More obituaries on page B11

The amount households owe, relative to their income, crept higher in the second quarter, even as mortgage borrowing continued to slow, Statistics Canada said.

The agency said Friday credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income increased to 169.1 per cent as growth in debt outpaced income.

In other words, Canadians owed $1.69 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income.

The ratio was up from 168.3 per cent in the first quarter, however it was down from 169.7 per cent in the second quarter last year.

BMO Capital Markets economic analyst Priscilla Thiagamoorthy noted the increase was “well below seasonal norms” and one of the smallest second-quarter increases since 2000.

“Despite edging slightly higher in Q2, the closely watched household debt-to-income ratio appears to have finally turned the corner from all-time highs,” Thiagamoorthy wrote in a brief report. “The key takeaway here is that borrowing cooled with the housing market as households adjusted to a slew of policy changes including tighter mortgage rules and gradual rate hikes.”

Household debt has been identified as a key vulnerability for the financial system by the Bank of Canada, however the central bank noted earlier this year that the risk has lessened.

The Supreme Court of Canada says internet service providers can recover some of the costs of helping movie companies and other copyright holders find illegal downloaders.

In a decision Friday, the high court sides with Rogers Communications in ruling that the companies pursuing copyright violators should reimburse service providers a reasonable amount for the effort of looking up subscribers suspected of breaking the law.

The 9-0 decision could end up saving Rogers and other internet providers many thousands of dollars, but the Supreme Court says the appropriate fees should be decided at a future Federal Court hearing.

The case began when Voltage Pictures and several other movie production firms asked Rogers for information about an alleged violator under provisions of the Copyright Act.

Rogers retrieved the information but agreed to disclose it only