The Decibel

The heirs to Canada’s multi-billion dollar frozen food empire are fighting . New Brunswick’s McCain Foods is the world’s largest French fry maker, and is privately owned by the McCain family. Recently, one of its heirs, Eleanor McCain, requested to be bought out of her stake in the company – but her relatives are refusing to. Globe business columnist, Andrew Willis , has been reporting on the show...

Mark Carney’s federal government has introduced its second tough-on-crime bill this fall. The new bill, Bill C-16, focuses on violence against women and children, changes to mandatory minimum sentences and the growing problem of court delays. The Globe’s justice reporter, David Ebner , explains the specific changes to the Criminal Code that this bill wants to make and what advocates and critics ar...

Late-stage prostate cancer diagnoses are on the rise in Canada . According to a recent study, between 2010 and 2021, rates of prostate cancer discovered at Stage 4 increased by about 50 per cent in men aged 50 to 74. In men over the age of 75, rates were up over 65 per cent. There is a simple blood test that can screen for early signs of prostate cancer, called a prostate specific antigen, or PSA...

Hours before a strike deadline, Air Transat and the union representing airline pilots reached a tentative agreement . For customers, it comes as relief in the middle of a busy holiday travel season. And in a year already wracked by airline work stoppages , the threat of disruption and lengthy customer reimbursement periods continue to loom. Mariya Postelnyak , The Globe’s Consumer Affairs reporter...

The Canadian manufacturing sector has been having a hard time, which has been made worse by U.S. tariffs . The impact of these tariffs varies company to company . So a team of Report on Business journalists from The Globe spoke to several manufacturers to see how they’ve fared this past year. Matt Lundy , The Globe’s Economics Editor, speaks about how badly these companies have been hurt, what the...

For families, the tragedy of opioids is beyond measure. The opioid epidemic has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Canada and has been recognized as a public health crisis, but it’s also an economic one – and it disproportionately affects workers in key sectors like construction and the trades . As Ottawa ramps up its push to build major projects fast, could the ongoing toxic drug crisis slow i...

Canada is in the midst of reframing its approach to military spending. The reasons for this are twofold; a commitment to fulfilling NATO spending as part of GDP, and the push to diversify spending away from the U.S. To that end, Prime Minister Mark Carney has recently signed a deal joining the EU’s military procurement fund , granting Canada access to both selling and purchasing defence materiel....

It’s not unusual for business owners to forge ties with governments, but there are rules around conflicts of interest when it comes to procurement. In February, 2025, an Alberta senior public servant stepped forward with allegations of political interference in the awarding of large health contracts. These allegations prompted investigators, auditors and opposition politicians to look closely at t...

With the holidays right around the corner, households are getting ready for company and deep cleans are underway. Even the idea of letting family and friends see a clutter-strewn home can be anxiety-inducing, and images of perfectly-clean celebrity homes on social media don’t help. But what are we actually losing when we prioritize the act of cleaning over the people we do it for? Zosia Bielski ,...

Across Canada, highways and rural roads are studded with cellular ‘dead zones’ . In some provinces, coverage gaps span over 30 per cent of major roads. In some cases, you can’t receive calls and texts for more than 100 kilometres. So when something goes wrong, what do people do? Today, the Globe’s telecoms reporter Irene Galea and national news reporter Jill Mahoney have been investigating how man...

Ontario just passed Bill 60, officially named the “ Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act .” It’s a big omnibus bill, but it’s garnered the most attention for reforms to Ontario’s rental system. Doug Ford’s government walked back the most controversial part of the bill , but critics are concerned that what remains will still lead to more evictions and worsen the homelessness crisis. Today, Shane Di...

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have signed an agreement that sets the framework for building a new pipeline, carrying bitumen to the west coast. The deal commits to simultaneously making Canada a “ global energy superpower ” and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Indigenous co-ownership is a requirement for development, as is consultation with Bri...

The Canadian consensus on immigration cratered last year. In the fall of 2024, an Environics poll found that for the first time in a quarter century most Canadians felt there was too much immigration . Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the country experienced one of the biggest periods of immigration growth in its history, but after the shift in public opinion, the Liberal government rev...

Some of the world’s largest tech companies, like OpenAI, Google and Meta, have invested hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence as they try to build the data centres they need. And right now, a lot of the stock market’s growth is based on AI companies. But what if it’s all a big financial bubble? And if it is, what are the signs it’s about to pop? Globe business reporter Joe C...

Last week, the FBI and the RCMP announced 10 new arrests in connection with a $1-billion drug-trafficking ring allegedly run by Canadian former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. The charges, which haven’t been tested in court, include drug trafficking, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness and murder. Wedding, who’s been in hiding since 2015, is now one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives ....

No Canadian province allows doctors to offer care under both private and public systems – but leaked draft legislation obtained by The Globe and Mail shows Alberta is trying to change that. The province says it’s proposing the change in an effort to reduce surgery wait times and retain health care workers. But experts say it could result in a two-tiered medical system. Today, Carrie Tait , a repor...

For cancer patients, every day of treatment is critical. But the best care possible is not always reaching patients quickly . Despite Health Canada approving a drug treating an aggressive blood cancer, a complex web of organizations, insurance plans and negotiations over drug pricing means it’s still not available in Canada. Globe reporters Kelly Grant , who covers health, and Chris Hannay , who c...

This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney is in the United Arab Emirates to try to shore up foreign investment ahead of next week’s G20 summit in South Africa. Human rights groups and Sudanese activists are calling on Carney to condemn the U.A.E. for allegedly sending weapons to Sudan — a claim the country denies — but federal officials won’t say whether he’ll raise the issue . Geoffrey York is the Gl...

Last week, over 20,000 pages of the late Jeffrey Epstein’s emails, texts and other documents were released. In one email, Epstein – the deceased child sex trafficker with ties to U.S. President Donald Trump – writes that Trump “knew about the girls.” It has intensified the public outcry for the U.S. government to release all of its investigative files on Epstein. And on Tuesday, the U.S. Congress...

Beef prices are currently around 23 per cent above their five-year average. And there’s no relief in sight. Kate Helmore is The Globe’s agriculture and food policy reporter. She explains what’s going on in the beef industry to cause these sky-high prices. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for informatio...

In May, a B.C. billionaire named Weihong (Ruby) Liu made a $69.1-million deal to acquire 28 leases of former Hudson’s Bay stores . Her company, Central Walk, owned malls where three of those stores were located, so those leases went unopposed; however, landlords of the other 25 stores were skeptical of her ability to operate her proposed stores . She had cash, real estate experience, and a vision...

Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled the next set of projects the federal government plans to prioritize in a bid to jumpstart Canada’s economy. The announcement focused on energy and mining, with six projects across the country ranging from liquefied natural gas to critical minerals. But many questions remain about how these projects will work and what disputes they will cause. Adam Radwanski...

Where in Canada is it best to rent right now? The Globe analyzed cities from coast to coast to coast, comparing cities’ median incomes with their average rental prices, to find out which places are the most renter-friendly. The Globe’s personal finance reporter Salmaan Farooqui joins The Decibel to break down where and why rents are trending downward, why it’s a good time to take advantage of the...

On the day the budget was tabled, Chris d’Entremont, the lone Conservative MP from Nova Scotia, crossed the floor to the Liberals . Two days later, Matt Jeneroux, a Conservative MP from Alberta, announced he would be leaving politics altogether . His name had also been circulated as a potential defector to the Liberals. These moves overshadowed news of Carney’s first budget — and d’Entremont’s mov...

A precedent-setting ruling involving Aboriginal title at the B.C. Supreme Court has caused widespread uncertainty and tension in the province. In August, Justice Barbara Young decided that Cowichan First Nation had title to roughly 800 acres in the city of Richmond — including private property. The ruling has raised questions over both residential and commercial property rights, as well as governa...