- Breaking down a third straight interest rate cut
Sunday, September 8th 2024
Welcome to a preview of the fall season of In This Economy?! We're giving you a sneak peak of a test episode today, to get your feedback. As part of our new season, in addition to traditional episodes of the show, we're producing short conversations between Jordan and business experts, that aim to show you how changing economic news will trickle down to your wallet.
This week, the Bank of Canada cut interest rates...again. What does a third straight cut tell us about where the economy is headed? What does it mean for payments you're making now? And what should you prepare for when you're planning your finances for 2025?
GUEST: Mike Eppel, Sr. Business Editor, CityNews680
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
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- How two astronauts ended up stranded in space
Friday, September 6th 2024
It was supposed to be an eight-day mission. It will be at least eight months. When two astronauts took Boeing's Starliner to the International Space Station in June, they were prepared for a quick turnaround. Today, the Starliner comes back to Earth ... without them. Instead, they'll have to be rescued by Boeing's biggest rival in the Space Race, Elon Musk's SpaceX. But that won't happen until next year. In the meantime, they're up there. For a lot longer than they'd planned.
Oh, and it's probably nothing, but the Starliner is making some weird noises...
GUEST: Joey Roulette, Space Reporter, Reuters
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
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- The Liberal-NDP deal is over. Is an election next?
Thursday, September 5th 2024
The supply and confidence agreement between the Liberals and NDP lasted nearly two and a half years—but now it's over. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced Wednesday his party would no longer prop up the Liberal's minority government in exchange for policy priorities. Without that support, any confidence vote this fall could lead to an immediate federal election.
But will it? Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has called for a vote, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he's focused on policy and not politics. So ... what happens now? In a fall session that's been flipped on its head, what should Canadians expect? Pharmacare and other bills? Or a quick trip to the polls?
GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill Bureau Chief, CityNews
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
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- Why is Alberta turning public hospitals over to a Catholic provider?
Wednesday, September 4th 2024
The news broke last week, sort of. It turned out that last month Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had told a United Conservative Party town hall in August that the government had transferred control of a northern Alberta hospital away from Alberta Health Services and turned it over to Convenant Health, a private, Catholic healthcare provider, and that further hospitals would follow.
The story raised many questions—everything from why this was announced in this way, to which services Convenant Health might refuse to perform on faith-based grounds—and so far many of them have yet to be answered. So where do things stand now? Why is the government making this move? And in the bigger picture, what form is the decentralization of Alberta's health care system likely to take?
GUEST: Lauryn Heintz, reporter, CityNews Calgary
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
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- Oh, you thought Canada's labour market was good?! Sorry.
Tuesday, September 3rd 2024
For a solid couple of years, as the economy recovered from the pandemic, the narrative when discussing labour in this country was that the market was "tight" or there was a "labour shortage". Unemployment approached record lows, and companies were scrambling to hire and keep talent.
Some of that was true. But not everywhere, and it wasn't the whole story. And also, however tight the labour market was ... it isn't anymore. Beyond the top-line unemployment number, there were always signs that workers weren't actually benefitting all that much from how in-demand they were. So why could most of us see them?
GUEST: Adam D.K. King, Assistant Professor in the Labour Studies Program at the University of Manitoba; writing on unemployment in The Maple
We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:
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