Tausi Insider

A Freedom Mobile store on Queen St. West near Spadina Ave. in Toronto is photographed on Sept 26, 2022. Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail Independent internet service provider Distributel Communications Ltd. attempted to acquire Freedom Mobile, the wireless carrier that Rogers and Shaw have agreed to sell in an attempt to win regulatory blessing of their $26-billion merger, the Competition Tribunal heard on Thursday. Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. ran a sale process for Shaw’s Freedom Mobile, Canada’s fourth-largest wireless carrier, earlier this year. In June they announced that they had struck a deal to sell Freedom to Montreal-based Quebecor Inc. for $2.85-billion. Christopher Hickey, the director of regulatory affairs for Distributel, provided testimony on behalf of the Competition Bureau as part of a weeks-long Competition Tribunal hearing into the proposed merger of Rogers and Shaw. Explainer: A cheat sheet on why the Competition Bureau is taking the Rogers-S...

A Sobeys store in Toronto on April 3, 2020. J.P. MOCZULSKI/Tausi Insider A parliamentary committee wants the CEOs of major grocery companies to appear for questioning on record-level food price inflation after representatives for Loblaw L-T and Sobeys EMP-A-T said there’s little they can do to prevent passing on costs to consumers. Senior officials with the companies appeared in front of MPs on the agriculture committee on Monday as part of its examination into grocery business practices. The review – which saw MPs repeatedly questioning the officials on the issues of transparency and public trust – takes place against a backdrop of record-level rates of food inflation in Canada. Policy makers are scrambling to address a growing chorus of concerns over food prices. Last month, the committee had sent invitations to the grocery retailers, asking for representatives to attend the Ottawa meeting. Present on Monday were Jodat Hussain, a senior vice-president of retail finance for Loblaw (...

The Bank of Canada said it remains 'resolute' in its commitment to tackling high inflation, which is eroding wages and making life less affordable for Canadians. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press The Bank of Canada increased interest rates for the seventh consecutive time on Wednesday, surprising markets with another oversized move while signaling that it may be nearing the end of its historic rate-hike cycle. The bank’s governing council raised the benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to 4.25 per cent, the highest level since early 2008. This is the latest step in a nine-month dash to increase Canadian borrowing costs, which has driven mortgage expenses sharply higher and plunged the housing market into a deep funk. The central bank is squeezing Canadian finances in an effort to slow spending throughout the economy and get the highest inflation in four decades under control. Investors were expecting a more dovish quarter-point increase. But even as the bank def...

Logs are piled up at West Fraser Timber, in Quesnel, B.C. JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press British Columbia’s forest sector has “never been under greater stress,” Premier David Eby says. There is an “inescapable recognition … that change is needed to ensure our forest industry is sustainable,” he writes in his mandate letter for the new forests minister, Bruce Ralston. Eby’s letter to the minister of water, land and resource stewardship, Nathan Cullen, meanwhile, says “short-term thinking” in land management has led to “exhausted forests.” The new premier’s pointed language to his ministers highlights how British Columbia’s forests sector is in the throes of change, as the province embarks on plans to “modernize” how forests are managedamid ecological concerns, fluctuating lumber prices and dwindling supply of trees for harvesting. Bob Simpson, who served as mayor ofQuesnel, B.C., a longtime forestry community, between 2014 and 2022, said the province’s forest sector is “stuck in ...

Telus has waged an aggressive campaign to keep Rogers and Quebecor out of its home turf in British Columbia and Alberta. Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail Is there any better evidence of the consumer-friendly competition coming to Western Canada’s telecom market than Telus Corp.’s T-T relentless opposition to takeovers that would reshape the industry? Telus chief executive Darren Entwistle and his team have pulled out all the stops to block Rogers Communications Inc.’s RCI-B-T planned $20-billion acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc. SJR-B-T, along with the sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile wireless business to Quebecor Inc. subsidiary Videotron. Court filings and government hearings have pulled back the curtain on “Project Fox” – as in fox in the henhouse – Telus’s name for its aggressive campaign to keep Rogers and Quebecor out of its home turf in British Columbia and Alberta. Let’s be clear: Mr. Entwistle is doing exactly what Telus shareholders pay him to do. He’s defending the company’s...