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: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled the federal budget this week, including $53-billion in new spending over five years. Of that new spending, $19-billion was allocated to new housing and affordability measures, $10.7-billion was for defence and $9.1-billion was targeted to Indigenous communities and businesses. The budget also revealed that former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz would lead a new federal working group to look at ways of encouraging Canadian pension funds to invest more in the country. And it tapped the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada to administer and enforce open banking legislation.
Also: Gold surged, Tesla’s workforce shrunk and WestJet issued a curious message to its customers.
d. Capital gains. Ottawa is changing the rules on capital gains for the first time in 25 years by raising the inclusion rate – the portion of capital gains on which tax must be paid. The inclusion rate will rise from half to two-thirds on capital gains realized by companies. The increased inclusion rate will also apply to individual taxpayers but only on capital gains above $250,000.
c. 100,000. The federal civil service has grown by 100,000 employees since 2015, according to the Treasury Board Secretariat.
b. France is still ahead of Canada in terms of government workers as a share of total employment, but Canada is closing the gap quickly. Both countries have considerably larger shares of government workers than other developed countries.
c. China, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. The IMF said big deficits in the United States, China, the United Kingdom and Italy require urgent attention. The huge U.S. deficit, in particular, poses “significant risks” for the global economy. There is some good news, though: Canada’s projected fiscal deficit for 2025 is one of the smallest among developed countries, according to IMF projections.
a. “Shine bright like a diamond.” The Citigroup analysts announced a massive revision to their 2025 gold-price target, boosting it by 40 per cent to US$2,875 an ounce. They said bullion, now trading around US$2,380 an ounce, could hit US$3,000 once the Federal Reserve starts cutting interest rates.
d. It has plunged roughly 40 per cent. As of Thursday morning, Tesla shares were down by 39 per cent from the start of the year. The company has suffered from slowing sales and increased competition, especially from China.
c. About US$56-billion. Mr. Musk’s US$56-billion pay package was rejected by a Delaware judge in January. She termed the compensation “an unfathomable sum” that was unfair to shareholders.
b. Pack their own lunch. WestJet said customers flying to or from Toronto should pack their own lunches after 800 workers at a catering company went on strike.
a. Put itself up for sale. Simpson Oil, Parkland’s largest shareholder, wants Parkland to consider new ownership. Engine Capital, a New York-based hedge fund, is also in favor of the idea.
a. For protesting the company’s links to Israel. Google terminated the employees for protesting the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government.
d. $3.3-million. The wealthiest 20 per cent of Canadian families hold more than two-thirds of Canada's total net worth.
b. $67,000. The least wealthy 40 per cent of the Canadian population hold only about 2.7 per cent of the nation's wealth.
Ian McGugan