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Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.

This week: Earnings season continued! For the three months ending on March 31, Montreal-based Air Canada lost $81-million, compared with profit of $4-million in the same quarter a year earlier. In better news, Great-West Lifeco Inc. said it earned $960-million in the first quarter, up from $595-million a year earlier. But the best earnings news likely came from Shell, which reported first-quarter profit of US$7.7-billion on Thursday. Analysts had expected first-quarter adjusted earnings of US$6.46-billion, compared with US$9.65-billion a year earlier.

Also: A corporate founder felt less than fresh, as did a pandemic-era corporate darling and some cost projections for a big sporting event.


1Matthew Corrin, founder of Freshii, the Canadian health-food chain, is suing the company that bought his struggling veggie-and-beans empire for:
a. Insisting on more meat on the menu
b. Firing other senior executives
c. Not giving Corrin much to do in his new role as executive chair
d. Putting unrealistically high demands on Corrin in his new role as executive chair

c. Not giving Corrin much to do in his new role. Corrin alleges the new owners cut him out of meetings, drastically reduced his consulting fee and accused him of being paid a lot of money “to do nothing.”

2Ouch! Toronto-Dominion Bank is bracing itself for stinging penalties from U.S. regulators for possible money-laundering lapses. This week, the bank announced it will set aside how much to cover those penalties?
a. US$150-million
b. US$250-million
c. US$450-million
d. US$650-million

c. US$450-million. TD Bank will set aside nearly half a billion dollars to cover potential fines and other penalties. However, it said the extent of any penalties is “unknown” right now.

3Ah, remember the long-ago days of … 2022? Only two years ago, organizers of the FIFA World Cup soccer matches in Vancouver pegged the cost of holding the events at $260-million. How much do the organizers now say the 2026 games will cost?
a. About $300-million
b. About $350-million
c. About $400-million
d. More than $500-million

d. More than $500-million. Organizers say the estimated cost has more than doubled to between $483-million and $581-million.

4Which pandemic-era darling announced this week that its chief executive was leaving and that it was planning to cut 15 per cent of its workforce?
a. Delivery Hero
b. Moderna
c. Peloton
d. Zoom

c. Peloton. Peloton chief executive Barry McCarthy is leaving as the company slashes staff. The exercise-bike maker saw its stock market capitalization hit almost US$50-billion in early 2021. It is now worth about US$1.2-billion.

5Why has the Japanese yen been the focus of much attention in recent weeks?
a. It is soaring in value against the U.S. dollar
b. It is plunging in value against the U.S. dollar
c. It has been used to buy large amounts of bitcoin
d. Russia is using yen transactions to evade currency controls

b. It is plunging in value against the U.S. dollar. The yen has sunk to three-decade lows against the U.S. dollar. The Bank of Japan appeared to intervene this week to support its currency but the yen remains at historically weak levels, leading to concerns about whether the slide in a key currency may have destabilizing effects on global trade.

6The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, one of the costliest infrastructure projects in Canadian history, was given the go-ahead this week to start shipping oil. How long has the $34-billion expansion taken to complete?
a. 20 years
b. 12 years
c. 10 years
d. 8 years

b. 12 years. Kinder Morgan Canada, the original owner of the pipeline, proposed the project in 2012. Stymied by Indigenous and environmental opposition, it sold the project to the federal government in 2018.

7Changpeng Zhao, the Canadian entrepreneur behind the giant crypto exchange Binance, was sentenced this week by U.S. authorities to four months in jail for:
a. Failing to establish adequate money-laundering controls
b. Deceiving potential clients about the safety of their crypto investments
c. Lying to U.S. tax authorities
d. Failing to maintain adequate reserves

a. Failing to establish adequate money-laundering controls. Zhao expressed regret for not introducing tougher “know your customer” policies at Binance. The exchange has paid US$4.3-billion for failing to halt transactions that financed terrorist groups and other questionable parties.

8Brookfield Asset Management signed a deal this week to jointly develop an estimated US$10-billion in renewable-energy projects. Its partner in the deal is:
a. Alphabet
b. Microsoft
c. Shopify
d. Tesla

b. Microsoft is backing the projects, which are supposed to deliver 10.5 gigawatts of generating capacity, enough to power the equivalent of 1.8 million homes. The deal demonstrates how far companies are willing to go to meet clean-energy commitments at a time when cloud computing and artificial intelligence are boosting the demand for electric power.

9Train operators at Canada’s major freight railways have voted to go on strike this month unless a labour deal is reached. What is one of the key issues?
a. Rest periods
b. Increased automation
c. Mandatory retirement ages
d. French language requirements

a. Rest periods. The Teamsters Canada union says key issues are rest periods and the ability of employees to book time off to ensure they are not working while fatigued. Both major railways – Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. – say they have offered to move away from a pay-per-mile system to an hourly pay rate that offers more predictable days off.

10Capital Power Corp., the Edmonton-based power generator, said this week that it scrapped plans for one of Canada’s largest carbon-capture projects because:
a. The technology didn’t work
b. The company is meeting its carbon targets in other ways
c. Fierce public opposition
d. It wasn’t economically feasible

d. It wasn’t economically feasible. Capital Power said its work on the project had confirmed it was technologically viable, but the company concluded it did not work financially. Among other things, the decision reflects uncertainty about the extent to which governments are prepared to provide reliable revenue guarantees for this form of decarbonization.

11Why did Tesla’s stock price jump this week?
a. It struck a deal that could allow it to deploy its “full self-driving” system in China
b. It announced a new car that will sell for less than US$25,000
c. It unveiled a battery technology that will dramatically expand its cars’ range
d. It announced plans for a new gigafactory in China

a. It struck a deal to deploy its “full self-driving” system in China. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk appears to have won tentative approval from China for the automaker’s plan to launch its “full self-driving” feature in the country.

12“Of course, we’re not satisfied with 3 per cent inflation. ‘Three per cent’ can’t be in a sentence with ‘satisfied.’” Who said that this week?
a. Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem
b. Royal Bank of Canada president David McKay
c. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
d. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell

d. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. Powell reiterated the Federal Reserve’s focus on driving inflation back to 2 per cent as he announced the U.S. central bank’s decision this week to hold interest rates steady. Stock and bond investors have been disappointed at the dwindling prospects for imminent rate cuts.

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