Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:
Canada’s central bank ratcheted up borrowing costs for Canadians by raising its benchmark interest rate by 0.5 percentage points, its sixth consecutive increase this year.
The Bank of Canada’s move brings the policy rate to 3.75 per cent for the first time since early 2008. Financial markets had been anticipating a larger rate hike of 0.75 percentage points.
The bank warns economic growth will “stall” in the coming quarters and rates will likely need to rise further to rein in decades-high inflation.
Read more:
- Interest-rate hikes starting to negatively affect job market, even amid a labour shortage
- Rob Carrick: Young people priced out of houses should be loving the rise in interest rates
- Konrad Yakabuski: The Bank of Canada must ignore Jagmeet Singh’s clueless critique
- Opinion: We need to talk about the unco-ordinated, simultaneous rate hikes by central banks around the world
- Editorial: Jagmeet Singh thinks he knows why food prices are rising. He’s wrong
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Immigrants make up nearly a quarter of Canadian population, census shows
Immigrants made up almost a quarter of all people who called Canada home in 2021, the largest it’s been since Confederation, the latest census data show.
Statistics Canada says 23 per cent of the country – or more than 8.3 million people – are or had ever been, a landed immigrant or permanent resident. The growth is the result of the federal government’s campaign to attract primarily young, economic class newcomers to address Canada’s labour shortage. Immigration is largely driving population growth, in part because of Canada’s aging population and low fertility rates, the agency says.
Emergencies Act inquiry a federal matter, not a provincial one, Doug Ford says
Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended his decision to fight a summons to testify at the public inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act, saying the inquiry is not a provincial issue.
“This is a federal inquiry into the federal government’s decision to use the federal Emergencies Act,” Ford said. “For Ontario, this was a policing matter, it was not a political matter.”
Ford said Ontario has provided two top bureaucrats to participate in the inquiry and shared 800 pages of cabinet documents about the issue.
- Ex-Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly says force couldn’t change much about response to convoy protest
- Emergencies Act helpful in clearing convoy protesters, but uncertain if necessary, Ottawa officer testifies
- Campbell Clark: Doug Ford will do almost anything to avoid answering questions about the emergency in his province
Quebec woman returning from Syria faces terrorism, RCMP say
A Quebec woman who allegedly travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State will face terrorism charges, the RCMP said Wednesday.
Oumaima Chouay, who has been repatriated from a detention camp in Syria, faces charges of leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group, participation in the activity of a terrorist group, providing property or services for terrorism purposes and conspiracy to participate in the activity of a terrorist group.
ALSO ON OUR RADAR
Russia rehearses response to nuclear attack: Amid rising tensions over Russia’s unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine plans to use a “dirty bomb,” the Kremlin held an exercise Wednesday involving nuclear submarines, strategic bombers and ballistic missiles. The “Grom” or “Thunder” exercise uses test launches to put Moscow’s nuclear forces through their paces.
- Ukraine’s Foreign Legion offers a shot at redemption for fighters from around the globe
- Lawrence Martin: The U.S. midterm elections are trending nicely – for Vladimir Putin
Shaw stock soars: After Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne outlined a potential path toward his ministry’s approval of the contested $26-billion Rogers-Shaw merger, Shaw saw its shares go up by nearly 10 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
- Opinion: Minister Champagne’s position on Rogers-Shaw deal is a product of Canada’s weak merger laws
- David Moscrop: Boswell’s big battle: In Rogers-Shaw merger, the Competition Bureau wins even if it loses
WestJet takeover of Sunwing would spark higher airfares, watchdog says: The Competition Bureau says travellers will have fewer choices in the market for vacation packages on 31 routes between Canada and Mexico or the Caribbean if WestJet’s acquisition of Sunwing is approved.
- Porter Airlines ordered to pay $130-million to operator of Toronto’s island airport terminal for non-payment of fees during pandemic
Stress Test: You’re not bad at money - you’re suffering from money shame: In the latest episode, Roma chats with a financial trauma researcher and educator about what money shame is, how it affects our financial decisions and how to move past it.
MARKET WATCH
The S&P 500 ended a three-day winning streak on Wednesday as dour earnings guidance added to mounting fears of a global economic slowdown. According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 28.89 points, or 0.75 per cent, to end at 3,830.22 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 228.13 points to 10,970. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.37 points to 31,839.11. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 182.75 points at 19,279.76.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.72 cents US compared with 73.32 cents US on Monday.
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TALKING POINT
Doug Ford’s reforms will create new housing – but don’t count on it being affordable
“Ultimately, the entire effort is premised on an orthodox reading of market economics: that by increasing the supply of a scarce commodity (housing), prices will fall, and some measure of equilibrium will be restored. The problem is that these macro-economic assumptions don’t ensure that each newly completed condo tower or apartment building will be affordable to the ever-expanding swath of urban society that is priced out of the housing market. Those guarantees require not just government funding, but also targeted regulatory protections.” - John Lorinc
Creating an online harms bill is tricky, but it can be done right
“Platforms have for too long operated as black boxes, and there is a profound asymmetry between the knowledge they have about their users (us) and our collective knowledge about how their products are shaping society. Their data should be made available to researchers and civil society to hold platforms accountable and enable consumers to make informed choices about the technologies they use. Users are at the mercy of companies and their wildly variable content moderation practices. Social media regularly remove too much or too little content, failing to remove hate and threats, or taking down matters of public interest.” - Emily Laidlaw
LIVING BETTER
Want to keep your pets safe and healthy? This tech’s for you
Wearable tech that tracks location, distance and health aren’t just for humans any more. Smart collars and other tech-assisted pet accessories have started to hit the market thanks to millennials, who are embracing the “fur baby” phenomenon.
“With the millennial generation, you’re seeing the dog coming before the partner and before the kid. It’s happening even earlier in their lifecycle that they start owning dogs and consider them their kid. I’m in that bucket – we just spend whatever we have on these dogs to provide them their best life,” Jonathan Bensamoun, founder and chief executive officer of the Fi smart collar, said.
TODAY’S LONG READ
Lost in translation: Cohere’s AI software wrote parts of this story. But is it ready for the world?
Cohere’s AI software wrote parts of this story. But is it ready for the world?DOMENIC BAHMANN/The Globe and Mail
Before Aidan Gomez co-founded an artificial intelligence company, he worked as an intern at Google Brain in Toronto alongside Geoffrey Hinton, a luminary in the field of AI. Gomez was the kind of person, Hinton recalled, who had so many ideas that it was difficult to get him to focus on what he was supposed to be doing.
But Hinton noticed that Gomez was particularly interested in learning to translate languages. At that time, machine learning wasn’t advanced enough to be useful for translation, but it wasn’t far off. When he was about to enter his third year at UBC, Gomez co-founded Unbabel with Daniel Jinich, an Argentinian who had studied at Oxford. At first, Gomez said, it was a way to earn money on the side. Then he and Jinich realized that it could become a legitimate business. They have raised $22-million from Y Combinator and other investors, including billionaire Elon Musk. “It’s kind of like magic,” Gomez said in an interview last month. “There’s this thing that has no resemblance to how the brain works, yet we’re able to use it to communicate.” Read the full story by Joe Castaldo
Evening Update is written by Beatrice Paez. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.