Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a news conference in Montreal, on Feb. 19, announcing a high-speed train (TGV) that will connect Quebec City and Toronto.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
Trudeau selects consortium to co-develop high-speed-rail line between Quebec City and Toronto
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this week that the federal government has selected a team to design a high-speed rail link running from Quebec City to Toronto. The project, dubbed Alto, is being called the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history and carries an estimated total price tag of between $60-billion and $90-billion, Bill Curry reports. Mr. Trudeau said the line will allow trains to reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres an hour and dramatically improve travel times between major centres in Quebec and Ontario. The consortium selected to co-develop the line is Cadence group, which includes CDPQ Infra, the infrastructure division of Quebec’s pension fund; AtkinsRéalis, the new name for SNC-Lavalin; and Air Canada. The five-year planning phase is the latest step in a long-running debate over whether to green light high-speed rail in Canada, and still depends on support from a future government.
Inflation in Canada rises to 1.9%, with higher energy prices offsetting GST break
Canada’s annual inflation rate rose 1.9 per cent in January year-over-year, up from 1.8 per cent in December, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday. It was the first acceleration in inflation in three months and matched analysts’ expectations. The rate remains below the Bank of Canada’s target but was weighed down by the two-month GST/HST break that started in mid-December and ended on Feb. 15, Mark Rendell reports. Financial markets trimmed their bets on another interest-rate cut from the Bank of Canada after the latest inflation reading. Interest-rate swap markets now put the odds of another quarter-point cut at the central bank’s next meeting on March 12 at around 30 per cent, according to LSEG data, down from around 40 per cent before the Statscan report.
Canadian gasoline pieces were up 8.6 per cent in January year-over-year after a 3.5-per-cent increase in December.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Decoder: Americans too busy watching Elon Musk to care about tariffs, Google search data suggest
The latest Google search activity shows that Americans appear far more concerned with billionaire Elon Musk’s campaign to dismantle U.S. federal agencies than with the risk of tariffs. Searches related to Mr. Musk far exceed searches for tariffs in the U.S., according to Google Trends. Meanwhile, in Canada, the surge in interest about tariffs in January was far greater than the level of search interest in 2018 when Mr. Trump’s imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum during his first time in office. Jason Kirby takes a closer look at the numbers in this week’s Decoder.
How GFL’s CEO Patrick Dovigi accrued billions in debt, had his house shot at, and still managed to win back investors
The Rosedale home of GFL’s CEO Patrick Dovigi was targeted by a gunman back in September. One of the bullets went through his front door and grazed his living room couch. Mr. Dovigi, who leads the waste management giant with those bright green trucks picking up trash from more than 700 municipalities across Canada and the U.S., had reason to be prickly. It was one of several shootings within months that targeted him, his family and his employees. Meanwhile, GFL was also in the middle of a big transaction – looking to sell its environmental services division – and the sale could help the company pay down its debt. Tim Kiladze and Robyn Doolittle report on how Mr. Dovigi managed to pull off the pivotal sale, win back investors and bring the company’s stock back from major lows.
Scammers using AI to target people and businesses with increasingly convincing deepfakes
AI-generated deepfakes are an increasingly popular tool for cybercriminals, according to experts. The deepfakes offer a low-cost, high-tech way to persuade victims to part with their cash by posing as someone they know and trust. Consumers can be targeted with deepfake videos of celebrities hawking fraudulent investment schemes or by scammers sampling the voices of loved ones – and they are not the only ones at risk. Generative AI is also being used to peddle deepfake media aimed at defrauding businesses, creating a new financial risk for companies to manage. Alexandra Posadzki and Joe Castaldo report on “the ultimate fraud machine” and the increasing popularity of these security threats posed by generative AI.
Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Not enough Canadians are filing for bankruptcy, new research argues
Canadians who opt for bankruptcy when they can’t repay their debts has been steadily shrinking for 15 years, new research suggests. Borrowers can choose one of two options: a bankruptcy or a consumer proposal, which involves negotiating a lower debt load with lenders. But, as Erica Alini reports, debtors typically repay a smaller amount of money over a shorter period of time in a bankruptcy compared with a consumer proposal. More and more Canadians are choosing the consumer proposal route, but that isn’t always in their best interests. The share of borrowers choosing to file a consumer proposal has risen to roughly 80 per cent in 2023, up from 20 per cent in 2009. Bankruptcy is typically the better deal for debtors, experts say.
Take our business quiz for the week of Feb. 21
c. Belleville. The federal government has been mulling an enhanced passenger rail system for years now, but this week’s announcement that Ottawa will invest $3.9-billion in a planning phase moves things one small step closer to reality. The project carries a total estimated price tag of up to $90-billion, but don’t buy your tickets just yet – the start of construction is at least five years away.
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.