The Decibel

Where in Canada is it best to rent right now? The Globe analyzed cities from coast to coast to coast, comparing cities’ median incomes with their average rental prices, to find out which places are the most renter-friendly.

The Globe’s personal finance reporter Salmaan Farooqui joins The Decibel to break down where and why rents are trending downward, why it’s a good time to take advantage of the rental market and what advice realto...

On the day the budget was tabled, Chris d’Entremont, the lone Conservative MP from Nova Scotia, crossed the floor to the Liberals. Two days later, Matt Jeneroux, a Conservative MP from Alberta, announced he would be leaving politics altogether. His name had also been circulated as a potential defector to the Liberals. These moves overshadowed news of Carney’s first budget — and d’Entremont’s move gives him one more crucial seat ahe...

A precedent-setting ruling involving Aboriginal title at the B.C. Supreme Court has caused widespread uncertainty and tension in the province. In August, Justice Barbara Young decided that Cowichan First Nation had title to roughly 800 acres in the city of Richmond — including private property. The ruling has raised questions over both residential and commercial property rights, as well as governance of the region. 

Today, B.C. poli...

A big part of the federal budget rests on the assumption that its measures will spur the private sector to invest in Canada…a lot. It’s projecting a half-trillion worth of investment. But at a time when Canada is suffering from sluggish productivity and the impact of U.S. tariffs, how realistic is it to expect businesses to invest?

James Bradshaw covers institutional investing for The Globe and Mail. He explains how the government i...

Parents are increasingly relying on elaborate calendar systems to keep track of their families’ activities – from a shared calendar or paper planner to high-end devices that can create a calendar for you by scraping data from your emails. Some parents say it helps them better involve their teen children in scheduling their lives; for others, they feel themselves becoming beholden to their calendars – a draconian digital personal as...

For more than a decade, Canada’s condo boom was on. Investors, at home and abroad, drove the craze over reselling preconstruction units. Rents skyrocketed, all while the condos themselves shrank in size. Today, the bubble has burst and the housing crisis continues. New condo sales in markets like Toronto and Hamilton are at 35-year lows and prices are driving potential homebuyers out of the city core. Is this actually an opportunit...

On Tuesday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne tabled the first federal budget from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government. It had long been advertised as a fiscal plan that would make difficult decisions to put Canada’s economy on the right track.

The Globe sent more than a dozen journalists to Ottawa to study the details and assess how transformative this budget actually is. We break down what it says in terms of the de...

Today, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is set to deliver the first budget under Prime Minister Mark Carney. Early announcements have signalled sweeping cuts to the public sector. There’s no guarantee that the budget will pass, given Carney is presiding over a minority government. The NDP has said they wouldn’t rule out abstaining from the budget vote; for his part, Carney has said he’s ready to fight another election c...

North Atlantic right whales are nearing extinction, with fewer than 400 left in the world. We know what is killing them: getting hit by shipping boats, entangled in fishing lines and the impacts of climate change — which is changing the location of their food sources. But now, researchers think that human-made noise in the ocean may be having an effect too.

Jenn Thornhill Verma is an environmental journalist who has been reporting o...

On Sunday, most Canadians gain an hour of sleep as the clocks get turned back to standard time. But while most of us have gotten used to the bi-annual time change, our bodies have not. And with a growing number of experts saying the practice messes with our sleep – should Canadians stop messing with the clock?

Today, psychology professor Joseph De Koninck is here. He studies sleep at the University of Ottawa, and his recent research...

Last weekend, Quebec passed new legislation that would impose a new contract on doctors, who have been in negotiations with the provincial government since March, 2023. Known as Bill 2, it sets out targets that Quebec doctors must meet in order to achieve the government’s health care goals, including access to primary care for all Quebeckers by January, 2027.

The catch? If doctors don’t meet these targets, they can be penalized by h...

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump ended trade talks with Canada and threatened to hike tariffs on Canadian imports by another 10 per cent because of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s anti-tariff ad. Now, Trump says he doesn’t plan to meet with Carney “for a long time”, as both leaders head to Asia for trade summits and turn their attention to repairing trade relations with China.

The Globe’s chief political writer, Campbell Clark, ...

‘Til death do us part – that’s the promise couples make to each other when they tie the knot. But what happens in the event of a divorce? Disentangling a marriage can carry a big financial burden if the division of property, pets and assets are in the mix. Once derided as unromantic, the pre-nuptial agreement is now gaining popularity among young Canadians planning to get married.

Mariya Postelnyak, consumer affairs reporter for The...

As Canadians, we’ve spent a lot of time over the past year talking about what it means to be Canadian and how to support our country. For some people, that looks like checking labels at the grocery store or limiting travel to the United States. But as the Globe’s film and deputy arts editor Barry Hertz argues, now is also the moment to bolster Canadian culture.

And we’re squandering it.

So today, Barry is on the show to talk about th...

The Toronto Blue Jays are headed to the World Series for the first time in over 30 years. It’s the third time in franchise history that Canada’s team is playing for the championship. But this monumental moment isn’t just for the diehard Jays fans – everyone can get in on the fun.

So today, we bring you The Decibel’s bandwagoner’s guide to not feeling totally lost as the Jays try to make history. Producer and lifelong fan Madeleine W...

The prices of gold and silver have been climbing quickly this fall, with both precious metals setting a new high for per-ounce price. Why is this happening?

Columnist and reporter Tim Kiladze explains how central banks, Trump and even AI factor into it.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

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Last week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made comments about the RCMP being “despicable” on a YouTube show, accusing them of “covering up” for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This sparked backlash from opposition parties as well as Conservatives, and earlier this week, Poilievre walked those comments back, explaining that he meant to direct his comments towards the former RCMP commissioner. Between his YouTube appearan...

On Thursday, Ottawa announced incoming legislation to reform the bail system. It comes after months of pressure both in Parliament and across the country, as a surge of Canadians say they feel crime is worsening, and that the bail system is too lenient. But with overall crime down, will making our bail system stricter really make Canadians safer?

The Globe’s justice reporter, David Ebner, joins the show. He’ll explain what we know a...

There has been a lot of talk about Canadian sovereignty ever since the election of Donald Trump. And that sovereignty talk extends to the digital realm too. Last month, nearly 70 public figures and experts sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney demanding he take sovereignty in the digital space more seriously. The government is currently working on that, with plans to build a sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure. These projec...