GIC
Global Industrial Company
stock NYSE

I understand where you are coming from but you have to look over the long term with compounding over the years. If you look at what you get from a bank in a high interest saving or GIC then 10% is alot more than what you would get from other options. There are ways to increase your returns in the stock market, but it is more risky and really have to know what you are doing in the market.

FHSA or RRSP maxed?
If so put it in a non-reg account. 
Where you should invest is based on your comfort level. Some people say 5yrs is too short term and would recommend GIC or HISA type accounts.

What is your window to withdraw? Your timeline seems flexible but if you need that money in an instant then prevailing advice is you probably want a GIC, however, I would argue that even if something like XEQT or VFV (I'm Canadian) can have volatility, in a 3-5 year timeline, you're most likely going to beat the 3-5% per year that will offer. This year's big drop at the beginning of April just reduced XEQT/VFV to what prices were in the middle of 2024...
Personally, if my timeline was 3-5 years but I anticipate having a 6 month window to withdraw then I would bet my money on Equity ETFs and then just make sure I don't withdraw during a "low".

There may have been a further option which they did not offer, but that would have required me to do my own estimation of what each GIC was worth, and then simply redeemed the lower value ones, while putting the higher value (longer term and higher interest rate) on the market. But, it is time consuming enough as it was, so I did not go there. You are right in that the credit union ones were in house, and they were easier to deal with. Also the credit union seemed more user friendly. Everything there was done by one person that I connected with on my first walk in visit to the place.

The number of them, spread over three different accounts was the first complication. The ones with a credit union were not too bad at all. They were very cooperative and helpful, and I got the payout from them quite promptly. One of the first things you have to do is calculate the value of the estate, which means getting the value from each GIC. They produced that for me on the first visit. But, the rest were with RBC Direct Investing, and they were brutal to deal with. The RBC bricks and mortar branch will not even talk about them. You have to deal with essentially a help desk somewhere in the world. Each time you call you get a different rep, and many were ESL and not even understandable. It took a long time to get the cash payout value from them. And they would not do anything about it until I got a probated will. Once they finally get to the point of doing something they give you a list of each GIC. You are then offered two choice. One is to sell the GICs on the open market. None were with RBC DI, they were just bought through RBC DI. They give you no idea what they will sell for. The other choice is to redeem them for a value they don't give you either. When you redeem them they charge $100 per GIC to do it. I finally asked one of these reps what they would do. He told me to redeem them as there is no way to estimate what they would sell for on the market. I went with that, and hoped for the best. I guess the payout was reasonable. I have no idea though. From the time my brother passed away in October 2024, I finally got to the point in the last couple of weeks of getting the money to do something with it. One big delay was caused by him having a stock, I think Worldcom, in his portfolio that had no value. They hold up the whole payout process until you complete the form agreeing to junk the stock that has no value.
It would have been much cleaner if there were only ETFs or the like to deal with.

37m, Low mortgage of around 165k running up in about 7 years. House is worth around 700k. Make decent money, just under 100k a year.
Low fixed rate of 2.02 coming up in October.
Payment will be increasing drastically at that time, going from 760 to 1150 if I don’t move the amortization back to our original timeline
My strategy for the last few years has been doubling up my mortgage payments, and I’m not sure if it makes much sense. I have shortened our amortization from its original 14 (?) year duration. This is our forever house, and don’t want all of my money tied up within our walls. House values are all relative and I don’t put too much thought into the value.
I have recently made my first contribution to an ETF through TFSA. Really have no significant investments, aside from a small RRSP, contributing around 250 a month, half of total account (5k) is in a GIC @ 5%, remainder is in a “select balanced” portfolio, low risk.
It’s a bit of a stretch but am able to put 750 into my ETF monthly, but I’m unsure if I’m in the right place. I think I have some catching up to do, so I’m investing on the higher end, longer term. I haven’t invested in TFSA prior. The ETF is a “RBC Retirement 2050 portfolio” it looks largely made up of Canada/Us equities as well as global markets. It looks like a mer of 0.86 , ter 0.04, 0.90 fund expenses. I’m not sure if that’s where the cost ends, I was sure I had seen more management fees somewhere around 1.95%.
My goal is just to put this money away and not look at it, but I was hoping to get some advice. Would my money be invested in something else?
I also have a decent, safe pension that I believe to be more on the low to medium risk, so I don’t mind taking a bit more risk on the ETF side.
Is there any sense in pulling home equity out to front load not investing in my TFSA for so long?
Any advice helps, much appreciated

Can I ask, what made the GICs a mess to clean up?
In my experience, most institutions will break GIC terms prior to maturity under a few circumstances, and I can't imagine that death of the holder/estate wind-up wouldn't be one of them.  In a few cases, institutions have even paid out interest accrued to date when breaking the terms, even though they were fully in the right to forfeit the interest.
So I'm curious, what made the GICs a burden?

I understand where you are coming from but you have to look over the long term with compounding over the years. If you look at what you get from a bank in a high interest saving or GIC then 10% is alot more than what you would get from other options. There are ways to increase your returns in the stock market, but it is more risky and really have to know what you are doing in the market.

FHSA or RRSP maxed?
If so put it in a non-reg account. 
Where you should invest is based on your comfort level. Some people say 5yrs is too short term and would recommend GIC or HISA type accounts.

What is your window to withdraw? Your timeline seems flexible but if you need that money in an instant then prevailing advice is you probably want a GIC, however, I would argue that even if something like XEQT or VFV (I'm Canadian) can have volatility, in a 3-5 year timeline, you're most likely going to beat the 3-5% per year that will offer. This year's big drop at the beginning of April just reduced XEQT/VFV to what prices were in the middle of 2024...
Personally, if my timeline was 3-5 years but I anticipate having a 6 month window to withdraw then I would bet my money on Equity ETFs and then just make sure I don't withdraw during a "low".

There may have been a further option which they did not offer, but that would have required me to do my own estimation of what each GIC was worth, and then simply redeemed the lower value ones, while putting the higher value (longer term and higher interest rate) on the market. But, it is time consuming enough as it was, so I did not go there. You are right in that the credit union ones were in house, and they were easier to deal with. Also the credit union seemed more user friendly. Everything there was done by one person that I connected with on my first walk in visit to the place.

The number of them, spread over three different accounts was the first complication. The ones with a credit union were not too bad at all. They were very cooperative and helpful, and I got the payout from them quite promptly. One of the first things you have to do is calculate the value of the estate, which means getting the value from each GIC. They produced that for me on the first visit. But, the rest were with RBC Direct Investing, and they were brutal to deal with. The RBC bricks and mortar branch will not even talk about them. You have to deal with essentially a help desk somewhere in the world. Each time you call you get a different rep, and many were ESL and not even understandable. It took a long time to get the cash payout value from them. And they would not do anything about it until I got a probated will. Once they finally get to the point of doing something they give you a list of each GIC. You are then offered two choice. One is to sell the GICs on the open market. None were with RBC DI, they were just bought through RBC DI. They give you no idea what they will sell for. The other choice is to redeem them for a value they don't give you either. When you redeem them they charge $100 per GIC to do it. I finally asked one of these reps what they would do. He told me to redeem them as there is no way to estimate what they would sell for on the market. I went with that, and hoped for the best. I guess the payout was reasonable. I have no idea though. From the time my brother passed away in October 2024, I finally got to the point in the last couple of weeks of getting the money to do something with it. One big delay was caused by him having a stock, I think Worldcom, in his portfolio that had no value. They hold up the whole payout process until you complete the form agreeing to junk the stock that has no value.
It would have been much cleaner if there were only ETFs or the like to deal with.

37m, Low mortgage of around 165k running up in about 7 years. House is worth around 700k. Make decent money, just under 100k a year.
Low fixed rate of 2.02 coming up in October.
Payment will be increasing drastically at that time, going from 760 to 1150 if I don’t move the amortization back to our original timeline
My strategy for the last few years has been doubling up my mortgage payments, and I’m not sure if it makes much sense. I have shortened our amortization from its original 14 (?) year duration. This is our forever house, and don’t want all of my money tied up within our walls. House values are all relative and I don’t put too much thought into the value.
I have recently made my first contribution to an ETF through TFSA. Really have no significant investments, aside from a small RRSP, contributing around 250 a month, half of total account (5k) is in a GIC @ 5%, remainder is in a “select balanced” portfolio, low risk.
It’s a bit of a stretch but am able to put 750 into my ETF monthly, but I’m unsure if I’m in the right place. I think I have some catching up to do, so I’m investing on the higher end, longer term. I haven’t invested in TFSA prior. The ETF is a “RBC Retirement 2050 portfolio” it looks largely made up of Canada/Us equities as well as global markets. It looks like a mer of 0.86 , ter 0.04, 0.90 fund expenses. I’m not sure if that’s where the cost ends, I was sure I had seen more management fees somewhere around 1.95%.
My goal is just to put this money away and not look at it, but I was hoping to get some advice. Would my money be invested in something else?
I also have a decent, safe pension that I believe to be more on the low to medium risk, so I don’t mind taking a bit more risk on the ETF side.
Is there any sense in pulling home equity out to front load not investing in my TFSA for so long?
Any advice helps, much appreciated

Can I ask, what made the GICs a mess to clean up?
In my experience, most institutions will break GIC terms prior to maturity under a few circumstances, and I can't imagine that death of the holder/estate wind-up wouldn't be one of them.  In a few cases, institutions have even paid out interest accrued to date when breaking the terms, even though they were fully in the right to forfeit the interest.
So I'm curious, what made the GICs a burden?

I’ve never fully understood the purpose of dollar-cost averaging (DCA).
There’s a saying: “Time in the market is better than timing the market.” But DCA is essentially a form of market timing—you’re assuming prices will drop in the future, so you’re holding off on investing everything today.
Conversely, if you invest all your capital upfront, you’re assuming prices will rise in the future. That’s also a form of market timing—just with a bullish bias.
So what really matters is the probability of prices going up or down. For example, if you’re thinking about buying BTC (or any other asset), the key question becomes: “What’s the probability that the price will be lower in the near future compared to today?” DCA only makes sense if you believe there’s a greater than 50% chance that prices will fall.
That’s a judgment call you have to make for yourself: “Is there a more than 50% chance that BTC will be cheaper two weeks from now?”
In finance, we often talk about expected value, which is a way of assigning probabilities to outcomes to determine the most rational decision. (Look it up on ChatGPT if you’re curious.)
Personally, I believe BTC will rise, so I don’t DCA. If I come across a significant amount of extra capital—say, 15% or more of my portfolio—I’d reassess whether I expect the asset to go up or down. DCA feels like flying blind. If I think the asset will go up, I’ll deploy all the funds now. If I think it will go down, I won’t invest yet—I’ll hold it in something safe, like a redeemable GIC.
Hope that makes sense. At the end of the day, using DCA implies a specific call on future prices. Most people treat it as a safe, default strategy, but in reality, they’re betting there’s at least a 51% chance that prices will drop.

I have a GIC ladder and I am trying to get out of them. I want something more liquid.

If you expect rates to continue falling, buy a GIC.  
But I wouldn't count on it...  I think rate increases could be more likely later this year.