Slash university spots, and build a better coffee pod: BUSINESS WEEK WRAP

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 03 April 2015 | 22.40

It wasn't quite "atrocious" but the first glimpse of Canadian GDP numbers we've had this year certainly left a lot to be desired.

On Tuesday, Statistics Canada reported that Canada's economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in January. That's not as bad as the 0.2 per cent that economists had been expecting, and it was certainly better than what the head of Canada's central bank was expecting.

Stephen Poloz expected the first quarter GDP data to look "atrocious," he told the Financial Times newspaper on Monday.

That set the table for a bleak showing, so maybe the strong verbiage was a good thing, as it certainly gave the market a lesson in managing expectations: if the central banker says he expects something to be "atrocious" and it turns out not to be, that has to be good news, right?

Animal abuse alleged

​Another one of our biggest reads of the week was our story reporting allegations that one of Canada's largest chicken producers mistreated birds and caused unnecessary suffering.

Animal rights group Mercy for Animals released an undercover video it says it shot inside a Maple Lodge Farms plant.

The animal rights group claims that it shows birds handled roughly, and others frozen to death.

The company acted swiftly, saying they are determined to get to the bottom of the allegations. "I want to stress that we have a zero tolerance policy, for any violation of our animal welfare policies," Maple Lodge Farms CEO Michael Burrows said. "We will take appropriate disciplinary action, including dismissal."

Raise the bar by lowering the boom

The fate of Canada's young people is this economy is a subject that draws many opinions. But none seem to have touched a nerve as much as the one expressed by University of Saskatchewan professor Ken Coates, who proposes quite a drastic measure.

To put it simply, he recommends cutting back the number of university spaces by as much as 25 to 30 per cent and instead beefing up college and polytechnical schools, which he says are already among the best places in the world to help young people find lucrative jobs for life.

He puts the blame on schools and governments for turning universities into profit centres bent on making money from "bums in seats" as he puts it, but he doesn't give young people a free pass for blindly following a university path that leads to unemployment down the line.

Job fair employment

A proposal to limit University acceptances and encourage more job seekers to go the college route was one of our most-read stories this week. (Seth Perlman/Associated Press)

"We have a real problem here with a disconnect between expectations, the programs that are on offer, and the way that the Canadian job market is evolving," Coates told the CBC's Amanda Lang in an interview this week.

Not surprisingly, our story on Coates' idea drew a lot of response from both sides. But in an age where youth unemployment has never been higher, clearly some outside the box thinking might be in order.

Change brewing in coffee pod world

Another story we did this week that made an impact was Sophia Harris' latest online offering, looking at what some of the companies in the explosive business of coffee pods are doing to try to make their product more environmentally friendly.

It seems a little trash talk might be just what the industry needs, as one of the main criticisms of single-serve coffee pods is the billions of discarded — and non-recyclable, non-compostable — pods that end up in landfills every year.

Two Canadian companies, Mother Parkers and Canterbury Coffee, are trying to create more eco-friendly coffee pods. But even they admit that a 100 biodegradable solution to the problem isn't simple or quick.

Sophia's story was one of our most read this week and well worth a read if you haven't already.

Other stuff

Those were just some of the stories we had on offer this week. Be sure to check back with our website often for more, and don't forget to follow us on Twitter here. 

In the meantime, here's some more stuff you may have missed.

Monday

Tuesday:

Wednesday

Thursday


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