Even after inflation is brought to heel, Canadians should not expect interest rates to return to pre-pandemic levels.
mortgage debt
Uninsured mortgages already require a minimum of 20 per cent down of a property’s value.
Interest payments on household debt consume 6 per cent of disposable income compared to almost 11 per cent in 1990.
Over the next five years, the federal government will add at least $113 billion in new debt with no plan for a balanced budget.
Back when my paternal grandparents were alive, they lived with thrift as their constant companion and spent little more than necessary, splurging only on others.
Every spring, my grandmother would can a plethora of fruits and vegetables from her Okanagan garden. In anticipation, she saved every plastic bag for use in canning. As a kid, I thought it odd behaviour. But of course, I had no knowledge then of the shortages she, her siblings and parents endured in the Soviet Union in the 1920s before they emigrated to Canada.