Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: It was a really, really, big week in Canadian business. On Wednesday, Rogers Communications purchased an additional 37.5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, owner of the NHL’s Maple Leafs, NBA’s Raptors, CFL’s Argonauts and MLS’s Toronto FC.
The transaction valued MLSE at $12.5-billion, setting a new high-water mark for the price of Canadian sports franchises. The Toronto-based telecom company will own 75 per cent of MLSE if regulators and sports leagues sign off on the purchase.
And then, the next day, Raymond Chun got a big new job. Who’s Raymond Chun? Where’s the next job? Take our quiz to find out.
1Canadian politicians say the darndest things – and this week was no exception. Start with Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Leader and noted hyperbolist. He told his caucus that the Liberals’ carbon price will cause:
a. “Nuclear winter”
b. “Mass hunger”
c. “Rampant inflation”
d. All of the above
d. All of the above. Mr. Poilievre’s penchant for fiery rhetoric hit new heights, as he portrayed Canada sinking into a dystopia of poverty and famine, all thanks to the carbon price. Most economists scoff at such claims, pointing out that nearly all of the carbon price is returned to taxpayers in the form of quarterly rebates.
2Liberals also played the exaggeration game this week. “We need to help millennials. We need to help Gen Z,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in announcing changes to mortgage rules that, among things, will allow mortgages to be insured up to:
a. $1-million
b. $1.25-million
c. $1.5-million
d. $2-million
c. $1.5-million. The new mortgage rules will allow buyers to enter more expensive markets with smaller down payments. However, it’s not at all clear that younger buyers will benefit by being allowed to take on even more mammoth amounts of debt for even longer. Critics say the new rules will stoke demand and help push home prices higher, putting them further out of reach for most buyers.
3The remote-work revolution is hitting resistance as some large Canadian employers ratchet up requirements for their staff to be in the office. For instance, how many days per week must federal civil servants and Canada Life staff now be physically present in the workplace?
a. Two
b. Three
c. Four
d. Five
b. Three. Starting this month, the federal government and Canada Life are requiring employees to be in the office three days per week, up from two previously. Similarly, Telus Corp. has informed call-centre employees they will have to work in person at least three times a week.
4It’s not just Canadian employers that are souring on the virtual workplace: What giant multinational company just informed employees that they will have to be in the office five days a week starting next year?
a. Microsoft
b. JP Morgan
c. Nestle
d. Amazon
d. Amazon. has emphatically ended its remote-work experiment. Chief executive Andy Jassy said in a letter to employees on Monday that in-person work is necessary to “invent, collaborate and be connected.”
5China is raising its retirement age. The changes will push the official retirement age for a woman in a blue-collar job to:
a. 55
b. 60
c. 65
d. 70
a. 55. Surprised? China’s official retirement ages are much lower than in most countries, although pensions for many workers are anything but generous. (Think US$28 a month for rural dwellers.) The recently announced changes will be implemented gradually over 15 years and will raise the retirement age for blue-collar women to 55 from 50, for white-collar women to 58 from 55 and for men to 63 from 60.
6Which iconic brand, a symbol of mid-century capitalism, sought bankruptcy protection this week?
a. Amway
b. Avon
c. Tupperware
d. Encyclopedia Britannica
c. Tupperware parties started in 1948 and provided many women with the opportunity to run their own businesses. However, the Florida-based food-storage company has been in decline for years as a result of increased competition and a move away from home-cooked meals.
7Rogers Communications took effective control of professional sports in Toronto this week by paying $4.7-billion to expand its stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, owner of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Argonauts and Toronto FC. Who sold its piece of Maple Leaf Sports to Rogers to make the deal possible?
a. BCE Inc.
b. Royal Bank of Canada
c. Pension fund OMERS
d. The Weston family
a. BCE Inc. says it will use the proceeds of the sale to pay down debt and expand its telecom network.
8Back in 2022, Ottawa introduced a new tax on vacant homes owned by foreign owners. How much money has the tax raised since then?
a. Nothing meaningful
b. $500-million
c. $1.5-billion
d. $3-billion
a. Nothing meaningful. The Federal government touted the underused housing tax as a way to deter foreign real estate investors from leaving their homes empty – a phenomenon that was thought to be widespread. So far, though, the tax has managed to raise only $74-million – a minuscule amount for a national tax.
9The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate this week for the first time in four years, chopping rates by half a percentage point. However, not everyone agreed with the move, especially the jumbo size of the cut. Michelle Bowman, a Fed governor, voted for a smaller cut of a quarter of a percentage point. This is the first dissenting vote by a Fed governor since:
a. 2000
b. 2005
c. 2008
d. 2020
b. 2005. Ms. Bowman’s vote deprived Fed Chair Jerome Powell of a clear consensus and broke with a post-2005 tradition in which Fed governors on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee have sought to avoid open displays of disagreement with the Fed leader. (Presidents of regional Federal Reserve banks have often dissented, but not members of the Fed’s board of governors.) The rare dissent by a Fed governor underlined the strong feelings around this week’s supersized cut.
10Running for the U.S. presidency is usually considered a full-time job, but Donald Trump took time out this week to announce he is:
a. Hosting a new television show
b. Opening a new hotel
c. Backing a new airline
d. Launching a new cryptocurrency business
d. Launching a new cryptocurrency business. Mr. Trump used to denounce cryptocurrencies, but this week he praised them as he unveiled World Liberty Financial, a business that intends to launch its own line of digital tokens.
11How much is Canada’s national airlines regulator proposing to charge airlines for resolving a customer complaint?
a. $75
b. $490
c. $790
d. $1,062
c. $790. The Canadian Transportation Agency wants to charge airlines $790 for resolving each customer complaint, whether it decides in the favour of the passenger or not. The fee would cover 60 per cent of the typical cost involved in handling a complaint, the CTA said.
12Which Canadian bank named a new chief executive this week?
a. Royal Bank
b. Toronto-Dominion Bank
c. National Bank
d. CIBC
b. Toronto-Dominion Bank. TD said Raymond Chun, head of Canadian personal and commercial banking, will take over as chief executive from Bharat Masrani at the bank’s next annual general meeting in spring 2025.
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