Potential Air Canada flight attendants strike, Carney’s lumber industry supports and Shopify is Canada’s most valuable company (again): Business and investing stories for the week of Aug. 10

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 from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.

Air Canada flight attendants could strike this month Open this photo in gallery:

Air Canada flight attendants voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike mandate earlier this week. The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents more than 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and its leisure service Air Canada Rouge, said in a statement that it could give a 72-hour strike notice as early as August 16.

The two sides have been in contract talks since the start of the year, but the strike mandate vote kicked off July 28 after the airline and union concluded the conciliation process without reaching a deal. Negotiations with the airline resumed on Friday. Flight attendants are asking for higher wages and compensation for all their time worked. Here’s what you need to know about the potential strike, and if you should cancel your Air Canada flights.

Carney announces $1.2-billion in lumber industry supportsOpen this photo in gallery:

Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will provide $1.2-billion in financial supports to help Canada’s softwood lumber producers that are struggling with the impact of U.S. tariffs. The package includes $700-million in loan guarantees that will allow forestry companies to get financing to support and restructure their operations to reduce heavy reliance on exports to the United States; and $500-million in grants. Ottawa says it will also prioritize the use of Canadian lumber in its plans to kick-start a rush of housing construction across the country.

The industry welcomed the federal support package, but officials caution that exporters cannot completely extricate themselves from their closest and largest market. Jeffrey Jones spoke to several stakeholders in the softwood lumber industry about their thoughts surrounding the latest announcement from Ottawa.

Decoder: American orange juice exports to Canada get squeezed

Early into the trade war with the United States, American orange juice became a target of Canadian shoppers bypassing American products at the grocery store. New trade numbers suggest that the counterattack is working on U.S. imports. Orange juice shipments slipped to their lowest level in more than two decades in June, according to trade data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. But it’s unclear to what extent the dive in American juice imports is owing to Canada’s own duties, which raise the costs of foreign products, or the individual choices of boycotting consumers. Jason Kirby takes a closer look at the numbers in this week’s Decoder series.

Shopify again becomes Canada’s most valuable company after big second quarterOpen this photo in gallery:

Shopify Inc. has regained its position as the most valuable company in Canada, replacing the former top stock, Royal Bank of Canada. After reporting its second-quarter earnings, the Canadian e-commerce giant’s shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange closed up 22 per cent, giving the company a market capitalization of $275.7-billion.

The company, which provides tools for businesses to run their stores online, said its revenue was US$2.6-billion for the quarter ended June 30, up 31 per cent from the same period last year. Gross profit was US$1.3-billion, up 24 per cent. The results topped analyst expectations, despite previous concerns about the impacts of rising consumer costs, new fees and global trade frictions, Irene Galea reports. On an analyst call this week, Shopify chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister said the company had not seen “any drops in U.S. demand – inbound, outbound or local,” and that, in fact, sales in the country accelerated during the quarter.

Canadian CEOs are embracing generative AI – but the impact on employees is less certainOpen this photo in gallery:

For Canadian CEOs, there has been a notable shift this year in approaching AI. The technology has long been hailed by executives, even before the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. But now, instead of tentative pilot projects and nudges to employees to try it out, some companies are mandating that employees use AI tools – or else. The newfound urgency – stemming from the promise of productivity gains and competitive pressures – is prompting some executives to think deeply and talk openly about how many employees they’re going to need in the years ahead. Take Jason Smith, the CEO of Vancouver tech company Klue, for example, who recently let go of 40 per cent of his employees because he believes he has to reinvent the company to compete in the AI age.

Joe Castaldo and Sean Silcoff spoke to more than a dozen CEOs and executives about whether we’re heading for a jobs apocalypse and how AI is changing things unnervingly quickly.

Get the rest of the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz here, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.