Canada Post is on strike again, GDP rebounds after three-month decline and Trump’s new wave of tariffs: Business and investing stories for the week of Sept. 28

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.

Canada Post workers launch strike over Ottawa’s call to end home deliveryOpen this photo in gallery:

The union representing Canada’s postal workers launched an immediate nationwide strike late Thursday after Ottawa announced a broad overhaul of Canada Post, including changes such as ending door-to-door delivery of mail across the country and shutting down some post offices in suburban areas that were formerly considered rural. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, representing 55,000 members of the postal service, called Ottawa’s moves “drastic” and said they would negatively affect the public and postal workers. But Public Works Minister Joël Lightbound said it was “effectively insolvent” and that bailing out Canada Post repeatedly was not a long-term solution, Vanmala Subramaniam reports.

This is the second time in less than a year that postal workers have gone on strike. CUPW members went on a month-long strike last November, in the leadup to the busy holiday season.

Canadian economy rebounds in July after three monthly declinesOpen this photo in gallery:

Canada’s real gross domestic product grew by 0.2 per cent in July, for the first time in four months, suggesting the economy will likely avoid a recession this year as U.S. tariffs batter key Canadian sectors. Statistics Canada reported Friday that the increase was largely driven by growth in good-producing industries such as the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sectors. Shortly after the GDP release, interest rate swaps suggested that there’s a 42-per-cent chance that the central bank will cut again by a quarter-percentage-point in October.

Meanwhile, in other economic data, Canada’s population barely grew in the second quarter this year. The overall population of Canada grew by a mere 0.1 per cent, or 47,098 people, the same level of growth the country experienced between January and March of 2025. The near-zero growth was driven by outflows of non-permanent residents. Canada’s population currently stands at 41.65 million people.

Decoder: Job vacancy rate tumbles to eight-year low as openings dry up

Canada’s job vacancy rate in July fell to its lowest level since February, 2017, suggesting that the job market is tight and job hunters are facing a dwindling number of opportunities. The vacancy rate fell to 2.6 per cent in July when employers posted fewer than 470,000 help wanted ads, according to Statistics Canada. The latest vacancy numbers reflect a job market that is suffering on several fronts, including the trade war with the U.S. and weakened business investment. Jason Kirby takes a closer look at the numbers in this week’s Decoder series.

The latest on tariffs from Trump and CarneyOpen this photo in gallery:

U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping new import tariffs on Thursday, including 100 per cent duties on branded drugs and 25 per cent levies on heavy-duty trucks. It’s the latest upheaval for global businesses already struggling with snarled supply chains, soaring costs and consumer uncertainty caused by Trump’s trade war.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney dropped countertariffs on a broader range of U.S. goods in a bid to revive trade talks with the White House. Mark Rendell reports that Ottawa has removed tariffs on all U.S. goods except steel, aluminum and automobiles instead of just retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods covered by the continental free-trade agreement, the USMCA, initially indicated last month.

Meet the migrant workers Canadian farmers depend on to harvest their cropsOpen this photo in gallery:

Roy Campbell is part of a brigade of about 80,000 foreign workers who keep Canada’s farms running and food on our plates. He works as a commercial apple picker at Apple Hill Lavender Farm in Norfolk County, Ont. a two-hour drive southwest of Toronto. Originally from Jamaica, Mr. Campbell first travelled to Canada in the mid-1980s as a seasonal farm worker, and has returned to work at the farm every year since.

There’s been much scrutiny of Canada’s use of temporary foreign labour in recent years, even as domestic farmers increasingly struggle to find people willing to do the difficult job of harvesting their crops. But, simply put, Canada’s agricultural sector would collapse if it weren’t for workers like Mr. Campbell. Jason Kirby went to Norfolk County to see how migrant workers have shaped the community, how they’re changing lives back home and how they keep food on our tables.

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