Food affordability remains a priority for many Canadians. This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government unveiled the spring economic update. It included some already announced measures aimed to make groceries more affordable.

But some people are considering others measures to make food cheaper: public grocery stores. Federal NDP leader, Avi Lewis, has been talking about establishing a network of public grocery stores across Canada and municipalities like Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver are also considering the concept.

Mike von Massow is a food economist at the University of Guelph. He joins us today to stress-test the concept of public grocery stores and whether they could make food more affordable in Canada.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

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Once scammers successfully steal someone’s money, they need a place to stash it. So they are buying verified Canadian bank accounts in order to launder money. In the last 12 months, a Canadian cybercrime research firm identified 4,337 social media posts offering to purchase accounts.

The people who allow scammers to use their accounts are known as “money mules”. Many become implicated in the crime, even if they are recruited without knowing they are being used to launder money.

Alexandra Podazki is the Globe’s financial and cybercrime reporter. Today, she joins the show to explain what exactly is happening with this black market for verified bank accounts and why the demand for money mules seems to be growing.

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The Liberals’ spring economic update lays out $54-billion in new spending over six years, including $6-billion towards boosting employment in the trades and more money for sports. The update also shows an estimated deficit of $66.9-billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year, an $11.5-billion improvement over what the government had projected in the Nov. 4 budget.

Campbell Clark, The Globe’s chief political writer, joins the show to break down what the Carney government’s first piece of fiscal policy as a majority government tells us about how they’re wielding their newfound power.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

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