Flavelle sawmill on historic Port Moody site to be shuttered by end of October

Derrick Penner
The Vancouver Sun

A sawmill has operated on the Flavelle mills site since 1905, but its owner cites “disproportionately high municipal property taxes,” as the reason for ending operations.

The Flavelle sawmill, which has operated on a 14-hectare plot of Port Moody’s waterfront since 1905, will be closed at the end of October according to its owners. Photo by Arlen Redekop /Postmedia News

The Flavelle sawmill, last in a line of forestry operations that have occupied a central 14-hectare plot of Port Moody’s waterfront since 1905, will fall silent at the end of October according to its owners.

Surinder Ghog, CEO of the AP Group of Companies, broke the news to Flavelle’s 70 employees Monday afternoon citing “disproportionately high municipal property taxes” that hit $2.4 million in 2019 from $1.6 million the year before.

“It is now evident that there is no constructive path forward for this mill,” Ghog stated in a news release.

A rising property tax bill wasn’t the only consideration, said Bruce Rose, the company’s executive vice-president. The mill had also received a substantial increase in lease rates on the water lots it uses for log storage on Burrard Inlet.

Combined, the two tax bills amounted to almost $3 million, which Rose said “is just not economic, is what it comes down to. There is just no rationale to invest any more money in this and attempt to get any return.”

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There is a potential path forward for redevelopment of the 14-hectare site into some 3,400 condo units in towers up to 38 storeys, according to an initial master plan the company proposed to the city of Port Moody in 2018.

Port Moody council at the time approved the proposal as an amendment to the city’s official community plan.

However, AP Group’s conclusion came as a surprise to United Steelworkers Union Local 2009 president Al Bieksa, who said the membership there had been advocating on behalf of the company with its concern over property taxes, and thought they had a commitment the mill would keep running for a few more years.

Bieksa said the union was among those that advocated for a provincial legislative change that allowed for short-term exemptions to higher property taxes that would have come with that, for which he thought AP Group was going to seek an extension.

“We were promised that we were going to get a fair and equitable collective agreement,” Bieksa said. Their last agreement expired in 2017. “So everybody was kind of blindsided by the decision.”

Mayor Rob Vagramov said that exemption shielded the mill from “the significant increases they would have faced,” from the OCP change the company itself asked for.

However, the proposal wasn’t just to change the plan from industrial to residential, “but the single largest development in Port Moody history,” Vagramov said.

He voted against it as a councillor, Vagramov said, but “the previous council and administration gave them everything they asked for.”

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Rose said the plan didn’t get as far as an application to rezone the property.

“It is still industrially zoned in Port Moody,” Rose said. “We’re just going to look at all options across everything, whether it’s industrial, commercial or whatever.”

Rose said Flavelle’s 40 million board feet worth of production will be shifted to its other mills or to third-party, custom-cut mills that it has arrangements with to meet the needs of customers.

However, Bieksa argued AP Group should lose an equivalent amount of timber-cutting rights, which is referred to as tenure, because the union had helped the company win a temporary measure calling for the property to be taxed as just a sawmill.

Rose, however, said AP Group doesn’t hold large amounts of tenure to start with and some of the production lost at Flavelle will be shifted to other mills represented by the United Steel Workers.

“We have five or six manufacturing operations in the interior, as well as other operations on the coast,” Rose said. “This is first and foremost a forest products and operating company.”

© 2020 Vancouver Sun

Province asks court to order accused to produce documents in B.C. forfeiture case

Gordon Hoekstra
The Vancouver Sun

B.C. is alleging money from an international stock fraud ended up in Kelowna

The province has applied to court to force a Mexican businessman to produce documents in a B.C. forfeiture case.

The case involves Kelowna-area properties that the province alleges are linked to a $200-million-plus international stock fraud.

In an application filed in B.C. Supreme Court on July 27, the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office requested that within two weeks, Carlos Gomez Brana and his company Cuatro Cienagas Inversiones Ltd. deliver a list and full copies of documents related to the case.

If the list and copies of documents are not produced, the civil forfeiture office has called on the court to allow it to apply to take more than $1 million from the sale of the two properties.

As of Aug. 20, there has been no response by Brana filed on the civil forfeiture office’s application. A hearing scheduled for Aug. 12 was adjourned.

In an earlier response, Brana and Cuatro Cienagas denied any wrongdoing and said the civil forfeiture claim should be dismissed, arguing the forfeiture office has no evidence whatsoever linking the defendants to the stock fraud and money laundering.

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In the July 27 application, the civil forfeiture office said the requested documents should include the source of funds used to purchase and maintain a house on Mission Ridge Road in Kelowna and a nearby condo at Big White ski hill.

The two properties were purchased in 2017 and 2018 for more than $2 million. The $1 million from their sale has been paid into court pending the outcome of the forfeiture suit.

The request also calls for documents to show whether Brana and Cuatro Cienagas had sufficient lawful net income to purchase and maintain the properties, whether Brana and the company had legitimate business or investment operations in B.C., and whether Kelowna-residents Kayley Tyne Johnson and Benjamin Thomas Kirk were “effectively” hired to maintain the properties.

Initially, Johnson and Kirk were included in the civil forfeiture case launched in 2019, but the proceedings against them were discontinued.

The global stock fraud generated more than $165 million US ($215 million Cdn) in illegal sales of shares of at least 50 penny stock companies, according to an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. One of the key players pleaded guilty in the U.S. in 2020 to the scheme.

According to the B.C. civil forfeiture office’s court filings in 2019, proceeds from the global stock-fraud scheme were transferred to or on behalf of one or more of Cuatro Cienagas, Kirk, Johnson and Brana.

Cuatro Cienagas used that money to buy the Kelowna properties, according to the civil forfeiture office’s claim.

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In 2017, money was transferred to a real estate firm and a Kelowna law firm to purchase the Kelowna house and the Big White condo using, in part, entities and accounts implicated in the U.S. stock fraud, according to the civil forfeiture suit.

For example, in December 2017, Cuatro Cienagas directed a Swiss firm, formerly known as Silverton, involved in the U.S. stock fraud to transfer three instalments totalling $548,000 from a Bank of Montreal account to the Kelowna law firm.

In an earlier response, Brana stated the civil forfeiture office launched the lawsuit primarily on its own initiative and in the absence of a bona fide Canadian or other law enforcement investigation regarding proceeds of the unlawful scheme being linked to British Columbia.

The civil forfeiture action was done in a “cavalier and abusive manner,” says Brana’s response.

Brana, a Mexican resident, says he is a businessman who purchased the properties in B.C. through the company Cuatros Cienagas, of which he has sole control.

 

© 2020 Vancouver Sun

Coronavirus bankrupts B.C. fitness chain, hands victory to Steve Nash

Chris Fournier
The Province

New company that is in the process of reopening won’t get the right to use the Nash name, which the Basketball Hall of Fame point guard tried, and failed, to have removed from the business starting in 2016

A fitness chain in British Columbia that carried the name of Steve Nash has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic, and its bankruptcy has given the basketball star a victory he has wanted for years.

SNFW Fitness B.C. Ltd., which operated about two dozen Steve Nash Fitness World & Sports Club locations in the province, filed for creditor protection after COVID-19 forced it to close its doors and cut staff to six from 1,300.

A group of investors received court approval in July to purchase the assets and is in the process of reopening. But the new company won’t get the right to use the Nash name — which the Basketball Hall of Fame point guard tried, and failed, to have removed from the business starting in 2016.

Nash, who grew up in Victoria, played 18 seasons with the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers and was the league’s most valuable player in 2005 and 2006. He helped establish the company that became SNFW in 2007 with Leonard Schlemm and Mark Mastrov, co-founders of 24 Hour Fitness. Mastrov is also part of the ownership group of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

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Nash hasn’t been involved with SNFW as a shareholder or director since 2014. He launched a legal challenge four years ago to force the company to stop using his name in its gyms, but a court ruled the licensing agreement was valid.

The reopened locations will be called simply Fitness World. “We are in the process of reopening 15 locations with rebranding, club enhancements and upgraded equipment,” Chris Smith, chief executive officer of the new company, FW Fitness B.C. Ltd., said in an email.

Smith was also CEO of the bankrupt company. He and Mastrov are listed as directors of FW Fitness. Nash didn’t respond to requests for comment.

SNFW listed liabilities of C$53.4 million and assets of zero, according to a statement of affairs posted on the website of the Bowra Group, the trustee in the matter.

FW Fitness agreed to purchase SNFW’s assets for C$9 million, a deal that will result in a shortfall to SNFW’s primary secured creditor, Bank of Montreal, of more than C$25 million, according to the documents.

 

© 2020 The Province

Coronavirus bankrupts B.C. fitness chain, hands victory to Steve Nash

Chris Fournier
The Province

New company that is in the process of reopening won’t get the right to use the Nash name, which the Basketball Hall of Fame point guard tried, and failed, to have removed from the business starting in 2016

A fitness chain in British Columbia that carried the name of Steve Nash has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic, and its bankruptcy has given the basketball star a victory he has wanted for years.

SNFW Fitness B.C. Ltd., which operated about two dozen Steve Nash Fitness World & Sports Club locations in the province, filed for creditor protection after COVID-19 forced it to close its doors and cut staff to six from 1,300.

A group of investors received court approval in July to purchase the assets and is in the process of reopening. But the new company won’t get the right to use the Nash name — which the Basketball Hall of Fame point guard tried, and failed, to have removed from the business starting in 2016.

Nash, who grew up in Victoria, played 18 seasons with the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers and was the league’s most valuable player in 2005 and 2006. He helped establish the company that became SNFW in 2007 with Leonard Schlemm and Mark Mastrov, co-founders of 24 Hour Fitness. Mastrov is also part of the ownership group of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Nash hasn’t been involved with SNFW as a shareholder or director since 2014. He launched a legal challenge four years ago to force the company to stop using his name in its gyms, but a court ruled the licensing agreement was valid.

The reopened locations will be called simply Fitness World. “We are in the process of reopening 15 locations with rebranding, club enhancements and upgraded equipment,” Chris Smith, chief executive officer of the new company, FW Fitness B.C. Ltd., said in an email.

Smith was also CEO of the bankrupt company. He and Mastrov are listed as directors of FW Fitness. Nash didn’t respond to requests for comment.

SNFW listed liabilities of C$53.4 million and assets of zero, according to a statement of affairs posted on the website of the Bowra Group, the trustee in the matter.

FW Fitness agreed to purchase SNFW’s assets for C$9 million, a deal that will result in a shortfall to SNFW’s primary secured creditor, Bank of Montreal, of more than C$25 million, according to the documents.

 

 

© 2020 The Province

Former premier offers solution to golf club barricade of Fraser River Trail

Douglas Todd
The Vancouver Sun

The great-grandson of the pioneer who gave his land to create the Marine Drive Golf Club says his ancestor would be appalled the club has long blocked off a walking trail along the Fraser River.

Albert Edward (A.E.) Philp, a lawyer and timber baron who provided his farmland for the course in 1922, was a civic-minded philanthropist who would have opposed how the private golf club’s directors insist on blocking the completion of the otherwise delightful Fraser River Trail.

Barrie Philp and his family support efforts to complete the trail link through the southern edge of the golf course — including former NDP premier Mike Harcourt’s idea of constructing a wooden walkway along about 700 metres of the bank of the mighty Fraser River.

The city of Vancouver could access the money, Harcourt said, from the federal government’s new $3-billion COVID-19 infrastructure fund, which is designed to improve walking and cycling opportunities so Canadians can “get exercise and enjoy nature” during the pandemic. Other trail advocates also suggest less expensive alternatives

 

The city should obtain funds to construct a wooden walkway along the golf club section of the river, says former premier Mike Harcourt, who has long fought for public access to Vancouver’s waterfront.. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

Philp, a retired tax specialist for KPMG, said his great-grandfather was the Marine Drive Golf Club’s first president and his photo has hung in its clubhouse. A.E. Philp’s descendants often swam off the sandy section of the Fraser River that the golf club now blocks off to ordinary citizens with intimidating signs.

“I’ve very strongly in favour of right-to-roam laws that have been developed in England. Walking and cycling trails are great for tourism and exercise,” Philps said, standing next to the course’s eastern wire fence, adjacent to Fraser River Park. It’s peppered with club signs warning: No Trespassing, This Is Not a Public Right of Way, Dangerous and Violators Will be Prosecuted.

“My grandfather was a very civic-minded guy. His wife, Grace, was a suffragette. They would have supported the trail.”

 

The Marine Drive Golf Club at 7425 Yew St., which has for decades refused to budge on repeated calls to remove its trail barricades, appears in a vulnerable legal position for several reasons.

A B.C. Assessment map shows a right-of-way extension of Yew Street runs through the centre of the Marine Drive golf course down to the river. Advocates for completing the trail also maintain the club does not own the river foreshore or the intertidal zone, arguing it’s Crown land.

 

A 1922 photo of Albert Edward Philp, land provider and first president of Marine Drive Golf Club. Photo by Family handout /PNG

The private club’s manager and directors, almost all of whom live on the west side of Vancouver, have for weeks refused to respond to Postmedia’s questions. Anonymous members have suggested on social media the course is already too small to give up any more land.

 

Sandy James, a former city of Vancouver planner, says she’d like councillors follow through on decades of efforts, including those of Harcourt when he was mayor of Vancouver and premier, that led to council in 1995 formally approving completion of the Fraser River Trail so it could merge into the city’s expanding Greenways network.

Other golf clubs in the area have cooperated for the benefit of the common good. The adjacent McCleery Golf Club, which is owned by the city, and the nearby private Point Grey Golf Club, have both allowed the Fraser River Trail to run along their southern perimeters.

The Marine Drive Golf Club’s barriers are the only thing stopping walkers and cyclists from being able to enjoy an otherwise grand 21-kilometre Vancouver circle route that would go along the Fraser River Trail, through Pacific Spirit Park, traverse Spanish Banks and the beach front of English Bay and extend the length of the Arbutus Greenway.

“Completing the Fraser River Trail is a relatively simple thing for the city to do,” said James.

“It is simple initiatives, like the completion of this linear walkway, that show the last three city elections have been more about approving specific initiatives that carry the name of the party in power — as opposed to completing policy that several previous councils made for the future of the city.”

 

Ujjal Dosanjh, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister who is an immediate neighbour of the Marine Drive Golf Club, concurs. He has often jogged and walked the Fraser River Trail, and finds it “irritating every time” he comes up against the club’s barricades.

 

Map obtained from B.C. Assessment shows the Yew Street right of way extends through the Marine Drive Golf Course. The private club, unlike its neighbours, is barricading the Fraser River Trail and blocking the public from accessing about 700 metres of foreshore. Photo by B.C. Assessment /PNG

Instead of a relatively expensive wooden walkway along the Fraser River, Dosanjh believes the city could just swap its old Yew Street entitlement through the golf course for a three-metre-wide strip of riverside. He’s not the only one also dreaming of eventually creating a contiguous Fraser River Trail from UBC to New Westminster and beyond.

“What’s wrong with the city?” Dosanjh said. “Why haven’t they done anything? It’s time for action.”

Neither veteran city councillor Adriane Carr nor parks board chair Camil Dumont, both members of the Green party, responded to Postmedia’s questions.

This is not the first time the Marine Drive Golf Club has fought for exclusiveness. In 2007, it successfully argued in the Supreme Court of Canada that female members had no right to use its male-only lounge.

Barrie Philp and his family, however, think it’s past time for the club to be more inclusive, especially since it has benefited not only from his great-grandfather’s generosity but also from taxpayers’ largesse, including a post-Second World War rescue by the city of Vancouver when it was virtually bankrupt.

“It’s become quite clear,” Philps said, “that people need access to nature. And one of the great assets of this province is the Fraser River.”

 

 

© 2020 Vancouver Sun

Will a decrease in immigration hurt Canadian real estate?

Clayton Jarvis
Mortgage Broker News

The impact of COVID-19 on the Canadian economy was immediate and brutal, triggering what has been described as the shortest and sharpest recession in history. But now that the shock and awe portion of the pandemic has passed, medium- and long-term risks are receiving greater attention.

One such risk got the warning lights flashing this week, when it was reported that immigration to Canada in the second quarter of 2020 had declined by a ghastly 64 percent versus the same period last year. From April to June, the country accepted only 34,260 permanent residents, a far cry from the 94,275 accepted in Q2 of 2019.

Despite a first quarter surge in invitations to apply for Express Entry, the program that manages skilled worker applications under federal economic programs, Canada is virtually guaranteed to come up short in hitting its immigration target of 341,000 for the year. In the first half of 2020, only 103,420 permanent residents were allowed into the country.

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino’s multi-year plan is to admit over a million immigrants to Canada between 2020 and 2022. With international travel still a source of anxiety for millions, and a potentially catastrophic second wave of COVID-19 expected in the coming weeks, the country’s ability to achieve those targets is questionable.

With new Canadians supposedly responsible for fuelling housing demand in Canada, it’s fair to wonder what a drop in immigration could mean to housing activity. The early evidence suggests the impact will be minimal.

The latest monthly stats package from the Canadian Real Estate Association found that July sales were 30.5 percent higher than in July of 2019. The 62,355 transactions made up the highest monthly sales figure on record. Even with new supply increasing in 60 percent of local markets, the MLS Home Price Index increased by 2.3 percent month-over-month in July. It’s one of the largest increases on record, second only to March 2017.

If, after a precipitous dip in immigration, sales and prices are still rivalling the records set during Canada’s last real estate gold rush, it’s fair to assume local demand will continue to be strong enough to pick up the slack.

That’s been the case in Prince Edward Island, where the province’s proactive approach to attracting immigrants has been key to bolstering both its population and local economy. RE/MAX Charlottetown realtor Nick MacDonald has seen demand shift this year, but not decline.

“We’re seeing a substantial increase in buyers relocating here from Central and Western Canada,” he says. “As long as we continue to see strong demand from Canadian buyers, the market here on the Island should be able to maintain its current level of stability for the foreseeable future.”

The situation is similar in Montreal, where the city’s runaway economic growth has sparked a rise in international immigration to Quebec. According to Century 21 Immo-Plus’ Angela Langtry, the market has yet to experience a slowdown of any kind.

“If there is a decrease in immigration, it has not impacted the Montreal real estate market at all,” Langtry says, adding that the city’s market is as overheated and competitive as ever.

“I feel there is enough local demand to keep the market moving,” she says.

According to RateSpy founder Robert McLister, one reason housing demand has remained solid in the face of declining immigration could be that recently landed immigrants rarely buy property as soon as they settle in the country.

“New immigrants typically take at least few years to buy once they hit our shores,” he says, “so most of the immigrants buying today have already been here for several quarters. For that reason, the 2020 immigration interruption may not meaningfully impact buying demand for a while.”

 

Cumulative impact

While a decrease in sales is unlikely to result if immigration levels remain low for the next year or two, a prolonged dip could chip away at certain aspects of local housing markets.

The vast majority of new arrivals rent their properties, which could prove problematic for investors in provinces like Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where international immigration has been the sole reliable driver of population growth for much of the last decade. A decrease in the number of international students coming to Canada could also leave rental units empty in smaller college towns like Fredericton and Windsor.

If they are sustained, Canada’s lower immigration numbers could exacerbate the country’s already problematic supply levels. For developers, there is a distinct difference between 300,000 new residents and 150,000, particularly in markets like Vancouver and the GTA, where most new arrivals are likely to wind up. Any developers spurred to action by swelling immigration numbers may take their foot off the gas if Canada’s population isn’t expected to grow.

The most likely, and overall most damaging, prospect will be the lack of economic activity that results from a drop in immigration. Whether as employees, consumers, students or business owners, immigrants are vital contributors to Canada’s economic health, and their presence will be missed even more acutely during a time when increased spending and investment is desperately needed to get the economy back on track.

“A strong portion of [Prince Edward Island’s] workforce relies on immigration,” MacDonald says. “When it’s safe, we’ll need to return our focus to immigration to sustain and continue growing our economy. Newcomers to PEI bring such a great depth of culture, experience and innovation to our province that we’re all looking forward to being able to welcome them here once again.” 

 

Copyright © 2020 Key Media

Prices out of control in Toronto’s hottest real estate markets

Ephraim Vecina
Mortgage Broker News

The Greater Toronto Area neighbourhoods that saw the greatest price growth so far this year had a detached housing average value of $2.9 million, according to RE/MAX.

In its recent analysis, RE/MAX said that the localities of Annex, Yonge-St. Clair, Casa Loma, and Wychwood had a 25.7% annual increase in detached housing prices during the first half of the year.

“The areas of Yonge-St. Clair and Wychwood were recognized as being two of the top neighbourhoods to buy real estate in 2020 due to their value and the momentum of price growth,” Toronto Storeys said in its report on the RE/MAX study.

The next strongest year-over-year price growth was 18.4%, seen in the Birchcliffe-Cliffside and Oakridge areas (average prices up to around $1.1 million), as well as the High Park, Roncesvalles, Swansea, and South Parkdale areas (up to around $2.1 million).

The findings supported observations that the COVID-19 pandemic had only a relatively minute impact on activity and price growth in one of Canada’s hottest housing markets.

Data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board indicated that the average home sales price in the GTA went up by 16.9% annually in July to reach $943,710. The most significant growth was observed in the low-rise housing segment, especially within the City of Toronto.

“Competition between buyers continued to increase in many segments of the GTA ownership housing market in July, which fuelled a further acceleration in year-over-year price growth in July compared to June,” said Jason Mercer, chief market analyst at TRREB.

Sales activity also intensified by 29.5% compared to July 2019, for a total of 11,081 residential transactions across the GTA.

 

Copyright © 2020 Key Media 

New office concept could lure remote workers back

Frank O’Brien
Western Investor

Natural ventilation, wellness studio, on-site dining, advanced tech and short-term leases reflect concerns about coming back to the office.

A new pandemic-inspired workspace design in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour will be outfitted with the latest in health and wellness features, but it may be the short, flexible leases that will persuade remote professionals that is time to get back to the office.

After B.C. posted a record-high spike in coronavirus cases in August, hopes that the COVID-19 epidemic would be short-lived are fading and many work-from-homers may have to decide when and if to return to downtown office towers.

Arpeg Group of Companies, of Vancouver, is banking on making that decision easier with And-Co, a new office concept that will open this December in the Cardero building at 1575 West Georgia Street.

“Working from home during the pandemic has made companies rethink their relationship with the office. Companies want smarter spaces with flexible terms and have a renewed focus on wellness,” said Sylvia Rayner, managing director at And-Co.

The project will feature two levels of private office suites with an on-site wellness centre, event space and a contemporary Italian restaurant that includes a take-out menu.

The private offices can accommodate from four to 16 people, and are being targeted at established companies and boutique firms as well as out-of-town businesses looking to set up a base in the city, Rayner said.

There will be plenty of hand sanitizing stations and an emphasis on cleanliness, according to a company statement, to deal with “the new reality.”

Designed by architectural firm BVN, And-Co’s office suites and meeting rooms are soundproofed and come fully equipped with top-of-the-line ergonomic furniture.

An interconnected stairway and large operable windows allow for natural light and fresh air while indoor bike storage and EV charging stations are included.

Beyond their private office space, tenants will have access to meditation rooms as well as a kitchen, lounge, an audio-visual production centre and shared meeting rooms.

The total space is 37,000 square feet, which includes the on-site restaurant and wellness studio and atrium on the main floor. There will be two floors of offices, totalling approximately 26,000 square feet.

All of the office space is being offered through 12-month leasing agreements, rather than the five-year to 10-year lease terms common in the industry. The more flexible leases could ease fears of locking into long-term agreements for space that may not be needed if COVID-19 restrictions rampup. Since COVID began, more than 500,000 square feet of Vancouver leased offices has been shoved back into the market as sublease space.

A separate 13,000 square foot office space above And-Co will be either sold or leased, and could be linked to an And-Co tenant space, according to a company email.

 

© Copyright 2020 Western Investor

Study estimates over 2 million Canadians have moved home because of COVID-19

Clayton Jarvis
Mortgage Broker News

In its recent report, Generation Boomerang, financial comparison platform Finder found that COVID-19 has potentially forced millions of Canadians to make changes to their living situations.

Based on a Google survey conducted in June involving Canadian adults in all ten provinces, Finder discovered that one in ten Canadians, equivalent to an estimated 2.8 million people, have seen their living situations altered since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Five percent of respondents said they have moved back in with their parents as a result of COVID-19, with another three percent saying their children have moved back in with them. Extrapolated into numbers, Finder says “about 1.5 million Canadians have said they have moved back in with their parents due to the COVID-19 crisis, and 860,917 parents have said their kids have moved back home.”

The group estimates that the number of Canadians living with their parents may increase to over two million, with another 600,000-plus saying they’re “considering” moving home. It’s a trend Finder’s publisher, Scott Birke, says may not be confined to the pandemic. Rather, it could be the only option young Canadians have for building wealth and establishing their careers.

“Between the high cost of rent in Canada’s big cities and a recession with record levels of unemployment, young people trying to launch or grow careers while paying the bills are now faced with challenges that may seem insurmountable, making returning home to their parents the most attractive option for many of Canada’s young adults,” Birke says.

If moving home to cut down on living costs is indeed fuelling Generation Boomerang, it makes sense that Ontario, home to some of the country’s highest living expenses, has seen the highest number of resident changing their living situations. Six percent of adult children in Ontario said they have moved back in with their parents, a figure higher than any other province. In BC, 15 percent of the population has either experienced, or is expecting, a move; in Quebec, that number is 13 percent.

While Canadians aged 18-24 were most likely to have either moved home or still be contemplating such a move, the report found that parents of adult children have also been making shifts of their own. According to Finder, almost 280,000 Canadians have moved in with their adult children since the start of the pandemic. Another 455,000 are said to be seriously considering doing the same.

“It is safe to assume that many of the parents who moved in with their adult children are also grandparents who are helping to provide childcare for exhausted working parents of young children, who have limited or no childcare options until school begins,” Birke says.

 

Copyright © 2020 Key Media