confidence is on the rise. In September, the Index of Consumer Confidence increased 3.3 per cent over the previous month, reaching its highest level in over a year. Furthermore, the percentage of Canadians who believe now is a good time to make a major purchase rose. Loans renewing at higher rates Even as interest rates soften, millions of Canadians who secured fixed-rate mortgages in the period of ultra-low borrowing conditions prior to March of 2022, have seen their monthly carrying costs increase upon renewal, or they will soon. _________________________________ 3 OSFI to drop mortgage stress test for uninsured borrowers who switch lenders at renewal, October 3, 2024 4 Gen Zs and young millennials still believe in home ownership, and they're willing to make sacrifices to achieve it, August 22, 2024 5 Canadian Consumers are Regaining Confidence, September 25, 2024 “The Bank of Canada will not be able to cut rates quickly or deeply enough to take away all of the renewal pain for those still on pandemic-era, low-rate mortgages,” noted Soper. “While a small percentage of these families may be forced to relocate to more affordable regions or to a less expensive property, the majority of Canadians are well-positioned to weather this situation, thanks to the strict lending practices and safeguards implemented by our highly-regulated financial institutions.” Currently, the Bank of Canada's key lending rate sits at 4.25 per cent.6 The central bank's governing council has hinted at further rate cuts to come, noting that they are working to balance the risk of stimulating economic growth – specifically inflating shelter prices – with the possibility of weakening labour markets.7 The next interest rate announcement is scheduled for October 23rd. Regional trends vary from coast to coast As was true of the pandemic-era real estate boom, the recovery is not unravelling evenly. Just as two of Canada's largest and most expensive markets reached higher highs and lower lows between 2020 and 2023, Toronto and Vancouver are now lagging behind in the recovery as well. Meanwhile, regional markets in the province of Quebec and in the Prairies have shown greater resilience through the period of elevated interest rates. “It's taking longer for activity and home prices to bounce back in major cities where affordability challenges are greatest. Following subdued activity this spring and summer in the Greater Toronto Area, we've begun to see a turnaround in the fall market with an increase in buyer demand and a boost in sales. Greater Vancouver has yet to catch up,” noted Soper. “The higher cost of living in these regions continues to result in residents migrating to other parts of the country, offset by newcomers who continually choose these cities upon arrival in Canada. Alberta continues to record population growth – made up in large part by inter-provincial migration from Ontario and British Columbia – while gains in Atlantic Canada have stalled since the pandemic rush to the Maritimes.” Forecast Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Canada will increase 5.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. The previously upgraded forecast has been revised down to reflect current market conditions, specifically in the greater regions of Toronto and Vancouver, which recorded lower-than-anticipated activity through the spring and summer months. “The market recovery, albeit uneven across the country, is well underway in a majority of markets. While we may not see significant price appreciation in the typically-slower fourth quarter of this year, we believe our previous forecast will come to fruition in the anticipated early spring market of 2025.” ____________________________________ 6 Bank of Canada reduces policy rate by 25 basis points to 4¼%, September 4, 2024 7 Summary of Governing Council deliberations: Fixed announcement date of September 4, 2024, September 18, 2024 Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 REGIONAL SUMMARIES Greater Toronto Area The aggregate price of a home in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) increased 0.7 per cent year over year to $1,155,800 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, however, the aggregate price of a home in the GTA decreased 2.9 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 1.6 per cent year over year to $1,421,000 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium dipped 0.4 per cent to $722,200 during the same period. “Activity in the third quarter was muted overall. The slower-than-expected spring market gave way to a soft start to fall in Toronto and the GTA, although the tide began to turn in mid-September. While inventory levels continued to rise and the average days on market sat higher than usual, prices came down only slightly in parts of the region in Q3,” said Karen Yolevski, chief operating officer, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd. “This indicates that while sellers have come off the sidelines faster than buyers, they're not desperate to sell.” In the city of Toronto, the aggregate price of a home decreased 2.3 per cent year over year to $1,128,900 in the third quarter of 2024. During the same period, the median price of a single-family detached home declined 1.3 per cent year over year to $1,672,400, while the median price of a condominium decreased 3.2 per cent to $682,800. “Trends in Toronto's condo market have been marching to a different beat, compared to other property segments of late. A wave of new units has hit the market amid a near-record number of completions this year. And, with some investors offloading rental units that have become too expensive to carry, prices have softened. This could spell opportunity for first-time buyers, with borrowing rates on the decline and new 30-year amortization legislation set to come into effect that will ease the burden of monthly carrying costs,” noted Yolevski. “Looking ahead, as we move further into the fall market and lending rates continue to ease, sales activity and prices will start to edge upward modestly, and housing inventory will get consumed. I believe Toronto, along with most of the country, is set to see a brisk spring housing market in 2025.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in the Greater Toronto Area will increase 6.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. The previous forecast has been revised downward to reflect current market conditions. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Greater Montreal Area The aggregate price of a home in the Greater Montreal Area increased 5.2 per cent year over year to $605,400 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, the aggregate price of a home in the region rose 1.0 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 7.1 per cent year over year to $691,500 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium posted a more modest increase of 4.0 per cent to $467,700 during the same period. “Despite three Bank of Canada rate cuts, we have yet to see a buyer rush. On the one hand, buyers are standing by, confident that further rate cuts are imminent and will create a more opportune time to buy. On the other hand, sellers are fine-tuning their strategies, counting on a wave of motivated buyers in the next few months,” said Dominic St-Pierre, executive vice president, business development, Royal LePage. “The Greater Montreal Area real estate market is performing well, with healthy growth in activity and prices, considering that Canada's other two major markets are stagnating.” With another announcement by the Bank of Canada due on October 23rd, additional pent-up demand is expected to be released into the market. According to the latest predictions by economists, October will bring the fourth and penultimate drop in the key lending rate for 2024. “The dilemma that seems to be keeping buyers awake at night is whether to jump in now before prices go up due to higher demand, or keep waiting and take advantage of even more attractive mortgage rates,” St-Pierre added. “We're already seeing an uptick in activity, which began in September.” In Montreal Centre, the aggregate price of a home increased 3.9 per cent year over year to $732,900 in the third quarter of 2024. During the same period, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 8.1 per cent to $1,147,000, while the median price of a condominium increased 4.4 per cent to $570,700. St-Pierre welcomes the federal government's action to improve access to home ownership for first-time buyers by extending the amortization period on mortgages to 30 years. However, this measure is likely to boost real estate demand and property prices. “The housing affordability issue is a top priority for many, and we owe it to ourselves as a society to provide solutions for future generations who will be faced with the realities of a higher cost of living. That said, these new measures raise the age-old question: what impact will they have on real estate demand in terms of rising property prices in Canada in the context of a chronic housing shortage? In the short term, these measures are likely to fuel existing demand and drive up prices. However, in the long term, this easing of mortgage rules will help many first-time buyers access home ownership and build wealth.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in the Greater Montreal Area will increase 8.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Greater Vancouver The aggregate price of a home in Greater Vancouver increased a modest 0.5 per cent to $1,233,900 year over year in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, however, the aggregate price of a home in the region decreased 1.4 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 0.4 per cent year over year to $1,754,500 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium increased 0.2 per cent to $768,600 during the same period. “The Greater Vancouver market has remained relatively steady through the third quarter, with September showing similar patterns to the summer months. We didn't see a significant bump in activity and prices dipped just slightly compared to the second quarter,” said Randy Ryalls, general manager, Royal LePage Sterling Realty. “The slow activity across all segments can largely be attributed to buyers sitting on the fence waiting for further interest rate reductions, without any real urgency to make a move just yet.” Ryalls noted that the detached home segment in particular continues to experience weaker demand, and remains firmly in buyer territory today. “Interest rates are anticipated to continue their downward trend, and while the cuts so far haven't sparked a surge in activity, a more substantial drop – a 50 basis point decrease – could have a more noticeable impact on the market. Many potential buyers are waiting for the bottom before making their move,” added Ryalls. “With inventory continuing to grow, this is an optimal environment for those who are ready to buy – prices are holding flat and there are more properties to choose from.” In the city of Vancouver, the aggregate price of a home increased 0.6 per cent year over year to $1,409,800 in the third quarter of 2024. During the same period, the median price of a single-family detached home decreased 1.1 per cent to $2,244,400, while the median price of a condominium remained virtually flat, increasing 0.2 per cent to $839,600. “Between now and the end of the year, I expect activity to remain fairly flat. However, Vancouver's market trends tend to shift quickly, and if buyer urgency and activity reverse course, I wouldn't be surprised to see an uptick in prices as well.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Greater Vancouver will increase 3.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. The previous forecast has been revised downward to reflect current market conditions. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Ottawa The aggregate price of a home in Ottawa increased 1.6 per cent year over year to $775,100 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, the aggregate price of a home in the region remained virtually unchanged, decreasing 0.3 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 1.8 per cent year over year to $894,400 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium increased modestly by 1.0 per cent to $400,300 during the same period. “At the end of the summer, the Ottawa real estate market had approximately three months worth of inventory, teetering between a balanced and a seller's market. Properties tend to stay online for a little over a month these days, which signals a healthy marketplace for both buyers and sellers,” said Jason Ralph, broker of record and president, Royal LePage Team Realty. “Home prices have continued to hold steady in recent months as sellers stick with their listing strategy; they remain confident that they will secure the price they want, even if they have to wait. Buyers are still hunting for a bargain, and are comfortable taking their time to find the property that best suits their needs. Those who are under a time constraint are moving because they have to – many others continue to wait until borrowing rates become more affordable.” Ralph noted that new mortgage legislation is generating some buzz in the market, making first-time buyers more optimistic. Busy open houses and an increase in showing requests proves consumers' confidence in the trajectory of the market is improving. “We expect home prices to trend upward slightly throughout the rest of the year as new borrowing rules improve affordability for first-time buyers,” said Ralph. “Rising prices could be exacerbated if an election is called this year. Whenever there is a changeover in government, the Ottawa housing market tends to react more markedly than other major cities.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Ottawa will increase 4.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Quebec City The aggregate price of a home in Quebec City increased 10.5 per cent year over year to $388,600 in the third quarter of 2024. This represents the highest year-over-year price increase in Canada in Q3, and the highest price gain among the report's major regions for the second consecutive quarter. On a quarterly basis, the aggregate price of a home in the region remained virtually flat, increasing 0.4 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 11.0 per cent year over year to $413,400 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium increased 14.5 per cent to $291,100 during the same period. Historically, Quebec City's real estate market has rarely stood out on a provincial or national scale. Due to the stability of its labour market, which is mainly driven by the provincial civil service, demand for real estate has rarely led to major price surges. “Overall, the province's markets have been relatively unaffected by the post-pandemic correction in real estate prices, compared to Ontario and British Columbia. Where declines did occur, they were slight and short-lived,” said Michèle Fournier, vice-president and certified real estate broker, Royal LePage Inter-Québec. “In Quebec City, the real estate correction simply never materialized. Instead, local and out-of-town demand continued to fuel rising prices without tiring, until late September. Now, buyers seem to have taken a breather, awaiting a possible further boost from the Bank of Canada with a rate cut this autumn, before repositioning themselves in the market.” This pause in activity is likely to be short-lived. With interest rates continuing to fall, and the federal government providing an additional leg-up by extending the mortgage amortization period for first-time buyers by a further five years, activity is expected to pick up quickly. “We view this initiative positively, since young buyers need additional assistance more than ever to be able to access a first home, even if this support will increase the interest portion of their mortgage bill,” said Fournier. “However, this initiative raises concerns about the impact on a real estate market characterized by high demand and limited supply. I think we're in for a very busy start to the year, particularly in the entry-level property market, which will be highly coveted by first-time buyers.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Quebec City will increase 9.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Calgary The aggregate price of a home in Calgary increased 6.9 per cent year over year to $698,700 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, the aggregate price of a home in the region increased a modest 0.7 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 6.7 per cent year over year to $799,200 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium increased 8.2 per cent to $274,100 during the same period. “Calgary's real estate market saw a slight uptick in activity following the most recent interest rate cut by the Bank of Canada, just as the fall market got underway. We're seeing more inventory come onto the market, especially in the $700,000-and-up segment – many sellers who pulled their properties off the market in August re-listed in September to capitalize on the fall market momentum,” said Corinne Lyall, broker and owner, Royal LePage Benchmark. “While this hasn't fully converted to sales just yet, agents are certainly staying busy, which suggests more transactions will occur in the months ahead.” Lyall noted that competition in the lower end of the market remains tight and some homes are attracting multiple offers. While the region remains in a seller's market, conditions are gradually shifting toward more balance. “Looking ahead, we expect prices to remain fairly stable through the remainder of 2024. There is potential for modest growth if further interest rate cuts occur. I expect the region will stay in a seller's market right through the spring across most price points, particularly with continued demand for lower-priced homes.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Calgary will increase 8.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Edmonton The aggregate price of a home in Edmonton increased 5.4 per cent year over year to $456,300 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, the aggregate price of a home in the region increased 1.3 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 5.7 per cent year over year to $498,900 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium increased 3.1 per cent to $201,000 during the same period. “Edmonton's real estate market is on track to have one of the most productive years on record. We had an extraordinarily busy summer. Typically, activity dips in July and August, but this year we saw a steady stream of sales right through the summer months. And, it looks like that momentum is being carried into the fall,” said Tom Shearer, broker and owner, Royal LePage Noralta Real Estate. “Inventory remains very tight – among the lowest levels we've seen in nearly two decades – as buyer demand continues to rise, driven in large part by first-time buyers from other cities and provinces relocating to the region. Our healthy job market and access to nature are a huge draw.” Shearer noted that while sales remain strong, the slow and steady pace of the Bank of Canada's rate cuts has helped to keep price gains in check. “Affordability remains a challenge, especially for those purchasing their first home with no equity to leverage. The gradual easing of borrowing rates is beginning to make an impact, and will continue to do so, but we have yet to see a dramatic boost in prices as a result,” added Shearer. “While consumer confidence is up overall, buyers remain cautious and many are waiting for more listings to come online. Activity should begin to plateau in the coming weeks. I expect a strong spring is on the horizon, especially with further rate cuts expected.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Edmonton will increase 6.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Halifax The aggregate price of a home in Halifax increased 2.2 per cent year over year to $510,100 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, however, the aggregate price of a home in the region decreased 0.7 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 1.7 per cent year over year to $574,000 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium increased 4.0 per cent to $422,900 during the same period. “The recent cuts to the overnight lending rate have yet to meaningfully stir up activity in the housing market. Home sales in late summer were quite slow, which is to be expected that time of year. Only in the last few weeks as we've entered the early fall market have we seen an uptick in inquiries. Despite this quieter pace, buying and selling activity remains up compared to 2023 levels,” said Matt Honsberger, broker and owner, Royal LePage Atlantic. “Housing inventory continues to rise throughout the Halifax region, but not enough to meet the backlog of demand. Competition for homes in the lower end of the market remains tight, while those shopping in the move-up segment have the advantage of more listings to choose from. More properties are needed to satisfy the high demand from first-time buyers.” Honsberger noted that population growth in the Atlantic region has slowed to 2015 levels, ending the wave of migration that defined the pandemic real estate boom in 2020 and 2021. This has helped to soften market conditions for locals. “We are anticipating a busy fall market. The new 30-year mortgage amortization rules announced by the federal government, in addition to further rate cuts expected by the Bank of Canada, will help to keep the market steady throughout the coming months and into the spring of 2025,” added Honsberger. “Home prices will start to show upward movement when more move-up buyers jump back into the market, freeing up entry-level inventory for eager first-time purchasers.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Halifax will increase 6.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Winnipeg The aggregate price of a home in Winnipeg increased 4.4 per cent year over year to $402,600 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, the aggregate price of a home in the region remained virtually flat, decreasing 0.2 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 3.9 per cent year over year to $441,000 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium increased 3.2 per cent to $264,400 during the same period. “Buying and selling activity in Winnipeg remained brisk throughout the late summer months and heading into the early fall; home sales are up compared to this time in 2023. Available inventory is down compared to typical levels for this time of year, which could result in steeper price increases in the months ahead as momentum builds heading into the fall,” said Michael Froese, broker and manager, Royal LePage Prime Real Estate. “The recent cuts made to interest rates, though they have improved consumer confidence, have not had a material impact on activity just yet. Rather, much of our market demand continues to be fuelled by a strong local economy and a growing population driven by new Canadians, as well as residents from Toronto and Vancouver who have relocated to Winnipeg in search of more affordable housing.” Froese added that new housing starts have improved from last year's levels as borrowing rates come down, giving builders some much needed financial relief. However, new development remains short of what is needed to meet current market demand. “We expect activity will continue to outperform 2023 levels for the remainder of the year,” said Froese. “Thanks to a combination of falling interest rates and new mortgage incentives announced by the federal government, buyer demand will only continue to grow heading into the new year. Given the amount of demand that will continue to come off of the sidelines as well, now is an ideal time for sellers to enter the market.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Winnipeg will increase 7.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 Regina The aggregate price of a home in Regina increased 5.0 per cent year over year to $387,100 in the third quarter of 2024. On a quarterly basis, the aggregate price of a home in the region increased modestly by 0.6 per cent. Broken out by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home increased 6.6 per cent year over year to $424,600 in the third quarter of 2024, while the median price of a condominium remained virtually flat, increasing 0.2 per cent to $220,300 during the same period. “We continue to see robust sales activity in our housing market, as demonstrated by frequent bidding wars and homes selling over the asking price. Demand far exceeds the number of new listings, which is keeping prices on an upward trajectory,” said Shaheen Zareh, sales representative, Royal LePage Regina Realty. “All of this demand predates the recent cuts to the overnight lending rate – new immigrants, investors and buyers from more expensive cities in Canada have been major drivers of activity for some time. Though Regina has not historically had a strong condo market, we also continue to see momentum build in this segment, especially as young buyers seek affordable housing options.” Zareh added that Regina's rental market is experiencing strong demand as well, particularly for duplex and low-rise housing types. The majority of development in the region is currently in the rental segment. To prevent an overflow of supply, builders have kept a consistent pace when bringing new rental product to the market. “Based on current conditions, Regina will no doubt record a strong fall market performance. With additional interest rate cuts likely on the cards in the coming months, we expect buyer demand to increase as their borrowing power expands. This will put further upward pressure on home prices, unless we see a material increase in supply.” Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Regina will increase 6.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year. Royal LePage House Price Survey Chart: rlp.ca/house-prices-Q3-2024 Royal LePage Forecast Chart: rlp.ca/market-forecast-Q3-2024 For other regional releases, click here. Royal LePage Royalty-Free Media Assets: Royal LePage's media room contains royalty-free assets, such as images and b-roll, that are free for media use. Media room: rlp.ca/mediaroom Royalty-free assets: rlp.ca/media-assets About the Royal LePage House Price Survey The Royal LePage House Price Survey provides information on the most common types of housing, nationally and in 64 of the nation's largest real estate markets. Housing values in the Royal LePage House Price Survey are based on the Royal LePage Canadian Real Estate Market Composite, produced quarterly through the use of company data in addition to data and analytics from partner company, RPS Real Property Solutions, the trusted source for residential real estate intelligence and analytics in Canada. Additionally, commentary on housing market trends and data on price and forecast values are provided by Royal LePage residential real estate experts, based on their opinions and market knowledge. About Royal LePage Serving Canadians since 1913, Royal LePage is the country's leading provider of services to real estate brokerages, with a network of approximately 20,000 real estate professionals in over 670 locations nationwide. Royal LePage is the only Canadian real estate company to have its own charitable foundation, the Royal LePage® Shelter Foundation™, which has been dedicated to supporting women's shelters and domestic violence prevention programs for 25 years. Royal LePage is a Bridgemarq Real Estate Services® Inc. company, a TSX-listed corporation trading under the symbolTSX:BRE. For more information, please visit www.royallepage.ca. Mario Toneguzzi Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada's Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list. He was also named by RETHINK to its global list of Top Retail Experts 2024. About Us Canada's Podcast is the number one podcast in Canada for entrepreneurs and business owners. Established in 2016, the podcast network has interviewed over 600 Canadian entrepreneurs from coast-to-coast. With hosts in each province, entrepreneurs have a local and national format to tell their stories, talk about their journey and provide inspiration for anyone starting their entrepreneurial journey and well- established founders. The commitment to a grass roots approach has built a loyal audience on all our social channels and YouTube – 500,000+ lifetime YouTube views, 200,000 + audio downloads, 35,000 + average monthly social impressions, 10,000 + engaged social followers and 35,000 newsletter subscribers. Canada's Podcast is proud to provide a local, national and international presence for Canadian entrepreneurs to build their brand and tell their story #business #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #HousePrices #smallbusiness

RE/MAX Canada has released its 2024 RE/MAX Canada Condominium Report. In this video interview, Samantha Villiard, Regional Vice President, RE/MAX Canada, discusses the key findings from the report. PRESS RELEASE TORONTO, Oct. 9, 2024 /CNW/ — Despite fears of leaving money on the table, sellers have returned to housing markets across the country in large numbers as the promise of future interest rate cuts draw skittish buyers back into the fray, according to a report released today by RE/MAX Canada. The 2024 RE/MAX Canada Condominium Report examined condominium activity between January – August 2024 in seven major markets across the country including Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, City of Calgary, Edmonton, Greater Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax Regional Municipality, and found that condo listings have soared in anticipation of increased demand in the fourth quarter of 2024 and early 2025. Growth in inventory levels was highest in the Fraser Valley (58.7 per cent), followed by Greater Toronto (52.8 per cent), City of Calgary (52.4 per cent), Ottawa (44.5 per cent), Edmonton (17.7 per cent), Halifax Regional Municipality (8.1 per cent) and Vancouver (7.3 per cent). Values have held up surprisingly well given the influx of listings, with gains posted in Calgary (15 per cent), Edmonton (four per cent), Ottawa (2.3 per cent), Vancouver (1.9 per cent), Fraser Valley (1.9 per cent), and Halifax (1.2 per cent). Meanwhile in Greater Toronto, the average price fell two per cent short of year-ago. While sales were robust in Alberta thanks to in-migration from other parts of the country, Edmonton led the way in terms of percentage increase in the number of condos sold, up just close to 37 per cent from year-ago levels, marking the region's best performance in the previous five-year period. This is followed by a more tempered Calgary market, which was up 2.6 per cent over 2023. Remaining markets saw home-buying activity soften in the condominium sector. “High interest rates and stringent lending policies pummeled first-time buyers in recent years, preventing many from reaching their home-ownership goal, despite having to pay record high rental costs that mirrored mortgage payments,” says RE/MAX Canada President Christopher Alexander. “The current lull is the calm before the storm. Come spring of 2025, pent-up demand is expected to fuel stronger market activity, particularly at entry-level price points, as both first-time buyers and investors once again vie for affordable condominium product.” SOURCE: Greater Vancouver REALTORS, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, Calgary Real Estate Board, REALTORS Association of Edmonton, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, Ottawa Real Estate Board, Nova Scotia Association of REALTORS. *Apartments Only **Estimated average price for Greater Vancouver Edmonton and Calgary remain firmly entrenched in seller's market territory, while conditions are more balanced in Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Ottawa and Halifax. These markets will likely transition in 2025. Toronto may be the last to emerge from more sluggish conditions, however, Alexander notes that it's a market that has been known to turn quickly. Absorption rates will be a key indicator. Certainly, the market forces of supply and demand always prevail, so some neighbourhoods will fare better than others. Of note in Toronto, prices have likely bottomed out and that's usually evidence that a turnaround is in sight. The current uptick in inventory levels is drawing more traffic to listings, yet buyers remain somewhat skittish across the country. The first two Bank of Canada interest rate cuts did little to entice prospective homebuyers to engage in the market, given the degree of rate increases that took place. However, with further rate reductions expected and policy adjustments to address affordability and ease entry into the market, activity will likely start to climb, particularly among end users. “Even in softer markets, hot pockets tend to emerge,” says Alexander. “In the condominium segment we're seeing a diverse mix among the most in-demand areas, ranging from traditional blue-chip communities to gentrifying up-and-comers, as well as suburban hot spots. Condominiums in choice recreational areas were among the markets posting stronger sales activity—a trend that was also reflected in our single-detached housing report issued earlier this year.” In each market, there are condominium pockets that defied overall trends. In the Greater Toronto Area, condominium sales were up by double digits in the first eight months of 2024 in midtown communities such as Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB)'s Yonge-Eglinton, Humewood-Cedarvale, Forest Hill South (C03) where activity increased 25.3 per cent (114 condo sales in 2024 compared to 91 sales in 2023) and Bedford-Park-Nortown, Lawrence Park, and Forest Hill North (C04) rose 13.3 per cent (128/113). The west end's High Park, South Parkdale, Swansea and Roncesvalles (W01) communities experienced a 15.7-per-cent upswing in units sold (206/178) while neighbouring W02 including High Park North, Junction, Lambton Baby Point, and Runnymede-Bloor West Village climbed 25.2 per cent (189/151). In the east end, the Beaches (E03) reported a 20.3-per-cent increase in sales activity. In Greater Vancouver, an uptick in apartment sales was noted in suburban markets including Port Coquitlam where the number of units sold was up 11 per cent (263 in 2024 compared to 237 in 2023) while more moderate increases were posted in New Westminster (up 0.4 per cent) and recreational communities such as Whistler/Pemberton (up 3.3 per cent). In Fraser Valley, Mission was the sole market to experience an increase in apartment sales, according to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, up just over 74 per cent year-over-year (68 in 2024 compared to 39 in 2023). Strong sales were also reported in Calgary neighbourhoods such as Eau Claire (up 59.1 per cent) and Downtown East Village (up 17.3 per cent). Meanwhile, RE/MAX found that investor activity has stalled in most markets. The slowdown has been most notable in Greater Toronto, where up to 30 per cent of investors have experienced negative cashflow on rental properties as mortgage carrying costs climbed, according to analytics by Urbanation and CIBC Economics. Investor confidence is expected to recover in the months ahead, as interest rates fall and return on investment (ROI) improves. Edmonton bucked the trend in investor pullback. With supply outpacing demand in Canada's most affordable condominium market, savvy investors in Edmonton have been actively revitalizing tired condominium stock and subsequently renting it out for top dollar. Affordability has been a significant draw for out-of-province investors, particularly those from Ontario and British Columbia who are seeking opportunities further afield to bulk up their portfolios. Out-of-province developers and builders have been similarly motivated by Edmonton's lower development costs and lack of red tape. Halifax to a lesser extent has drawn investor interest, with affordability, low vacancy rates and upward pressure on rents being the primary factor behind the city's appeal. “In many markets, end users are in the driver's seat right now,” explains Alexander. “While investors are an important part of the purchaser pool, this point in time is a unique opportunity for aspiring condominium buyers who, for a short window of time, will likely see less competition from investors and a better supply of product. This is especially true in Toronto and Vancouver, where the impact of monetary policy has hit investor profit margins to a greater extent despite high rent and low vacancy rates. With values set to rise, this is arguably the most favourable climate condominiums buyers have seen in recent years.” In the longer term, immigration to Canada and in-migration/out-migration from one province or region to another will continue to prop up demand for condominiums in the years to come, as condominiums now represent both a first step to home ownership, and increasingly—in Canada's most expensive markets—the middle step as well. Although population numbers are forecast to contract in the short-term, overall growth will resume, with Statistics Canada's projections falling just short of 44 million to as high as 49 million by 2035. Increasing density and urbanization, along with continued population growth is expected to support the long-term outlook for condominium activity nationally. Canada's urban population has been climbing consistently since the post-WWII period with an estimated 80 per cent of Canadians residing in urban centres. Downtowns are growing fast, and more rapidly than ever before. “The housing mix is evolving very quickly as a result of densification and urbanization. Condominiums now represent the heart of our largest cities, and it is inevitable that further development will see condos become the driving force accounting for the lion's share of sales in years to come,” says Alexander. “It's a physical and cultural shift that Canadians are not only adjusting to but are embracing, as younger generations redefine urban neighbourhoods, sparking demand for vibrant and robust amenities, infusing new life in Canada's urban cores in the process.” Market by market overview Greater Vancouver Area and Fraser Valley Softer market conditions prevailed throughout much of the year in the Greater Vancouver Area and the Fraser Valley, with fewer sales of condominium apartments occurring across the board in 2024. In Greater Vancouver, year-to-date apartment sales between January and August were well off year-ago levels at 9,248, according to Greater Vancouver Realtors, down just over eight per cent from the same period in 2023. Neighbouring Fraser Valley reported just 3,130 apartments changing hands between January and August of this year, down 8.5 per cent from year-ago levels. Values continue to climb in the Fraser Valley, where the overall average price year-to-date for apartment units is up two per cent year-over year ($559,215/$548,658) according to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, while Vancouver has edged up two per cent to $823,550 in 2024, compared to $807,085 in 2023. Home-buying activity started with a bang in both Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley this year as the anticipation of interest rate cuts in April fuelled momentum. When it became evident that interest rates would hold steady until June or July, the wind was sucked from the market sails. Several areas in Greater Vancouver have reported an increase in year-to-date sales, including Port Coquitlam (263 sales in 2024 compared to 237 sales in 2023), New Westminster (546/544) and Whistler/Pemberton (186/180). Despite several interest rate cuts to date, however, buyers are still skittish, holding off on purchasing their home until rates decline further, while sellers are reluctant to list their homes for fear of leaving money on the table. The catch-22 situation has been frustrating for buyers and sellers alike, but buyers who pull the trigger now on a purchase, may ultimately find themselves in a better position come spring. Selection is good with more than 2,100 apartments currently listed for sale in Greater Vancouver and another 2,080 available in the Fraser Valley, and buyers have the luxury of time to make thoughtful decisions. Come spring, the number of purchasers in the market is expected to increase, placing upward pressure on values. Some of the most popular areas for condominium sales in Greater Vancouver in recent years are in East Vancouver. Its culturally diverse and artsy neighbourhoods, top-shelf restaurants and cafés, including Michelin Star Published on Main, as well as craft breweries and entertainment, have served to draw a younger demographic. False Creek, Mt. Pleasant, Kits Point, Fairview, Pt. Grey and Dunbar offer condo buyers a spectacular view of North Vancouver and the Burrard Inlet and easy access to the Skytrain, bike and walking paths, parks and recreational facilities. A one-bedroom apartment in an established building in Mt. Pleasant can be purchased for approximately $650,000, while newer product can be picked up for as low as $490,000 to a high of $928,000. Prices in nearby Kits trend higher with a one-bedroom hovering at $715,000 on average. The lion's share of apartment sales in both Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley are occurring under the $800,000 price point for a one-bedroom apartment, while a two-bedroom priced below $1 million will generate solid interest. The Valley tends to offer greater selection under the $800,000 price point, and typically has more appeal with first-time buyers. As demand rises in tandem with the Bank of Canada's interest rate cuts, absorption levels should increase. Spring of 2025 is expected to be characterized by strong demand and dwindling supply, with modest increases in average price. Strong economic fundamentals going into the new year will support an increase in home-buying activity, with lower interest rates and longer amortization periods helping to draw first time buyers into the market once again. City of Calgary While interprovincial migration has slowed from year-ago levels, overall net migration to Alberta continues to climb, sparking demand in the province's affordable real estate market. In Calgary, the sale of condominium apartments experienced a modest increase of almost three per cent in the first eight months of the year, with 5,722 units changing hands compared to 5,577 sales during the same period in 2023. Year-to-date average price has climbed 15 per cent year-over-year to just over $347,000, up from $301,868 in 2023, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board. Growth has been noted in virtually all areas of the city, with the greatest percentage increases in sales occurring in Eau Claire (59.1 per cent), Killarney/Glengary (46.7 per cent), Garrison Woods (64.7 per cent) Garrison Green (23.5 per cent) and Currie Barracks (18.2 per cent). Most condominium apartment sales are occurring in the downtown district, where walkability plays a major role. Younger buyers tend to gravitate toward the core area, which allows residents to walk to work and amenities. Not surprisingly, the highest number of sales occurred in the Downtown East Village, where 129 units have been sold year to date, up from 110 sales one year ago. Significant gains have also been posted in average price, with Saddle Ridge experiencing an increase in values close to 36 per cent, rising to $317,997 in 2024, followed by Hillhurst, which increased 21.4 per cent to $423,873. Out of the 12 key Calgary markets analyzed by RE/MAX, seven posted double-digit gains in values. Seller's market conditions prevailed in the city throughout much of the year, with strong demand characterizing home-buying activity. Luxury apartment sales are on the upswing, with 49 apartments selling over $1 million so far this year compared to 41 during the same period in 2023, an increase of 19.5 per cent. Empty nesters, retirees and oil executives are behind the push for high-end units, most of which are in the downtown core offering spectacular views of both the Bow River and the mountains. First-time buyers are most active in the suburbs, where they can get the best bang for their buck in communities such as McKenzie Town, Panorama Hills and Saddle Ridge. Apartment values in these areas average around $300,000, making them an attractive first step to home ownership, but also an affordable entry point for small investors. After a heated spring market, inventory levels have improved substantially, with a relatively good selection of condominiums available for sale. Inventory levels hover at close to 1,500, up substantially from year-ago levels, with the sales-to-new listings ratio now sitting at 60 per cent. With interest rates trending lower, more buyers and a greater number of investors are expected to enter the market in the year ahead. Rather than waiting for next spring, when rates are lower but prices are higher, buyers may want to consider making a purchase today when supply is healthy and market conditions are less heated. Buying with a two-month closing could also capture the expected Bank of Canada rate cuts in October and December. Edmonton Home-buying activity in the Edmonton's apartment segment exploded in 2024, with year-to-date sales almost 37 per cent ahead of year-ago levels. Affordability continues to be the catalyst for activity, with 3,351 units changing hands, up from 2,452 sales one year ago, making 2024 the best year for apartment sales in the past five years (for the January to August period). The average price of an apartment in Edmonton year-to-date is $200,951, up four per cent over year-ago levels, according to the Realtors Association of Edmonton, making Edmonton the lowest-priced major market in the country. Immigration and in-migration have seriously contributed to the uptick in sales, with Edmonton reporting record population growth in 2023. Statistics Canada data for Alberta in the second quarter of 2024 show net interprovincial migration continues unabated, up almost 11 per cent, with 9,654 new residents coming from other Canadian centres – the majority hailing from Ontario and British Columbia. During the same period, immigration numbers remained relatively constant at 32,000. The sales-to-new-listings ratio now sits at 65 per cent—clear seller's territory. Many condominiums are now moving in multiple offers. The influx of newcomers has buoyed the city, with growth evident in neighbourhoods from the downtown core to the suburbs. Most are buying up properties, as opposed to renting, as they may have done in years past. Home ownership is more-easily attainable in Edmonton relative to other major cities, with the cost of a condominium apartment as low as $100,000. Newer condominiums are available for less than $300,000. Condominiums vary in shape and size in Edmonton, with row house condominiums featuring a backyard and a garage being a major attraction. Investors have also entered the picture, buying up older, tired condo units, fixing them up and renting them out for top dollar. Lower development costs have also prompted an influx of out-of-province builders and developers who can quickly construct 20- and 30-floor high-rise towers or townhouse developments that fill the missing middle. Well-known builders in Ontario and British Columbia are moving into the Alberta market because of the lack of red tape. Several condominium buildings are currently underway, with many more in various stages of planning. With demand currently outpacing supply, the quicker these units come on stream, the better. By 2027, more balance market conditions are expected. First-time buyers are also exceptionally active in the condo segment. Affordable price points and a notable lack of provincial and municipal land transfer taxes allow younger buyers to easily enter the market. Purchasers who are coming from other provinces quickly realize how far their dollar stretches in Edmonton, as the low cost of housing allows for more disposable income. Homeowners can pay their mortgage, go out for weekly dinners, and have an annual vacation, without too much stress. Amenity-rich Oliver remains one of the most coveted hubs in Edmonton. West of 109th St. and the downtown core, the diverse neighbourhood offers a mix of new condominium development including walk ups, mid- and high-rise buildings, and peripheral spin off including retail shops, restaurants and entertainment, all within a short walk to the River Valley. Demand is especially high thanks to the walkability of the area and close proximity to the ICE District. Old Strathcona and Whyte Avenue are also sought-after. The trendy arts and cultural area boasts a mix of funky, bohemian-style and historic buildings, galleries, boutiques, shops, restaurants, cafes and a vibrant nightlife. Edmonton's housing market continues to be driven from the bottom up. Renters move into condo apartments, who move into condo row housing, who move into townhomes and eventually make their way to single-detached homes. The cycle is expected to be supported by a strong local and provincial economy heading into 2025 as monetary policy continues to ease, households and businesses increase spending, and oil prices climb. Greater Toronto Area Demand for condominium apartments and townhomes in the Greater Toronto Area has softened year-over-year, with sales off 2023 levels by eight per cent. Close to 16,800 condo apartments and townhomes changed hands between January and August 2024, down from 18,263 sales during the same period in 2023. Overall condominium values fell almost two per cent, with average price now sitting at $732,648 for apartments and townhomes, down from $747,039 during the same period in 2023, according to data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). Two buyer pools are impacting the condominium market at present—investors and end users. The investment segment has stalled, as a growing number of condominium investors find themselves unable to cover their carrying costs when closing, despite a relatively strong rental market. In a July 2024 report, Urbanation and CIBC Economics examined the distribution of cash flow by dollar amount and found that 30 per cent of investors of new condos completed in 2023 were cash flow negative by $1,000 or more. End users, especially those seeking larger one-bedroom-plus-den or two-bedroom units, are active in the condo market, particularly in the Forest Hill South, Yonge-Eglinton, Humewood-Cedarvale (C03) and Bedford-Nortown, Lawrence Park and Forest Hill North (C04). Several new buildings in these areas have prompted a 25.3- and 13.3-per-cent uptick in sales activity respectively, while average price has edged slightly higher in Forest Hill South, Yonge-Eglinton, Humewood-Cedarvale ($871,839 in 2024 compared to $863,681 in 2023). Double-digit increases in year-to-date condominium sales in the 416 were also reported in west end communities such as High Park, South Parkdale, Swansea and Roncesvalles (up 15.7 per cent), High Park North, Junction, Lambton- Baby Point, and Runnymede-Bloor West Village (up 25.2 per cent); and in the east, the Beaches area (up 20.3 per cent). In the 905-area code, an uptick in condo activity was noted in Halton Hills (up 21.6 per cent) and Milton (up 13.3 per cent); and in Newmarket (up 30.6 per cent). Close to 43 per cent of TRREB districts in the 416-area code reported modest gains in average price between January and August of 2024, led by the Annex, Yonge-St. Clair (C02), with a close to 14-per-cent increase in values. One in four markets in the 905-area code have posted gains in condominium values year-over-year. Inventory levels continued to climb throughout much of the year as available resale units were joined by an influx of new completions on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Selection has vastly improved over year-ago levels, with over 8,300 apartment units actively listed for sale at the end of August, compared to 5,455 units during the same period in 2023. Almost 1,700 active listings were reported in the condo townhouse segment, up 53 per cent from the 1,110 posted in 2023. Pre-construction condominium assignments are still occurring as investors look to sell their units before registration, but the pace has subsided since 2023. New completions have slowed in the second quarter of this year in Greater Toronto–Hamilton in large part due to the lack of investor interest, with starts off last year's level by 67 per cent, according to Urbanation. Repercussions in the short-term will be negligible but the longer-term impact is expected to be substantial. Twenty-thousand new condominium units are planned for the GTA in 2025; 30,000 in 2026; and 40,000 in 2027. In 2028, the figure falls to 5,000 units. At that point, construction will heat up, but not fast enough to meet demand. With a six-month supply of condominiums currently available for sale, the GTA market is heading into clear buyers' territory. With values at or near bottom and Bank of Canada overnight rates trending lower, the fall market may represent the perfect storm for first-time buyers. As rates drop, more buyers are expected to enter the market in the months ahead. As absorption rates increase, the current oversupply will be diminished and demand will take flight, placing upward pressure on average prices once again. Ottawa Although downsizing empty nesters, retirees and first-time homebuyers fuelled steady demand for condominium apartments and walk-ups in Ottawa in 2024, the number of units sold between January and August fell short of year-ago levels. The Ottawa Real Estate Board reported just over 1,400 condominium apartments changed hands year to date, down less than one per cent from 2023. Meanwhile, values rose 2.3 per cent over last year, with average price rising to $447,042. Affordability remains a major concern in Ottawa, despite changes to monetary policy in recent months. First-time buyers find themselves locked out of the freehold market, given high interest rates and stringent lending policies. Fixed mortgage rates have dropped in recent weeks and are expected to continue to decline for the remainder of the year and into 2025, but potential buyers are still wary. Inventory levels have increased year over year as a result, with active listings in August hovering at 636, approximately 44.5 per cent ahead of 2023. First-time buyers who choose to move forward with a purchase are typically looking for condominiums with low monthly maintenance fees and a parking spot priced from $500,000 to $550,000. The downtown core to Centretown and Dows Lake are popular destinations, given the proximity to the workplace, shops and restaurants. Those seeking to spend less could find a lower-priced unit in an older building for $350,000 but monthly condominium fees would be significantly higher. Suburban condominiums in areas such as Kanata, Barrhaven, and Orleans are also an option, priced from $375,000 to $400,000. Tighter inventory levels exist in the luxury segment, where fewer condominium apartments are available over the $850,000 price point. Empty nesters and retirees are responsible for the lion's share of activity in the top end of Ottawa's condominium market. Westboro, the Golden Triangle, and Centretown, as well as neighbourhoods undergoing gentrification including The Glebe, Lansdowne, and Old Ottawa East, are most sought-after by buyers, many of whom are downsizing. Walkability is a major factor in these communities, with condominium apartments within walking distance to top restaurants and cafes, unique shops and picturesque walking paths. As consumer confidence grows with each interest rate cut, more and more buyers should return to the market. Fourth-quarter sales are expected to be comparable to year-ago levels, but the outlook for spring of 2025 appears to be bright. Pent-up demand is building and those first into the market will reap the rewards. Halifax Regional Municipality After three consecutive interest rate cuts and the prospect of two more by year end, optimism is finally building in the Halifax Regional Municipality housing market. Average condominium values have edged ahead of year-ago levels in the first eight months of the year, now sitting at $484,491, up one per cent over the $479,558 reported during the same period in 2023. Condominium sales, however, declined year over year, with 510 properties changing hands between January and August, down close to seven per cent from last year's levels, according to data compiled by the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors. The trepidation that existed earlier in the year is subsiding and confidence is starting to grow as inflation is curtailed. The most competitive segment of the overall housing market remains under $600,000 in the Halifax area, with first-time buyers most active at this price point. Entry-level condominiums priced between $300,000 and $400,000 are most sought after, while semi-detached and townhomes tend to be the preferred choice over $400,000. At the top end of the market, condominium sales over $750,000 have experienced a modest uptick, with 35 properties sold so far this year, compared to 34 during the same period one year ago. Year-to-date average price in the top end of the market has softened from year-ago levels, sitting at almost $940,000, down from $957,300 during the same timeframe in 2023. Young professionals and retirees are largely behind the push for higher-end condominiums, with most sales occurring within the city's downtown core. Downward pressure on interest rates has prompted more sellers to list their condos in recent weeks, but there are no liquidation sales occurring. Inventory levels are up just over eight per cent from 2023. The vast majority of condominium apartments are found on the peninsula's northeast quadrant, central and downtown cores. Some developments are situated on the waterfront in Dartmouth (near the ferry) and in Bedford, but supply is less plentiful in these areas. Investors are also active in Halifax's condominium market with an eye toward rental properties. Multi-unit housing remains exceptionally popular, with most investors interested in buildings with eight to 10 units. Four-plexes and duplexes are also an option, given the city's low vacancy rates and upward pressure on rent. In-migration and immigration have continued to play a role in the city's growth, although the influx of newcomers has abated somewhat from peak levels. Positive international immigration, coupled with interprovincial migration, contributed to a net increase of 6,000 people in the second quarter of 2024. Major improvements are planned for the Dartmouth waterfront that will make it more pedestrian friendly in the coming years, including public spaces and cruise ships. The redevelopment hopes to mirror the success of Halifax's vibrant waterfront area that continues to attract both visitors and residents to the area's restaurants and cafes, outdoor kiosks, retail shops, playgrounds, museums, and the ferry terminal.  With continuous investment and a bold new vision for the municipality, Halifax is expected to thrive in the years ahead, given the city's affordable real estate and spectacular topography. About the RE/MAX Network  As one of the leading global real estate franchisors, RE/MAX, LLC is a subsidiary of RE/MAX Holdings (NYSE: RMAX) with more than 140,000 agents in almost 9,000 offices with a presence in more than 110 countries and territories. RE/MAX Canada refers to RE/MAX of Western Canada (1998), LLC and RE/MAX Ontario–Atlantic Canada, Inc., and RE/MAX Promotions, Inc., each of which are affiliates of RE/MAX, LLC. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than RE/MAX, as measured by residential transaction sides. RE/MAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, with an innovative, entrepreneurial culture affording its agents and franchisees the flexibility to operate their businesses with great independence. RE/MAX agents have lived, worked and served in their local communities for decades, raising millions of dollars every year for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals® and other charities. To learn more about RE/MAX, to search home listings or find an agent in your community, please visit remax.ca. For the latest news from RE/MAX Canada, please visit blog.remax.ca. Mario Toneguzzi Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada's Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list. He was also named by RETHINK to its global list of Top Retail Experts 2024. About Us Canada's Podcast is the number one podcast in Canada for entrepreneurs and business owners. Established in 2016, the podcast network has interviewed over 600 Canadian entrepreneurs from coast-to-coast. With hosts in each province, entrepreneurs have a local and national format to tell their stories, talk about their journey and provide inspiration for anyone starting their entrepreneurial journey and well- established founders. The commitment to a grass roots approach has built a loyal audience on all our social channels and YouTube – 500,000+ lifetime YouTube views, 200,000 + audio downloads, 35,000 + average monthly social impressions, 10,000 + engaged social followers and 35,000 newsletter subscribers. Canada's Podcast is proud to provide a local, national and international presence for Canadian entrepreneurs to build their brand and tell their story #business #CanadasNumberOnePodcastforEntrepreneurs #Condo Market #Condos #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #Homes #Housing #RealEstate #small business

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Beet and mushroom saladFeature interview: Borys Sydoruk on Canada's National Internment Commemoration and Education DayUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsNew! The Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West CoastAlso available (signed) at CHLY studios in downtown Nanaimo (on the China Steps) Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Beet and Mushroom SaladKnyzhka Corner Book Review: Myra reviews Ukraine's Nuclear Disarmament: A History* by Yuri KostenkoUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Hava Nagila—the history of the song and the documentary movie about itUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.*affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Bukovynian nachinka (cornmeal casserole) Knyzhka Corner Book Review: Myra reviews The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story* by Serhii Plokhy Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: Metropolitan Andrij Sheptytsky, the Ukrainian Catholic cleric who saved Jews from the occupying Nazis in WWII UkraineUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.*affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Greater Vancouver Chamber's 2024 Business & Leadership Awards honored several local businesses and leaders for their contributions to the economic growth and community vibrancy of southwest Washington. Learn more about the event and this year's honorees at https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/business/greater-vancouver-chamber-announces-2024-business-leadership-award-honorees on www.ClarkCountyToday.com #GreaterVancouverChamber #BusinessLeadershipAwards #ClarkCountyWa #localnews #businessawards

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Spotlight on Petrushka (Parsnip) and root vegetables.Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: Rosh Hashana 2024 in Jewish tradition and in Ukraine.Ukrainian Folk Tale: The Magic Pumpkins, narrated by Linda MikolayenkoUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsNew! The Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West CoastAlso available (signed) at CHLY studios in downtown Nanaimo (on the China Steps) Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Spotlight on Petrushka (Parsnip) and root vegetables.Feature interview: BC Author Cynthia LeBrun about her just-released book Black Sunflowers* and her Sept-Oct book tour of Vancouver Island.Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: Rosh Hashana 2024 in Jewish tradition and in Ukraine.Ukrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.*affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Buckwheat kasha dinner casseroleFeature interview: BC Author Cynthia LeBrun about her just-released book Black Sunflowers* and her Sept-Oct book tour of Vancouver IslandUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music! Your host: Pawlina.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.* affiliate linkVisit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsNew! The Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Spotlight on buckwheat and kashaKnyzhka Corner Book Review: Myra reviews Blood and Salt by Barbara SapergiaBritish actor Hugh Bonneville's commentary on KharkivUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Christoph Clodius as he sits down with Maria Howard, CEO of Family Services of Greater Vancouver, as they discuss a new opportunity - Director of Development. Maria delves into the agency's wide range of programs, from youth outreach and family preservation to victim support and financial literacy initiatives, all aimed at assisting the most vulnerable in the community. With nearly a century of dedication to social services, Family Services of Greater Vancouver helps clients reclaim their voices and navigate their paths to healing and stability. Tune in to learn how this impactful organization is transforming lives in the community.

GUEST: Norman Galimski, Communications and Recruitment Officer for Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre plan to tackle crime in Canada? GUEST: Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada Fall for B.C wine!  GUEST: Kim Barnes, Marketing Director with Wine Growers British Columbia B.C enacts legislation preventing serious offenders from changing their names GUEST: Rob Dhanu, Former Federal Crown prosecutor, Criminal defense Lawyer and co-founder of Dhanu Dhaliwal Law Group, and case counsel Goodbye porta-potties; Flush toilets finally required in large construction sites GUEST: Brynn Bourke , executive director for B.C Building Trades Vancouver attacks highlight an urgent need for coordinated mental health care GUEST: Jess Ketchum, Co-founder of the Save Our Streets coalition B.C Greens propose free transit, is it too good to be true? GUEST: Denis Agar (EH-gar), Executive Director, Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders 30 Men in 30 Days - Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver seeking new volunteers GUEST: Norman Galimski, Communications and Recruitment Officer for Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: A recipe and memoir about finding Baba (and watermelon) in soviet Ukraine Knyzhka Corner Book Review: Myra reviews Zelensky by Sherhiy Rudenko Rushnychok Story: Volya—the Rushnychok song, and the story behind itUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music!Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Chilled vegetable soupFeature interview: From the Nash Holos Audio Archives, an interview with military cadets in Lviv in 2015 that foreshadowed today's successes by Ukraine's Armed ForcesUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music! A musical documentation of Ukraine's most recent fight for independence, from the 2004 Orange Revolution through the 2014 EuroMaidan protests and the Revolution of Dignity, up to todayYour host: Pawlina.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsNew! The Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition:Ukrainian Food Flair: Chilled vegetable soupFeature interview: From the Nash Holos Audio Archives, an interview with military cadets in Lviv in 2015 that foreshadowed today's successes by Ukraine's Armed ForcesCommentary: British actor Hugh Bonneville speaks about the destruction of KharkivUkrainian Proverb of the WeekOther items of interestGreat Ukrainian music! A musical documentation of Ukraine's most recent fight for independence, from the 2004 Orange Revolution through the 2014 EuroMaidan protests and the Revolution of Dignity, up to today. Your host: Pawlina.The Vancouver edition of Nash Holos airs Saturdays at 6pm PST on air at AM1320 CHMB and streaming live at the CHMB website. www.am1320.com.The Nanaimo edition airs Wednesdays at 11am PST on CHLY 101.7FM, broadcasting to the north and central Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast, northwest Washington State and Greater Vancouver listening areas.For audio archives, transcripts and information about the show, visit our website.Podcast feed here:You can also find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and most music platforms ... and of course on your favourite podcast app.Visit our YouTube channel where Anton and Daria Lysenko are discussing current affairs, history and culture with fascinating people.Visit our Patreon page and get in line for a copy of the new Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook!Follow us on Facebook, Instagram.and ThreadsThe Ukrainian Food Flair cookbook is now available on Amazon: Ukrainian Food Flair: Authentic Recipes from Canada's West Coast: Molnar, Sylvia, MacQuarrie, Paulette: 9780981037820: Books - Amazon.ca Support the show on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The most recent Greater Vancouver Realtors Housing Market Report paints a surprisingly grim picture of the Vancouver real estate market. New listings are up 20% year over year and transactions are down 17.6% below the 10 year average. And this is with two Bank of Canada rate cuts! What is going on? And, more importantly, what does this mean for the upcoming fall market and for housing prices in Metro Vancouver?The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver's Director of Economics & Data Analytics Andrew Lis sits down with Adam & Matt this week to discuss the unpredictable first half of the year & what the future holds.Why have we seen such a significant inventory spike? What does this mean for fall housing prices? And what will it take to get sales volume trending in the right direction? Listen up!