A Canadian flag flies in downtown Windsor as the skyline of Detroit, Michigan is shown in the background on April 1, 2025.Bill Pugliano/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 from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.
U.S. tariffs begin to squeeze Canada’s labour market
A Canadian flag flies in downtown Windsor, Ont., with skyline of Detroit in the background on April 1. In Windsor, the unemployment rate jumped by 1.4 percentage points, reaching 10.7 per cent.Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 6.9 per cent in April, up from 6.7 per cent in March, as the manufacturing and automotive sectors start to feel the strain of tariffs from the United States. Ontario saw the largest decline in employment, falling by 35,000, with most of those jobs in the manufacturing sector. In Windsor, the unemployment rate jumped by 1.4 percentage points, reaching 10.7 per cent. The latest jobs figures illustrate how tariffs are beginning to squeeze the Canadian economy, affecting regions and industries most exposed to trade with the United States, Nojoud Al Mallees reports. Some good news though: The Canadian economy added 7,400 jobs in April, though that figure was padded by an increase in election-related hiring. In other data from Statistics Canada this week, Canadian exports to the U.S. tumbled 6.6 per cent in March but was largely offset by a 24.8-per-cent jump in exports to other countries.
The Canadian who will succeed Warren Buffett as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO
Greg Abel and Warren Buffett at the CHI Health Center on May 2, 2025 in Omaha, Neb.Matthew Putney/The Associated Press
Legendary investor Warren Buffett shocked shareholders this week when he announced that he wants to retire as the chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year. The 94 year old has always said he has no plans to retire, and it was assumed that no one would take over until after Mr. Buffett’s death – well, until now. Mr. Buffett’s chosen successor is Greg Abel, a 62-year-old veteran Berkshire executive from Edmonton, Alta. – a decision that has already been signed off by the company’s board. Mr. Abel has been running much of the company for years, and was promoted to board member and vice-chairman for non-insurance operations in 2018. According to a 2019 Globe and Mail profile, friends describe him as “a fiercely intelligent, hyper-efficient guy whose work is his life and who hides his talents behind a wall of humility.”
Decoder: Travel spending in the U.S. is in free fall
It seems that Canadians’ ongoing boycott of travelling to the United States is starting to hit the American economy. There has been a steep decline in spending by international visitors in the U.S., according to trade data released this week. The numbers revealed the largest three-month decline in travel exports of the past 25 years outside the months immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the first year of the pandemic, Jason Kirby reports. Canada is the largest source of tourism to the States, but travellers from other countries are also avoiding the U.S. over fears it is unsafe. Take a closer look at the numbers in this week’s Decoder series.
BCE cuts dividend, strikes U.S. partnership in bid to improve finances
BCE’s cut of its annual dividend to $1.75 from $3.99 marks the end of its extended history of steady payout growth.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
BCE Inc. cut its dividend by more than half – the company’s first dividend reduction in 17 years – and announced a partnership deal with a Canadian pension fund to help finance its U.S. expansion. The cut, to $1.75 from $3.99, had been anticipated by investors for months. BCE has been distributing to shareholders more in dividends than it has been earning in free cash flow, while also balancing the weight of more than $30-billion in long-term debt, Irene Galea and Andrew Willis report. BCE president and chief executive officer Mirko Bibic said “the message is to focus in the near term on lowering debt.” Still, the sharp dividend cut to one of Canada’s historic blue-chip stocks is a tough pill to swallow for investors.
As the U.S. trade war escalates, LNG Canada is poised to start exports to Asia
LNG Canada chief executive officer, Chris Cooper at the newly constructed LNG Canada export terminal in Kitimat, B.C.Aaron Whitfield/The Globe and Mail
LNG Canada is in the process of putting the finishing touches at the terminal in Kitimat, B.C., that will soon be exporting liquefied natural gas – the first of its kind in Canada. The $18-billion export terminal is now more than 98 per cent completed after nearly seven years of construction, and the first LNG shipment is slated to set sail to Asia by mid-2025. As the trade war with the U.S. escalates, the Canadian energy industry is looking to LNG Canada as a promising sign that the country is capable of shipping its resources to new markets and reducing its economic dependence on the United States. Brent Jang visited the export terminal and spoke to different groups in B.C. about the province’s fledgling LNG industry.
Take our business quiz for the week of May 9
a. University of Alberta. The Edmonton-born Mr. Abel earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Alberta. Now he has the formidable task of replacing Mr. Buffett, who produced a 5,500,000 per cent return for investors during his long tenure at Berkshire.
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.