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Stelco’s steel plant in Hamilton is pictured from across the Hamilton Harbour in Burlington, Ont., on Oct. 9.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis on the biggest headlines, stock tips, personal finance strategies and more.
Joly warns Stelco owner of forced divestment if Ontario layoffs go ahead
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Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly speaks during National Defence: Mapping Canada’s growth strategy, an event held by The Globe and Mail in Ottawa, on Wednesday.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The Stelco standoff continued this week after the company said it is proceeding as planned with hundreds of layoffs in Canada. The steelmaker also told Ottawa that it isn’t in violation of its Investment Canada Act job commitments, citing a legal provision around the promises, and the government’s own guidelines under the act.
But Industry Minister Mélanie Joly warned Wednesday that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the U.S. company that owns Stelco, could face financial penalties or be forced to divest its Canadian operations if it proceeds with the layoffs. Ms. Joly reiterated similar statements in a speech to the Canadian Club in Toronto on Friday.
On Sept. 28, Stelco said that it was laying off up to 500 workers in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ont., because it couldn’t compete in the galvanized steel market as a result of the trade war with the U.S.
TD, BMO among nine banks accused of discriminating against U.S. customers for political reasons
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TD and BMO are among nine U.S. lenders accused by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of having denied or limited access to financial services for some customers.Andrew Lahodynskyj/The Canadian Press
Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal are among nine lenders identified by a major U.S. banking regulator as having “denied, debanked and discriminated” against customers and businesses on political grounds.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said Wednesday that between 2020 and 2025, nine banks maintained practices and policies that denied or limited access to financial services due to political or religious beliefs.
The regulator’s report includes examples at each lender of discrimination it deems unacceptable, including BMO’s approach to firearms. In one example, the OCC said payment processor WePay – which was used by JPMorgan – closed the account of a merchant in 2021 that was selling merchandise promoting the Make America Great Again (MAGA) brand.
U.S. President Donald Trump requested an investigation into the alleged discrimination last year, and has accused banks of also discriminating against him in the past.
McCain Foods acquires Indian frozen food company
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Indian farmers harvest potatoes in a field in rural India. McCain Foods’ acquisition of Falcon Group will help its business grow in the country.SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images
McCain Foods is acquiring a 450-employee potato-processing business from family-controlled conglomerate Falcon Group as Canada thaws its relationship with India. The Toronto-based French fry giant announced Monday it agreed to acquire Falcon Agrifriz Foods’ potato operations in Gujarat, a state in northwestern India.
McCain began operating in India in 1998 and currently has 1,800 employees in the country. McCain also plans to build a potato-processing plant in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, and completed a $135-million expansion of its facilities in Gujarat earlier this year.
Another Canadian company also placed its bets on India this week. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. is acquiring control of India’s IDBI Bank for US$5.6-billion. The deal ranks as the largest foreign investment ever made in the South Asian country’s financial services sector. Fairfax has previously made significant profits by taking stakes in troubled banks in Ireland and Greece.
Mapping Canada’s data centres
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Bell Canada is building what’s expected to be Canada’s largest Canadian-owned data centre outside Regina, seen under construction, on Aug. 27.Jeremy Simes/The Canadian Press
Data centres have become a hot topic across North America. These facilities require substantial resources, including electricity, storage space and sometimes, water. As a result, they can have a significant impact on the communities in which they’re built.
The pace of data centre announcements has picked up across the country, raising a question for many Canadians: Where are all those data centres going to be built? To answer that question, Dexter McMillan, Jason Kirby and Christopher Manza mapped the locations of current and future data centres in Canada, with the help of Vancouver-based research firm Aterio. You can try the tool out here.
Is Carney ready to go big on corporate tax reform?
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Illustration by D. McFadzean
Last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled the biggest swing Ottawa has taken in two decades to make Canada’s business tax regime more competitive.
In his keynote speech at the Canada Investment Summit, Mr. Carney outlined what he called the “productivity mega deduction,” which will allow companies to immediately write off the cost of a wide range of new capital investments.
The proposal has corporate Canada buzzing. Business groups have applauded the change, economists have generally given it a thumbs up (with caveats), and accountants are talking to clients about investment opportunities that were previously off the table. Still, there’s a belief among tax experts that Ottawa needs to go further if it’s going to reverse decades of underinvestment by Canadian companies and turn the country into a magnet for global capital.
Is it the beginning of a broader business tax reform effort, or the end-point? As part of the Globe’s Tax and Effect series, Mark Rendell and James Bradshaw take a deep dive into the mega deduction and other ideas for change.
Get the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.