Can claiming CCA on my rental property create or increase a rental loss I can use against other income?

No. CCA lets you deduct a percentage of your rental building's capital cost each year, but under CRA's long-standing rule, CCA on rental property can't create or increase a rental loss. It can only reduce your net rental income down to zero - if your rental income before CCA is already at a loss, or CCA would push you into one, you simply can't claim enough CCA that year to create or deepen that loss.

This is one of the most misunderstood rules in rental property taxation, because people assume CCA works like other deductions and can be used freely to offset income from a job or other sources. In practice, any CCA you're prevented from claiming in a given year because of this restriction isn't lost - it simply carries forward as part of the property's undepreciated capital cost, available to claim in a future year when your rental income is positive again. This restriction is specific to rental real estate; it doesn't apply the same way to CCA claimed against income from an active business. Tracking your rental income and CCA claims carefully year to year is worth doing, since getting this wrong can trigger a reassessment.