Eh Sayers

Canada’s workforce is among the most educated in the world. But when it comes to worker productivity, we’ve seen a real slump over the past few years. The quarterly data published by StatCan in June 2024 confirms Canadian workers are continuing to underperform compared to our neighbours to the south. This comes as no surprise to this episode’s guest, Guy Gellatly, Chief Economic Advisor at StatCan. The latest quarterly numbers are a continuation of an on-going decline in Canada’s productivity that economists have been tracking for years.  

But what factors influence worker productivity? And why does it matter if Canadians are less productive? As a matter of fact, what even is productivity? In this episode, we asked Guy to help us understand how we got to this point and why it matters for Canadians.  

We can try our best, but its not always easy knowing what's best for the environment. The world is complicated, and it isn't as simple as reduce, reuse, recycle—though that's a great place to start!
In the immortal words of Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy bein' green."
We have two stories exploring that theme. The first is one we made in-house asking just how green our digital world really is, and the second comes from the Simply Science podcast exploring the world of urban forests.

Are you feeling like it's a little bit harder to bring home the bacon... from the grocery store? The latest data indicate that food prices have mostly stabilized... but why does it feel like the cost of feeding your family is still going up?

Today we're talking food inflation with StatCan's resident smart cookie Taylor Mitchell.

StatCan released new analysis into the online culture our kids are growing up in, and it’s far from the best of all possible worlds: misinformation, bullying, violence… and worse.

Analyst Rachel Tsitomeneas joins us to dive into the findings. 

More than 70 distinct Indigenous languages are spoken by First Nations people, Métis and Inuit in Canada, but these languages are under threat. 

In this episode, we speak with Randy Morin and Belinda kakiyosēw Daniels, who share their knowledge of the Cree language with learners at the Nêhiyawak Language Experience, about the wisdom encoded in Indigenous languages, as well as the opportunities for these languages and the barriers they face. 

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the studio
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the audio mixer with care,
In hopes that a special guest soon would be there.

In the age of social media, AI, and deepfakes, discerning fact from fiction is a crucial skill. Nowadays, we’re not just getting our information from the six o’clock news. Friends, family, researchers, influencers, entertainers, news anchors, advertisers… Who can you trust?  

Timothy Caulfield, misinformation/disinformation expert, author, University of Alberta professor, and member of the Order of Canada, and Eric Rancourt, Assistant Chief Statistician at StatCan, join us to explore the challenges posed by our information environment and what can be done to counter misinformation. 

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Gentlethem! 

While every census is special, the 2021 Census was historic. It was the first to include a question about gender, making Canada the first country to collect and publish data on gender diversity from a national census. 

In this episode, we explore gender with drag king Cyril Cinder and we talk Census 2021 with StatCan’s Anne Milan. 

Join us for a new kind of gender reveal.

• The Daily - Canada is the first country to provide census data on transgender and non-binary people 
• Filling the gaps: Information on gender in the 2021 Census 
• 2021 Census: Sex at birth and gender - the whole picture 

Canada reached an important milestone June 16, 2023. For the first time, there were 40 million people living in Canada. That means that someone out there is the 40 millionth Canadian. But who is it? 

 Laurent Martel, director of the Centre for Demography at Statistics Canada, joins us to explore what demographic data can tell us about this person, as well as the implications of Canada’s changing demographics and its rapid population growth.  

StatCan’s Consumer Price Index tells us a lot about the economy… if you know what to look for.  

Guy Gellatly, Chief Economic Advisor at StatCan, joins us at the mic to break down the CPI and answer our questions about the economy. What’s the ideal inflation rate? Is no inflation the best kind of inflation? And what is a deflationary spiral?