The Big Story

It's an issue that sits at the intersection of Canada's identity and reality. Our country is extremely diverse and pro-immigration, but a massive housing crisis means we simply don't have enough homes for everyone who needs one. This week, Canada's housing minister said the government would consider a cap on the number of international students who can enter the country, in hopes this might ease t...

There's always a question after tragedies like the December, 2022 shooting at a condo in Vaughan that left six people dead, including the shooter: "How did nobody see this coming?!" In this case, the killer had long held a grudge against the members of the condo board he fired upon. He was known around the property as an angry man, and had a history of domestic abuse and violence. In hindsight, al...

Would it shock you to know that a significant number of homes in Canada are already uninsurable for flood damage? And as the impact of the climate crisis creates more extreme and unpredictable weather, that number is likely to climb sharply? The insurance companies are in the risk-reward business, and if there's too much risk, they'll simply say, "Nope." So what makes a home uninsurable? How rapid...

Canada's housing crisis is bad and getting worse, and a huge part of it is a lack of rental units in major cities. Every government has its own proposed solutions, but none of them work without the others. A detailed report last week outlines ways that every level, from federal to municipal, can work together to speed up the process, eliminate lengthy delays and actually get shovels in the ground....

Alberta's renewable energy sector is one of the province's great success stories. It's been growing rapidly, attracting top industry talent and becoming the envy of Canada for its size and innovation. SO naturally, the Alberta government has paused all new approvals for renewable projects for six months. So ... why? And especially, why now, with the impact of the climate crisis truly hitting home...

A recent report found that 6.6 million cars are being driven in Canada that have been recalled by a manufacturer for one reason or another. Some issues are minor, some could be deadly, and in many cases, the owners simply don't know the issue exists. How does this happen? Well, the world of automotive recalls is changing fast, technology is taking leaps that make some vehicles less reliable and th...

(UPDATE: Late Wednesday night, the government of the Northwest Territories announced a phased evacuation order for Yellowknife as the fires closed in.) There are hundreds of fires burning in the Northwest Territories right now. Some are threatening Yellowknife, leaving parts of the city under evacuation watch. Others have already forced evacuations by plane in remote communities without road acces...

By now you are likely familiar with the long, sad story of the Ottawa LRT—which just returned from being totally shut down for a month. But that project is far from the only large Canadian transit project to run into delays, mistakes, errors, sky-high budgets and everything else that can turn an ambitious idea into a headache. Why are so many of these projects stalled or broken? How hard is it to...

Right now, thousands of grocery store workers are striking because, they say, they can't afford to buy food at the chain they work for. Food bank use has skyrocketed. Shopifting has increased so rapidly that stores are using it as a reason to try to check customers' bags and receipts. Food inflation still hovers near double digits, even as general inflation has cooled. And the heads of Canada's hu...

By now everyone is aware of the strains that short-term rentals like Air BnB can place on a city's housing market. But recently Montreal has seen that problem compounded to devastating effect. A deadly fire earlier this year brought national attention to the way traditional rental units are being carved up and turned into multiple short-term rentals, and a real estate manoeuvre known as 'the Montr...

The Greenbelt is one of Ontario's biggest environmental success stories—millions acres of protected land that capture carbon, protect at-risk species and play a huge role in feeding the province. Unless of course the land is carved up and sold to developers to create housing.  Ontario's auditor general released a report this week that found the Doug Ford's government, in choosing portions of land...

The polls are not looking good for Justin Trudeau and company. The Liberals' recent cabinet shuffle failed to halt their downward slide. And even their territorial advantage in Ontario seems to be waning. But there's still likely another year-plus to go before the next election, so plenty of time...right? Well, maybe. Canadian history tells us that governments winning a fourth straight election is...

A new report looks at the circumstances that led to the convoy's arrival in Ottawa (and other places across Canada) in early 2022, and finds that it stems from a series of events that began in 2015. It took years before efforts at forming a convoy and rolling to Ottawa actually came together—and there were several failed tries along the way. So what changed during the pandemic? How were far right...

It's almost time for what will likely become your annual covid shot—assuming you're one of the people who will actually get it. Canada's vaccine advisory committee updated its guidelines to urge everyone in the authorized age groups (which are still to be determined) to get the new booster when it arrives this fall. What is the booster and who needs it? What will the fall bring in terms of covid a...

We realized recently that we've done an awful lot of climate coverage this summer, and that it's been overwhelmingly depressing. So, as we take a brief hiatus for this long weekend Monday, we thought we'd dig this old episode out of the vault, where climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, outlines a better way to do climate discourse.  We hope you enjoy!  -------------------- ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES: Rep...

It turns out Taylor Swift is coming to Canada after all! And if you're hoping to see her, you already know you'll be forking over hundreds of dollars. But in the past few years, even mid-tier concerts have crossed well into three-digit territory, and if smaller acts can afford to tour at all, they're taking a huge financial gamble to head out on the road. What's driven these prices through the roo...

On Tuesday Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, made good on a threat to block all news from Canadians on its platforms. Google is promising to do much the same thing, and has already tested its capacity to do so. Whatever side of the political debate over Bill C-18 you might be on, it's time to look at what the tech companies' retaliations to the bill will do in practice. How do Canadians find...

First it was fires. Then floods. Now the province, already devastated by two extreme events, will wait to see what kind of impact unusually warm ocean temperatures will have on this year's hurricane season.  As the Earth heats up, the impact of the climate crisis is speeding up. Nowhere is safe, but places like Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada, surrounded by so much ocean, might bear a heavier load...

Recently a feature story in Maclean's magazine described parents who were "losing their kids to Fortnite." While some gamers may hear that and see the kind of rhetoric that has followed video games around since their inception, others heard recognition and acknowledgement. Many behaviours, including video games, can be addicting, usually to a very small subset of people. But what makes video games...

This is the story of a scam that lasted for decades, and cost its victims over $200 million. It was run by a Canadian man who now sits in an American prison. It sold the services of a psychic, but that wasn't the problem with it—the issue was that the scammer used a particular psychic's likeness without permission. How did the scheme work, and who fell for it? Can you really scam people who are al...

Since the last covid lockdowns ended in 2021, barely a month has passed without major job actions—union drives at huge companies, or massive strikes in the public or private sectors—making headlines. If you look at the numbers, we're seeing the kind of labour push we haven't seen in decades. From Hollywood's writers and actors, Canada's federal government workers, Ontario's education support staff...

Cabinet shuffles ahead of a fall session of parliament aren't unusual, but Wednesday's changes which saw most of Justin Trudeau's ministers switch roles or exit cabinet altogether definitely are. All told 30 of 38 positions were shifted in sweeping changes that clearly show the government is ... what? Are they terrified by their recent drop in the polls? Chasing fresh voices and new perspectives?...

Last year, a man was arrested and charged with the murder of four Indigenous women in the Winnipeg area. When the charges were laid police said they believed the remains of two of the women would be found at the Prairie Green landfill, but that they wouldn't be searching for them. This sparked outrage from the victims families and the Indigenous community, and a push for a search began. Experts we...

Every so often, federal and provincial governments reexamine plans they have made in the event of a nuclear accident or missile exchange, which have existed in one form or another since the beginning of the cold war. Last week, we learned those plans had been updated very recently, at least in part due to Russian control of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. These plans cover everything from tr...

Reaching net-zero emissions by 2035 will require major overhauls to Canada's national power grid. One of the major challenges to doing so is the patchwork of power-generation methods across different provinces, making it impossible to implement a one-size-fits-all approach to decarbonization. And political differences between provincial leaders and the federal government will only complicate thing...