On Indian Immigrants Leaving Canada For Good

I have been watching a few videos of people who returned to (mostly) India after staying in Canada as PR for some time. Also watched a couple of videos of people who went to Dubai. 

Pretty much all of them had mostly good things to say about Canada:

• great summer weather
• everyone is punctual, nice
• law and order is good
• no corruption. School admission no hassle, etc.

Then, when they delve into why they left, it is usually:

• feeling lonely
• need a car, distances are vast
• no food options when you go outside (I mean one lady complained of salad as only veg option in a "Canadian" restaurant)
• drugs (weed) legal for everyone, effect on kids

But the most common reasons seem to be:

• you need to do everything yourself (no "jugad"), such as plumbing, assembling furniture
• fear of not getting proper healthcare
• rising costs

I feel many people today, especially Indian families, are not prepared to do the initial struggle that immigrants used to (and still) do in Canada. Whoever you are, from wherever you are, you will HAVE to struggle in Canada for the first 2-3 years. Your education and experience are not recognized, you will not have a car and need to take public transit, and you won't have a good job. Kids will be in school, extra curricular activities are expensive and so on.

This is also the worst time to immigrate to Canada. Things in India, for example, for upper class Hindu families are generally good. Why WOULD you immigrate to Canada if you are well settled in India with a good job? Canada is also going though one of the worst and most incompetent governments in their history. The federal deficit has given fuel to inflation (already a worldwide problem) making it worse in Canada. Lots of people have been brought into the country on dubious student visas, leading to severe housing problem in the country. 

Previously immigrants struggled because the payout was great - citizenship that is amongst the most powerful in the world, and living standard that is one of the highest in the world. Those things are still true, but there are enormous challenges such as declining standard of healthcare, declining quality of education in high schools. Previously governments used to give tax credits for kids extra curricular activities - those are gone now under current government, who is funding their own expensive programs. But these are temporary challenges.

The truth remains that Canada is still a great place to live - but perhaps this is not the right moment to immigrate for many people who are well settled in their home countries. Also, if you are not prepared to struggle, or you want to be lazy, don't come here. As simple as that.

A Visit to Point Pelee National Park

Point Pelee National Park is a unique national park located roughly just under 4 hours of drive south from Toronto. The first long weekend of the summer, the May 24 weekend, was showing a beautiful forecast, so we decided to visit this park. 

There is something unique about the park as well, which I will get to later. We started early in the morning, and thus reached Point Pelee around noon.

To get to Point Pelee, once you take the exit from 401 highway, you go through lots of small roads. Some of them have very low speed limits, such as 40. But soon, we were at the entrance of the park.

Boy it was busy! We had completely disregarded the fact that it was a long weekend, and a beautiful weather to boot, and so there was a long line up of cars to get in. 

No worries, we did get in, and once we were in, we were told that the "Tip" parking was full now, so we would have to come back in a bit.

This is where I would give the most important advice applicable almost to any sightseeing - get there early. We really should have been there around 9 or 10 am. That way, we would have gone straight to the Tip, and got the morning hours light as well.

No worries, we headed to the March Boardwalk. The marsh is about 70% of the park.

Due to its southernly location and the moderating effects of Lake Erie, the climate in the park is slightly warmer than the rest of Canada, and many species of birds, rare in rest of Canada, are found here.

It really is a bird watcher's paradise. People come here with binoculars and expensive cameras to photograph the nearly 360 species of migratory birds that has been recorded in the park. There's a huge diversity in the flora and fauna recorded in this park.

You can walk along the marsh on the boardwalk, and if you walk leisurely, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery, you can spend easily up to an hour here. We walked the whole circle on the boardwalk, which I recommend to any one.

You can even rent canoes or kayaks (or use your own).

The kids really enjoyed the walk. The weather was hot, but not hot to be uncomfortable. There were lots of wildlife to see, and we saw this crane hiding in the bushes.

It was now time to visit the "Tip". This time we were lucky to be allowed in to park at the Visitors' Centre (it was still very, very busy). After you park there, you take a shuttle to go to the Tip.

And what is the Tip? Well ... read on to find out.

Point Pelee National Park forms the southernmost point in mainland Canada (its latitude is the same as that of Rome, Italy and Barcelona, Spain.

After the shuttle dropped us off, in 5 minutes, we were at the Tip. This is why this spot is so unique. When you are standing here, there is NO ONE in mainland Canada who is more south than you. 

Everybody standing patiently in line to take the picture at THE TIP. This is it ... once you stand there, you know that you are the most southerly person in Canada.

Here we are. The wait time wasn't bad ... perhaps about ten minutes in the line. Usually there is no line ... but as I said ... this was the long weekend.

This beach is really not for swimming, due to the very strong currents. In fact, you are not allowed to swim in the waters. Most people, after taking their picture, just spend some time here on the beach relaxing, or playing in the sand. There are other spots in the park where you can go for a swim. 

Here is a picture showing the four corners of Canada. As you can see, Point Pelee is the "south" corner.

On the way back to Toronto, we had to stop in London, Ontario. Whenever we are in London, we have to visit the Mandi Guys. This dish of theirs, chicken leg mandi, is one of my favourite dishes.

Overall, it was a fun visit to Point Pelee National Park. There's activities for the kids. It's not too far, and if you are up for it, you can do it in a day (although it is better to split it into two days, and use London as a pitstop for the night on the way back). 

An Interview on CBC The National

Last week I was interviewed for the television by the CBC - Canada's national broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for a news segment on the bank interest rate decision (a rate hike). The story was aired on Wednesday January 25, 2023, the same day the Bank of Canada raised interest rates by 25 basis points.

You can watch / listen to / read about the story, including my quotes, here: 

The National (YouTube): Bank of Canada hikes interest rates again

Digital Article: Bank of Canada raises rates yet again

CBC Radio: The World At Six With Susan Bonner

How It Came To Be:

I follow a few CBC reporters on Twitter, and during the first and second rate hikes in 2022, one of them tweeted that she would love to connect with Canadians who are seeing their mortgage payments go up. I replied to that, and she followed up with a conversation. Later on, I spoke with someone from CBC Radio. The reporter ultimately decided not to go ahead with the story, but she kept my information on record for the future.

Now I had been against these rate hikes ever since the interest rate crossed 3%, as I viewed them as excessive and not needed (simply because the source of inflation was not excess demand but supply side issues and domestic corporate concentration and profiteering). I had written on it extensively on Facebook and other social media.

The Experience:

About two weeks ago, I got a call from another reporter, who wanted to follow up with me after so long. This was going to be for The National, and this is when CBC made an appointment to come to my house and record the interview. It was a very interesting experience.

I was asked to share the story of my mortgage, and how the rising rates were affecting our family. I was asked why I decided on a variable mortgage earlier, and how I am planning to keep up with the ever rising payments. I spoke at length of my criticism of the Bank of Canada and their decisions. I also pointed out what the government headed by Prime Minister Trudeau did wrong - and they acted too late and did too little.

Overall, the CBC crew spent close to 90 minutes at my place. The whole news segment was just over 2 minutes long, and in those 2 minutes they probably aired 15-30 seconds of the footage they recorded with me, as they also interviewed other people for the story. Yet, for those 30 seconds, it was a 90 minute work, including set up.

Both the field reporter and the cameraman were extremely nice and professional. They knew I had never done any TV interview, so they knew how to put me at ease, and gave clear directions. It also provided a very interesting behind the scenes look at how those news clips are shot. 

In one of the scenes, I showed them my bank statements, and showed how the payments had gone up so quickly, so fast. That clip was shot three times with three different cameras (basically I had to say the same thing thrice).

Overall, it was a good experience, and I asked the reporter why they are interviewing me (and people like me). They replied that we know what the Bank of Canada will do and say; we want to share the stories of average Canadians who are going through this crisis and carry their voice. She also lamented the fact that while many, many people write to complain, once CBC asks them for their story on camera, many of them back away.

How to win elections, Justin Trudeau style

 

Short answer: give lots of people money and create vote banks. Also, he has a nice smile.

In our community (Bangladeshi Canadians / South Asians), possibly 90% people here will vote Liberal. Think of why Liberals will win again (especially your vote):

• Make us dependent on government - Create conditions by poor economic planning, such that we will have record inflation (worst in 40 years), so that there is no choice but to hope for a handout from the government, rather than through hard work
• Empower a minority through laws such as Bill C16 and censor opposition through Bill C11 such that you cannot talk against said minority, who will consistently vote Liberal. Remember the teacher who wore prosthetic boobs, and all the weed smoked all the time at all the parks in Canada? They will all vote Liberal.
• Keep immigrants and minorities weak. This is very important. You cannot empower minorities and immigrants too much. Otherwise they become middle class and start to vote conservative. You must let them always be dependent on government for handouts.
• Gut the middle class. This too is important. Middle class people are swing voters who do not have party loyalty. In Canada, the rich people control most of the wealth and government, so they don't care who wins. The poor (and the lazy) and the disadvantaged tend to vote Liberal . So it is to the Liberal party's advantage that middle class is gutted - hence you see all the wealth transfers and the inflationary spending and the big government programs designed to take YOUR money and give to the struggling class.
• Final point - spread fear. Harper was a bad guy, we all know that. He has tarnished the Conservative image so much, and now Trudeau has a bonus in Doug Ford. All he has to do is point the finger at them, and scare people who ignore his other faults.

Tell me. You, the middle class, will never see a penny of the GST rebate. You will not avail the dental program, unless you commit fraud (which is being encouraged by the lax measures put in place). You will not get a place in the $10 daycare for your child. Yet, you will pay for ALL of these. As well, you will pay the banks and the rich people for your mortgage as your rates go up and up.

Now, think of all of these, and what you ignore simply because Trudeau is a pretty face:

• only PM convicted SEVERAL times of ethical violations.
• only PM to have admitted to GROPING a woman.
• only PM caught in blackface, multiple times.
• only PM who interfered in a LEGAL matter, and then FIRED the Attorney General (who was an Aboriginal Woman) because she wasn't as corrupt as him.
• only PM who used the death of a Queen to stay in a $6000/ night hotel , get drunk and sing at the bar and party on your money
• only PM to have created the LARGEST asset bubble in history, ANYWHERE in the world
• only PM to have presided over the largest rate hikes in the last 31 years.

Now, cost of everything has gone up, value of your money has gone down, your paycheque buys less -- in other words, you are rapidly being pushed out of the middle class.

And you will still vote for him because he says some nice things. Even as he outlaws your religious practices and curbs your right to teach your religion to your kids the way you want. All because of a smile.

This is how Justin will win.

How to Improve Healthcare in Canada

I have been thinking of how people's lives in Canada can be easier. This is my take on healthcare.

1) Every hospital should also have a 24 hour walk in clinic, staffed by 2 doctors. So all non-emergency cases go there instead of crowding the emergency.

2) Emergency receptionist nurse should have authority to order x-rays or exams when you check in. I broke my leg playing badminton, had to wait 3 hours to see a doctor who said go get x-ray, another 1 hour for x-ray, came back to see the doctor who said yes, it's broken. Here's crutches and some Tylenol.

3) After hour access to test, x-ray etc. So you don't wait 3 months for MRI but 3 days. Rather than spend millions in Ukraine, give every hospital in Canada 3 MRIs .

How To Buy A House Without Interest

The simple answer is that you need to come up with the whole chunk of money. If your house costs $1.4m, you need $1.4m plus the other closing costs (such as taxes, lawyers, etc.) and then of course, you can buy the house without paying a single cent in interest. 

(image courtesy: Mattamy Homes)

However, for the average person, such a big amount is not possible (and hence mortgages). So here are some schemes that can allow you to have some big returns, without going into interest, so that you can start to save and / or utilize the real estate market, without getting into interest. Please do your own due diligence, and treat these ideas as entertainment only. If they work, and you are able to finally buy a house of your own without interest, please remember me and my family in your prayers.

1. Partnership

Find 20 people, each of whom can pay $25,000. That gives you half a million dollars. As of 2022, this can be enough to buy a property in many places. In Toronto, you may be able to find a small condo. The further away you go, the bigger this property becomes. In provinces such as Nova Scotia, you can buy a big house for that money. Even in places like Edmonton, or some areas of Calgary, you can find a decent property for this. Of course, you need to buy in a place where you can put it on rent, and someone can be there to manage the rental property.

Now put it on rent. Assuming it earns around $2000/month, and property tax is say $5000/ year, and budgeting another $5000 for miscellaneous expenses, that gives each of the 20 investing partners a monthly revenue of $58/month. If the rent is $3000/month, that gives a revenue of $108.33/month. So you can be making rental income of $700 - $1300 per year.

Now assume your saving is $100,000 instead of $25,000. So you can do 4 such partnerships. Now you have the potential to earn around $4000 per year. But that is not the main purpose of these partnerships. The goal is to eventually sell the property. So say, in 4 years, the price of the property has gone up by $200,000. That is $10,000 for each partner. 

If you have invested in 4 such properties, you are now reaping a pure profit of $40,000 - all interest free, along with the rental revenue stream of those years ($1300 * 4 * 4 = $20,800), giving you roughly $60,000.

Cons: Obviously, this comes with ALL THE drawbacks and risks of partnership. There can be personality conflicts, trust issues, management issues, conflicts about vision, and so on. Thus you need a good lawyer to handle these issues upfront, and someone strong enough (in personality and integrity) to manage the whole venture. There are risks of renting a property (especially in Ontario). It's a business, so obviously it can be a loss (although with property, the chance is less if you do your homework). 

Moreover, the MORE partners there are, the less is your initial investment, but this also lessens your profit, and increases the risk. Inversely, if the number of partners is less, this increases your initial investment, but also increases your profit, while reducing the risks.

Ultimately, this allows you to participate in the benefits of the real estate without interest.

2. Assignment Sale

In this venture, you don't need a partner, but you need a capital of around $100,000 to $200,000 - depending on the city and the builder. Your goal is to buy a new property from a builder, but one that won't be complete for another 2-3 years, and has the potential to rise significantly in value. In Ontario, the Durham region right now has that potential. There are tons of builders who are ready to sell plans on paper, and will start building soon.

Find a reputable builder, such as John Boddy Homes, Mattamy Homes etc., and buy a property. What you will need is an initial deposit, followed by subsequent payments every couple of months, so that in six months you will be paying them around $150,000. What you get is an assignment - a contract that will allow you to buy the property once it's finished at an agreed upon price (say $750,000). You have already paid $150,000 - so you will need to pay the remainder - $600,000 - on closing in 3 years.

Now you wait. Remember, so far you have not taken any interest, nor any mortgage. You are paying NOTHING per month. A year passes. Perhaps another 6 months. You still have another year and half to go.

This is where you (or your realtor) start looking for people to buy this assignment from you. The value of this property may have gone up by $100,000 (real example from 2020-2021 in Durham). It has the potential to go up another $50,000 by the time the property closes. So in effect, you will be paying $750,000 total for a property that as soon as you get it, will be worth $900,000. 

You now have two choices. You can close on the property, and then sell it - but that would mean interest and going into mortgage. What you want to do is sell the assignment before you get the property. So someone will buy the assignment from you for say $250,000. In other word, they will pay you $250,000, and then assumes the contract with the builder as is, and will pay the builder $600,000 on closing (as your original assignment). 

So from the new buyer's perspective, they are getting a $900,000 property at $850,000. From your perspective, you have now made a profit of $100,000 (your initial deposit was $150,000 and you have sold this assignment for $250,000). 

Cons: Obviously, you are depending on the property going up significantly in value so that an assignment sale becomes profitable for all. If no sale goes through, you will have to end up closing the sale. There are also realtor fees and lawyer fees to consider, as well as the fact that some builders do not allow sale of assignments, or charge a fee to transfer an assignment (this fee can vary, and I have seen figures of $7000 for this). 

3. Leveraging Income Differential 

In this venture, you will be earning in a place where property is expensive, and cost of living is high, and so your remuneration is high. However, you will be buying a property in a place where it is cheap, but has the potential to go up significantly. 

So for example, let us say you are earning $150,000 per year in Toronto, but you are looking to buy a house in Saskatchewan where in certain cities, a whole house is available for $100,000 - $200,000. A year's (or two's) worth of total income savings (such as your spouse's) is enough to buy a property in many places in Canada. I know people who are living in Toronto but have bought places in Halifax or Edmonton, where it's still cheap (as of 2022). 

And then, you collect the rental income in the interim, as you wait for the property to appreciate in value. And once the property significantly appreciates, you can sell it off, and repeat the whole cycle again.

For some people, they do this internationally. Earning income in Canada, but buying property in Bangladesh, where the Dhaka market has gone crazy in the last decade. Others live in Canada but buy properties in USA, such as Florida, where they can use it for AirBnB or as holiday rentals.

Cons: Obviously the biggest drawback is that you need someone to manage the property where you buy it, as you do not live there, which can have its costs. You also need to find an area where the property is cheap enough so you can buy it without paying interest (as that is our main qualification criteria).For some people, they can combine this with the first idea. An example is a condo in Calgary, which can be bought by 3 people (rather than 20) together. Again, this comes with the risks of partnership, and also chances of property depreciation.

Conclusion:

All these ideas are obviously business ideas, which always has the potential for loss. They come with other risks of real estate, such as potential for market crash, bad tenants, etc. The revenue stream may not be as rosy as depicted (especially in these uncertain times). None of them will give you $1.5m in a year. At the end of it, in hot markets such as Toronto, you can never save enough from normal streams to buy a house outright, since the rate of real estate increase is far higher. 

However, these ventures allow you to buy property and participate in the benefits and profits of real estate, without potentially paying a single cent in interest.

3 Key People When Buying a House

This is post is mostly geared to first time homebuyers (or more precisely, those looking to be first time homebuyers). You have looked at the market, you are worried about the way prices are going up, you have some savings that you can put towards a down payment, and now you are thinking of buying a house. Who are three most important people that will help you with this?

1. Your mortgage agent / finance person

Contrary to most assumptions, the first person you should consult is your finance person. You can start by contacting your bank, and speak to a mortgage specialist. They will take all your numbers (your salary, your spouse's salary, your savings and the down payment amount etc.) and then tell you how much loan they can sanction you for. This will give you a rough idea of the price you can look at. After this, look for a trusted mortgage agent. I advise almost NEVER to go through a bank's agent as they can only give you rates from their bank, whereas a mortgage agent can compare and contrast and give you the best deal from multiple sources. They may often have means to qualify you for a higher price.

A word of caution: like any industry there are some people who do shady business. Never falsify papers or your income etc. to try and qualify for a higher loan.

2. Your realtor

When you are buying a property, your realtor becomes very important. The higher a selling price of a house is, the higher the commission of the realtor. Hence there is actually a conflict of interest - your realtor when you are buying should be trying to get you the lowest price, but if the price is higher it is actually better for him or her. So it becomes very important to seek a realtor whom you trust, especially in a market like today. Talk to your realtor about your budget (you have the numbers from the bank), what you are looking for, and where. Your realtor should be able to give you an idea of what you will find. You may have to compromise on certain things, but again this is where a trusted realtor becomes very important.

A way to gauge a good realtor is word of mouth. If your friends have used a realtor's services and have highly recommended the person, that's a good sign. Another sign is how the predictions of the realtor match the result. For example you see a property, and then your realtor should be able to give you a narrow range of what this property will go for. After that, if you are not putting an offer on that property, watch it (you can use House Sigma app, for example). When it finally sells, see the price it went for and compare with what your realtor said. Whatever questions you need to ask about the whole process, your realtor should be able to answer it.

3. The lawyer

When you have put an offer on a house and it is accepted, it is time to get the mortgage paperwork done (this is where your finance person / mortgage agent comes in). Once the paperwork and mortgage is secured, the next (and final) important person is the lawyer.

He or she will be in charge of making sure the property legally becomes yours. About two three weeks before the closing date, they become active. They will exchange paperwork with the lawyer from the seller's side, have meetings with you where they walk you through all the paperwork, have you sign what is needed and explain what's going on. The lawyer is very important because they have to properly transfer over every title deed to you. Not only for the house, but they have to ensure all other things with the property, such as hot water unit rental if it's there, or title insurance, or other conditions, etc. are all taken care of. The bank will be sending the cheque to your lawyer, and you will also be giving (wiring) the deposit to your lawyer. It will be held in trust until all the closing is done. Once again, you need someone who is good, capable and experienced to be taking care of every little detail. Some properties, for example, have two PINs instead of one (this is a legal term). Both should be transferred over to your name. So look for a good lawyer (again, word of mouth very important). Your realtor may also be able to suggest one for you.

Hopefully this post will help you know what to look for when you search for these three people. I have left out lots of other folks such as the cleaning crew, movers etc. as that all happens after closing. Good luck!