Employees work at a Glencore-owned copper refinery in Montreal, in 2025.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis on the biggest headlines, stock tips, personal finance strategies and more.
Canadian economy stalls, posting consecutive quarterly declines
Canada’s economy contracted 0.1 per cent on an annualized basis in the first quarter of the year, Statistics Canada data reported Friday, as the country struggles to grow in the face of trade tensions with the United States. Economists at the Bank of Canada and on Bay Street predicted 1.5-per-cent growth.
The latest data follow a 1-per-cent annualized decline in the fourth quarter of 2025, making it two consecutive quarters of annualized decline, which some would call a technical recession. But, as Mark Rendell reports, economists cautioned that it may be premature to use the term as the first-quarter decline was small and could easily be revised upward. Still, the weak first-quarter print likely reinforces the case for the Bank of Canada to remain on hold in the coming months.
Tim Hortons to dial back use of Temporary Foreign Worker program, aims to hire 10,000 locally
A Tim Hortons in Toronto. The restaurant chain is committing to hire up to 10,000 local workers as it expands the number of locations this year.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Tim Hortons said it will dial back its use of Ottawa’s Temporary Foreign Worker program and commit to hiring 10,000 local workers as it expands the number of locations this year. For years, the fast-food chain was one of the biggest users of the TFW program, a controversial immigration stream that epitomized some of the failings of the Trudeau-era immigration strategy.
Tim Hortons’ parent company, Restaurant Brands International Inc., is also pledging to stop lobbying the federal government to expand the TFW program, citing the high youth unemployment rate. But Tim Hortons chief operating officer Naira Saeed told The Globe’s Vanmala Subramaniam that the company intends to continue participating in the TFW program, mostly because hiring challenges still exist in remote and rural locations.
The big Canadian banks’ second-quarter earnings
Canada’s biggest banks posted resilient second-quarter profits, covering the three months that ended April 30.Andrew Lahodynskyj/The Canadian Press
Canada’s biggest banks reported their second-quarter earnings this week, covering the three months that ended April 30. All six banks posted higher profit that beat analysts’ estimates, bucking economic uncertainty and looming trade pressure ahead of talks to renew the North American trade agreement, USMCA.
All the banks except Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce also raised their quarterly dividends. Among the earnings reports, CIBC announced a deal to sell its Caribbean division for US$1.6-billion and shuffled its top executive team.
Canadian bank stocks have surged 16 per cent this year on the optimism surrounding the sector’s ability to withstand economic uncertainty, outperforming the S&P/TSX Composite Index’s 8-per-cent climb.
A Canadian shipbuilder’s ascent from outcast to key player in Arctic defence
At Davie Shipbuilding along the St. Lawrence River in Lévis, Que., work is underway to facilitate the production of a new heavy icebreaker fit to assert Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.Renaud Philippe/The Globe and Mail
Canada’s Davie Shipbuilding is currently experiencing one of its best boom cycles since 2012, when the British-based firm Inocea bought the shipbuilder. The company is growing its international presence through acquisitions in Finland and the United States, and its recent inclusion in Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy means it’s well-positioned to bid for a stream of future federal contracts.
Its name is also synonymous with shipyards as far as Pori, Finland, a mid-sized city on the country’s west coast. Davie is building one of two new heavy icebreakers for Canada through the country’s National Shipbuilding Strategy. And while the top half of the vessel will be built in Canada in Lévis, Que., the hull (bottom half) will be built in Helsinki and Pori before being shipped to Quebec by the end of 2027.
Pippa Norman visited the sand dunes of Pori along with Helsinki and Lévis to speak with local workers and stakeholders about the shipyard’s presence and what Davie’s acquisition has meant for the communities.
Behind a group of Bay Street titans’ (plus one astronaut’s) attempts to hack mortality
Anthony Lacavera undergoes a facial treatment meant to stimulate facial tissue and help drain the lymphatic system. The 52-year-old telecom entrepreneur has a rigorous daily routine that he hopes will ensure he lives beyond the average lifespan.Christopher Katsarov Luna/The Globe and Mail
A group of Bay Street titans and astronaut Chris Hadfield are trying to hack mortality – and they’ve launched an app to help the rest of us do the same, Clare O’Hara reports.
Telecom entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera has teamed up with fitness guru and self-proclaimed “life engineer” Gary LeBlanc to launch EverMe, a mobile app backed by a group of five Canadian business leaders. All are members of an exclusive club that calls itself the Longevity League, and together with a group of outside investors, they’ve raised a combined $5-million to get EverMe off the ground. The app draws on artificial intelligence to find, read and organize complex research papers, trending longevity information and expert perspectives on how to live a healthier life. Read the full story here.
Take our business quiz for this week
c. Ferrari just pulled the cover off Luce, its first fully electric car. The new vehicle is one of the biggest gambles in the Italian company’s history and arrives amid a string of missed targets and expensive promises by luxury carmakers to go electric.
Get the rest of the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz here, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.