Here are five things you need to know this morning:
BCE sells MLSE stake
There’s a major change at the top of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment this morning as BCE Inc. has sold its stake in the sports business conglomerate to Rogers Communications Inc. for $4.7 billion. As part of the deal announced this morning, TSN (a division of Bell Media) has secured content rights for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors games for the next 20 years, subject to league approval. The deal puts 75 per cent control of the company, which owns the Leafs, Raptors, Argonauts and Toronto FC, in the hands of Rogers, with the remaining 20 per cent owned by Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports and five per cent by pension plan OMERS. BCE says the deal is slated to be finalized in mid-2025, and it plans to use proceeds for the sale to pay down debt. BNN Bloomberg is a division of Bell Media, which is part of BCE Inc.
Inflation fight not over yet, BOC’s Rogers says
The official inflation rate may have finally gotten back to the two per cent target, but that doesn’t mean the Bank of Canada is declaring mission accomplished just yet. That’s according to Carolyn Rogers, deputy governor of the central bank, at a Bloomberg event in Toronto yesterday. “There’s still work to do,” Rogers said. “We’ve got to stick the landing.” The latest CPI reading this week showed the headline inflation rate has eased to two per cent for the first time since 2021, but Rogers said they want to see more evidence of a “sustainable” return to that level, noting that the impact of hikes and cuts always lags the bank’s moves for several quarters. We’ll get a closer look at the bank’s line of thinking at its last policy meeting when they release the summary of their deliberations this afternoon.
Barrick temporarily idles Papua New Guinea mine after 2 worker deaths
Barrick Gold has suspended operations at a gold mine in Papua New Guinea after violent clashes in the area have killed two of its local employees. The move was taken to protect workers at the Porgera project, the company said in a release. Violence broke out a week ago between two groups of illegal miners, and the death toll so far has risen to 20 people. The mine is tentatively scheduled to reopen tomorrow.
Unifor reaches tentative deal with GM for CAMI workers
Unifor union has struck a deal with General Motors for more than 1,300 workers at the company’s CAMI assembly plant in Ontario. Details have not been released and the agreement must now go to a vote by members on September 22.
