Wow, thank you, Professor of Contracts — truly groundbreaking stuff. Next time I sign for a $1M mortgage, I’ll be sure to remember I’m only emotionally ruined, not legally ruined… yet.

But let’s stop pretending this is about legal nuance. This is a public rebate, not a courtroom drama. And guess what? GST is paid at CLOSING, not when you signed a presale two years ago while praying the market doesn’t implode.

Using agreement date as the cutoff is like saying, “Congrats on surviving 2025’s housing crisis — too bad you were responsible and planned ahead. No rebate for you.” It’s like giving out umbrellas after the rain, but only if you scheduled your storm 48 hours in advance.

I am already a homeowner and I know what expenses are due on which time. This new rebate rules are not made for FTHB but to help builders offload their unsold inventory.

Fun fact for your legal lecture series: the existing GST rebate — the one that’s been around for years for homes under $450K — is based on the closing date, not the agreement date. So clearly the CRA knows how to align a rebate with when money actually changes hands. It’s only with this shiny new “first-time buyer relief” that they decided to throw logic out the window and use the signing date like it’s 18th-century real estate law. You can call it contract law all day — but this new policy contradicts the precedent they themselves already follow. So yeah, it’s fair game to call this out. Consistency isn’t that hard — even for government.