In this edition:
- Household borrowing reaches near record pace
- Pierre Poilievre first ballot winner in Conservative leadership race
- Canada’s real problem is not job losses, it’s the rush to retire
- Indian international students now majority of Canadian postgrad college graduates
- Ontarians aged 18+ eligible for Bivalent COVID-19 booster dose
Household borrowing reaches near record pace
Canadian households added a near record $56.3 billion of debt in the second quarter of 2022. By comparison, households borrowed a record $61.6 billion in the second quarter of 2021, fueled principally by unprecedented demand for mortgages. Mortgages remained the largest contributor to the heightened market borrowing in the second quarter of 2022 with demand of $48.7 billion, while demand for non-mortgage loans posted two consecutive quarters of heightened activity (+$8.3 billion in the first quarter and +$7.7 billion in the second quarter) not seen since early 2018.
Canadians also continued to build credit card debt, as household credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income increased to 181.7% in the second quarter from 179.7% in the previous quarter. In other words, there was $1.82 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income in the second quarter.
Pierre Poilievre first ballot winner in Conservative leadership race
Pierre Poilievre has been chosen as the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
The veteran Conservative was the clear choice in a first ballot victory, claiming 68.15 per cent of the electoral points among more than 400,000 votes cast by the party’s membership following a seven month race.
Jean Charest, the former Quebec premier who likely had the best chance of preventing Poilievre from winning the leadership, earned just 16 per cent of support on the first ballot, placing him in distant second place.
Canada’s real problem is not job losses, it’s the rush to retire
More than a year after the Great Resignation took hold in the United States, Canada is grappling with its own greyer version: The Great Retirement.
Canada’s labor force grew in August, but it fell the previous two months and remains smaller than before the summer as tens of thousands of people simply stopped working. Much of this can be chalked up to more Canadians than ever retiring, said Statistics Canada.
Indian international students now majority of Canadian postgraduate college grads
College postgraduate credential programs—typically requiring a previous postsecondary credential as a prerequisite for entry and aimed at providing career-specific skills—have grown in popularity, accounting for 13% of all college graduations in 2019, more than double the share (6%) recorded five years before in 2014.
The largest part of this increase is due to the growing number of international students at colleges. International students made up the majority (67%) of graduates from college postgraduate programs in 2019, with Indian students accounting for more than half (53%) of graduates. This contrasts the situation in 2014, when less than one-third (30%) of graduates from these programs were international students.
Ontarians aged 18+ eligible for Bivalent COVID-19 booster dose
Based on guidance from Health Canada and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the Ontario government is offering the bivalent COVID-19 booster dose to all Ontarians aged 18 and over, beginning with the most vulnerable populations.
To prioritize distribution to these populations, new booster appointments for Ontarians aged 18 and over will be paused until September 26.
Appointments can be booked through the COVID-19 vaccination portal or by calling the Provincial Vaccine Contact Centre (PVCC) at 1-833-943-3900.
Focus on Small Business
Big Six banks’ loan programs for Black entrepreneurs off to slow start
The Globe and Mail
The Black entrepreneur lending programs from Canada’s Big Six banks have been off to a slow start, with the institutions indicating they have approved few loans this year.
In the wake of the killing of George Floyd – a Black man murdered by a white police officer in Minnesota in 2020 – the banks, the federal government and Black business organizations held talks for months about how to increase funding to Black entrepreneurs, who disproportionately face systemic barriers to accessing capital. All parties nearly came together to form a new national lending initiative, but by the summer of 2021, the banks had walked away to design and run their own programs.
A new non-profit, the Federation of African Canadian Economics (FACE), now administers the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, the federal program.
However, the banks have received criticism from some Black entrepreneurs about a lack of transparency around how these loans differ from the banks’ other lending products and whether any loans have actually been handed out under their programs.
Founders, are you burning out? Try these 3 strategies
Entrepreneur
First, congratulations to you for doing the impossible. Everyone knows the statistics behind how many startups fail each year, and you’re already beating the odds. The wind is at your back. You’re smart and motivated. You have a huge vision for your company, and you’ve hired a killer team. You’ve raised your first round of funding or bootstrapped your company to profitability. And despite all of the momentum and successes, there’s still a high likelihood that you’ll eventually burn out.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. Founder burnout is well documented, and the majority of entrepreneurs understand the challenge they’re signing up for when they start their companies. It doesn’t make the experience any easier, and no amount of exercise, sleep or therapy will totally eliminate what you’re feeling now.
Through the Daily Updates, the GNCC aims to deliver important business news in a timely manner. We disseminate all news and information we feel will be important to businesses. Inclusion in the Daily Update is not an endorsement by the GNCC.
