PM Trudeau will meet U.S. President Joe Biden (virtually, of course) today in what will be Biden's first meeting with a foreign head of state.

What's on the agenda: Trudeau and Biden will have much to discuss across a pretty wide range of issues...

Zoom out: The dynamics of the Canada-US relationship have changed in important ways with Biden's election (see: climate and Keystone, in particular). Most Canadians prefer to see Biden in the White House than the last guy, but there's still plenty of disagreements to navigate.

The federal government is planning to make it a requirement for certain Canadian companies to allow employees to work in French.

Pourquoi? The suggestion is one of 56 ideas put forward by the government as part of a plan to modernize the Official Languages Act for the modern age of digital media and communications.

Qui?  Any company that is regulated by the federal government, has over 50 employees, and is located in Quebec or a predominantly French-speaking community, would have to offer French as a work language option.

Aussi…

A group of experts will be assembled to review the recommendations, and provide a report to the House of Commons before a bill is tabled.

What the traditional real estate process feels like: Hard.

What Properly feels like: Easy.

Properly is a Toronto-based tech-enabled brokerage setting the new standard for what homeowners can expect from real estate. The Properly team was unsatisfied with the traditional home buying experience, so they decided to fix it, introducing innovative products and unparalleled service to get better results for their clients, without the headaches.

The biggest game changer: Properly is the only team in Canada that can set you up to buy before you sell, without stress.

Get started with a free home valuation

Canada's been in a deep recession for nearly a year now, but the pain of that has not been spread evenly across workers — a new report finds that the COVID recession has hit those at the bottom of the income ladder hard, and those at the top hardly at all.

By the numbers: 

Why it's happening: Low-income work tends to be in the same sectors that have been shut down by economic restrictions, like restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues. 

Higher-income office jobs, on the other hand, have continued on much like before (sans the office, of course).

Our thought bubble: The economy cannot recover and grow at full tilt if large segments of what used to be the workforce are stuck on the sidelines. Getting the economy hot again depends on bringing those jobs back ASAP without compromising public health.

Toronto’s Borrowell has raised $25 million to finance the acquisition of Refresh Financial.

It’s in the name: Borrowell helps people borrow well. They offer free credit scores, education, weekly credit monitoring, personalized credit coaching and AI-powered financial product recommendations to 1.5 million members.

Back in the game: Borrowell laid off about 20% off their staff in April 2020 due to COVID.

The combination with Refresh will double their headcount to 130, and double their revenue. CEO Andrew Graham is optimistic: “We’re getting back to very much where we were pre-COVID.”

He’s a business, man, not a businessman. And his business skills were on full display yesterday as Jay-Z sold his champagne brand Ace of Spades to luxury brand behemoth LVMH.

LVMwho? They’re a French multinational holding company of luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Moët and Hennessy.  LVMH bought half of Ace of Spades from Jay-Z and the hold co plans to give it the boost of their “global beverage machine”.

What were the terms: We don’t know how much LVMH bought their share for, but we do have a pretty good idea of how the business was doing.

The really crazy part? Ace of Spades makes insane margins. Each bottle costs $13 to make and sells for $225 wholesale.

Zoom out: LVMH is buying Ace of Spades to leverage its brand cachet and famous spokesperson to enter markets that it’s struggled in. Jay-Z said that the partnership signals that LVMH is taking a more diverse look at things.

+ Read the story of how Jay-Z bought Ace of Spades to spite Cristal

E-sports is getting big, like really big! How do we know? Because this Toronto consortium is proposing a state-of-the-art 7,000 person e-sports stadium that’s going to turn the city into a gaming hub.

Go Defiant: The Toronto Defiant are an e-sports team that competes in Overwatch and Call of Duty. Owned by OverActive Media, the team’s ownership includes Mike Kimel (real estate magnate and part owner of the Penguins), Mitch Marner (the best winger in the NHL) and The Weeknd (a kid from Scarborough).

Looking forward: The project still needs to be approved by the Exhibition Place board but with support from the Mayor and Premier, it’s unlikely to face many hurdles. If all goes to plan, the facility could be ready by 2025.