Competition Bureau broadens probe into Sobeys for property control issue

GATINEAU - The Competition Bureau is widening its probe into Sobeys parent company Empire Co. Ltd. for its use of property controls across Canada.

The bureau previously received an initial court order in 2024 requiring the grocer to provide information focused on property controls in Halifax.

The competition watchdog said on Monday it had received a new Federal Court order to obtain company records, written information and oral testimony related to the probe.

The latest court order grants the bureau access to additional information at a national level, such as how the grocer negotiates property controls and their effects on competition.

Iran war ripple effects drive inflation to its highest level since 2023

OTTAWA - Inflation accelerated to its highest level in more than two years in May as price pressures from the war in Iran started to crop up outside the gas pumps.

But most economists weighing in Monday saw little cause for panic in Statistics Canada's latest consumer price data with oil prices already receding and the Bank of Canada unlikely to move from the sidelines anytime soon.

Statistics Canada said Monday that the annual rate of inflation jumped to 3.2 per cent in May, up from 2.8 per cent in April and notching the highest headline inflation rate since December 2023.

StatCan said gas prices rose 33.2 per cent year-over-year last month as conflict in the Middle East continued to shutter the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. The agency said last month marks the most consumers have paid for gasoline since June 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove supply uncertainty.

Greed outshines ‘the Beautiful Game’

Utter greed is at the heart of this World Cup, and it has shown up as utter stupidity on the part of FIFA to think that it could treat the 104 matches of this tournament as “104 Super Bowls.”

Pill, bills, budgetary aches

We’re a nation of drug users. Well, not those drugs.

Rather, many Canadians have their health supported by pharmaceutical medications prescribed by a physician.

In our universal health-care system, medication can come with a big additional cost.

The federal government introduced a national pharmacare program in 2024. Manitoba was among the first to sign on, partly leading to its Enhanced Pharmacare Program, which now offers birth control, diabetes and a few other medications at no cost to Manitobans.

Ottawa adding $5.4B for child care; provinces, advocates had warned progress at risk

The federal government is giving provinces and territories an additional $5.4 billion over two years for the national $10-a-day child-care program, money the minister is framing as stabilizing the program.

The program that started rolling out across the country in 2021 set ambitious targets for reducing the fees parents pay and creating hundreds of thousands of new spaces by this year, but those targets have not yet been met in many jurisdictions.

Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said Friday in an interview that she has heard the provinces' calls for more federal money, as many struggle to reduce fees, add spaces and recruit and retain enough early childhood educators in the face of rising costs and demand.

"Certainly, money has been part of the challenge," Hajdu said ahead of a meeting with provincial and territorial ministers.

Luxury tax on planes, cars yielded over $900M. Now it’s been scaled back

MONTREAL - A luxury tax on cars, planes and boats yielded more than $900 million before it was scaled back amid concerns about the negative effect on manufacturers.

In the two fiscal years between 2023 and 2025, the tax on pricey conveyances was pouring nearly $390 million a year into federal coffers — well over double the forecast from the Parliamentary Budget Office — according to figures obtained through an access-to-information request by The Canadian Press.

Backers of the tax say the windfall amounts to an unexpected success that vindicates the full levy and shows that wealthy individuals are more willing to spend on big-ticket items than authorities had presumed, despite the higher price tag. Critics argue that parts of the tax hurt key industries by discouraging purchases and fail to hold up under cost-benefit analysis, calling for a complete rollback.

Taking effect in September 2022, the measure imposed a 10 per cent tax on the full value of cars and planes priced over $100,000 and yachts over $250,000. Its purpose was to “ask those who have prospered ... to do a little more to help those who have not,” the 2021 federal budget stated.

Youth concern powers Futurpreneur applications

Groups offering support to young Manitoba entrepreneurs have clocked an uptick in traffic amid economic uncertainty.

Karen Greve Young is watching the applications roll in at Futurpreneur. The national non-profit offers loans and mentorships to Canadians ages 18 through 39 who are starting businesses.

Greve Young, Futurpreneur’s chief executive, expects a 50 per cent increase in applications this year over last. It follows growth of 15 per cent in 2025.

That year, Futurpreneur worked with more than 1,000 businesses.

What prediction market trading is and why it’s gaining popularity

Financial services company Wealthsimple announced Thursday that it will start offering a new form of investment based on real-world events.

The product is called prediction market trading and it's gaining increasing popularity around the world.

Here's a breakdown of how it works, what's driving its growth and what investors should beware of.

What are prediction markets?

Eager to work, teens find a frustrating summer job search

NEW YORK (AP) — Jaelyn Chester will wait your tables or stock your shelves. She’ll wash your dishes or scrub your toilets. If only someone would give the 17-year-old a chance.

“I’ve been looking everywhere,” says Chester, an A+ student, high school basketball star and aspiring engineer who has blanketed her community with dozens of applications. “I’m not unemployed because I’m incompetent. I’m unemployed because nobody’s hiring.”

The summer job, a rite-of-passage for generations of American teenagers, isn’t so easy to come by.

About one-third of 16- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. were employed last summer, federal data show, down from a peak of about 60% in the late 1970s. Experts’ pessimistic forecasts are combining with reports from frustrated jobless young people around the country to form a seasonal outlook far from bathed in sunshine.

Ottawa’s new surveillance pricing rules not likely to take effect before 2028

OTTAWA - The federal government wants to be "super careful" as it tackles surveillance pricing, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said after tabling the government's new privacy bill.

Under the plan outlined by Solomon, those rules on surveillance pricing are unlikely to be in place before 2028.

"It's very easy to say just ban using personal information to give personal pricing, because we have to be super careful that we don't want to penalize people who are members of a rewards program," Solomon said Monday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The government introduced the bill Monday — its third attempt to update decades-old privacy laws covering the private sector.

CRTC gives Bell and Telus until Wednesday to drop fees or risk compliance actions

The CRTC has again issued warnings to Bell Canada and Telus Corp. over recently introduced fees the regulator says could be in violation of its new policy prohibiting telecoms from charging customers when they activate, change or cancel plans.

Inflation hitting Canadians where it hurts

Inflation bites. That’s especially true for a key element of a budget that’s challenging to go without: food.

Higher prices always eat away at spending power, but food price increases have devoured household budgets in recent years, Statistics Canada’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) data show.

Food cost increases may have peaked in Manitoba in 2022 at nearly 14 per cent, year over year. But even recent data shows prices rising 4.8 per cent, among the highest in Canada.

Households have little choice but to endure higher food costs, given they cannot go without, or they are increasingly turning to food banks and other community supports. Since 2020, the province’s food banks have logged a 150 per cent increase in use, a 2025 Harvest Manitoba report found.

Storm insurance claims could set Manitoba record

Manitoba is on pace to set a record for insurance claims related to this week’s storms.

Insurance brokers have been inundated with calls to assess and process claims for flooded basements and properties. Local insurer ONE Insurance said it has received more than 700 claims and expects to issue millions of dollars to its clients.

“It is definitely the single largest event that we’ve experienced in our organization,” said interim CEO Rey Girardin.

Residents in the RM of Rockwood, including in Stonewall and Balmoral, have submitted the most claims, he said.

Statistics Canada reports household debt outpaced income in first quarter

Statistics Canada says the amount Canadian households owe outpaced income for the sixth straight quarter.

SpaceX stock soars in debut and makes Elon Musk the first trillionaire

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after shares of his rocket company SpaceX soared in Wall Street's biggest initial public offering of stock.

Shares in SpaceX jumped more than 19% after opening for trading Friday, a sign that investors are looking past the billions the company is losing and instead betting that its massive investments in satellites, orbital data centers and artificial intelligence will pay off in the future.

SpaceX opened around midday at $150 a share, then rose to around $168, before finishing the day just below $161. That price gave the company a market value of $2.1 trillion, making it the sixth largest public U.S. company — larger even than its founder and CEO's other big business, the electric vehicle maker Tesla.

Between his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, where he is also CEO, Musk is now worth an estimated $1.1 trillion, according to Forbes.

Telus to charge $15 to activate new SIM cards, as ban on switching fees takes effect

The CRTC is warning Telus Corp. that a new fee the company plans to charge customers could breach the regulator's ban on activation charges set to take effect later this week.

The commission issued a letter to the carrier on Tuesday saying it hoped the matter could be resolved before the rule change kicks in Friday.

It comes a day after Telus distributed a memo to employees saying it will begin charging customers up to $25 when they switch to a new SIM card. The company insists the fee doesn't violate the CRTC's new rules.

In the document, Telus said it would introduce a $15 SIM purchase fee for new activations.

OpenAI files confidential SEC paperwork for IPO, opening the door to a Wall Street debut

ChatGPT maker OpenAI filed preliminary paperwork that would open the door to it becoming a publicly traded company, the third in a powerhouse trio of artificial intelligence companies racing to Wall Street debuts.

The San Francisco-based company said Monday it has filed confidential paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it,” the company said in a statement. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”

OpenAI's move follows its rival Anthropic's June 1 disclosure that it is also moving toward an initial public offering of shares. Both are now following Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX, which has started an IPO roadshow pitching itself as an AI-focused space company.

Is Canada in a recession? What to know after a volatile week of economic data

OTTAWA - There was one word on the lips of many Canadians economists, politicians and journalists this past week: recession.

Recent economic data has painted a mixed picture of Canada's economy, and some interpretations make the argument for a recession.

Here's what you need to know about the state of Canada's economy.

Why are people talking about a recession?

The logic of saving for a rainy day

We get it. It’s hard to be responsible, and it’s hard to pinch pennies when there’s so much pressure on your wallet.

Auto sales down for eighth consecutive month as May sales fall 1.7%: DesRosiers

RICHMOND HILL - DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. says auto sales in May were down from a year ago, marking the eighth consecutive month of declining sales.

The firm estimates 184,000 vehicles were sold in the month, down 1.7 per cent from May 2025.

DesRosiers says while Statistics Canada's latest GDP data indicated a technical recession, the auto industry has already been in a "feels like" recession in recent months.

DesRosiers managing partner Andrew King says while there were hopes that the market may crack the 190,000 barrier for what is traditionally the biggest sales month of the year, that remained out of sight.

Canadian, U.S. stock markets notch new record highs amid continued AI boom

TORONTO - Stock markets in Canada and the U.S. reached new highs, powered by gains in energy and AI, respectively.

Theresa Shutt, chief investment officer at Harbourfront Wealth Management, said themes around higher risk appetite driven by “AI fervour” helped lift the U.S. market. She said this was somewhat counterbalanced by lingering tensions between the U.S. and Iran and concerns that the market has risen too high.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 434.57 points at 35,169.46.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 228.91 points at 51,307.79. The S&P 500 index was up 9.82 points at 7,609.78, while the Nasdaq composite was up 7.09 points at 27,093.90. The S&P 500 rose 0.1 per cent after drifting between small gains and losses through the day.

Manitoba makes strides on poverty, but EIA rates must increase: report

When Jayline Bursey gets her monthly Employment and Income Assistance cheque, it’s gone almost immediately.