The Big Story

Frozen bank accounts, financial chaos, job loss, poverty. Those are all things Gonzalo witnessed while living through the largest foreign default in world history. Other than putting our current financial crisis into perspective, he wants to know if there’s anything we can learn from living through challenging times.

Jordan speaks with David Coletto, founder and CEO of Abacus Data, and Tanya Woods, Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs and Policy Council at Questrade Financial Group, to find an answer.

Do you have a money problem? Call us and leave a message at 416-935-5935. Or email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok @InThisEconomyPod. Don't forget to leave a call-back number, so we can get in touch.

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

Through email at [email protected]

Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

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It's time again for us to dip into our trove of listener emails and voicemails and share with you some of our favourite pieces of feedback we received over the past month or so.

A special thanks to everyone who's taken the time to tell us how you feel. Even if your submission didn't make it into this episode, please keep writing and calling in. Your input helps us make the show better. 

Have a great long weekend! 

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

Through email at [email protected]

Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

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In November 2019, months before the pandemic made heroes of public sector workers like teachers and (especially) nurses, Ontario's government passed Bill 124, attempting to cap their pay increases at one percent for the next three years. It didn't go very well. 

Earlier this month, after years of protests and bad press, and a legal challenge that went to the highest court ion the province, the same government repealed the bill. And then announced in the budget that the entire fight, including years of back pay, has already cost the province $6 billion in taxpayer money, and could cost billions more. So...what happened here? Why did this fight drag on for years? And would the government have been better off just paying up in the first place?

GUEST: Richard Southern, Queen's Park reporter, CityNews

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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You may not know which ads meet the definition of greenwashing—but you know the type of ads in that discussion. Big corporations assuring you of how much they do for the environment, how sustainable their practices are and how much they've already done to make sure you can enjoy their products guilt-free.

As the climate crisis worsens, convincing your customers your business is part of the solution, not the problem, can translate to a lot of revenue. The question is, how legitimate are those claims, and what happens when someone reports you for not meeting your own lofty standards?

GUEST: Carl Meyer, climate investigations reporter, The Narwhal

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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You have to work pretty hard, in most of the country, to avoid spending money with a Loblaw-owned business. From its origins in groceries to market dominance there, the ubiquity of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix, and everything from finance to clothing also under its umbrella, the Weston family has built a staggering retail empire.

How did they do it? What happens when one company controls so much of the market for essential goods? What does it mean for us? Should the government take action here, and what could they do about it if they were so inclined? After all, isn't Loblaw just...successful?

GUEST: David Moscrop, writer, author and political commentator (Read David's piece on Loblaw right here.)

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

Through email at [email protected]

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We all know that companies track what we do on work devices. If, for example, you're listening to this show right now on a company phone or laptop, your boss could probably find that out, assuming they wanted to.

But he’s where it gets darker: your boss might not have to bother finding out. An AI-driven worker surveillance program may be logging everything you do, completely automatically. And then judging your performance based on whatever it's been told to look for...

GUEST: Valerio de Stefano, Canada Research Chair in Innovation, Law and Society

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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Netflix. Disney+. Prime. Apple TV+. Spotify. Newspapers. Magazines. Video games. Substacks. A secret caller (hint: you know him!) has a minor subscription addiction and needs help getting his spending under control. 

Jordan asks Barry Hertz, Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail, to explain the subscription boom we're living in, and learn a few tips to avoid high fees. 

Do you have a money problem? Call us and leave a message at 416-935-5935. Or email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok @InThisEconomyPod. Don't forget to leave a call-back number, so we can get in touch.

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

Through email at [email protected]

Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's a Canadian institution. Or at least, a piece of Canadian culture. OK, fine, it's an interesting quirk that visitors to Eastern and Atlantic Canada are often flummoxed by, but residents have lived with all their lives. Until, perhaps, one day soon when bags of milk may vanish from grocery stores.

That's the speculation, at least, as milk consumption declines. But it offers a chance to take a little dive into the world's most interesting form of dairy delivery and see ... why? How? And for how long?

GUEST: Andy Takagi, reporter, The Toronto Star

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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Canada has already seen more cases of measles in 2024 than in all of 2023. And rates of the disease in Europe and the United States are also rising. Meanwhile, vaccine uptake for the MMR shot, which protects against measles, has collapsed in recent years.

So how worried should we be about what is—for now—still just a handful of cases? Why have vaccine rates for a decades-old and proven vaccine fallen so quickly? What do you need to know about a disease that, just a few years ago, was all but eradicated in Canada?

GUEST: Dr. Raywat Deonandan, epidemiologist, associate professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Health Sciences

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

Through email at [email protected]

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When announced in December, it seemed like a new immigration program would allow Canadians with extended family in Gaza to finally bring them to safety. More than three months later, not a single person has arrived in the country.

And it's not for lack of trying. Thousands have applied, and hundreds of applications are stuck in bureaucratic purgatory. Even Canada's minister of immigration has said Canada is "failing" Gazans. So what's gone wrong? Is the government to blame? Or is this the fog of war at work?

GUEST: Yara El Murr, reporting in The Guardian

CORRECTION: Eman al-Atbash is 29, not 20. 

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

Through email at [email protected]

Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.