Start your day off right with five things you need to know this morning.
Five things you need to know
Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson has done a 180: he now thinks average house prices need to come down. The former Vancouver mayor, whose statement in May that house prices didn't need to decline raised eyebrows, said on Monday: "To be clear, we need to see average prices of housing for Canadians come down." He added: "We have to build a lot more non-market housing to bring down that average cost." Robertson was also asked whether immigration was a contributing factor in Canada's housing crisis, but did not answer directly; he did, however, acknowledge that population growth (which in recent years has been almost entirely due to immigration) had played a role.
Average home price must fall in Canada to restore affordability, minister says https://t.co/ix77S5TKHi pic.twitter.com/ZQhnp38Tfp
— Toronto Sun (@TheTorontoSun) October 21, 2025
Canadians, having long been outliers in the world, have now turned dramatically against immigration, according to a new survey. The Environics Institute poll found that 56 per cent of Canadians reckon too many immigrants are coming to the country, while among Conservatives that figure is 82 per cent. Environics said the Tory voter figure was the highest it had ever seen among any major demographic group in Canada in its 48 years of opinion tracking. The decline in support comes after the Liberal Party oversaw enormous levels of mass immigration, with the population growing by more than a million people a year for three years straight, worrying even the policy's architect, Justin Trudeau.
Canadian public opinion about immigration: the most notable change over the past year is how immigration continues to grow as a polarized issue dividing Canadians across political party lines. #FocusCanada @Environics_Inst @TorontoMetDI @CI2100 pic.twitter.com/5cdFnijtup
— Andrew Parkin (@parkinac) October 21, 2025
Canada's health system is performing poorly compared with other countries with universal care, according to a new report from the Fraser Institute think tank. The study ranked Canada third for health spending as a percentage of GDP, but 27th (out of 30) for doctor availability, 25th for physical care hospital beds and 27th (out of 31) for MRI machine availability.
Two new studies about climate change and mental health have been given the spotlight by the Canadian Press news agency. According to one study, 2.3 per cent of Canada's population is suffering from "clinically relevant" climate change anxiety, which means those people are experiencing "meaningful distress and disruption in their lives." The other study reckons the mental health of 37 per cent of Canadian teenagers has been affected by climate change. Canada contributes about 1.5 per cent of global CO2 emissions, dwarfed by the trio of countries that represent the majority of all emissions: China, the US and India.
How common is severe climate change anxiety in Canada? Study offers a glimpse https://t.co/i28FpuaFa9
— CTV News (@CTVNews) October 21, 2025
Canada Revenue Agency call centres are repeatedly failing to answer calls in a timely manner, and when they do they are often providing incorrect information, according to the auditor general. Karen Hogan said just 18 per cent of calls were answered within 15 minutes in 2024–25. Hogan also said that just 17 per cent of responses related to individual taxes were accurate.
Auditor General on CRA:
— Franco Terrazzano (@franco_nomics) October 21, 2025
“Responses to general individual-tax questions were accurate only 17% of the time.”
BRUTAL. pic.twitter.com/vI0xI7N6UO
