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Issue #19 10.28.2026
The weekly standup
Everything you need to know before you have to microwave your coffee (for the first time).
🚕
Robo-taxis are coming to Toronto (human drivers included, for now)
🗳️
Alberta’s referendum gives businesses a clear answer
🔁
Retirement is getting a sequel
The office chatter ☕
What everyone’s pretending not to read during meetings.
🚕
The driverless car needs a driver first
Waymo started testing its autonomous vehicles in Toronto on Oct. 20, with paid robo-taxi rides planned for 2028. Before any car drives itself, though, someone has to map every street from behind the wheel, so Waymo is hiring hundreds of test drivers and maintenance workers. For now, the driverless future is a hiring story (The Peak).
🗳️
Alberta gave business owners an answer
Around 76 per cent of Albertans voted to remain in Canada, rejecting a path toward a future binding vote on separation. For employers, the big win is certainty. Hiring plans, leases and investment decisions all get easier when the map stays the same. Anyone who drafted a backup plan this year can file it under “didn’t need it” (Global News).
Like what you’re reading?
The breakroom bulletin 📌
What’s hot, what’s not and what’s all for show.
Getting promoted 📈
🧣
Your first office wardrobe is making a comeback
JACOB, once a 250-store fixture of Canadian malls, is back under the founders’ daughter, Cristelle Basmaji. This time it’s starting small: fragrances, a polka-dot scarf and body mists co-designed by her 12-year-old. Proof that succession planning can start early (Retail Insider).
💳
Card surcharges are having a moment
Starting Jan. 17, Rogers will add a 1.6% fee when customers pay bills by credit card, calling the practice increasingly common across many sectors. Debit stays free. Expect more businesses to start asking how you’d like to pay (CBC).
On a PIP 📉
🗝️
Who’s getting the keys?
Nearly two-thirds of Canadian small business owners plan to step away within a decade. Just 6 per cent have a formal succession plan. One of the top reasons: they’re too busy running the business to plan leaving it (Retail Insider).
🏠
Business gets personal
How personal is small business financing? For one in four Canadian owners, very: they’ve had to personally guarantee it, according to Equifax Canada. Among owners 18 to 34, it’s more than half. Work-life separation is tougher when your own name is on the loan (Retail Insider).
Corporate Theatre 🎭
🏬
Now leasing: the mall roof
A Toronto developer plans to build 500 modular apartments on top of Prince Albert’s Gateway Mall to help with the city’s student housing shortage. Groceries, transit and the food court, all downstairs. Finally, a commute measured in floors (Retail Insider).
☎️
Talking to a human is now a premium feature
Air Canada now charges $30 per passenger for new bookings made by phone with an agent. The app and website stay free, and calls about disruptions or accessibility needs are exempt. The dial tone has officially gone upmarket.
Ideas worth stealing 💡
🎬
Test the store before you sign the lease
The Criterion Collection opened its first video store as a limited run during TIFF, and Gen Z film fans lined up around the block to buy discs. The smart part wasn’t the nostalgia: it was testing demand before signing a lease.
👶
Dad leave is a hiring perk now
Canada ranks No. 17 worldwide for statutory paid paternity leave, according to a new global report. That leaves room for employers to stand out: topping up leave for new dads is easy to put in a job posting. Diaper duty, now a recruiting strategy (Benefits Canada).
The Thing I Can’t Stop Thinking About 🧠
Retirement is getting a sequel
📖
The story
One in 10 Canadian retirees aged 55 and older are back at work. Money is part of it, but not the whole picture. Many people who step away find they miss more than the paycheque: the identity, the network and the sense of purpose that came with showing up somewhere every day.
📶
The signal
We tend to treat retirement as a finish line. For a growing number of Canadians, it’s looking more like an intermission. That says something about how much of who we are gets wrapped up in work, and something useful about what people are actually looking for when they come back.
🛫
The takeaway
Your next great hire might not be early in their career. People returning to work often want flexibility, meaning and a good team more than a big title. Businesses that make room for them get decades of judgment with almost no ramp-up. The bigger question: is the work we’ve built worth coming back to (The Peak)?
Smart people saying smart things 💬
One post, tweet or take that’s making people in the world of work stop scrolling.
This week, founder and best-selling author Raj Shamani makes the case that the real edge at work isn’t talent or hustle. It’s being willing to do the boring stuff well, over and over.
The divide between winners and losers isn’t talent, it’s tolerance for monotony. Anyone can show up with intensity when they feel inspired. The winners are the ones who execute the unglamorous, repetitive basics with precision on the days motivation never shows up.
— Raj Shamani (@rajshamani) October 21, 2026
My music at work 🎵
One song helping us survive another week of impromptu Slack huddles.
The last thing before we jump 🦘
This week, retirees headed back to work, most small business owners said they plan to exit within a decade and a founder’s daughter brought a nearly 50-year-old Canadian brand back to life.
Even the driverless car needs a human behind the wheel first. Work keeps changing hands, but it just never stops needing people.
See you next week.
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