Ron Butler Profile picture
Mar 31 5 tweets 1 min read Read on X
How Bad Is It That Canada's Economy Is Completely Dependent On Tax Policy?

Canada has gone down such a wrong road

Yesterday an announcement changing a Tax Policy was done to save the Residential Construction Industry

From a Tax Policy that killed the Construction Industry

2/
Which is fucking nuts!

We taxed the Housing Industry literally to DEATH: taxes, fees & levies were 30% of the price of a new home compared with 2% 30 years ago

Then the Government announces a TEMPORARY waiver of the taxes

1 Year for HST
3 Years for 50% off Development Fees

3/
And the Residential Construction Industry comes out of a Coma

But lets stop & realize just how incredibly BAD the whole thing really is

Tax Policy now rules Industry

In Manitoba Taxes were removed from Fast Food sold in Grocery Stores but remains on Restaurant Food

4/
What the hell sense does that make?

Does Manitoba hate Restaurants?

But this madness never stops

Endless tinkering with tax policy created an Industry of Tax Preparers

Accountants spend days learning new Business Tax Changes EVERY YEAR

Never any year without changes

5/
Look I understand we need taxes

Society needs services that Government's supply

But the size of Government & Taxation have grown MASSIVELY in the last 20 years

Same with Regulations

We need huge change to reduce Government & Taxes

We need it now before it's too late

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More from @ronmortgageguy

Mar 9
Oil Breaks Through $100 A Barrel & Mortgage Rates Go Up As 5 - Yr Canada Bond Yields Jump 9% In A Week

What to do if you are in the middle of purchasing a home or have a Mortgage Renewal in the next 3 months?

LOCK IN A RATE NOW!

There are a few low rates still around today

2/
But likely gone tomorrow or the next day

I have covered this story before

Oil price up = Inflation up = Canada Bond Yields up = Mortgage Rates up

But what about Variable, which has nothing to do with Bond Yields?

Variable is a Bank of Canada decision

What will BoC do?

3/
Nothing for now: NO CHANGE at the next BoC Announcement on March 18th

But what about the future?

It's 100% up to how long the War in the Middle East lasts

If it's over next week all good at BoC

If the War is still raging in June: Look Out

Rate Hikes be coming

4/
Read 6 tweets
Mar 3
The Trickery Never Ends In Real Estate Sales: Let's List The House The House For $250K Less Than We Will Take

For the last 20 years Residential Real Estate has used some of the worst Sales Tactics

Not every Realtor does this but too many do it endlessly

Fake list prices

2/
For a hundred years Real Estate was sold by offering a house at slightly above the price you wanted & some back & forth negotiations happened & the Buyer & Seller arrived at an acceptable sale price

When GTA house prices went nuts in the early 2000's this concept died

3/
Instead houses were priced to attract an Auction

Multiple BIDS was the only way to sell a home

Real Estate Agents boasted about 10 bids, 20 bids 40 bids

At higher prices

In 2021 things were so crazy there was a BULLY offer

Before all offers were in a HUGE offer appeared

4/
Read 6 tweets
Feb 24
246 New Construction Homes Sold In The GTA In January: Lowest Since 1981: WTF Is Going On Here?

Lowest in 45 Years? Even Though the Population is more than DOUBLE

This a truly disturbing number

Why is it happening? How did we get here? When will it return to normal?

2/
Let's start with a very important stat: 80% of GTA New Home Sales for the last 8 years are HI-RISE

Therefore if Hi-Rise Development stops New Home Construction stops

Once this Hi-Rise concept is understood the rest of the reasons for the New Home Catastrophe fall in place

3/
The Greenbelt creates an artificial moat for Development around the GTA that limits construction of Single Family, Semi's & Towns by dramatically increasing land cost for New Construction of those types of Housing by increasing land SCARCITY artificially

It's just a fact

4/
Read 5 tweets
Feb 19
Government Spending At All Levels Has Just Gone Nuts: There's No End In Sight

Government of Canada Deficit: Non-Covid Record High

BC Deficit: All Time High

Manitoba Deficit: All Time High

We all know how big the Deficits are in Ontario & Quebec

Why is this happening?

2/
The answer to this question is in 3 parts:

Because they can

Because spending is easy

Because it's politically beneficial

Let's break it down

There's no Balanced Budget requirement for the Feds & Provinces: most US State Constitutions forbid any Budget Deficits

3/
We all know spending is easy & budgets are hard, it takes actual discipline to save money & in Politics spending buys VOTES so why not spend?

A VERY important thing, huge deficits almost never defeat governments & even higher taxes can be survived if government is careful

4/
Read 6 tweets
Dec 4, 2025
Another Day Another Bank Consolidation: Canada With Few Banks Wants To Have Fewer

Just a couple of days after the Fairstone purchase of Laurentian Bank, Equitable Bank aquires PC Financial from Loblaws

It's a smaller transaction but meaningful

It shows a pattern

2/
PC Financial was a good idea 25 years ago

Loblaws had millions of people moving through it's stores every month: why not sell them Financial Services & roll those services into a Loyalty Plan using a brand Loblaws had already spent millions to establish

No Brainer?

3/
At the time it did seem like a great idea

And it sorta worked for awhile

Then it started to whither

Because banking went all digital

Those kiosks in Loblaws weren't convenient anymore

Your phone is convenient

Other problems of being a small bank plagued PC

4/
Read 6 tweets
Nov 28, 2025
Brampton House Prices Down 31% From Peak: Will It Go Lower? Why Did It Happen?

The TRREB system says Brampton house prices have fallen 31% from Feb 2022 to October 2025

$1.346M to $934K

That's a shit ton of losses, likely another 10% to 15% more to go

WTF Happened?

2/
Power Of Sales Happened

Lenders are taking alot of homes from Borrowers who cannot make mortgage payments & those homes need to be sold FAST

Why so fast?

Because lenders, half of them Private or Alternative Lenders (not banks) need the money back

And don't have a choice

3/
Once you are in the process of Court Ordered Power of Sale proceedings, the rule is you sell it, no changing your mind & rent for a year: the lender must sell

And most Lenders also realize the prices will NOT recover in 2026: so just SELL

Brampton = Lots of Power of Sales

4/
Read 6 tweets

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