The Globe and Mail’s City Space podcast takes on the big issues, questions and stories of urban living. What makes a city function? Why was it built that way? How will it change in a tech-powered society? 

This episode takes a look at the unhoused and encampment crisis in many cities and towns in Canada. In Halifax, the homeless population has tripled in the last three years. Emergency shelters aren’t enough, and building new housing takes time. Real fixes will require money and policy solutions. The city finds itself caught in the middle – between those who just want the problem to disappear and those trying to find long-term answers.

City Space: How Halifax’s unhoused crisis got so bad

Context is everything. Join us Monday to Friday for a Canadian daily news podcast from The Globe and Mail. Explore a story shaping our world, in conversation with reporters, experts, and the people at the centre of the news.

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As the U.S. election looms, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s team is getting ready for both possible outcomes: a Biden re-election and a second Trump term. They are assembling a team of officials to remind American politicians about the importance of free trade across our borders.

Adrian Morrow is The Globe’s U.S. correspondent based in Washington, D.C., and he explains who is on this so-called Team Canada, and how their strategy works.

How Ottawa is preparing for a possible second Trump term

Hydrogen fuel is sometimes called the fuel of the future, and it’s being used in a number of ways around the world. The rail giant CPKC is trialling a new hydrogen train in Alberta, that it hopes can replace diesel-fuelled freight locomotives in delivering goods across the continent.

The Globe’s Alberta and energy reporter, Kelly Cyderman, joins us to discuss hydrogen trains, how they work, and how this development might lead toward a greener Canada.

Hydrogen trains might be the future of Canadian rail

Canada is in the midst of a primary-care crisis. 6.5 million Canadians don’t have reliable access to a family doctor, and some jurisdictions are turning to nurse practitioners to fill the gap. Alberta recently announced a program that would make it possible for nurse practitioners to receive public funding to establish a practice, although it comes with its conditions and concerns from other organizations.

The Globe’s national health reporter, Kelly Grant, walks us through the role nurse practitioners have in providing primary care, how they’re funded, and Alberta’s new plan to address the shortage of primary-care providers.

How nurse practitioners could help Canada’s primary care crisis

The housing affordability problem in Canada continues, and people are desperate for solutions. The federal government is handing out billions of dollars as part of the Apartment Construction Loan Program intending to create more affordable housing. But, a Globe analysis found a disconnect between what’s considered affordable in this program, and what renters can actually afford.

The Globe’s real-estate reporter Rachelle Younglai explains why these units aren’t actually attainable to many Canadian renters and looks at the concerns with the program’s definition of affordability.

The problem with Canada’s affordable housing

After more than a decade, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX) has finally been completed. One of the country’s biggest infrastructure projects is seen as a major win for Albertan oil producers, with nearly 600,000 extra barrels shipped daily, ready for international buyers.

But the future ownership of the pipeline remains up in the air. Many of the issues and questions that delayed the project – concerns over its safety and the environment, fights over Indigenous land rights, long-term economic risks – remain.

Jeffrey Jones, The Globe’s sustainable finance reporter, explains the ballooning costs of the TMX and why one of Canada’s top exports is creating tension with its future climate targets.

City Space: How Halifax’s unhoused crisis got so bad

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