A quick-growing month-long boycott movement begins against the grocery giant for the month of May, as shoppers express frustrations with high food prices.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
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.
Calls for Loblaw boycott are ‘misguided criticism,’ Galen Weston says
A month-long boycott targeting Loblaw-owned grocery stores is gaining momentum. The campaign, started by a Reddit group venting frustrations with the rising cost of living and groceries, criticizes the Canadian grocery chain for food inflation, pandemic profiteering and greedflation. The primary aim of the boycott is to have a financial impact on Loblaw, by asking Canadians to avoid shopping at No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart, as well as other brands owned by the company. During the company’s annual general meeting this week, Loblaw chairman Galen Weston called the boycott “misguided criticism.” Mr. Weston and Loblaw CEO Per Bank also called out accusations of profiteering as misinformation during their remarks at the meeting, Susan Krashinsky Robertson reports.
The $34-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project finally opens
It took 12 years and $34-billion, but the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion officially launched operations Wednesday to ship oil. The goal of the expansion is to open up the overseas markets for Canadian oil and remove a price discount that had existed for years because of an overreliance on exports to the United States, Emma Graney reports. The project, which runs 1,150 kilometres from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C., is deemed as one of the costliest infrastructure projects in Canadian history. Kinder Morgan Canada, the original owner of the pipeline, proposed the project in 2012. It was sold to the federal government in 2018 after Indigenous and environmental opposition.
Decoder: The surprising good news in the decline in self-employment
The number of self-employed Canadians has dropped steadily since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Bank of Canada report. It found that the proportion of unincorporated workers – also called “the marginal self-employed” or people who are not incorporated – has declined markedly. The economic report found, however, that the proportion of incorporated individuals has remained fairly steady since 2000. While this trend may seem worrying, the authors of the report wrote that it “may represent a long-term trend of better employment prospects for marginal workers and a compositional shift toward incorporated self-employment.” Mark Rendell takes a closer look at the figures in this week’s Decoder.
New details on U.S. probe of TD Bank emerge
There was major news coming out of the banking world this week. Stefanie Marotta first reported Tuesday that Toronto-Dominion Bank is setting aside US$450-million to cover penalties it’s facing as a result of a U.S. regulatory and law enforcement investigation related to its anti-money-laundering practices. TD Bank has consistently said it cannot disclose any information on its discussions with regulators, but the probe derailed its takeover of Tennessee-based First Horizon Corp. last spring. Investors have also been concerned with the lack of details. On Thursday, Tim Kiladze reports that a US$653-million money-laundering and drug-trafficking operation “consisting of narcotics and other illicit proceeds” is tied to the U.S. investigation. The bank was also hit with a nearly $9.2-million fine from financial-crimes watchdog Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC) over faulty controls to prevent money laundering.
BoC’s Tiff Macklem warns interest rates will likely fall gradually
Governor Tiff Macklem offered another signal on the Bank of Canada’s interest-rate trajectory while testifying to the House of Commons finance committee on Thursday. He said he’s becoming more confident that inflation is moving in the right direction and that it may soon be appropriate to begin lowering the bank’s policy rate. But he also warned that borrowing costs will not decline rapidly and rates will not go back to pre-pandemic levels. Instead, it will “likely to be a pretty gradual path.” According to Refinitiv data, financial markets are pricing in a 60-per-cent chance that the central bank will start easing monetary policy at its next meeting in June.
Founder of Freshii suing company that bought his restaurant chain
The founder of Freshii is suing the company that bought the Canadian health-food chain. Matthew Corrin is seeking at least $2.5-million in damages from Foodtastic Inc., a Montreal-based company that purchased Freshii in a $74.4-million deal that closed last year. According to a report by Joe Castaldo, Mr. Corrin alleges the new owner failed to honour an agreement that allowed him to serve as executive chair, as well as cutting him out of meetings, drastically reducing his consulting fee and accusing him of being paid a lot of money “to do nothing.” The lawsuit was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in January. None of the allegations have been tested in court.
Take our business quiz for the week of May 3
b. 12 years. Kinder Morgan Canada, the original owner of the pipeline, proposed the project in 2012. Stymied by Indigenous and environmental opposition, it sold the project to the federal government in 2018.
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.
Abigale Subdhan