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| | By Manuela Vega | | |
| Good morning. Here’s the latest on plans to buy F-35 fighter jets, financial hardship ahead for homeowners and the Toronto police budget. | | | |
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| | | DON’T MISS | | |
| Canadian Press File Photo | | |
| federal politics | | With the price set to soar as high as $70 billion over the next few decades, the Trudeau government will now invest in what it once dismissed as an unnecessary tax nightmare for Canadians, Stephanie Levitz reports. “As our world grows darker, with Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine and China’s increasingly assertive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific, this project has taken on heightened significance,” Defence Minister Anita Anand said Monday. Here’s what we know about the criticism against the fighter jets — and the Liberals’ recent changes to defence spending. - Wait, what? During the 2015 campaign, Justin Trudeau promised the Liberals would never buy F-35s, citing technical specifications and the cost. “That F-35 might be Stephen Harper’s dream, but I can tell you for Canadian taxpayers, it’ll be a nightmare,” he said.
- Go deeper: Pressure for Canada to increase its defence spending and readiness is a long-standing ask from the U.S. The change precedes a meeting this week between Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden.
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| real estate | | As rates rise and homeowners struggle to make their monthly payments, CEOs at Canada’s biggest banks are estimating that a small percentage of their borrowers are at risk of defaulting on their mortgages. At Scotiabank, for instance, 2.5 per cent or about 20,000 mortgage clients could be vulnerable, its incoming CEO said. Plus, millions of other borrowers at Canadian banks are set for financial hardship as they renegotiate fixed-rate mortgages or make ever-higher monthly payments on variable-rate loans, Christine Dobby reports. Take a closer look at the rising costs. - Bad news for: Homeowners with low credit scores and homes that aren’t worth much more than their mortgage. Borrowers who default on their mortgages tend to fall under these categories, the CEOs said.
- Meanwhile: The CEOs said household savings built up during the pandemic, a strong labour market and an overall increase in home values in recent years should provide a cushion for most customers.
- By the numbers: The number of Canadians who actually fall into arrears of three months or more on their mortgage payments has been historically low. For most of the past two decades, it has ranged from about 10,000 to 20,000 in any given month.
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| Melissa Renwick/The Star | | |
| policing | | The Toronto Police Services Board has voted to add $48 million to the police budget — as proposed by Mayor John Tory — which would bring its total to $1.16 billion. The 4.3 per cent increase is nearly double the boost police received in 2022, making it the biggest increase since the beginning of the pandemic, Jennifer Pagliaro reports. While the police chief called the budget “fiscally responsible,” advocates who spoke at the police board Monday called it a “black hole” that is robbing communities of support services and infrastructure improvements. Here’s what the police service — and critics — had to say at the board meeting. | | | |
| | | WHAT ELSE | | |
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| | | GET THIS | | | Cameron Tulk/The Star | | | | | | | |
| | | CLOSE-UP | | |
| Emergency Response Centre International/Instagram | | |
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| Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at firstup@thestar.ca. I’ll see you back here tomorrow. | | | |
| Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON M5E 1E6. 416-367-2000 | PRIVACY POLICY | | | | |
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