The Decibel

As of Sept. 1, sugar sweetened beverages like pops, iced teas and energy drinks in Newfoundland and Labrador will be a bit more expensive. The province is bringing in a sugar tax, and it is controversial. The government says the goal is to make its residents healthier, as the province has some of the highest rates of diabetes and obesity in the country. Opponents say that the tax will only impact...

An explosion rocked downtown Wheatley, Ontario last year, injuring 20 people, destroying property and terrifying residents and shaking buildings kilometres away. The cause is assumed to be an “orphan” natural gas well tucked away near a building’s basement, one of many thousands left behind after the last 150 years of oil and gas drilling in Ontario. And while not all orphan wells have been uncove...

Your boss wants you back in the office, but after two years of remote work, you’re not sure you want to go. Whether you measure the cost in time or money, going back to work can be pricey. Many Canadians have grown to love their work from home lifestyle, and they’re eager to keep it. In the first episode of our new season, we hear from a 20-something who’s job-hunting because his employer is askin...

In April , the federal government announced that it would expand Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program to allow employers to hire even more low-wage workers from abroad. The move is designed to help ease some of the labour shortages in a number of sectors. Advocates for migrant workers argue that the TFW program allows employers to exploit migrant workers because the person’s employment is tie...

When Hudson’s Bay Company announced last week that it’s bringing back the discount store Zellers, people flocked to social media to share their memories of Zeddy the mascot, of the Zeller’s diner, and the Zeddy ride. HBC is hoping that nostalgia translates into foot traffic and dollars. The company is trying to modernize and stay relevant in a climate where department stores are shuttering. The Gl...

Germany’s energy crisis could worsen as temperatures dip and Russia threatens to cut off the pipeline delivering natural gas to the country. So German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has come to Canada for a three-day visit, expected to end in a green energy deal signed by both Scholz and Prime Minister Trudeau in Stephenville, Newfoundland on Tuesday. Claudia Scholz , a business reporter at Germany’s busi...

Dr. Alika Lafontaine is the Canadian Medical Association’s new president, and an anesthesiologist. He takes on the job at a time when emergency rooms are buckling across the country . Nurse shortages are persisting. Backlogs are still jamming up hospitals. And the pandemic hasn’t relented . So now politicians are scrambling to figure out ways to quickly fortify health care systems that have been c...

Most people buy homes with their partners or by themselves. But others are ditching the traditional paradigm. Today, we’re talking about unconventional homebuyers: family members, friends and others that team up to get into the property market. We hear from two sisters who are trying to buy a house together – and who are struggling to get into the market even after joining forces. Plus, Roma speak...

A study from the University of Copenhagen looked at billions of records taken from sleep-tracking wristbands across 68 countries suggests that people are already losing 44 hours of sleep a year because of hot nights. And with record-breaking temperatures happening more frequently because of climate change, Kelton Minor , lead author of the study, tells us the extent of this problem, who is most af...

Recent visits to Taiwan by U.S. House Rep. Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of five U.S. lawmakers earlier this week have set the stage for rising tensions in the Taiwan strait. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and sees U.S. visits as encouragement for Taiwan’s pro-independence movement. But there’s a crucial industry on the self-governing island critical to both China, the U.S. and the ent...

You’re never far from a parasite, no matter where you are. They’re responsible for illnesses like malaria that cause death around much of the world; the word itself is a derogatory term for something freeloading and disgusting. They’re also very important to the health of ecosystems. Parasite ecologist and University of Washington associate professor Chelsea Wood makes her case for parasite conser...

The CEOs of the 100 largest Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange saw their compensation go up 23 per cent in 2021 . Some chief executives took home pay packages that were valued around in the tens of millions of dollars or more. So how do boards of these publicly-traded companies decide on these huge sums? And what do the shareholders of these companies think of it all? David Mi...

Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee. Cities are filled with seemingly endless options when it comes to food. But we’re also increasingly disconnected from what we eat and how it makes its way to our plate. In this episode, we’re taking a look at how the pandemic has given us the opportunity to rethink...

With so many ups and downs in headlines and our personal lives, what often brings us together is food. Food has a way of supporting, nurturing and healing. To explore the depths of how food connects us, we cook with chef and author Suzanne Barr . Barr teaches us how to make her famous Caribbean curry chicken and reflects on how the dish that’s so close to her heart helped launch her cooking career...

Potatoes! They’re affordable, accessible, ultra-versatile, and most importantly, delicious. But a case of potato warts found on two farms in Prince Edward Island last November has wreaked havoc on the local potato economy . The wart led the Canadian government to restrict exports of all P.E.I. potatoes to the U.S. for months. Even though potato warts aren’t unsafe to eat, over 300 million pounds o...

In the past two years alone, the number of severely food insecure people doubled to 276 million , according to the UN, because of issues like inflation and supply chain problems related to the invasion of Ukraine. Evan Fraser, professor of geography and director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph , continues to stay optimistic despite a global food system long plagued with we...

As the global demand for octopus meat rises, a company in Spain is set to open the world’s first ever octopus farm. But scientists and philosophers warn that it would be a mistake to farm these clever cephalopods. By opening the farm, they say, we’d be opening the door to consequences we may not yet even conceive of. Erin Anderssen , a feature writer for the Globe, joins us to talk about what make...

With e-commerce largely replacing brick-and-mortar stores, how we shop is having real, physical effects on how our cities work. So in this episode, we’re looking at all things retail: As consumers, have we become addicted to convenience? How are businesses able to offer us even quicker delivery times than ever before, sometimes within even 15 minutes – and what is that doing to our main streets? W...

Monkeypox cases are climbing worldwide. In July, the World Health Organization declared the virus a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” And in Canada, as of Aug. 3, there are almost 900 cases, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada . With this worrying news, many people have questions. The Decibel put a callout on social media to find out what our listeners wanted to know...

New GDP numbers in the U.S. have set off the latest set of worries about whether we’re heading for a recession, even if Canada’s numbers aren’t that bad. Globe and Mail journalist David Parkinson has been covering business and financial markets for more than three decades. He explains how recessions are defined, which economic indicators we should be watching and just how worried people should be....

This year alone, rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Canada went up almost 14 per cent on average – and many rental markets, like Calgary or Guelph, Ont. are even hotter. Experts point to those priced out of buying a home thanks to inflation, and university students finally able to resume class on campus during the pandemic. All of this creates the perfect environment for scammers to swoop in . Gl...

Today we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a Globe and Mail podcast about personal finance, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw. We’re talking retirement – why it’s changing, and how to plan for it. We hear from Vicky (25), Irina (34) and Brent (36), who each have different visions of retirement and what they’re doing – or not doing – to plan for it right now. Plus, Rob speaks with Shann...

Hockey Canada told federal hearings Wednesday that it has paid $8.9 million since 1989 to settle 21 cases of alleged sexual assault, with the bulk of that money, $7.6 million, coming from a special fund built through registration fees that wasn’t disclosed to parents and players. Grant Robertson ’s investigation into the National Equity Fund exposed it publicly, and thanks to two days of parliamen...

Canada is getting heat for granting a Montreal company an exemption from Russian sanctions. The company fixes turbines used in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which supplies natural gas from Russia to Germany. Ukraine is not happy with Canada, saying that granting this exemption sets a “dangerous precedent” that will only “strengthen Moscow’s sense of impunity”. But Germany pushed hard for this decisi...

The bond market moves three times as much money as the stock market. But it’s boring. The “sure thing” with a steady if modest return and low risk. So we hardly ever hear about it. But in this unprecedented economic era, where supply chain woes meet inflation and the threat of recession during a global pandemic, even the bond market has suffered. To demystify the world of bonds , The Globe’s featu...