Ontario now accounts for more than half of all bank mortgages in arrears in Canada, even though the province holds less than 44 per cent of those mortgages, according to a Canada News Media analysis of Canadian Bankers Association data.
The CBA’s latest monthly figures show 7,268 Ontario mortgages were three or more months behind on payments at the end of July, out of 14,270 nationally. That is 50.9 per cent of the national total. Ontario’s share of all mortgages held by CBA reporting banks was 43.7 per cent, or 2,145,993 of 4,911,806.
Ontario is also where almost all of the deterioration is happening. Nationally, the number of mortgages in arrears rose by 2,840 from July 2025. Ontario accounted for 2,420 of those, or about 85 per cent. Outside Ontario, arrears rose 6.4 per cent over the year, from 6,582 to 7,002. In Ontario, they rose 49.9 per cent, from 4,848.
Four years ago, the picture looked very different. In August 2022, when national arrears bottomed out at 7,274, Ontario had just 1,263 mortgages in arrears, a rate of 0.06 per cent and about 17 per cent of the national count. The provincial count has since risen nearly sixfold. Of the 6,996 additional mortgages in arrears nationally since then, 6,005, or about 86 per cent, are in Ontario.
Ontario’s arrears rate reached 0.34 per cent in July, above the national rate of 0.29 per cent. It is the province’s highest rate in the CBA series since April 2011, and the count of 7,268 is the highest since February 2010, when it stood at 7,405. The rate has not fallen in any month this year, climbing from 0.29 per cent in January.
The rest of the country tells a different story. Saskatchewan still has the highest arrears rate in Canada at 0.46 per cent, but its count fell 17.6 per cent over the past year to 547. Alberta’s 1,567 mortgages in arrears are about 30 per cent below their August 2022 level and up just 5.5 per cent from a year ago. Quebec has the lowest rate in the country at 0.19 per cent, with arrears up 2.7 per cent year over year. Manitoba (0.34 per cent) and the Atlantic provinces (0.30 per cent) saw more modest increases in their counts.
British Columbia is the one other province showing notable growth. Its count climbed 22.6 per cent over the year to 1,761, lifting its rate to 0.26 per cent from 0.21 per cent.
The pattern lines up with where housing costs are most stretched against incomes. National Bank of Canada’s Housing Affordability Monitor for the second quarter of 2026 put the mortgage payment on a representative Toronto home at 68.3 per cent of median household income and Hamilton at 57.5 per cent, compared with 51.1 per cent nationally, Canadian Mortgage Trends reported. Only Vancouver, at 79.4 per cent, and Victoria, at 73.9 per cent, were higher among the markets cited, and B.C. is the only other province where arrears grew by more than 20 per cent over the year.
The job market is not helping. Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey showed Ontario employment fell by 18,000 in August, while the national unemployment rate held at 6.4 per cent.
Arrears remain low by historical standards. More than 99 per cent of bank mortgages are current, and Ontario’s rate is still below the 0.42 per cent it reached in late 2009 and early 2010. The CBA figures also cover only mortgages held by its reporting banks, including BMO, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, Scotiabank, TD, Manulife Bank, Laurentian Bank and Equitable Bank. Credit unions and private lenders are not included.
What stands out is the speed of the change. The national count of mortgages in arrears is up 96.2 per cent from its August 2022 low, and the national rate of 0.29 per cent matches its highest level since August 2016. At the same time, the number of mortgages on bank books fell 0.7 per cent over the year to 4.91 million, the lowest since October 2020, Better Dwelling noted in its review of the same data. A shrinking base of loans and a rising number of missed payments both push the rate higher, and in Ontario both are moving in the wrong direction.
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Source: Canadian Bankers Association, Number of Residential Mortgages in Arrears, month ended July 31, 2026. Arrears are defined as three or more months behind. Shares and changes calculated by Canada News Media.
