Are young Canadians being taxed like millionaires while living like broke students? Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt dive into the jaw-dropping disconnect between salaries, taxes, and the insane cost of housing. From bold tax reform ideas to creative fixes for rent, down payments, and wealth inequality, they tackle the policies (and politics) holding the next generation back. Expect sharp insights, a few laughs, and fresh solutions that could actually make life affordable again.

Chapters

00:00 The Tax Burden on Young Canadians

11:24 Proposed Tax Reforms and Their Implications

23:17 Wealth Inequality and Asset Inflation

34:55 Finding Solutions for Young Canadians

Research/Links:

To fix housing, we must rethink what wealth means in Canada

CIBC chief calls for tax changes to help young Canadians struggling to save money

Canada housing affordability and market trends

Wealthsimple

Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux

Produced by Meredith Martin

This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation and brought to you by the Smart Prosperity Institute.

What do cheesy Jean-Claude Van Damme movies and Canada’s rental housing crisis have in common? Apparently, more than you’d think! In this episode of The Missing Middle, Sabrina Maddeaux and Mike Moffatt hop in their imaginary time machine to explore how a long-forgotten 1970s tax trick—MURBs—might make a comeback to boost rental housing today. Will this retro loophole help fix our sky-high rents, or just mess with the condo market even more? Grab your popcorn and find out how investors, multiplexes, and a bit of tax magic could change the housing game all over again.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:51 Investing in housing: a time travel scenario
03:46 Why building apartments wasn’t a great investment
04:47 History of creating rental stock
06:07 Understanding the MERB
08:32 MURB tax deferrals
10:24 How MURB impacts condo construction
11:53 MURB now vs 1970s
13:19 The historical context of MERB and its implications

Research/links:

Time Cop trailer

The Quiet Death of the Investor Condo? MURBs May Change the Game

Hosts:
Sabrina Maddeaux https://x.com/SabrinaMaddeaux
Mike Moffatt https://twitter.com/MikePMoffatt https://bsky.app/profile/mikepmoffatt.bsky.social

Producer: Meredith Martin
https://twitter.com/meredithmartin
@meredithmartin.bsky.social

Editor: Sean Foreman
@seanegertonforeman
@seanforeman.bsky.social

This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation https://neptis.org/
Brought to you by the Missing Middle Initiative https://www.missingmiddleinitiative.ca/

Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux

Produced by Meredith Martin

This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation and brought to you by the Smart Prosperity Institute.

​​In this episode of The Missing Middle, Mike Moffatt and Sabrina Maddeaux unpack the controversy around REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and their role in Canada’s housing crisis. Are REITs really blocking affordable housing, or is the real issue deeper than greedy landlords? Mike and Sabrina break down how REITs work, why they’ve become political scapegoats, and what actually needs to change to build more truly affordable homes. If you’ve ever wondered who should be our landlords — mom-and-pops, corporations, or governments — this is the conversation you need to hear.

Subscribe for weekly deep dives on housing, urban planning, and Canada’s affordability crisis.

Drop your thoughts below: Who do YOU think should be Canada’s landlords?

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:55 Who should our landlords be?

03:44 Real Estate Investment Trusts

04:45 Mutual fund trust

05:45 Canada has an undeveloped REIT system

06:53 REIT push back on affordable housing

09:12 Who is to blame for affordable housing not getting built?

10:30 All of the other things that make it expensive to build

12:09 Should the government build more affordable housing?

12:37 Someone has to pay so who should it be?

16:11 What do we mean by affordable units?

Research/links:

Ford government scrapped Toronto affordable housing requirements after pushback from three REITs, documents show

Reddit thread

Everyone Wants Rentals, but No One Wants Landlords

REIT data

Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern & Sabrina Maddeaux

Produced by Meredith Martin

This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation and brought to you by the Smart Prosperity Institute.