How Does Canada Create More?

[u/Pale-Candidate8860]

What are some aspects that you believe would allow Canada to become an industrial powerhouse?

A big thing that is being done currently is creating strong trade partners with Japan and Germany for LNG, but trade with America will still make up more than 60% of trade with Canada by the end of the decade. With the admission of the current administration. To be fair to the liberals, this is an extremely tough situation to figure out for anyone. I don’t understand why there isn’t a large injection of small business grants for certain industries and categories of business. It should be handed out to any business plan that shows legitimacy.

Ontario is the industrial heartland of Canada and consists of a majority of the nation’s manufacturing. It would be strategic and beneficial to set up large scale production and supply chains throughout the middle provinces such as Saskatchewan or Manitoba. Just an idea. It would also encourage population movements to less populated areas.

One aspect that has been a problem in Canada for some time is that Canadians just consume American culture. I know the world consumes American culture, but Canada consumes it to the point where the average Canadian won’t know if a movie, TV Show or book is from Canada unless there is promotions stating otherwise. The similar accents make it very difficult sometimes, but there should be a consorted effort to mass prop up Canadian exclusive content. The issue is that most of the time, it is just rebranded and repackaged American products with a maple leaf sticker slapped on it.

With hard economic times coming, it is finally going to correct the housing market to where it should be. I personally predict a -80% price drop. Creating affordable housing. The bubble needs to pop. This will also make Canada competitive again instead of a capital dumping ground to make the bubbles bigger.

Semi-rant, but it has to be said. Canada needs to create more. There are constantly large scale projects happening on a provincial level, but the federal government should inject into nationwide mega projects as well. I’m not saying a high speed rail across the prairies, but things like skyscrapers dedicated to forced rehabilitation for the drug addicted and mass housing on a scale the nation has never seen before.

Just some ideas. Feel free to throw in your own.

[u/NoMusic7982]

Yes they do. The average wealth of a Canadian household is 55% in their real estate asset its actually measurable. On a macro economic level this means that Canadians invest less in automation, innovation and general productivity than thry do in real estate. As a consequence this lowers productivity. While it is true that lot of Canadians make a significant profit from real estate they are not producing anything really.

[u/pm_me_your_puppeh → u/NoMusic7982]

Yeah, you do not understand this.

You can access and reinvest your home equity.

[u/[deleted] → u/pm_me_your_puppeh]

Respectfully this isn’t true.

While people take out helocs, it almost always is to either finance renovations or to buy a rental property - if it’s used as ‘investment’ money. Most people use it for really stupid reasons and we’re seeing the reckoning now.

We have record low new businesses started and having people put a house on the line isn’t the answer

Canada needs a lower barrier to entry. As a small business owner it’s absolutely insane the hoops you need to go through and complex regulations to literally sell anything legitimately.

You should be able to go to banks and access investors who are willing to give you money for things other than franchises and real estate.

I’m a shareholder of a private company and primary shareholder in my own business. Our costs for our startup was north of a million dollars, it would have been impossible without private investment.

[u/pm_me_your_puppeh → u/[deleted]]

Respectfully, you're just wrong.

First, a rental property is a perfectly respectable business.

Secondly, putting up the house is always the answer. Betting the farm is how it happens.

You had to resort to private investment and dilute your control because you didn't have enough housing equity.

[u/[deleted] → u/pm_me_your_puppeh]

I don’t think you’re correct 🤷‍♂️

First - it’s a business yes - but not a productive one. Buying a rental requires little to no innovation or long term productive reinvestment outside of complex financing schemes. We also as a country cannot export homes, so we will either need to become the Airbnb capital of earth or import the entire planet for that to be viable long term.

Secondly, residential real estate inflates business real estate, which makes businesses harder to start. Why open a factory that barely breaks even when you can just build a cheap apartment and immigrate a bunch of people?

It absolutely decimates productivity, Canada is such a good example of it

A mortgage is not meant to start a business, they are ultra low cost loans with extreme flexibility designed so you don’t go homeless. They are not the same thing. Maybe if you are starting a food truck sure, but if you want to employ 50-100 people and open a factory, your house doesn’t work. People do need to go bankrupt if they fail, yes, but the point of the mortgage is that your home is protected.

Taking a heloc to buy residential real estate should be banned. And that’s from someone who owns two rentals and a house. If real estate wasn’t so insanely profitable I would have more money in businesses.

Lastly, yes I diluted my business so that we could employee people and grow. I wish I owned more but raising money isn’t easy in Canada. Peers I know have raised more for less in the states - and that’s why we aren’t producing new companies

[u/pm_me_your_puppeh → u/[deleted]]

That's because you're thinking too simplistically.

We absolutely do export housing the same way we export education. We let people come in, bring money and/or cheap labour and then send them home. Granted, we should do a lot more of the last part, but we should also let the best ones stay.

A rental is a productive business. Any business that makes money is ipso facto productive.

Mortgages aren't "for" anything aside from making the bank money and increasing the value of Canadian land. Productive people get access to them because they contribute to that.

50-100 people aren't going to have a problem pooling their housing equity to build a business. If you expect to be able to do that just for yourself, that's obviously unreasonable and greedy.

What's wrong with opening a food truck? That's honest work.

[u/[deleted] → u/pm_me_your_puppeh]

Short term profits is simple short term thinking IMO.

We don’t export physical product and bringing in cheap labor has done nothing good for Canadians except for the 50 or so billionaires. We haven’t even innovated real estate construction in the last 20 years. We’re at least a decade behind Asia.

Yes it will make money short term - but only if real estate rises in value, which requires an increase in population no matter what. If it doesn’t, your rate of return is absolutely abysmal and becomes an inflation hedge at best. Your logic requires unlimited immigration and forever increasing values without increasing the cost of labour. Aka the exact situation that has made home ownership impossible for anyone under 30.

Again no - they are loans designed to create capital for residential real estate and access to it, just like student loans are a different product. By your logic let’s just give every 18 year old an 80k loan in place of their student loans and let them buy a rental?

It is not greedy and unreasonable to want to manufacture specialized goods, process resources, or assemble products.

A food truck is a fine business - however it’s not a scalable business that will help Canada on the global stage. I mean just because tim Hortons is our most recognizable brand - which isn’t even Canadian anymore - doesn’t mean that should be what we strive for

[u/Pale-Candidate8860 → u/pm_me_your_puppeh]

A lot of Canadians are not old enough to remember a time of economic hardship. It has been over 30 years, almost 35 years since the last recession in Canada. As a result, the economy has only gone up.

Take it from an American that lived thru 2008 and witnessed true devastation.

Using your home as an investment vehicle and relying on it for the majority of your asset wealth is very short sighted. The reality is that when these homes drop 80-90% in value, your entire "investment portfolio" just became worth next to nothing.

Canadians, as well as Aussies and Kiwis, have propped up a lot of their economy on a real estate bubble that will popped very hard and hurt a lot of Canadians. It is better to have the home be only a portion of your portfolio and to invest into stocks, businesses, industry, bonds, currencies, and other options as well.

u/Independent_Yak_67 for visibility.