The Decibel

Chris Hannay from the Globe discusses the wave of retirement among small business owners in Canada, leading to potential consolidation. Exploring the options and challenges faced by small businesses, including the reluctance of young people to take on family businesses. Employee ownership trusts are introduced as a solution to preserve traditions and legacy.

Collagen supplements are marketed as a holy grail anti-aging product. Bovine collagen is made from cattle hides, and a new investigation from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism traced the supply chain of some collagen companies all the way to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.Elisângela Mendonça is a London-based Brazilian journalist with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Her reporting pulls back the curtain on the dark side of the booming collagen industry.This episode originally aired on March 27, 2023.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has a clear housing goal. He wants to build 1.5 million new homes in 10 years. To accomplish this, his government has been looking at selling off the land under its possession, such as the Greenbelt, which has been engulfed in scandal.Now his government is looking at the lands owned by school boards across the province. Globe and Mail reporter Karen Howlett explains what the plan is and how the Ford government intends to execute it.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Moammar Gadhafi, former Libyan dictator, has had billions sitting in Canadian bank accounts for almost 12 years after his death. This has caused further investigations and questions in terms of what this means for the Canadian banking sector.Rita Trichur is The Globe’s Senior Business Writer and Columnist joins us to discuss Gadhafi, his family, and all of his money sitting in Canadian banks.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On Monday, Montreal police said the Old Montreal fire that killed seven people in March 2023 is now being treated as a criminal investigation. Alongside police looking into persons of interest in the case, the Globe’s Montreal-based reporter Frédérik-Xavier Duhamel reported on the many safety violations in the burned-out building that Montreal and Quebec officials had known about for more than a decade. He uncovered a moratorium on enforcing evacuation route violations that had been in place since 2018, which were quietly lifted in the days after the fire.His investigations are trying to answer: how did this happen and who is ultimately responsible for the deaths of seven victims and the safety of Montrealers?Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tibet used to be a prominent focus of international attention, but that isn’t the case anymore as less and less information comes out of the region. But things are still very difficult for Tibetans as China cracks down. The Dalai Lama – who is the spiritual leader of Tibet – is 88, and there are concerns about what will happen for Tibet and its people when he eventually dies.Today, The Globe’s James Griffiths tells us about the situation in Tibet and those who have fled, and how Tibetans are thinking about the future of their community.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are a lot of serious storms these days, and those storms are causing more and more damage, as residents of California are seeing this week in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Hilary.The storms we are seeing in Canada are changing – but not how you might expect. David Sills, a severe storms specialist and executive director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University, explains what changes he’s seeing in storms, how prepared we are to handle the damage from them, and the connection one of these storms has to a producer here at The Decibel.This episode originally aired on September 14, 2022.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Back in July, a former RCMP officer was charged with conducting foreign interference on behalf of China. We now know more about what the RCMP is accusing this officer of doing. And it involves a real estate tycoon, a “hired gun”, and a campaign called Operation Fox Hunt.Steven Chase, senior parliamentary reporter for the Globe, explains.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.