MLN NewsStream

Canada picked up a modest cost-of-living win today, at least by its official measure.

StatCan’s November CPI inflation slipped just below consensus, by a single tick.

Here's what we got:

• Headline: 2.22% (est. 2.3% | prior 2.2%)
• Average Core: 2.8% (est. 2.9% | prior 3% [revised up from 2.95%])

For some in our business, Canada’s Grey Wave is fueling a mortgage goldmine. In fact, reverse mortgages could be Canada’s hottest mortgage niche.

On a percentage basis, reverse mortgage growth is off the charts. And still, there are hundreds of billions in originations to come, says a man who knows, HomeEquity Bank SVP Rene Quercia.

That’s precisely why originators should invest serious time understanding this market, which is expanding six times faster than mortgages overall.

In MLN's latest edition of Stress Test This, Quercia explains:

• How large the market could realistically become
• How fast it's growing
• HomeEquity Bank’s response to Equitable Bank’s lowest-rate pledge
• The "greedy kids" factor
• How reverse mortgages are funded behind the scenes
• What Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan adds to the mix
• Fee competition, and more...

The BoC held the line on rates this morning, and nobody had to feign astonishment. Heading into the decision, overnight swaps were pricing a 94% chance of no move, leaving the remaining 6% for the people who still bet on lottery tickets.

"Employment has shown solid gains in the past three months," and "Canada’s economy grew by a surprisingly strong 2.6% in the third quarter," the Bank said in its official statement, adding that underlying inflation "is still around 2.5%."
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The BoC wrapped up its prepared remarks by stating, "The current policy rate is at about the right level to keep inflation close to 2%."

The market's reaction

For mortgage brokers and direct-to-consumer lenders who:

(A) market online, and
(B) want more leads

...2026 could turn their marketing upside-down, more so than any year in history.

Starting next year:

• Answer engines (AEs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity will steal far more queries from traditional search engines.
• More AEs will officially launch ads on their unpaid platforms.
• Social media will leverage AI to target ads more accurately.
• Ad costs per click (CPC) could surge as plummeting organic search traffic drives alternative seekers.
• Most content that doesn't show up on AEs could see traffic shrivel.

This all has profound implications for brokers and lenders who've been used to marketing online the "old" way.

To counter what's about to upset marketing apple carts, here are four survive-and-thrive action plans for 2026.

Sometimes, all it takes is one report to violently reset market expectations. Today, we witnessed just that.

Canada’s jobs report left Bay Street forecasts looking like a misprint. It was excellent data for growth fans, but rough news for low-rate fans.