Editor’s Notes

Volume 70 No. 2

Editor in Chief Peter Sobchak Art Director Roy Gaiot Legal Editor Jeffrey W. Lem Contributors John T. Anderson, Patrick M. Condon, Daoust Vukovich, Matthew Hague, Shannon Moore, Kevin Powers, Michael Swan

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Associate Publisher Faria Ahmed, 416 441 2085 x106 fahmed@building.ca

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President, iQ Business Media Inc. Alex Papanou

Design Consultation BLVD Agency

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BACK TO GOOD

IT SEEMS NOT only pointless but also a little tone deaf to be talking about anything other than the COVID-19 pandemic turmoil right now, doesn’t it? As is the world of print media, this issue of Building was mapped out long before the current situation we are currently living through settled in, but I acknowledge it seems a tad odd to be reading about the changing nature of the workplace (“Off to Work We Go”) when everyone is working from home; or assess the rapid densification of cities when the streets feel like ghost towns due to self-isolation (“Not Your Parents’ City”); or comment on the Coastal GasLink pipeline dispute, which appears to be fading fast in the rearview mirror.

However, consider this: according to the economics teams of industry forecasters, as recently as a few weeks ago Canada’s economic outlook for 2020 was relatively positive and well-positioned to at least match, and possibly exceed, 2019 levels both this year and next. “Last year was nearly unprecedented for the Canadian commercial real estate industry. Canada outperformed its G7 peers riding on the strength of its welcoming immigration policies, attractive labour pool and stable operating environment,” was the opening statement of CBRE’s 2020 Real Estate Market Outlook report. Exceptional growth in both provincial population and jobs last year, alongside lower mortgage interest rates as well as the easing of trade tensions and imminent (now realized) Canadian ratification of the USMCA, all pointed to a slightly stronger performance moving through the year.

That, of course, was before the unforeseeable one-two punch of COVID-19 and plunging oil prices. As we go to press, the depth and duration of this economic disruption remains uncertain, to put it mildly. “The major forecasters in Canada are starting to sharply reduce their outlooks for the economy, with the consensus view that

Peter Sobchak Editor in Chief We welcome your feedback. Send your questions and comments to psobchak@building.ca

seems to be emerging as of mid-March being a technical recession, with some recovery in late fall but essentially no growth in real GDP for the year as a whole,” says Patricia Arsenault, editor of the Altus Group Housing Report.

It is an understatement to say the world has quickly changed. But while all the forecasts seem painfully outdated (and literally changing on a daily basis), we feel it is important for our readers to understand that the solid fundamentals that put the real estate development industry on very solid ground before the recent shocks are still there, albeit somewhat in the background for the time being. In other words, the real estate development sector went into the current environment in as good a position as possible to be able to post a quick recovery once everyday life goes back to normal.

Keep that in the front of your minds while we hunker down and weather this storm: things will go back to normal. In fact, in the opinion of many experts, the recovery won’t just be quick, we’ll come out much stronger on the other side. Until then, our wish to you, our readers, is this: be diligent, be proactive and above all, be safe.