Ottawa's $5 billion supports fund copies Toronto's Dunn House

Ottawa has modelled a new $5 billion fund on Dunn House, a Toronto supportive housing building, the federal government said. Supportive housing pairs a permanent home with on-site health and social supports. Dunn House, Canada’s first social medicine housing project, opened in 2024 and houses 51 formerly homeless residents. There, early results showed emergency department visits among residents fell 52%.

Ottawa says Budget 2026 aims to end homelessness within 10 years, backed by nearly $30 billion. Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin promoted the plan on November 7 at Toronto Community Housing’s Regent Park Revitalization Project. The fund will build facilities combining housing, health care and addiction and mental health treatment. It is delivered through Build Canada Homes, a federal Crown corporation for affordable housing supply.

Under the plan, Ottawa pays for construction of supportive homes, while provinces and territories pay for operations and services.

In Toronto, the City counted 12,196 people experiencing homelessness on October 22, 2025. On October 1, Build Canada Homes committed $25 million for 80 units at the first of three Toronto sites in the Social Medicine Housing Initiative. University Health Network, a Toronto hospital network, and the City plan about 200 homes across the three sites. But funding for the next phase is conditional on due diligence and final agreements, and about $27 million from the City needs Council approval.

Sources: Government of Canada · Prime Minister of Canada · Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada · City of Toronto

GWL buys Toronto's Citigroup Place tower for Canada Life

GWL Realty Advisors, a Canadian real estate investment advisor for pension funds and institutional clients, said it bought Citigroup Place, a Class A, or top-grade, office tower at 123 Front Street West in Toronto, for an institutional client. RENX reported that the client is The Canada Life Assurance Company. CBRE Canada said on X that it sold the tower with RBC Capital Markets, calling it the first fully marketed office asset of scale to close in downtown Toronto since 2021.

GWL said the tower is 93% leased and has direct PATH connectivity and immediate access to Union Station. According to the listing brochure, the weighted-average lease term, the average time left on leases, is 7.9 years. Two tenants, Citigroup’s Canadian headquarters and Teranet, have also recently renewed long term, GWL said.

The sale comes as downtown Toronto’s office market tightens: CBRE found that office vacancy fell by 90 basis points (hundredths of a percentage point) in the third quarter of 2026, the biggest drop among Canadian markets. Steven Marino of GWL said return-to-office mandates and the lack of new supply are behind that tightening.

Map: 123 Front Street West, Toronto. © OpenStreetMap contributors

Sources: GWL Realty Advisors · RENX · CBRE Canada on X · CBRE Canada

York University says web forms from 2007 were stolen

CityNews reported that York University is investigating the theft of personal data from online forms filled in between 2007 and October 2026. The forms span 19 years, so the question is how much of what was taken puts people at risk.

York said the forms served many kinds of university business, including meeting registrations, residence applications and general surveys. The breach, discovered on October 25, was limited to a list of websites and faculties that York has posted. The investigation found no evidence that the attacker got beyond the affected websites into other parts of the university.

York said most of the stolen information was basic, such as York ID numbers and contact details, and is not the kind linked to a higher risk of identity fraud. But a small number of people had government identification or financial account information exposed. What was taken varies from person to person.

For those whose government or financial information was exposed, York is offering two years of free TransUnion credit monitoring and identity theft protection. It tells all affected people to watch for suspicious emails, texts and calls, to monitor their financial accounts, and to use strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication. York said it has improved security on its web forms and reported the incident to Ontario’s privacy commissioner and to law enforcement. Anyone who wants to know exactly what was taken can email [email protected], and York will first verify their identity.

Sources: CityNews · York University

Unifor says Stellantis's silence confirms Brampton plant sale

CP24 reported that Unifor, the union bargaining with Stellantis, reads the carmaker’s refusal to confirm a sale as proof that its idled Brampton plant is sold. That reading rests on a Friday meeting, where, Global News reported, Unifor’s bargaining team said Stellantis would not confirm or deny a finalized sale or give a timeline for answering.

The only deal on record is a possible one: in September Stellantis signed a memorandum of understanding with Roshel, a Brampton armoured-vehicle maker, for a potential sale, and no finalized sale has been confirmed. Roshel describes itself as one of the world’s largest makers of smart armoured vehicles, and NASA ordered its Senator vehicles to carry astronauts to the launchpad. The plant, which laid off more than 2,000 workers when it halted operations in 2023, is in the Toronto economic region, and Unifor’s bargaining committee paused talks with Stellantis in Toronto.

The stakes reach beyond one plant: in 2024 Ontario’s motor vehicle and parts industry employed 148,300 people, Job Bank said. Parts makers hold 66% of those jobs against 29% in assembly, so a plant’s fate affects its suppliers too.

Map: Brampton, Peel Region. © OpenStreetMap contributors

Sources: CP24 · Global News · Roshel · Job Bank (Government of Canada) · Unifor

Budget exempts new homes from foreign-buyer ban

CP24 reported that Ottawa will let foreign buyers buy new homes again, in the budget presented on Thursday, November 5. The question is whether they will buy the thousands of unsold new condos in Toronto and Vancouver.

Yahoo News Canada reported that the budget extends the ban on foreign buyers of existing homes to January 1, 2029, but exempts new construction. Daily Hive reported that the budget gives no eligibility rules or start date for the exemption. The exemption does not touch provincial measures meant to discourage foreign buyers; realtor Lucy Hua said Ontario has a 25% foreign-buyer tax.

Some developers argue foreign buyers could clear unsold units and supply the presales, sales made before building, that finance new projects. That matters because Toronto condo starts fell 55% to 9,885 in 2025, the fewest since 2007, Statistics Canada said.

But Ms Hua is skeptical that foreign buyers will return, even with the exemption. Yinnon Geva, a University of Toronto assistant professor, also questions whether the exemption aims at affordability.

Sources: CP24 · Canadian Mortgage Trends · Yahoo News Canada · Daily Hive · Statistics Canada

12,196 people were experiencing homelessness in Toronto on October 22, 2025, according to the City’s point-in-time count. The City said its shelters are full every night, with demand above the spaces available.

Toronto: -4.9% in September 2026, down 1.2 points from -3.7% in September 2025. Toronto is 2.9 points below Canada (-2.0%).

Source: Statistics Canada, new housing price index, table 18-10-0205-01

Supportive housing: permanent homes that come with on-site health and social supports. Ottawa cites Toronto’s Dunn House, Canada’s first social medicine housing project, as the model for its new $5 billion Integrated Supports Fund.

• Weather: Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers early in the morning. Wind northwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light in the morning. High 11°C. Overnight low 6°C.

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• Civic: New council term begins in 6 days (Sunday, November 15)

• TSX: 35,789.09 at the close ▲ 0.52% (as of Nov 6) (The Canadian Press)

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Small charts show the last seven readings: trading days for the TSX, the dollar and the bond; weeks for gas.

The Studio Building, 1914. The Studio Building at 25 Severn Street, in the Rosedale ravine, was finished in January 1914. Lawren Harris and Dr. James MacCallum paid for it as a non-profit place for artists to work, with rent of $22 a month; Eden Smith designed it. Tom Thomson, A. Y. Jackson and Franklin Carmichael were early tenants, and the Group of Seven began among its artists. It was named a National Historic Site in 2005 and is still used as studios.

Sources: Wikipedia: Studio Building (Toronto))

Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.

Jane Austen, Emma (1816). English novelist (1775-1817), whose novels turn on money, marriage and manners.

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