The latest Bank of Canada interest rate hike earlier this month – the ninth rate hike since March 2022 – is a sucker punch to mortgage holders and consumers.
Variable rate mortgage holders have already seen alarming rises in their monthly mortgage payments. Those soon up for their five year renewal are extremely worried.
Inflation. It’s the cruelest tax of all. It drives up the cost of living, drives up interest rates and erodes purchasing power.
Which is why on top of inflation the last thing Canadians can afford is more carbon taxes on July 1st. The net result will be a punitive 61 cents per litre driving up the cost of the essentials –groceries, gas and home heating and cooling.
Canadians have hit an affordability wall. A new direction is needed.
How did we get here? Massive Liberal deficits drove up inflation to 40 year highs, which in turn drove up interest rates. The interest rate is now 19 times higher than it was a little over a year ago and it’s a rate not seen in 22 years.
In particular, the cost of housing is out of control. Over the past eight years, mortgages have doubled, rents have doubled and down payments have more than doubled – if you can even enter the housing market. A headline in the Hamilton Spectator last week summed it up, “Income of $209k needed to afford average Hamilton home: report”.
But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Canadian farmers produce the best food that the world wants. Canada has an abundance of critical minerals for EVs, smart people, good people and technology know-how. We lead the world in nuclear energy and isotopes. We have an abundance of resources that the world wants and that the Germans and Japanese sought out. We are enviably located next to the world’s largest consumer market, the United States, our key ally and largest trading partner. We just need a new government willing to unleash this great potential for all Canadians.
That’s why Conservatives continue to fight for common sense solutions. Getting more homes built that people can afford, technology not taxes, and bigger pay cheques and more opportunity for everyone.
It’s Canada and Canada Day — we can and should dream big!