- The problem with building more housing
Wednesday, August 23rd 2023
Canada needs a lot of housing – and the Liberal government is making this a priority at their cabinet retreat this week. But there are concerns that if we keep building new homes using current materials and practices, it could lead to a spike in our greenhouse gas emissions.
Luigi Ferrara is the chair and CEO of the Brookfield Sustainability Institute, which looked into this issue. Today, he tells us why current building practices cause high emissions, and how homes could be built differently – and retrofitted – to become more sustainable.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
- What it’s like to escape from wildfires
Tuesday, August 22nd 2023
As wildfires rage on across the country, more than 50,000 people have been forced out of their homes in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and West Kelowna in British Columbia within the past week. And each one of those people have had to make life-changing decisions: Should you leave your home? What do you take with you? What might you never see again?
Today, we hear those stories from Canadians on the move from fire-afflicted communities, told to the Globe’s reporters, including Alanna Smith, Mark Rendell and Mike Hager.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]
- Where’s that recession? Why it’s still too early to celebrate
Monday, August 21st 2023
Fears of a recession have been looming since the worst days of the pandemic. And as inflation continues its slow but steady ascent, central banks around the world have tried to increase interest rates to cool things down. It’s easy to think that all of this means we might actually have avoided the worst.
But Report on Business columnist and reporter Tim Kiladze says it’s too early to declare victory: we may not actually have achieved that mythical “soft landing” after all. He’s watching a few warning signs that could spell economic trouble for us later.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]
- Connie Walker’s latest investigation: Her own family's history
Friday, August 18th 2023
Journalist Connie Walker has been reporting on Indigenous stories for most of her career. From missing and murdered women to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she has covered on some of the biggest stories in Canada in the last few decades. But it wasn’t until last year that she decided to look into her own family’s past.
The urge to dig into her deceased father’s past appeared after her brother shared a story in the wake of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. Connie talks about the importance of healing through sharing the truths, what she found out about her own family’s secrets and her new podcast, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s.
This episode originally aired on May 24, 2022.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
- A reality check on the fertility promises of egg-freezing
Thursday, August 17th 2023
Elective egg freezing is on the rise in Canada. Fertility clinics pitch it as a kind of insurance policy: put your eggs in the bank now, and you can come back for them later, when you’re ready to have a baby. But the procedure is invasive, expensive, and doesn’t guarantee a successful pregnancy later on.
Alison Motluk, freelance journalist and writer of the newsletter, Hey Reprotech, is on the show to talk about what’s really involved in egg freezing. Read more about why she’s sounding a note of caution around the procedure here.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [email protected]
