Unify Action - Canadian Business Owner Sounds the ALARM on Canada’s Economy

00:00:00.000 It's not an easy time right now.

00:00:02.280 Yeah, so you're seeing less business as a result of raising prices?

00:00:05.680 Yeah.

00:00:07.660 Why don't you just start off by telling me a little bit about your company and what you guys do?

00:00:11.980 Affinity Integrated Facility Solutions, and we provide janitorial services.

00:00:17.180 We started in Toronto, but we provide services all over Ontario and even coast to coast.

00:00:22.440 We have some clients that have grown coast to coast, and we were able to grow with them.

00:00:27.040 Nice. Okay. So, how are you guys finding the current economy? Is it good, bad, growing?

00:00:35.180 Well, you know, just to look at the current economy through the lens of affinity,

00:00:42.560 you know, there's been a construction slowdown, as many people are aware,

00:00:48.420 and, you know, the rental market is not on the up and up anymore.

00:00:53.140 it was until let's say two years ago and at that time business was you know continued to boom

00:00:58.820 but then in the current in the past year or two since interest rates started started really

00:01:03.920 getting high we've noticed that an inflation you know so minimum wage keeps on going up

00:01:09.320 which by the way i'm very uh i'm very um not anti people making a good living but the problem is

00:01:16.860 is that if you continue to, the government keeps on raising,

00:01:21.620 you know, mandating that prices raise,

00:01:23.820 that just keeps on pushing inflation forward.

00:01:26.560 It actually affects unemployment too.

00:01:28.720 Yeah, big time.

00:01:29.360 So you can't have, I mean, 30% of the, you know,

00:01:33.420 you can't have the federal, the Bank of Canada

00:01:36.180 targeting a 2.5% inflation rate

00:01:38.680 and then 30% of the workforce getting a 3.5% raise every year

00:01:44.140 because that will drive inflation so we've had our costs go up labor costs go up because which is

00:01:52.980 which is not uh unfair it's actually you know i understand that because food costs and all this

00:01:59.440 other inflation goes up is causing prices to go up so our prices are going up and then it's very

00:02:04.620 sensitive with our customers we try to raise the prices it's not easy for them to pay and then the

00:02:09.380 you know interest rates are rising so our customers cash flow is standing up it's hard

00:02:15.480 for them to pay us so yeah it's pretty uh it's not it's not an easy time right now

00:02:21.020 definitely a constricted constricted time yeah so you're seeing less business as a result of

00:02:26.520 raising prices yeah yeah definitely people are choosing to go in-house rather than uh rather

00:02:32.280 than outsource which is you know that had been the um the mode you know a lot of people were

00:02:39.360 doing that before they were they were outsourcing and not so much anymore yeah i'm trying to find

00:02:45.700 people who will tell me like i've heard that the housing startups has slowed down do you know the

00:02:51.040 answer to that like to why so like why housing has slowed down so much oh housing has slowed

00:02:57.240 down so much because there are a number of reasons. First of all, there's less immigration

00:03:03.080 now, less people are buying. You know, there's less people to sell it to. Interest rates

00:03:07.640 are high, so mortgage prices are high, so it's hard for people to buy. The home builders

00:03:13.740 aren't able to charge less because the government charges, I think like something like, I think

00:03:20.340 like 25% of housing costs is actually development fees, so that goes straight to the government.

00:03:27.240 Yeah, the government definitely does not make it easy to build houses.

00:03:33.260 Yeah.

00:03:34.760 And how are you liking Mark Carney right now?

00:03:39.400 Is that something you can answer?

00:03:42.000 You know, time will tell.

00:03:43.780 You know, ultimately, you know, as an entrepreneur and as a business person,

00:03:48.720 you know, we really, you know, we really try and take our destiny into our own hands

00:03:53.680 so we don't rely on the government or the Prime Minister to, you know, to be a partner.

00:04:01.320 So I guess I'm not disappointed in that sense.

Unify Action - December 06, 2025

Canadian Business Owner Sounds the ALARM on Canada’s Economy

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