Tag: business news report

Business News

Meta’s Threads is now the fastest-growing platform after 100 million users signed up in the first five days

Meta’s Twitter rival Threads crossed 100 million sign-ups within five days of launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, dethroning ChatGPT as the fastest-growing online platform to hit the milestone. Threads have been setting records for user growth since its launch on Wednesday, with celebrities, politicians and other newsmakers joining the platform seen by analysts as the first serious threat to the Elon Musk-owned social media app. “That’s mostly organic demand, and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet,” Zuckerberg said in a Threads post announcing the milestone. The app’s sprint to 100 million users was much faster than…
Business News

CRA asks Shopify for Canadian business records: CEO

Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke is ready to put up a “fight” over what he describes as an “overreach” by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). In a tweet, Lutke said the Ottawa-based e-commerce company was asked to hand over tax records of more than 121,000 Canadian stores from the last six years. “I don’t particularly want a fight with the CRA (Canada’s tax authority)- but we got asked to backchannel them 6 years of records for all Canadian Shopify stores,” Lutke tweeted on Friday. “This feels like low-key overreach to me. We will fight this.” CTVNews.ca has reached out to Shopify…
Business News

Higher airfares likely upshot of Sunwing-WestJet integration, experts say – Business News

Higher airfares on way The Canadian Press – Jun 19, 2023 / 9:35 am | Stories: 432620 Photo: The Canadian Press Experts say WestJet’s decision to shut down Sunwing Airlines and fold it into its main operations will mean less service and higher fares — particularly in Western Canada and smaller cities across the country. Sunwing told its employees it was being absorbed by its new owner on Wednesday, less than a week after WestJet announced plans to shutter discount subsidiary Swoop. John Gradek, who teaches at McGill University’s aviation management program, says the latest move is bad news for…
Business News

How student loans keep some people trapped in debt

When Samuel Bonne received $15,000 in student grants to fund his studies, he wasn’t expecting to have to pay it back. But just two years later — in the middle of the pandemic — those grants were converted to loans. At the end of his sophomore year at the University of Toronto, the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) asked Bonne, originally from Mauritius, for his parents’ financial documents, but they couldn’t provide them. “My dad works in Kenya and my mom doesn’t work,” said Bonne. “So I ended up having $15,000 in loans that I did not know about.” Bonne,…
Business News

Interest-rate hike could push real estate sales: mortgage broker

With the latest hike bringing Canada’s key interest rates to levels not seen since 2001, one mortgage broker is warning that it may be “the last straw” for some homeowners with variable mortgages. “We started to hear from people in the last three weeks that they are actively considering selling their homes,” Ron Butler, a mortgage broker in Ontario told CTV News Channel on Wednesday. “They can’t handle the increase.” The Bank of Canada raised its overnight rate by 25 basis points to 4.75 per cent, the first increase since stopping hikes in January. Butler says homeowners with variable rate…
Business News

Canadians’ high mortgage debt a ‘ticking time bomb’ as renewals loom

Breadcrumb Trail Links News Executive Summary Variable-rate mortgage borrowers’ payments may climb above 40% in 2026 when they renew, Desjardins says Published May 31, 2023 • 5 minute read Household debt levels are expected to soar higher come 2025 and 2026 once homeowners renew their mortgages. Photo by Getty Images/iStockphoto Article content Lenders have been offering surprising leniency to variable-rate mortgage borrowers who’ve hit their trigger rate, but that move may be creating a “ticking time bomb” of debt when the time comes to renew, economists from Desjardins Group say. Advertisements 2 This advertisement has not been loaded yet, but…
Business News

Dominion suit against Fox News spotlights Maria Bartiromo

How do you solve a problem like Maria Bartiromo? Fox News executives may be asking themselves that question as she emerges as a central figure in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6-billion defamation suit against the conservative news network. In released court documents and deposition testimony connected to the case, Bartiromo is cited throughout for allowing former President Trump’s false claims about 2020 election fraud to air on the network in an effort to stop angry viewers from abandoning the network. Falsehoods such as the claim that the Denver-based voting machine maker was founded in Venezuela to aid Hugo Chávez and that…
Business News

Shoppers Drug Mart eliminates ‘pink tax’ on menstrual pain medication following CBC investigation

Shoppers Drug Mart is taking action following an investigation by CBC’s Marketplaces that found painkillers labeled as a treatment for menstrual cramps cost more than near-identical painkillers marketed for headaches and other pain. The drugstore’s parent company, Loblaw, told Marketplaces over email on March 15 that it “recognizes the importance of equity and access and will align the price of these products within a week.” As of March 24, more than a week after that email was sent, online prices were aligned but inconsistent across stores in the Greater Toronto Area. Marketplaces found the two examples of the so-called pink…