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Climate Action 2025: A year for rewiring

January 15, 2025

RBC Climate Action Institute’s 2nd annual progress report on Canada’s net zero journey.

The New Great Game: How the race for critical minerals is shaping tech supremacy

March 10, 2025

Minerals are the bedrock of an economy. From steel to copper to aluminum, they lay the foundation of economic, civil, and defense infrastructure.

The Growth Project: A new generation of ideas for the Canadian economy

March 31, 2025

Welcome to The Growth Project, an RBC initiative. Discover a new generation of ideas for the Canadian economy.

3 QUESTIONS
It's a Trade War Without Borders: Frances Donald

April 4, 2025

How a prolonged trade war will make it difficult for any economy to escape rising costs.

Forward Guidance: Our Weekly Preview

April 4, 2025

Data in the coming week will be watched closely for impact from trade headwinds to prices in Canada and the U.S.

Canada Labour Market

April 4, 2025

There are early signs that the intensification of uncertainty from U.S. tariff threats, had an impact on hiring on the more trade-sensitive goods producing side of the economy.

The Disruptors Podcast

Latest Episodes

The Cleantech Edge: Tackling Methane Emissions with Canadian Innovation

Scammers, Fraud, and Deepfakes: The AI Arms Race

View Disruptors Podcasts

Economics

U.S. Labour Market

April 4, 2025

The March payrolls report showed a significant upside surprise- with 228k jobs added.

A thorn in the Fed’s side: What could tariffs mean for U.S. inflation and growth?

April 3, 2025

Should tariffs stay in place in the coming months, our expectation is to see significant upward pressure on inflation and negative shocks to growth.

Podcast: The 10-Minute Take

April 3, 2025

Are services immune to tariffs in the trade war? Claire Fan and Carrie Freestone dig into Canada’s services sector and the headwinds its facing.

U.S. reciprocal tariffs spare Canada/Mexico for now but trade risks remain

April 2, 2025

Auto tariffs would still push the average U.S. tariff rate on imports from Canada to about 3.5% from 2.5% by our count.

Improving housing affordability in Canada takes a backseat

March 31, 2025

Homeownership costs see a fourth straight drop in Canada, but the trade war is likely to loom large over the market near term.

Trade Hub: Insights on how Canada can build a resilient economy and fortify North America

March 31, 2025

The latest tensions with the U.S. should jolt Canadians into seeking an economic and trade reboot.

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Climate

Climate Crunch: How to fast-track $350B worth of energy projects

March 27, 2025

Why (almost) everyone’s hating on the Impact Assessment Act.

Carrots, not sticks: Building decarbonization expected to continue without consumer carbon tax

March 19, 2025

Mark Carney’s first act as Prime Minister was to axe the consumer carbon tax, as cost of living concerns continue to remain front and centre for Canadians.

Climate Crunch: The Great American Energy “Addition

March 14, 2025

It was Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney’s first policy pronouncement 12 minutes into his victory speech after sweeping the Liberal race, as he promised during his campaign.

Heavy Lifting: How Canadian manufacturers can decarbonize despite trade turmoil

March 13, 2025

Canada is bracing for a new trade war after the U.S. slapped 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in an effort to re-shore its own industries.

Methane Efficiency: The Climate Innovation Hiding in Plain Sight

March 5, 2025

Climate action is often associated with groundbreaking technologies, new data, and fresh approaches.

Canadian EV adoption: Bracing for impact

February 26, 2025

This year may test Canadians’ love for electric vehicles. The European experience offers a clue: the end of EV subsidies in Germany in 2023 led to a jump in sales ahead of the deadline

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Innovation

The Cleantech Edge: Tackling Methane Emissions with Canadian Innovation

March 25, 2025

With global energy demands surging and climate concerns intensifying, Canada finds itself in a rare position

Scammers, Fraud, and Deepfakes: The AI Arms Race

March 11, 2025

With cybercriminals leveraging AI to fuel scams and misinformation, how do we verify what's real?

Build Canada: Entrepreneurs seek to boost Canada’s prosperity and productivity

February 25, 2025

How can Canadians unleash their competitive spirit and rediscover the drive to build bigger, faster, and smarter?

AgriFood and Food Security: Can Canada Feed the World?

February 10, 2025

With a growing global population and climate challenges reshaping food production, Canada has a golden opportunity to lead the ag-tech revolution. But are we ready?

Inside the WEF: AI, Geopolitics, and Canada's Place in the Future Economy

January 30, 2025

What happens in Davos doesn’t stay in Davos, it shapes the future of business, technology, and global markets.

Powering Canada: Electricity and Data Centres

January 25, 2025

What does it take to power the intelligence economy of the future? In this episode of Disruptors x CDL: The Innovation Era, hosts John Stackhouse and Sonia Sennik dive into the surging energy demands of AI and data centers

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Indigenous

Building Capital: Economic reconciliation, equity ownership and loan guarantee programs

November 12, 2024

Where we are 2024 has been a significant year for momentum in Indigenous economic reconciliation. The mainstreaming of Indigenous equity...

The Business of Reconciliation:
Building the future while helping repair the past

April 18, 2024

Canada is at an economic crossroads. In one direction, reconciliation points to a new generation of corporate thinking and government policy, leading to more Indigenous ownership, project decisions based on consent and a more sustainable approach to resource development.

Nation Building: Unlocking Indigenous Potential To Power Canada's Net Zero Economy

June 29, 2023

Federal government’s 2023 budget commitments will empower Indigenous Peoples to play a vital role in helping Canada achieve its Net Zero goals.

How Indigenous Business Can Accelerate Canada’s Net Zero Transition

June 27, 2023

We dissect the makings behind the Oneida Energy Storage project, a 50/50 private and public partnership with Six Nations of the Grand River.

A Capital Idea: How Indigenous Economics Can Power our Climate Agenda

June 21, 2022

In this episode, we discuss the vital importance of Canada’s Indigenous communities on the path to Net Zero.

92 to Zero: How economic reconciliation can power Canada's climate goals

June 16, 2022

It’s now clear that the national priorities of Net Zero and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples are inextricably linked. In the same spirit, we expect RBC’s reconciliation journey will increasingly intersect with our climate priorities.

See all Indigenous Articles

Skills

A Growing Problem: How to align Canada’s immigration with the future economy

March 13, 2024

The mismatch in immigrants' skills and the labour market’s long-term needs, along with pressure on the country’s infrastructure capacity is leading to negative economic outcomes.

Canadians on the move: will a pandemic shakeup in migration trends hold?

August 15, 2023

The pandemic accelerated course reversals of longstanding interprovincial migration trends in Canada. While Ontario saw its largest exodus on record, Alberta and Maritime provinces emerged as astonishingly popular destinations.

Course Correction: How international students can help solve Canada's labour crisis

September 1, 2022

The mix of international students is changing, potentially affecting future labour market matches and concentrating Canada’s source countries

Why Businesses Are Leading the Green Skills Transition

February 22, 2022

Find out how a 160 year-old manufacturing company is teaching its workforce to integrate new technologies for a Net Zero economy.

Green Collar Jobs: The skills revolution Canada needs to reach Net Zero

February 16, 2022

Canada is on the cusp of a generational skills crisis. As a nation, we’ve set some of the most ambitious climate objectives in the world, led by an overarching goal to reach Net Zero emissions by 2050. This pursuit brings with it an abundance of opportunity: for Canadian innovation, for new green investment, and for economic growth.

The Great Redefinition: How Canada Can Win Over Global Talent

February 8, 2022

Amid the struggle for workers, employers need to pay attention and reprioritize their talent strategies, or risk losing their most valuable asset–people.

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