Free Lunch by The Peak

Banks have been using machine learning and data science for a long time. But Eric Morrow, BMO's Managing Director of the bank's Enterprise Data Science & AI group, believes new advances in AI tech are expanding the range of what can be done. On this episode, he explains how Canadian banks are using AI, what the limitations are, and how AI gets adopted at large companies with a low tolerance for risk. ----- More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

Jean-François Tardif, president of Timelo Investment Management, sees the Canadian and American economies diverging and thinks it could lead to the loonie falling to 50 cents against the U.S. dollar. In this episode, he explains why he believes that's a likely outcome, why Canada's currency is becoming detached from commodity prices, and how these changes are shaping his investment decisions. ----- More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

Tyler Meredith has been one of the driving forces behind no fewer than six federal budgets and served as the top economic advisor to Prime Minister Trudeau and two finance ministers, so he knows a thing or two about how budgets are made. Today he joins us to explain how exactly the federal government's budget (like the one released last week) is put together, where the ideas come from, who decides what makes it in, how plans turn into policy, and how the money actually gets distributed. ----- More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

Our official statistics dramatically underestimate how rich the richest Canadians are. That's the finding of a new report by Dan Skilleter at Social Capital Partners, a think tank that studies Canada's economy. In fact, when it comes to wealth inequality, Canada isn't much more equal than the United States. Dan joins us today to detail what he found in his new report and explain why Statistics Canada doesn't give us an accurate picture of wealth in our country. ----- Read the report: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5edfe6ed26bc3e59001d42d7/t/660d936553bb3e4b2d8bbded/1712165735599/2024.04.04-SCP-Billionaire+Blindspot+-+FINAL.pdf More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

If you want to make yourself mad about the state of transportation in Canada, all you have to do is go to Europe.  Anyone who’s made the trip can tell you that in almost every European country, it’s faster, more convenient, and more comfortable to take public transportation than it is here.  And the same is true now in many parts of Asia—places that not long ago were much poorer than Canada, with much less well-developed infrastructure.  So why is public transportation in Canada so far behind these other parts of the world? Why does it seem to take forever to get anything built here (and cost way more)? And what would we need to do differently to fix it? To answer these questions, we’re joined by Reece Martin, who is a public transport expert, consultant, and creator of the wonderful and fascinating YouTube channel RMTransit, which has 250,000 subscribers and hundreds of videos all about different transportation systems around the world.  ----- More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

If the world is going to pull off a clean energy transition, we need way more batteries. And we need them to be more efficient, more affordable, and more powerful. That's where Dr. Michael Metzger and the Canadian Battery Innovation Centre at Dalhouse University come in. They're working at the cutting edge of battery technology, and on this episode Dr. Metzger joins us to explain how batteries work, what their limitations are, and some of the innovations scientists are working on to make them better. ----- Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

Indigenous communities were more or less shut out of fully participating in Canada's economy for centuries, but that is beginning to change. Quietly, First Nations and Indigenous communities across Canada are beginning to take ownership stakes in major clean energy, resource development, and infrastructure projects. But this isn't happening without complications and challenges. On this episode, we talk with Mark Podlasly, a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation and Chief Sustainability Officer for the First Nations Major Projects Coalition, about why it's happening now, the history that has led to this point, the size of the opportunity for Indigenous communities, and some of the obstacles that still remain. ----- Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

This episode originally aired on October 17, 2023. Many of us have a vague sense of what industrial policy means, and we might even have an opinion about the specific forms it can take. But that fuzziness around even the definition of industrial policy has made studying it — and learning what makes industrial policy succeed and fail — difficult. Dr. Réka Juhász is trying to change that. Through her innovative academic work (and that of her collaborators at The Industrial Policy Group), she is advancing our understanding of how governments are using industrial policy, and what specific policies they are adopting. On this episode, Réka walks us through how she took a new approach to researching this topic, what actually constitutes industrial policy, and why she believes more governments have turned to these policies in recent years. ----- More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

It's a big year for elections, with voters heading to the polls in 64 countries representing nearly half of the world's population. How some of those votes turn out will have a major impact on Canada. In this episode, Graeme Thompson, senior analyst with Eurasia Group's Global Macro-Geopolitics practice, joins us to break down what's happening in elections in India, Mexico, the UK, and — of course — the United States, what the likely outcomes are, and what it means for Canada. Ed. note: The audio is a bit messier than usual on this one, but it should still be listenable. Sorry about that! ----- Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

The semiconductor industry is dominated by giant companies like TSMC, Intel, and Nvidia. But more and more startups are beginning to emerge in the space, and one promising example is based Canada. Untether AI is a specialized chipmaker focusing on applications where energy efficiency and speed are critical. To date, it's raised more than $200 million. Untether's CEO Chris Walker joins us on this episode to talk about the chip business, how smaller players can compete with the Nvidia's of the world, and (patiently) explain to us how the actual hardware of chips works. ----- Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

Tokyo is the most populous city in the world, and is growing just as quickly as Canada's largest cities. Yet unlike Canadian cities, Tokyo's housing is still (shockingly) affordable, its transit is fast and reliable, and it's teeming with small businesses and entrepreneurs trying their hand at restaurants, cafes, book stores, and all variety of niche services. So how did they do it? And what lessons can we learn about our own cities from Tokyo's experience? Joe McReynolds, co-author of Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City, joins us on this episode to explain. ----- Links: Emergent Tokyo: https://oroeditions.com/product/emergent-tokyo Follow Joe: @McReynoldsJoe More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

BMO Capital Markets Chief Investment Strategist Brian Belski feels pretty good about where the stock market is headed this year. He joins us on this episode of Free Lunch to explain why he's bullish, the sectors and stocks he likes right now, and why he thinks turning off the news is one of the best things you can do for your portfolio. ----- Links: BMO 2024 Market Outlook: https://nesbittburns.bmo.com/delegate/services/file/530281/content More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

Adam Seaborn from Playmaker Capital joins us to talk about recently announced plans by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. to launch a sports streaming bundle, what it means for the sports media business, and who wins and who loses when streaming takes over the sports world. Plus: What makes the NFL such a great television product? ----- Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

New year, new supply chain disruptions. Between conflicts in the Middle East impacting shipping in the Red Sea, drought paralyzing the Panama Canal, or the ongoing war in Ukraine, we are not done with supply chain disruptions just because the pandemic is behind us. Polly Mitchell-Guthrie is with Kinaxis, a Canada-based supply-chain management platform, to share with us how businesses are responding to the latest wave of supply chain disruptions. 3:38 - Overview of the big disruptions impacting supply chains today 6:26 - What happens inside a company when their supply chain breaks 10:40 - How long it takes before consumers start feeling the impact of supply chain disruptions 12:33 - How companies are changing to make their supply chains more resilient 17:40 - How much do companies actually know about suppliers in their supply chain 23:00 - Is friendshoring actually going to happen? 30:08 - Is there still room for supply chain normalization to reduce inflation? 37:11 - Tech innovation happening in supply chain management 42:21 - Risks to supply chains to watch for this year ----- Links: SiteNews More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

One of the big factors driving our housing affordability crisis is that it's become much more expensive to build new housing than it used to be. But why? To get an overview of what's driving growth in housing costs, we're joined by Russell Hixson, the editor of SiteNews, a trade outlet covering Canada's construction sector. 2:12 - What it costs to build housing in different cities now, and why it's increased so much. 5:53 - Where builders are seeing their costs grow the most. 7:59 - What's happening with lumber prices. 10:06 - How builders have responded to higher costs. 14:14 - How costs break down between materials and labour. 19:56 - How a shortage of construction labour is driving up costs. 23:33 - Potential technological solutions that could lower costs in the near term. 28:57 - What policy changes could be made by governments to lower costs. ----- Links: SiteNews More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

There are a lot of exciting developments happening in the neurotechnology space that could dramatically improve how we detect, prevent, and treat cognitive decline and conditions like dementia and diseases like Alzheimer's. On this episode, one of the world's foremost neuroscientists, Dr. Allison Sekuler, joins us to talk about her work in this field, some of the innovations she's most excited about, how innovations in AI and AR/VR will be applied to brain health, and what it's going to mean for how we age. Also: We get her advice on how to keep our brains working well into our old age. 🧠 6:45 - How cognitive health changes as we age 9:22 - What are the most important factors impacting brain health, and how people can prevent cognitive decline 12:49 - Innovations in treatments of cognitive decline 15:58 - How new tech is making it possible to detect dementia and Alzheimer's earlier than ever 20:30 - Is brain health among Canadians getting better or worse, overall? 27:19 - Some of the most promising technological innovations in the space, and the companies working on them 31:07 - Applications of AR/VR for brain health 35:18 - How large language models and the human brain differ, and whether AI will ever get good enough to be indistinguishable from human cognition 39:46 - Applications of AI for brain health 42:21 - Is technology making our brains less healthy? ----- Links: Cogniciti brain health test: https://cogniciti.com/ Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation: https://www.cabhi.com/ Free hearing test: https://www.baycrest.org/Hearing-Services/Audiology-(Hearing-Services)-(1) More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

This time last year, not many people were predicting the economy would look like it does today. Many big name economists predicted that we would need to endure years of high unemployment to get inflation back down to a more manageable level. So why were those forecasts so off? And what lessons should we draw from what happened last year to inform our predictions for the economy this year? Roger Aliaga-Díaz is Vanguard's Global Head of Portfolio Construction and Chief Economist for the Americas. He joins us on this episode to talk about his outlook for the economy in the year ahead and how the last cycle is shaping his thinking. 1:57 - What's the outlook for Canada's economy this year. 3:04 - Why rates are likely to stay elevated for years to come. 7:11 - How government spending pushes rates higher. 9:08 - Why so many economists got inflation wrong and what lessons we can learn. 16:52 - What are the factors keeping inflation above the 2% target. 19:25 - How should ordinary investors think about allocating their investments this year. ----- Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

And we're back for 2024. On this episode, Daniel Foch, real estate investor and co-host of the Canadian Real Estate Investor Podcast, joins us to break down the state of Canada's housing market heading into 2024 and his bets for the year to come. 5:46 - The three possible scenarios ahead of us 8:26 - What a soft landing in the economy means for housing 10:48 - The looming "renewal wall" in mortgages and what it means 13:21 - Why Canada is turning into a renters economy 14:58 - Why purpose-built rentals are becoming popular again 19:12 - Why the government doesn't actually know much about who owns what real estate 23:52 - What's happening with rents 27:04 - The impact of international students on the rental market 36:27 - Do rental builds still pencil if population growth slows? 42:04 - The impact of recent zoning changes on supply 53:00 - Dan's bets as an investor for 2024 ----- Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

The Free Lunch gang and Brett Chang from The Peak Daily podcast see how their forecasts from last year fared and make some new calls for the year to come. Thanks for listening, and see you back in the new year. Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe

Adin Wener is one of the owners and founders of Henderson Brewing Company, one of the largest craft breweries in Toronto, and he joins us today to explain the ins-and-outs of the craft beer business, from supply to chains to hardware innovation to product development. 3:10 - What is Henderson Brewing and how did it grow? 7:11 - Why craft beer boomed, and where it's at today. 9:13 - The basics of the craft brewery business model. 11:29 - How bars and restaurants choose what beer to serve. 14:10 - The margins on brewing beer vs. hospitality and events. 18:55 - How Henderson develops new beers. 25:06 - Why some beers flop. 27:59 - Are young people drinking less than in the past? 31:36 - Why non-alcoholic beer is getting better. 36:58 - What sort of innovations have there been in brewing? 42:33 - Big trends in beer and alcohol. — Links: More episodes of Free Lunch by The Peak: https://readthepeak.com/shows/free-lunch Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorscollon Follow Sarah on Twitter: @sarahbartnicka Subscribe to The Peak's daily business newsletter: https://readthepeak.com/b/the-peak/subscribe