Should I put my savings into an RRSP? If I do that, will I pay less taxes? What happens if I want to access that money before I retire? These are just a few of the RRSP-related questions we've received lately. So, here's everything you need to know about RRSPs in one episode. Just in time for tax season! With Jackie Porter, certified financial planner and ambassador for FP Canada, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to championing better financial wellness for all Canadians....

Do you miss that beloved cat or dog that passed away? Good news! For only tens of thousands of dollars, and probably a few failed attempts, you can have an identical genetic replacement. Years ago Barbara Streisand made news for cloning her dog. But since then the technology has become much more accessible. A woman in BC made Canadian headlines in March for her two kittens, cloned from a deceased cat named 'Bear'. But these pets can't consent to being clones--which come with more risks than...

It's a case that sparked protests, made national headlines and may have swung a provincial election. And it's about to head to trial. You probably know it best for the fight over whether or not police would search Winnipeg's Prairie Green landfill — but at its core this story is about vulnerable women and the system that forgot them. As Jeremy Skibicki's trial begins this month, the landfill search has not. Why not? How did the alleged killer find his victims, and why was he free to find...

It can be confusing. Depending on which party you listen to, the carbon tax—or "price on pollution"—will either cost you or save you money. And both sides are using accurate information, just differently. But what isn't debatable is that the government's signature policy has been under unprecedented attack over the past year, and the increase that kicked in on April 1 was met with protests and scorn around the country. But will you actually feel it, and if so, when? Where does the policy...

You know how your iPhone uses a different charging cable than your friend's Android? Well, imagine you've just bought a $50,000 tractor ... that only works with parts from the company you bought it from. Or an expensive printer that only takes one kind of ink. Welcome to the fight for interoperability, a battle against the plans of companies to use digital technology to lock customers into their platforms, forever. How did we let things get this far? Who's fighting back and what regulations...

Maple syrup isn't just a staple of Canadian culture. It's big business, especially in Quebec, where the sugary liquid is so vital to the economy that the province keeps a special syrup reserve on hand to control price fluctuations. Except that reserve is running low, dangerously low, after a couple of warm winters coupled with increased demand ate up most of the excess. And with climate change bringing even warmer winters in the years to come, the syrup industry is on alert. Is this a...

Frozen bank accounts, financial chaos, job loss, poverty. Those are all things Gonzalo witnessed while living through the largest foreign default in world history. Other than putting our current financial crisis into perspective, he wants to know if there’s anything we can learn from living through challenging times. Jordan speaks with David Coletto, founder and CEO of Abacus Data, and Tanya Woods, Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs and Policy Council at Questrade Financial Group, to...

It's time again for us to dip into our trove of listener emails and voicemails and share with you some of our favourite pieces of feedback we received over the past month or so. A special thanks to everyone who's taken the time to tell us how you feel. Even if your submission didn't make it into this episode, please keep writing and calling in. Your input helps us make the show better. Have a great long weekend!

In November 2019, months before the pandemic made heroes of public sector workers like teachers and (especially) nurses, Ontario's government passed Bill 124, attempting to cap their pay increases at one percent for the next three years. It didn't go very well. Earlier this month, after years of protests and bad press, and a legal challenge that went to the highest court ion the province, the same government repealed the bill. And then announced in the budget that the entire fight,...

You may not know which ads meet the definition of greenwashing—but you know the type of ads in that discussion. Big corporations assuring you of how much they do for the environment, how sustainable their practices are and how much they've already done to make sure you can enjoy their products guilt-free. As the climate crisis worsens, convincing your customers your business is part of the solution, not the problem, can translate to a lot of revenue. The question is, how legitimate are those...

You have to work pretty hard, in most of the country, to avoid spending money with a Loblaw-owned business. From its origins in groceries to market dominance there, the ubiquity of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix, and everything from finance to clothing also under its umbrella, the Weston family has built a staggering retail empire. How did they do it? What happens when one company controls so much of the market for essential goods? What does it mean for us? Should the government take...

We all know that companies track what we do on work devices. If, for example, you're listening to this show right now on a company phone or laptop, your boss could probably find that out, assuming they wanted to.But he’s where it gets darker: your boss might not have to bother finding out. An AI-driven worker surveillance program may be logging everything you do, completely automatically. And then judging your performance based on whatever it's been told to look for... GUEST: Valerio de...

Netflix. Disney+. Prime. Apple TV+. Spotify. Newspapers. Magazines. Video games. Substacks. A secret caller (hint: you know him!) has a minor subscription addiction and needs help getting his spending under control. Jordan asks Barry Hertz, Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail, to explain the subscription boom we're living in, and learn a few tips to avoid high fees. Do you have a money problem? Call us and leave a message at 416-935-5935. Or email us at...

It's a Canadian institution. Or at least, a piece of Canadian culture. OK, fine, it's an interesting quirk that visitors to Eastern and Atlantic Canada are often flummoxed by, but residents have lived with all their lives. Until, perhaps, one day soon when bags of milk may vanish from grocery stores. That's the speculation, at least, as milk consumption declines. But it offers a chance to take a little dive into the world's most interesting form of dairy delivery and see ... why? How? And...

Canada has already seen more cases of measles in 2024 than in all of 2023. And rates of the disease in Europe and the United States are also rising. Meanwhile, vaccine uptake for the MMR shot, which protects against measles, has collapsed in recent years. So how worried should we be about what is—for now—still just a handful of cases? Why have vaccine rates for a decades-old and proven vaccine fallen so quickly? What do you need to know about a disease that, just a few years ago, was all but...

When announced in December, it seemed like a new immigration program would allow Canadians with extended family in Gaza to finally bring them to safety. More than three months later, not a single person has arrived in the country. And it's not for lack of trying. Thousands have applied, and hundreds of applications are stuck in bureaucratic purgatory. Even Canada's minister of immigration has said Canada is "failing" Gazans. So what's gone wrong? Is the government to blame? Or is this the...

You might have used the app during the pandemic. It may have saved you time at the airport. It may have cost you an unnecessary quarantine. Either way, even if you never downloaded it, you paid for it. Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars went into developing, releasing and updating (dozens and dozens of times) the government's pandemic travel app. The question now is about how that money was spent, who received it, and how much work they did for it. The scandal has twists and turns and...

With the rise in both legality and popularity of gambling, it can seem like images of both winners and losers are everywhere. Images of men, that is. Take a look at gambling advertising on TV, or even promotions offering help for problem gamblers. Men. Picture gamblers in your own head. They're probably men, too. This even extends to research, where numbers show that women do indeed gamble, nearly as much as men in some cases. And they may even develop gambling problems faster than men do....

Not too long ago, cigarettes were everywhere. Lighting up in a restaurant, on a flight, or even in a doctor’s office was just part of the smoky fabric of Canadian life. Until it wasn’t. Now smartphones are the constant thing we carry. We can’t seem to put them down. Will we ever? What does our culture’s current addiction to smartphones have in common with cigarettes? GUEST: Richard Warnica, business reporter and opinions writer for the Toronto Star

Cody wants to find a new job, in a new industry, but doesn't have the qualifications listed on the job postings he's seeing. Alan feels trapped in his current job by an unstable and unpredictable market. They both want to know if now is a good time to change careers, and how they should go about the transition. To find out, Jordan reaches Alan Kearns, founder of CareerJoy, a firm that helps guide people through career transitions. Together they outline the costs that need to be considered...

If you've tried to use Google to research a purchase recently, you've probably encountered—right at the top of the rankings—a whole lot of extremely similar Best Of lists published by familiar brands, even trusted names like Forbes, Popular Science or even Rolling Stone. Big names...but unlikely to have suddenly started thoroughly product testing things like air purifiers or humidifiers. What's happening here is a tangled story of a collapsing media industry, affiliate marketing gone mad and...

On March 6th, six people, including four children, were killed in their home in Barrhaven ,O.N., a suburb of Ottawa. The man accused of committing the alleged mass murder shared a home with the family. The killing has left their community and the public at large with many questions. So who was the family, and what did they mean to their community? Who stands accused? And what do we know about what happened inside that house, and why? GUEST: Marlo Glass, reporter, The Ottawa Citizen

Officially known as Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton has not been seen in months, aside from a quick glimpse in a dark car. Officially, she's recovering after undergoing abdominal surgery. Unofficially, if you follow the conspiracy theories, she's somewhere between divorced and dead. On Sunday, a picture she posted showing her with her children on the UK's Mother's Day, was killed by wire services, diagnosed as a "manipulated" image. Obviously, that hasn't done much to quell...

Last week, Juste Pour Rire announced that it would not hold Just For Laughs festivals in Montreal and Toronto in 2024, and that it was entering creditor protection. Toronto has already seen the cancellation of its Taste of The Danforth food festival, as well as scaled down versions of the Fringe and Luminato festivals. Hot Docs is struggling to survive and other major festivals like Shaw are facing record deficits. Meanwhile, government help for arts institutions during the pandemic era is...

Canada is not the only country in the world experiencing skyrocketing costs and a shortage of available housing options. Across the world nations are coming up with creative solutions to deal with their own housing crises. There’s no silver bullet for fixing the Canadian housing market, and addressing the issue will require a whole slough of short and long-term strategies to alleviate the current crunch, and accommodate future population growth. It does seem as though most governments at all...