Rogers-Shaw deal, warnings about AI and how the federal budget affects you: Must-read business and investing news for April 2

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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.

Rogers-Shaw takeover complete, but consumers watch out

More than two years after it was first announced, Rogers Communications Inc. has completed its $20-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc., Alexandra Posadzki and Robert Fife report. The deal combines the country’s two largest cable networks and allows Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to expand outside of its home province of Quebec by acquiring Shaw’s Freedom Mobile, Canada’s fourth-largest wireless carrier, for $2.85-billion. In order to secure federal industry minister François-Philippe Champagne’s approval, Videotron pledged that over 10 years, it will offer wireless plans 20 per cent less expensive than those offered by the major wireless carriers as of Feb. 10, 2023, and a penalty of $25-million will be paid to the government for each year it does not meet that promise. While the deal is presented as a “win-win” for both Rogers and Shaw, it doesn’t bode well for consumers, according to Dvai Ghose.

How the federal budget actually affects Canadians

The 2023 federal budget, which was released this week, features a number of ways to help Canadians navigate high inflation and high interest rates. As Erica Alini reports, among the key measures that’ll affect Canadians’ wallets are a GST tax credit boost, bigger grants and loans for students, a smaller alcohol tax increase and strengthening consumer protection in a number of areas. And while the government largely shied away from tax increases, it is proposing to tweak the so-called alternative minimum tax, which may result in a steeper tax bill for the wealthy. But how much will these measures actually impact your personal finances? Rob Carrick gives it a grade – spoiler alert: housing affordability gets a D.

When does it make sense to take OAS early?

As with CPP, you can start your OAS pension at 70 instead of 65 to receive a larger monthly payment. But is this a good idea? With the Canada Pension Plan, the payments are about 42 per cent greater if you wait five years, while the adjustment for OAS is 36 per cent. Other factors to consider: whether the retiree is male or female – determining how long they may live – and inflation and investment risk. Frederick Vettese takes a closer look in this week’s retirement chart.

Bank of Canada is prepared for a banking crisis

If the latest U.S. banking crisis spills over north of the border, the Bank of Canada says they’re ready to take action, Mark Rendell writes. In a speech this week, deputy governor Toni Gravelle said that the Canadian banking system remains strong and financial markets are functioning, but that the recent banking debacles were a “wake-up call.” Mr. Gravelle’s remarks were the the central bank’s first direct comments since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank sent shockwaves through the global banking system. Two other U.S. regional banks have failed in recent weeks, and Swiss lending giant Credit Suisse was forced into an emergency sale to rival UBS Group – a series of events reminiscent of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. The Bank of Canada’s main line of defence in the event of a liquidity crunch is its “term repo” facility, which lends cash to banks in return for high quality collateral.

Tech leaders call for pause on rapid AI development

Around 1,300 tech leaders, including Canadian deep-learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have signed an open letter proposing that artificial intelligence labs immediately halt the rapid development of some AI systems, arguing the technology poses “profound risks to society and humanity.” As Joe Castaldo reports, the letter suggests pausing the training of systems that are more powerful than GPT-4 – the latest iteration of a large language model created by OpenAI – for at least six months to give the industry time to create and implement shared safety protocols. Generative AI, a term for technology that creates text and images based on a few words supplied by a user, has skyrocketed in popularity since OpenAI released a chatbot called ChatGPT in November. Venture capital firms have rushed to pump money into AI startups, while established tech giants – such as Microsoft, and Google parent company Alphabet – have scrambled to integrate generative AI features into their products.

Federal watchdog proposes rules for helping mortgage borrowers drowning in interest

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has released a set of proposed guidelines for how lenders give cash-strapped mortgage borrowers help. According to Rachelle Younglai and Erica Alini, the proposals include lengthening the time it takes for homeowners to pay down their loan, allowing mortgages to expand beyond their original size and not charging penalties for any relief. Borrowers have faced increasing pressure with every Bank of Canada interest-rate hike, especially those with variable-rate mortgages, which are tied to the benchmark rate. As a result, many variable-rate borrowers have either had to increase their monthly payment or had their amortization period – the length of time it takes for them to pay down their loan – drastically extended. The plan was highlighted in the federal budget this week in a clear sign that Ottawa endorses the idea of allowing mortgages to grow to keep payments down.

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Now that you’re all caught up, prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.