Canadian Funding Corp. Reviews CMHC Statistics

This post makes the “Too funny” category for the featured video’s surprise ending. If you start the video, please see it through to the end.

By way of Brendan King’s Twitter stream.

As a licensed Asian, I found this particular misunderstanding quite amusing and so did the other Asians in my office, but discriminatory practices are no laughing matter and fair treatment for all human beings is a cornerstone of a civilized society.

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code was written to protect people from discriminatory practices. The following are “prohibited grounds” for discrimination under the Code;

(i) religion;
(ii) creed;
(iii) marital status;
(iv) family status;
(v) sex;
(vi) sexual orientation;
(vii) disability;
(viii) age;
(ix) colour;
(x) ancestry;
(xi) nationality;
(xii) place of origin;
(xiii) race or perceived race; and
(xiv) receipt of public assistance.

Section 10 and section 11 of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code deal specifically with discriminatory practices in the sale or leasing of real estate.

Discrimination in the purchase of property prohibited

10(1) No person shall, on the basis of a prohibited ground:

(a) deny to any person or class of persons the opportunity to purchase any commercial unit or any place of dwelling that is advertised or in any way represented as being available for sale;

(b) deny to any person or class of persons the opportunity to purchase or otherwise acquire land or an interest in land; or

(c) discriminate against any person or class of persons with respect to any term of the purchase or other acquisition of any commercial unit or any place of dwelling, land or any interest in land.

(2) Repealed. 2007, c.39, s.4.

(3) Nothing in subsection (1) prohibits the sale, the offering for sale or the advertising for sale of a place of dwelling for occupancy by persons over 55 years of age exclusively.

Discrimination in occupancy of commercial unit or housing accommodation is prohibited

11(1) No person, directly or indirectly, alone or with another, or by the interposition of another shall, on the basis of a prohibited ground:

(a) deny to any person or class of persons occupancy of any commercial unit or any housing accommodation; or

(b) discriminate against any person or class of persons with respect to any term of occupancy of any commercial unit or any housing accommodation.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to discrimination on the basis of the sex of a person with respect to housing accommodation, where the occupancy of all the housing accommodation in a building, except that of the owner or the owner’s family, is restricted to individuals who are of the same sex.

(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to discrimination on the basis of the sex or sexual orientation of a person with respect to the renting or leasing of any dwelling unit in any housing accommodation that is composed of not more than two dwelling units, where the owner of the housing accommodation or the owner’s family resides in one of the two dwelling units.

(4) Nothing in subsection (1) prohibits the renting or leasing, the offering for rent or lease or the advertising for rent or lease, of any housing accommodation for occupancy by persons over 55 years of age exclusively.

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code is here.

I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.

Follow our daily updates on Twitter @SaskatoonHomes.

Norm Fisher

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO

The Canadian Funding Corporation has noticed a few interesting trends in terms of who is renovating, and what they are doing.

The majority of homeowner households renovated to update/add value or prepare to sell.  The main reason given by households across all ten centres for renovating in 2007 was that they wanted to update, add value, or to prepare to sell their home. The second most popular reason for renovating was that the dwelling needed repairs.

Renovations to increase the energy efficiency of homes remained popular in Halifax (10 per cent) and Winnipeg (8 per cent) in 2007 despite a decrease in the incidence compared to 2006. Close to a third of households in Ottawa stated that their home needed major repairs, the largest share across the ten centres.

Close to a third of homeowner households remodelled a room

Thirty-one per cent of renovator households remodelled a room, making this the most popular type of renovation completed in 2007. Painting/wallpapering and installing hard surface flooring/wall-to-wall carpeting were undertaken by 27 and 26 per cent of renovator households last year, respectively.

There are some differences by centre in the proportion of renovations undertaken last year:

• Fences, driveways, patios, swimming pools or other major landscaping renovations were more popular in Ottawa (20 per cent) and Edmonton (20 per cent), than in Montréal (14 per cent).
• Hard surface flooring and wall-to-wall carpeting were more popular in Edmonton (36 per cent) and St. John’s (35 per cent) than in Québec (16 per cent).
• Door and window renovations were more popular in St. John’s (30 per cent) than in Vancouver (14 per cent).

The following defitions, quoted by Marty Lapedus, are used in the CMHC statistical reports. They are all in accordance with the Canadian Census.

The definitions of types of dwellings, used in the Surveys, are in accordance with those in the Census.

A “single-detached” dwelling is a building containing only one dwelling unit, which is completely separated on all sides from any other dwelling or structure.

A “semi-detached” dwelling is one of two dwellings located side-by-side in a building, adjoining no other structure and separated by a common or party wall extending from ground to roof.

A “row” dwelling is a ground-oriented dwelling attached to two or more similar units so that the resulting row structure contains three or more units.

An “apartment and other” dwelling includes all dwellings other than those described above, including structures commonly referred to as duplexes, triplexes, double duplexes and row duplexes.

Other Census Definitions:

Census metropolitan area (CMA) and census agglomeration (CA) – 2006 Census

The general concept of these standard units is one of an urban core, and the adjacent urban and rural areas that have a high degree of social and economic integration with that urban core, as measured by commuting flows derived from Census of Population data on place of work.

Census metropolitan area (CMA)

To form a census metropolitan area (CMA), the urban core must have a population of at least 50,000 and the area (CMA) must have a population of at least 100,000. Once an area becomes a CMA, it is retained as a CMA even if the population of its urban core declines below 50,000.

Census agglomeration (CA)

To form a census agglomeration (CA), the urban core must have a population of at least 10,000. If the population of the urban core of a CA declines below 10,000, the CA is retired.

As of March 2003, CAs are no longer required to have an urban core population count of 100,000 to be promoted to the status of a CMA. Instead, CAs will assume the status of a CMA if they have attained a total population of at least 100,000 and an urban core of 50,000 or more.

Census subdivision (CSD) – 2006 Census

Census subdivision is a general term for municipalities as determined by provincial or territorial
legislation, or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes. Municipalities are units of  local government.