Work perk: Guelph engineering firm helps employees buy a home
Work perk: Guelph engineering firm helps employees buy a home
These days, getting into the real estate market is no easy feat. But what if your employer could help?
Crozier: Consulting Engineers, which recently opened an office in Guelph, is offering employees up to $20,000 towards a down payment on their first home.
While the work perk is helping attract and retain talent, it's also helping employees get into the housing market.
The first-time home buyers' assistance program works in conjunction with the federal government's home buyers' plan. In the case of Crozier, as long as an employee has worked there for over a year, the company will deposit $10,000 plus 10 per cent of their base salary into the employee's RRSP account tax-free as a gift.
"Anybody making $100,000 will get the full $20,000 benefit and that's where it caps out," says company president Nick Mocan. "On a home that's $650,000, the down payment is $40,000. So our benefit essentially cuts that in half."
He says the program was created after noticing the troubling trend of employees being priced out of towns or cities where company offices are located.
"The housing market was just running away from them," said Mocan. "The common issue is the down payment. Coming up with the cold, hard cash."
That was the case for Brendan Walton, who works as a project manager at Crozier. He was priced out of Milton, where Crozier has an office. But thanks to the company and federal government, Walton was able to get a boost and buy a home located just a short walk from Crozier's new downtown Guelph location.
"I didn't really believe it I guess," Walton told CTV News.
After a government-imposed 90-day waiting period, first time home buyers at the company, like Walton, have access to the money in full that's put into their RRSP account, minus CPP and EI deductions.
"That kind of really elevated our buying power from one category to the next," says Walton.
With an emphasis on retention of staff, the company does require those who benefit from the program to make a commitment of their own.
"So all we ask is folks that have received the benefit, stick around for at least three years," Mocan says.
It’s a no-brainer for people like Walton who say they'd still be saving for a home if it weren't for this incentive.
"Pretty proud to be here and now we're about to start raising our family we're expecting in May," says Walton. "So it's nice to know we have a home we can have our daughter in."
It seems staff agree the investment goes far beyond work walls – it's one that's not only helping the company grow, but families too.
Canada's special rapporteur on foreign interference David Johnston calls the allegations swirling around his objectivity 'quite simply false,' and said Tuesday he plans to push ahead with his work, launching public hearings next month
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should see to it that mass murderers serve their entire sentences in maximum-security prison.
The number of interactions between killer whales and humans has increased alarmingly in recent years. CTVNews.ca asked an expert to explain the reasons behind the increase in interactions, explore the types of encounters, and examine the implications for both humans and killer whales.
The PGA Tour ended its expensive fight with Saudi Arabia's golf venture and now is joining forces with it, making a stunning announcement Tuesday of a merger that creates a commercial operation with the Public Investment Fund and the European tour.
An internal document suggests Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants China kept out of a Pacific Rim trade bloc, despite the Liberals publicly insisting it would welcome anyone who meets the trade deal's standards.
The federal government has given an updated deal to a public-service union that signed its collective agreement in the fall in order to match deals reached with the Public Service Alliance of Canada during a strike this spring.
Prince Harry entered a courtroom witness box Tuesday, swearing to tell the truth in testimony against a tabloid publisher he accuses of phone hacking and other unlawful snooping.
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says images of wildfires burning across the country are some of the most severe ever witnessed in Canada and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity.
Many Canadian parents are stretching themselves thin — even going as far as to postpone their retirement in some cases — in order to help pay for their children’s education, according to a new survey.
Marking the two year anniversary of the alleged terror attack that took the lives of four members of the same family, the board has announced an Anti-Islamophobia Strategy.
On this day in 2021, four out of five members of a London, Ont. family were killed while they were out for a walk and struck by a vehicle, in an apparently deliberate attack.
An investigation is underway after a crash between a car and a transport truck on Tuesday morning. It happened around 9 a.m. on Highbury Avenue near Ron McNeil Line, north of St. Thomas.
Police in Barrie say another unsanctioned truck rally held in the city's north end over the weekend drew hundreds of participants and onlookers in a "chaotic scene of disrespect and total disregard for private property."
While firefighters get more forest fires under control in northern Ontario, travel restrictions declared under an emergency order are being expanded in several communities.
A 13-year-old male from Elliot Lake in northern Ontario has been charged with sexual assault again, bringing the total to 10, after another survivor came forward.
A grieving widow whose husband was run over and killed by a speeding OPP officer can't believe the force told her it won't hold a public hearing into the case because it decided the misconduct was 'not serious.'
A special air quality statement remains in effect for the National Capital Region because of wildfire smoke blowing across the region. Environment Canada's air quality health index is at its highest level of risk.
The wildfire burning at Centennial Lake, about 150 km west of Ottawa is still not under control, but the local mayor says it has been significantly reduced.
The federal government has given an updated deal to a public-service union that signed its collective agreement in the fall in order to match deals reached with the Public Service Alliance of Canada during a strike this spring.
A grieving widow whose husband was run over and killed by a speeding OPP officer can't believe the force told her it won't hold a public hearing into the case because it decided the misconduct was 'not serious.'
A 53-year-old man was shot and killed in the Montreal suburb of Dorval on Monday afternoon. A source told CTV News that the victim is Francesco Del Balso, who has links to Montreal's Mafia.
One Quebec city that had been threatened by approaching wildfires has lifted an evacuation order, but other parts of the province continue to deal with out-of-control blazes that are taxing firefighting resources.
Hammonds Plains Road reopened to traffic early Tuesday morning more than week after wildfires began in the Halifax area. Officials say the fires in the area are contained, though crews continue to deal with hot spots and flare ups.
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says images of wildfires burning across the country are some of the most severe ever witnessed in Canada and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity.
A Ukrainian woman who now lives in Winnipeg is hoping one day she will be able to bring her husband's remains to her new home, a place he hoped one day he too would be able to call home.
Calgary-based Cenovus Energy says it has safely restarted a portion of its production that was shut down because of the threat of wildfires in northern and central Alberta.
Innisfail RCMP say an officer was attacked by the driver and passenger of a truck they'd stopped on suspicion of impaired driving on Saturday, but the accused's lawyer has a different story of the encounter.
Police in Australia are investigating the suspicious death of a woman who used to live in Surrey, BC, after her body was found in her apartment on the outskirts of Sydney.
Mounties in the town of McLennan, Alta. are hoping members of the public can help them identify two men who tried to steal a bank machine from the local ATB Financial.
Mounties in Peace River Alta. are asking residents to check their "businesses, homes, sheds and outbuildings" for any sign of 13-year-old Rocky Conrad Cardinal.
The provincial wildfire service is warning British Columbians to have a go-bag and make an evacuation plan with this year's wildfire season off to an alarming start.
Many Canadian parents are stretching themselves thin — even going as far as to postpone their retirement in some cases — in order to help pay for their children’s education, according to a new survey.
Real estate experts say B.C.’s housing market is heating back after cooling off due to rising interest rates but the future is uncertain as several economists expect the Bank of Canada to hike rates again.
