The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, July 5, edition that CBRE says the national office vacancy rate in Canada climbed in the second quarter to its highest level since the first quarter of 1994. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that CBRE said Tuesday that the national office vacancy rate rose to 18.1 per cent in the second quarter, up from 17.8 per cent in the first quarter. CBRE said in a news release: "Canadian office markets are grappling with a perfect storm of a recession threat, interest rate hikes, tech sector weakness, tenants rightsizing and new supply of office space. All of this is compounded by the continued uncertainty around remote work." The increase in the overall rate came as the downtown office vacancy rate in the second quarter rose to 18.9 per cent compared with 18.5 per cent in the first quarter. The suburban office vacancy rate was 17.1 per cent, up from 16.9 per cent. CBRE said downtown vacancies in the second quarter inched higher in all major centres across the country except for Calgary and the Waterloo region in Ontario. CBRE said that before the pandemic Toronto and Vancouver had downtown vacancy rates of about 2 per cent for several years.