USA Rare Earth has agreed to acquire the owner of a rare-earth mine and processing plant in Brazil, a move that would strengthen its mine-to-magnets supply chain amid geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China. The company said Monday that it will acquire 100% of Serra Verde Group in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $2.8 billion. The transaction comprises $300 million in cash and 126.8 million shares of new USA Rare Earth common stock, and is expected to close in the third quarter. “Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine is a one-of-a-kind asset and the only producer outside Asia capable of supplying all four magnetic rare earths at scale, together with other vital REEs [rare-earth elements], such as yttrium,” Chief Executive Barbara Humpton said.

Eight years after Canada launched free trade negotiations with the Mercosur bloc of nations, a Brazilian official says an agreement is on track to be signed by the end of the year. Paula Barboza, director for extra-regional negotiations and economic governance at Brazil’s ministry of foreign affairs, told The Canadian Press the talks have been propelled by a “political push” as Canada and other nations work to diversify their trade. “I think we both have these negotiations as a priority for our governments and we are keen to close them as quick as possible,” she said in an interview. Canada launched negotiations on a free trade agreement with the South American trading bloc in 2018. The Mercosur bloc includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The annual rate of inflation accelerated to 2.4 per cent in March as the war in Iran sent fuel costs soaring, Statistics Canada said Monday. That’s a jump of more than half a percentage point from the headline inflation rate of 1.8 per cent in February, though economists had widely expected the March figures to come in a tick higher. Iran’s move to close of the Strait of Hormuz in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks and ongoing uncertainty over ceasefire talks has sent global fuel prices skyrocketing in recent weeks. StatCan said March’s 21.2 per cent monthly increase in the price of gasoline was the largest on record. The inflationary increase would have been even higher, the agency noted, but the federal government’s move to kill the consumer carbon price a year earlier was still taking some steam out of the annual inflation comparisons in March. StatCan said inflation would have been 2.2 per cent in March if gasoline was taken out of the equation — a second consecutive monthly decline.

2026 is shaping up to be a huge year for media industry dealmaking, if the first few months’ worth of activity is any indication. The first quarter of this year delivered a wave of deals spanning everything from straightforward consolidation to more ambitious, high-stakes bets, all of it pointing toward a sector in the midst of active reinvention. From mega-mergers that could upend streaming to big bets on formats like billboards and podcasts, the dealmaking thus far has cut across both legacy media and newer platforms. The roundup below breaks down the biggest deals of the quarter, including a bit about what they all signal about where the media business is heading next.

Canada Post is starting preliminary work to convert addresses that receive door-to-door mail to community mailboxes, and to phase out some post offices. The Crown corporation said in a news release the process is beginning after meetings with union officials. Canada Post said it’s converting about four million addresses to community mailboxes and the work is expected to take about five years, with different regions moving to community mailboxes each year. The corporation says it’s starting discussions with 13 communities across Canada — including Ottawa and Winnipeg — as it prepares to move about 136,000 addresses from door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes in late 2026 and early 2027.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says Ottawa wants to start shipping liquefied natural gas from the Port of Churchill by 2030, calling it “a very aggressive, ambitious” target that will likely also include the construction of a new pipeline connecting to the Hudson Bay region. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Kinew outlined his government’s early plans for the small, deepwater port in Northern Manitoba after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week. “The Prime Minister was very clear about shipping LNG by 2030,” Mr. Kinew said, adding that the onus is now on the Manitoba government to begin construction and secure private-sector investment “as soon as possible.”

QXO has agreed to acquire insulation products company TopBuild for $17 billion, marking the building products distributor’s biggest deal to date. The agreement values each TopBuild share at $505, representing a 23% premium to its closing price on Friday, the two companies said. Under the terms of the deal, TopBuild shareholders will have the right to elect to receive $505 in cash or 20.2 shares of QXO common stock for each TopBuild share held, subject to proration, on the condition that the total transaction consideration is paid as approximately 45% in cash and 55% in shares of QXO common stock. The maximum cash proceeds will be capped in aggregate at 45% of the transaction consideration, the companies said.

Retail just lived through its most turbulent CEO cycle in a generation. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, retail companies reported 41 CEO exits through August 2025 — a 116% increase from the same period a year earlier — making retail the top industry for CEO turnover. The boardroom decisions that followed those exits reveal something important: there is no universal answer to the question every board eventually faces. When a CEO departs, do you promote the insider who knows your business cold, or do you go outside for the executive who will shake things up? The past 18 months produced enough high-stakes examples to build a genuine framework. Kroger, Walmart, Target, Albertsons, Ulta Beauty, Lululemon — each made a different bet. We are still waiting to see the outcomes, but the logic behind each decision tells us a great deal about what boards actually believe when the pressure is on.

Dans une vidéo publiée dans ses réseaux sociaux dimanche, le premier ministre canadien dresse un portrait de la situation géopolitique et économique du pays et du reste de la planète. Il insiste sur l’importance pour le Canada de miser davantage sur son autonomie et de diversifier ses partenariats. « Le monde est plus dangereux et plus divisé qu’avant. Les États-Unis ont changé de direction. Leur approche au commerce s’est transformée. Cette hausse des tarifs, c’est du jamais vu depuis la Grande Dépression. Nos forces traditionnelles, qui reposaient sur des liens étroits avec l’Amérique, sont maintenant des faiblesses », affirme-t-il. M. Carney souligne que de nombreux travailleurs canadiens, dans les secteurs de l’automobile, de l’aluminium, de l’acier et du bois d’œuvre, sont présentement « attaqués » par les tarifs douaniers de Donald Trump. Il ajoute que plusieurs entreprises d’ici hésitent désormais à investir en raison de l’incertitude économique causée par le président américain.

The Liberals say this is a prudent way to tame prices at the pumps, at a cost of roughly $2.4 billion. The Conservatives argue this isn’t enough to meet rising energy costs, calling for the pause to extend to the end of the year, as well as an end to clean-fuel standards and the industrial carbon tax. U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to wage a war against Iran alongside Israel has sent global energy costs surging, with Tehran and later Washington constraining certain shipments in the Strait of Hormuz. In recent days, the CAA’s gas price tracker has listed an average cost of $1.74 per litre at pumps across the country — more than 40 cents higher than a year ago.

Statistics Canada will reveal the early impacts of the Iran war’s oil price shock on inflation when the agency reports its consumer price index for March on Monday. The price of oil has surged in recent weeks after Iran responded to attacks by the United States and Israel by shuttering the Strait of Hormuz where a fifth of the world’s fuel normally transits. RBC senior economist Claire Fan says the bank expects rising prices at the pumps will push the headline inflation rate to 2.5 per cent in March, up from 1.8 per cent in February. She says that jump would be even higher, but the removal last year of the consumer carbon price is still taking some steam out of the annual inflation comparisons.

France’s Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Free-iliad Group bid roughly $24 billion for Altice Group’s French telecommunications operations, a deal that would dismantle a major plank of billionaire Patrick Drahi’s once sprawling business empire. The companies said Friday that they had entered exclusive talks about the proposed transaction. The move follows months of negotiations after Altice rejected an earlier roughly $20 billion approach from the consortium for most of its French telecom business, known as SFR. Drahi’s Altice became a major player in the telecommunications industry by buying up assets across Europe and in the U.S. He also bought storied auction house Sotheby’s. 

Leaders in some of British Columbia’s rural communities are calling on the provincial government to support changes to the temporary foreign worker program or businesses will have to start shutting their doors. Tiffany Hetenyi, executive director of the Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce, says business owners tell her they will have to start reducing their hours, or close for good, because of staffing shortages. The federal government in March announced changes to the temporary foreign worker program meant to benefit employers in rural communities struggling to fill jobs, but provinces have to opt into the program.