Canada’s Economic Outlook & Housing Market: Trends Shaping 2026

About the Webinar

Tariff-related macroeconomic uncertainty and escalating geopolitical tensions continue to keep buyers on the sidelines, negatively affecting what was anticipated to be an improved spring housing market. The Middle East conflict has increased stagflation concerns and the probability of future interest rate hikes, both of which would exacerbate pressures on heavily indebted consumers and pockets of borrowers being impacted by sectoral tariffs, particularly in Ontario and B.C.

Presented by: 

Travis Shaw

Travis Shaw joined Morningstar DBRS in 2008 and is the Senior Vice President and Sector Leader of Morningstar DBRS’s Canadian Public Finance team, based in Toronto. As the Team Leader, Travis is involved in all aspects of ratings coverage, methodology development, investor, and media outreach. His coverage universe includes Canada, provinces and territories, municipalities, universities, hospitals and other government-related credits.

Prior to joining Morningstar DBRS, Travis worked in progressively senior roles within the Ontario Financing Authority. Travis has a Bachelor of Commerce with specialization in Management Economics in Industry & Finance from the University of Guelph.

Carl De Souza

Carl De Souza is a Senior Vice President and Sector Lead, North American Financial Institutions Ratings, for Morningstar DBRS. Carl has 25 years of experience in banking and regulation. He covers the Canadian Banking sector and is the lead analyst on a portfolio of banking and non-bank financial institutions issuers.

Before joining Morningstar DBRS in 2021, Carl worked for nine years as a banking regulator in Canada with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions covering various functions and federally regulated financial institutions. Additionally, he has 14 years of experience working for three of Canada’s large banks assessing credit risk in retail, business, and counterparty credit lending.

Carl holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with majors in statistics and economics from Toronto Metropolitan University. He also holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Strategy from York University’s Schulich School of Business.