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.
Bank of Canada cuts rate to 2.25%, signals easing cycle may be overOpen this photo in gallery:
The Bank of Canada’s governing council voted to lower the policy rate by a quarter-percentage-point to 2.25 per cent at its October decision.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The Bank of Canada lowered its policy rate to 2.25 per cent on Wednesday, but signalled that it might be at the end of its easing cycle. This was the bank’s second consecutive cut, and the fourth cut this year. The policy rate is now “about the right level to keep inflation close to 2 per cent while helping the economy through this period of structural adjustment,” Governor Tiff Macklem said in a news conference after the rate announcement. The bank also slashed its forecast for economic growth owing to a combination of trade uncertainty and slow population growth.
The U.S. Federal Reserve also cut its key policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point, bringing the target range for the federal funds rate down to 3.75 per cent to 4 per cent. The two central banks are in very different positions, but the simultaneous decisions to cut are unusual because inflation is running hotter than desired in both countries. Ordinarily, that would suggest interest rates should be going up, not down.
Canada’s fentanyl czar says he underestimated scale of opioid crisisOpen this photo in gallery:
Commissioner of Canada’s Fight Against Fentanyl Kevin Brosseau, right, with Denver, a CBSA narcotics detection dog, in Lansdowne, Ont., in February.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Kevin Brosseau says he didn’t fully appreciate the scale and scope of the synthetic-opioid crisis before becoming Canada’s fentanyl czar, Alexandra Posadzki reports. “But let me be clear, that’s not to say that Canada is the source of fentanyl to the United States,” Mr. Brosseau said in remarks at a recent conference. A June, 2025, report from the fentanyl czar calls the volumes of fentanyl entering the U.S. from Canada “negligible.”
Still “any amount is too much” and since starting his new post, Mr. Brosseau has spoken to various experts – from law enforcement to public-health officials to mayors and First Nations leaders – to identify gaps in Canada’s current approach to fentanyl trafficking. He’s assembled a team that includes representatives from the RCMP, Public Safety Canada and a financial-crime expert from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC) to help him understand the regulatory landscape, including further financial-crime and border-security legislation.
Decoder: Job postings expose the U.S. and Canada’s shared employment misery
Canada’s job market is struggling, but the same is happening south of the border. This past week, Amazon.com Inc., United Parcel Service Inc. and Target Corp. said they were cutting nearly 70,000 positions combined. And despite Mr. Trump’s claims about the U.S. economy being a job-creating powerhouse, there is little data available during the government shutdown. Still, third-party sources like Indeed.com are helping fill the data gap, noting that Indeed’s job vacancy count is higher in the United States versus Canada. Jason Kirby takes a look at the numbers in the latest instalment of the Decoder series.
Wealthsimple hits $10-billion valuation milestone with $750-million financingOpen this photo in gallery:
Wealthsimple’s chief executive officer Michael Katchen at the company’s Toronto office in July. It has become one of the few Canadian technology companies to achieve a $10-billion valuation.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Wealthsimple Technologies Inc. has become one of the few Canadian technology companies to achieve a $10-billion valuation after striking one of the largest domestic venture capital financings in recent years, Sean Silcoff reports. The Toronto online financial services provider raised $750 million, led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Another big investor was the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board.
Wealthsimple’s surge in assets has accompanied an explosive trend of Canadian investors looking to take ownership of their own savings and retirement. It boosted its banking services this summer with an upgrade to its zero-fee chequing account, an unlimited cashback credit card, a secured line of credit, home cash delivery, paperless cheques, bank drafts and wire transfers, among other changes.
Man of the moment: François-Philippe Champagne prepares for make-or-break budgetOpen this photo in gallery:
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne at his office in Ottawa last week.Rémi Thériault/The Globe and Mail
At a time of deep economic uncertainty, the coming federal budget on Nov. 4 will be the biggest test of Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s career. This will not be just any budget, but one Mr. Champagne and Prime Minister Mark Carney have billed as a “generational” shift aimed at equipping Canada to deal with the economic upheaval caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war. That likely means much bigger deficits – to fund huge investments in capital and defence spending – but also major cuts in spending on other programs. It’s a pivotal moment for the little-known (outside Quebec) politician who recently became arguably the second-most important person in Ottawa.
Konrad Yakabuski traces Mr. Champagne’s trajectory from his youth in Quebec City and Shawinigan to the upper echelons of the federal government, and explores the challenges he faces as he tables the upcoming fiscal plan. Read the full profile here.
“What we’re going through is not just a cyclical downturn.” Who said that this week?
a. Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem
b. Prime Minister Mark Carney
c. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
d. U.S. President Donald Trump
a. Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem. In a normal business cycle, lowering interest rates helps to spur a vigorous recovery. This time? Maybe not. In announcing the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision, Mr. Macklem emphasized that fiddling with interest rates can do only so much to address the country’s problems. He said Canada is undergoing “a structural transition” because of the U.S. trade conflict. In short: Don’t expect a rapid rebound from the current economic weakness.
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.