With Canada’s annual inflation at its highest point in over 30 years, experts say Canadians can anticipate their cost of living to increase significantly, warning that prices will likely not decrease for some time.
According to Statistics Canada, the annual rate of inflation hit 6.7 per cent in March, the fastest year-over-year increase in the consumer price index in over 31 years.
StatCan noted in its consumer price index this is the highest reading since inflation hit 6.9 per cent back in January 1991 when the GST was introduced.
Experts say a number of global factors continue to impact inflation, specifically prices for oil and food, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and supply chain issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic – issues that likely won’t be resolved anytime soon.
Another factor, experts say is that wages have not increased with the sudden rise in inflation, limiting consumers’ purchasing power across income levels.
As a result, everything from filling up your car to eating at a restaurant with friends is expected to cost more than what it used to.
CTVNews.ca looks at what Canadians can expect to cost more right now and how they may be able to save money amid rising inflation.
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Last week, the Bank of Canada increased its key policy rate by half a percentage point, raising the benchmark interest rate to one per cent with warnings that more rate hikes are to come this year.
Rising interest rates are expected to encourage saving and curb borrowing and spending, helping cool Canada’s housing market and the cost of goods. But experts warn the dampening effect of higher interest rates won’t be immediate.
Toronto-based real estate expert David Fleming says the interest rate increase will lead to a decrease in housing affordability for homebuyers.
“What we’re talking about with an increase in rates is purchasing power decreasing,” Fleming told CTV’s Your Morning last week.
If someone was previously approved for a home that costs $750,000, for example, they would only be able to afford something that costs $650,000 following a hike in interest rates, he said.
For those who already own a home, particularly anyone holding a variable-rate mortgage, they can expect to see a direct impact on mortgage rates, Fleming said. This also applies to those with personal or home equity lines of credit, as these products are directly linked to the central bank’s benchmark rate.
Those with fixed-rate mortgages, however, will only see a change in rates once they renew their mortgage, Fleming said. He added those in a variable rate mortgage might want to look at locking in their mortgage to save on future hikes.
Experts have said further interest rate hikes may also impact renters, as landlords look to increase rent to balance their rising mortgage payments.
Don Drummond, an economist with Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., spoke to CTV News Channel on Saturday, saying he believes the BoC should have raised interest rates “quite a while ago” to prevent a higher percentage of Canadians from taking out variable mortgages.
Drummond noted that the default risk could be higher for these borrowers should rates rise further.
“We have an unusually high portion of mortgages are variable mortgages… so the increase in interest rates will feed into mortgages more quickly than it would a few years ago,” he said.
Despite this, Drummond said mortgage rates are still “extraordinarily low by almost any basis in comparison, other than the last couple of years.”
But with costs rising in other aspects of everyday life, such as food and gas, experts say some Canadians might not be able to manage even the slightest increase in mortgage payments or rent.
GAS PRICES
Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, says Canadians should brace for an expensive summer at the pumps as the price of oil continues to skyrocket, warning a $2 per litre price tag may become a common occurrence in many regions.
McTeague previously told CP24 the jump is due, in part, to the switch from winter to summer gasoline—a yearly event that typically drives prices up.
However, McTeague said many factors are compounding the price at the pumps, from a weak Canadian dollar and less investment in traditional fuel sources.
But he warns that summer prices could be driven even higher should there be any other disruptions to fuel production or distribution globally, such as a hurricane or pipeline disruptions, making a “bad situation worse.”
“We will see, mark my words, $2 a litre on several days throughout the summer this year,” he said.
Canadians say they are adjusting their budgets and cutting spending elsewhere, such as on groceries or travel plans, to offset the pain at the pumps, with many expressing concerns about being able to afford food or be able to get to work amid rising gas prices.
GROCERY COSTS AND DINING OUT
According to Statistic Canada’s consumer price index, grocery store prices rose 8.7 per cent year-over-year in March 2022, the fastest annual rate since March 2009. StatCan said this was aided by the largest annual increase in dairy and egg prices since February 1983.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also been blamed for jumps in pasta prices and cereal, the latter rising at the fastest annual pace since June 1990.
While they haven’t rose as significantly, StatCan reports that dine-in menu prices are also up 5.4 per cent year-over-year.
Sylvain Charlebois, Dalhousie University professor of food distribution and policy, told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday that food prices are “skyrocketing” and likely won’t get back to pre-pandemic levels for some time.
“Right now, we’re dealing with an unusual perfect storm and that includes higher input costs and, of course, supply chain problems incurred by the pandemic — and that’s not over because the new variant has actually created some new issues globally,” Charlebois said in a telephone interview.
“So we’re not we’re not out of the woods yet when it comes to supply chain problems.”
Charlebois said Canadians should actually expect further price increases for food. Due to rising inflation, Charlebois said food production costs have increased, resulting in higher price tags at grocery stores. Until those costs go down, he says neither will food prices.
However, to help limit the impact of inflation, Charlebois suggests Canadians consider planting a garden and limit their food waste as much as possible. This includes taking stock of what is already in one’s pantry before going grocery shopping, as well as prepping meals ahead of time.
“Whatever you buy, eat it. Make sure you eat it. That’s really the most important thing,” he said.
EXPERT TIPS TO HELP TAME INFLATION
As inflation increases to levels not seen in decades, experts are advising Canadians to take advantage of coupons and points programs, and purchase affordable alternatives where possible to help mitigate the financial strain caused by rising prices.
Laurence Booth, a finance professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, previously told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview that the rising cost of gas, rent and groceries means Canadians need to “shop around” if they want to find the most affordable option for their budget.
“When they start looking at prices increasing, they substitute other items that they probably wouldn’t have bought except for the fact that what they want has gone up significantly in price,” he said.
“They’ll substitute prices over commodities that haven’t got up to the same degree.”
Booth said the same goes for housing. He said renters and those looking to buy may adjust their searches to a one-bedroom apartment instead of two or a condo instead of a house, solely because of the price difference.
Beyond shopping for more affordable options, Anne Arbour, education manager at the Credit Counselling Society, says rising prices means Canadians need to focus more on tracking their expenses.
“It’s getting back to basics and really knowing your numbers, because you don’t know what impact [inflation] could be having if you don’t know what you’re actually spending,” Arbour previously told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview.
Arbour said it is important for Canadians to understand where their money is going in order to maintain a budget.
Arbour noted that there are multiple ways to stretch a dollar. She suggests using apps that monitor the flyers in one’s area to find the best deals, as well as rebate programs that offer cashback. Arbour said rewards programs that offer discounts via the collection of points may also be an option.
“As long as you’re not shopping in a way just to get the deals, but you’re actually buying things that you will actually use and not throw out,” she said.
With files from The Canadian Press, as well as CTVNews.ca writers Nicole Bogart and Jennifer Ferreira
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning selected Victor Hedman as the team captain on Wednesday as training camp opened, making the big defenseman the successor to Steven Stamkos.
Hedman, who is going into his 16th season with Tampa Bay, was considered the obvious choice to get the “C” after the Lightning did not re-sign Stamkos and their longtime captain left to join Nashville.
“Victor is a cornerstone player that is extremely well respected by his teammates, coaches and peers across the NHL,” general manager Julien BriseBois said. “Over the past 15 seasons, he has been a world-class representative for our organization both on and off the ice. Victor embodies what it means to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is more than ready for this exciting opportunity. We are looking forward to watching him flourish in his new role as we continue to work towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”
The 33-year-old from Sweden was a key contributor in the Lightning hoisting the Cup back to back in 2020 and ’21, including playoff MVP honors on the first of those championship runs. Hedman also took home the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2018 and finished in the top three in voting five other seasons.
Ryan McDonagh, who was reacquired early in the offseason in a trade with the Predators, and MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov will serve as alternate captains with the Lightning moving on to the post-Stamkos era.
TORONTO – While Toronto FC is looking to improve its position on the pitch, general manager Jason Hernandez is trying to do the same off it.
That has been easier said than done this season.
Sending winger Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to CF Montreal for up to $1.3 million (all dollar figures in U.S. funds) in general allocation money before the secondary transfer window closed in early August helped set the stage for future moves.
But there have been plenty of obstacles, which Hernandez has been working to clear.
“We feel a lot more confident going into this upcoming off-season that we did the one prior,” said Hernandez. “There’s a level of what I would say booby-traps that were uncovered when I first got the (GM) role at the end of last summer.”
The club is paying off departed forwards Adam Diomande and Ayo Akinola as well as a $500,000 payment due in 2024 to Belgium’s Anderlecht for Jamaican international defender Kemar Lawrence. That payment was part of the transfer fee for Lawrence, who joined TFC from Anderlecht in May 2021 and was traded to Minnesota United in March 2022.
Diomande was waived while Akinola’s contract was terminated by mutual agreement.
“That comes to an end in ’25, which is nice,” said Hernandez. “We had to suffer from a salary cap perspective this season. But those things coming off, the Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty money coming in, we’re going to be in a position to make some good additions, which is positive.”
While MLS clubs are allowed one contract buyout per year, Toronto had already used its on former captain Michel Bradley, who retired after last season. Bradley had previously restructured his contract, deferring money.
TFC’s only other move during the summer transfer window was the signing of free-agent defender Henry Wingo. Hernandez said the club knew going into the window that it was likely limited to the one acquisition “unless other business happened”
“We knew we had this bucket of money and we knew we were going to go get Henry,” said Hernandez.
While the sale of the highly touted Marshall-Rutty opened up other possibilities, it came on the eve of the transfer window closing. And the team did not like what it saw in the free-agent market.
“A lot of the opportunities we were presented in the free agency space felt more like a short-term, Band-Aid decision versus what actually the club probably needs.”
Hernandez was not willing to take in players who came with a “club-friendly” salary cap charge in 2024 and a much bigger number in 2025.
Instead, Toronto promoted forward Charlie Sharp and wingback Nate Edwards to the first team from TFC 2 ahead of last Friday’s roster freeze.
MLS teams are operating on a salary budget of $5.47 million this season, which covers up to 20 players on the senior roster (clubs can elect to spread that number across 18 players). But the league has several mechanisms that allow those funds to go further, including using allocation money (both general and targeted) to buy down salaries.
Designated players only count $683,750 — the maximum salary charge — against the cap no matter their actual pay. Toronto’s Lorenzo Insigne is actually earning $15.4 million with fellow Italian Federico Bernardeschi collecting $6.295 million and Canadian Richie Laryea $1.208 million.
Hernandez says Laryea’s contract can — and “very likely” will — be restructured so as to remove the designated player status.
There are benefits in going with just two designated players rather than three.
Teams that elect to go with two DPs can sign up to four players as part of the league’s “U22 Initiative.” The pluses of that structure include a reduced salary cap charge for the young players and up to an extra $2 million in general allocation money.
Hernandez says the club is currently pondering whether that is the way to go.
Captain Jonathan Osorio who is earning $836,370 this season, restructured his deal to allow the team to sign Laryea as a DP. In doing so, Osorio had his option year guaranteed so his contact runs through 2026.
Hernandez and coach John Herdman will have decisions to make come the end of the year.
The contracts of goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh ($94,200), defenders Kevin Long ($277,500), Shane O’Neill ($413,000) and Kobe Franklin ($100,520), midfielder Alonso Coello ($94,050) and Brandon Servania ($602,710), and forward Prince Owusu ($807,500) — all on the club’s senior roster — expire at the end of 2024 with club options to follow.
While there is more work to do, Hernandez believes TFC is on the right road.
Toronto, which finished last in the league at 4-20-10 in 2023, went into Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus in a playoff position at eighth in the East at 11-15-3.
“By every metric, we are miles ahead of where we were at this point last year,” said Hernandez.
“That’s a low bar, so that’s not saying much,” he added.
But he believes TFC is “quite competitive” when it has all its players at its disposal.
“To get results in this final stretch, we’re going to need our prominent players to really show up and have big performances, and be supported by the rest of the cast.”
After Columbus, TFC plays at Colorado and Chicago and hosts the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami. The club also travels to Vancouver for the Canadian Championship final.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
Mackenzie Hughes might just be what the International team needs as this year’s Presidents Cup.
Hughes, from Dundas, Ont., is one of three Canadians on the squad competing in the match-play event at Royal Montreal Golf Club next week.
His putting skills, cool demeanour under pressure, pre-existing connections with teammates and clubhouse leadership could help the team — made up of non-American players outside Europe — end a nine-tournament losing skid to the United States at the biennial event.
“I’ve had this one circled on the calendar for a few years now,” said Hughes on joining fellow Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners as captain’s picks on the 12-player International team. “I pretty much knew that when it was announced the tournament would be in Canada and that Mike Weir was going to be the captain, you pretty much knew where that was going to go.
“To get that call from (Weir) is really special because he’s the guy that I looked up to, we all looked up to, as Canadian golfers.”
Pendrith and Conners are returning to the team after a disappointing 17 1/2 to 12 1/2 loss to the United States at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. in 2022.
Hughes was ranked 14th on the International team standings in 2022 and could have easily been included on that squad after Australia’s Cameron Smith and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann were ruled ineligible after jumping ship to the rival LIV Golf circuit.
However, captain Trevor Immelman of South Africa instead chose the lower ranked Christiaan Bezuidenhout (16th) of South Africa, Pendrith (18th), South Korea’s Kim Si-woo (20th) and Australia’s Cameron Davis (25th).
“I certainly wanted to be on that team but also I understood the picks,” said Hughes, who lives in Charlotte and plays at Quail Hollow regularly. “I think that like a lot of guys that don’t get picked you more so look back on your own play and I wish I had made that selection easier for them.
“I didn’t do myself any favours in the six weeks leading up to it and that’s a hard pill to swallow.”
It may have been a costly oversight on Immelman’s part, as finishing holes was an issue for the International team in 2022 and Hughes is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. This season he’s third in shots gained around the green and fifth in shots gained from putting.
“It doesn’t mean that just because I was there it would have turned the tide, but I’d like to think maybe I could have helped,” said Hughes. “That’s why you play the matches. You have to get out there and do it.”
This year Hughes made it easier for Weir, the Canadian golf legend from Brights Grove, Ont., to choose him. Hughes is 51st in the FedEx Cup Fall standings and has made the cut seven tournaments in a row, including a tie for fourth at last week’s Procore Championship.
“Mac played very solidly all year. Really like his short game, an all-around short game,” said Weir on Sept. 3 after announcing his captain’s picks. “He’s one of the elite and best short game guys on the PGA Tour
“I also love Mac’s grit. So that was the reason I picked him.”
Hughes’s intangible qualities go beyond grit.
He, Pendrith and Conners will arrive at Royal Montreal as a unit within the International squad, having become close friends while playing on Kent State University’s men’s golf team before turning pro. They’re also part of a group of Canadians, including Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., that regularly practice together before PGA Tour events.
“To have those guys with me is really icing on the cake, it’s very special,” said Hughes. “Opportunities like this don’t come around very often: to play this kind of team competition, which is already hard to do, but to play with some of your best friends, it almost seems scripted.”
An 11-year professional, Hughes has also been a member of the PGA Tour’s player advisory council the past two years and has been an outspoken advocate for making professional golf more accessible to fans.
Although Weir relied heavily on analytics to make his captain’s selections, Hughes’s character came up again and again when asked why he was named to the team.
“I just have a gut feeling with Mac that he has what it takes in these big moments,” said Weir. “They’re big pressure moments, and I have a feeling he’s going to do great in those moments.”
DP WORLD TOUR — Aaron Cockerill of Stony Mountain, Man., continues his chase for a spot in the Europe-based DP World Tour’s playoffs. The top 50 players on the Race to Dubai standings make the DP World Tour Championship and Cockerill moved eight spots up to 39th in the rankings after tying for ninth at last week’s Irish Open. He’ll be back at it on Thursday at the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England.
KORN FERRY TOUR — Myles Creighton of Digby, N.S., is ranked 38th on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour’s points list. He leads the Canadian contingent into this week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. He’ll be joined at Ohio State University Golf Club — Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio by Edmonton’s Wil Bateman (53rd), Etienne Papineau (65th) of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., and Sudarshan Yellamaraju (99th) of Mississauga, Ont.
CHAMPIONS TOUR — Calgary’s Stephen Ames is the lone Canadian at this week’s Pure Insurance Championship. He’s No. 2 on the senior circuit’s points list. The event will start Friday and be played at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Monterey, Calif.
LPGA TOUR — There are four Canadians in this week’s Kroger City Championship. Savannah Grewal (97th in the Race to CME Globe Rankings) of Mississauga, Ont., Hamilton’s Alena Sharp (115th), and Maude-Aimee Leblanc (142nd) of Sherbrooke, Que., will all tee it up at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio.
EPSON TOUR — Vancouver’s Leah John is the low Canadian heading into the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout. She’s 54th in the second-tier tour’s points list. She’ll be joined by Maddie Szeryk (118th) of London, Ont., and Brigitte Thibault (119th) of Rosemere, Que., at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado, Ark.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
