It’s a beautiful holiday summer weekend, and for many of us, that means it’s also a time to fire up the grill and serve up some tasty burgs and slightly overcooked hot dogs (the best way to eat them). 

Unfortunately not even the backyard BBQ is safe from the scourge of inflation this year—don’t let that spoil it for you, but expect to pay more for pretty much everything you need for a successful ‘cue.

• Hot dogs: Food prices are up almost 10% since last year, and BBQ staples are no exception. Hot dog prices are up from around $3.76 per package last year to $4.09 today and buns are around 11% more expensive.

• Veggies (because we’re healthy like that): Expect to pay more for lettuce, potatoes, onions, and most other veg—the less celebrated food group costs about 10% more than last year. Potatoes, however, have actually dropped in price, so don’t hesitate to have a second helping of Aunt Ruth’s famous potato salad.

• Beer and other cold beverages: The price of a refreshing adult beverage hasn’t actually gone up that much since last year—beer is around 5% more expensive, below the overall inflation rate.

• Don’t forget the propane: Here’s where you’ll really feel the heat. Propane priced around 90 cents per litre last year now retails for $1.28 per litre, according to Statistics Canada. 

Bottom line: One estimate pegged the cost of hosting a Canada Day BBQ for 16 (eight adults and eight kids) at $302 this year—up from $257 in 2021. 

Grounded: Air Canada has cancelled 154 flights every day (~15% of its schedule) for July and August, mostly affecting routes to-and-from Toronto and Montreal, in order to alleviate “unprecedented strains” on the industry.

Tick tock, TikTok: A leader of the US communications regulator asked Apple and Google to boot TikTok from their app stores, claiming it is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” being used as a surveillance and data-scraping tool by the Chinese government.

Litigious language: A Quebec group is challenging Mary Simon’s appointment as Governor-General in court, claiming it infringes on Charter rights that guarantee Canadians the ability to interact with federal institutions in both French and English.

I don’t like labels: Canada’s new regulations requiring warning labels for high levels of saturated fat, sugar, and sodium on the front of pre-packaged food will not cover ground meat after successful lobbying from Canadian cattle farmers.

Justin Trudeau announced Canada’s first NATO research centre will be located in Montreal—the Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence will, as the name suggests, address international security risks caused by climate change. 

Fireworks. They brighten our night skies, scare our pets, and capture a childlike wonder that can only be stirred by bright colours and loud noises. We love it when things go boom! 

As is the case with everything this year, making things go boom will be a bit pricier than usual as the cost for Canada’s favourite incendiary device soars. 

Catch up: Fireworks were invented in China around 200 BC and the country has had a stranglehold on the industry ever since, responsible for roughly 87% of the world’s fireworks and ~77% of Canada’s in 2020. 

• In 2019, the last year Canada Day celebrations were unimpeded by COVID restrictions, Canada imported over 8 million pounds of fireworks totalling more than $12 million dollars. 

Like any other item being shipped from China to North America, prices for fireworks have mimicked the item itself by going way up. Overall costs across the fireworks industry have rocketed over 35% this year according to American Pyrotechnics Association. 

• Supply chain disruptions and inflation has boosted the cost of everything including raw materials used in fireworks, transportation costs, and insurance premiums. 

Canada Day fireworks have been cancelled in some cities like Vancouver and Strathcona this year due to rising costs, not for the fireworks themselves, but for the proper safety and security to properly display them. 

Bottom line: Canadian cities have been using fireworks to celebrate Canada Day since 1981 and, despite some cancellations and rising prices, the tradition is alive and well with plenty of places to get your pyrotechnic kick this year across the country. 

at a traditional Canadian breakfast to start the day off right, which according to The Canada Guide consists of eggs, pork sausages or back bacon, fried potatoes, toasted bread, pancakes with syrup, and hot oatmeal. That sounds like a lot all at once, but we encourage you to go for it! Who cares if there’s not a green in sight? Use this recipe from Weekend at the Cottage as a starting point but feel free to remix it any way you like.   

Read the poetry of Canadian poet/philosopher Jan Zwicky who was just named a member of The Order of Canada. She received this prestigious honour for decades of work creating beautiful and intellectual poems inspired by the rhythms of jazz music and scenes of Canadian nature. Check out Zwicky’s books at your local library or on Indigo’s website and listen to this clip of her reciting some of her works.

Watch something that will give you the experience of being up at the cottage even if you’re not able to be there this weekend. Our recommendation: “The Lake”. Amazon Prime’s first-ever scripted Canadian series is a comedy that takes place in the heart of Ontario cottage country focused on a recently-divorced gay man trying to reconnect with the daughter he gave up for adoption, all while fighting to take control of the family’s cottage which was bequeathed to his evil step-sister. It’s funny, touching, and extremely Canadian. 

Listen to the best new music Canada has to offer with the Polaris Music Prize Spotify playlist featuring songs by the 40 bands and artists longlisted for the 2022 edition of Canada’s most prestigious music award (besides the Junos, we suppose). It features big names like The Weeknd and Arcade Fire, past winners Tanya Tagaq and Backxwash, and exciting up-and-comers like Luna Li and Charlotte Day Wilson. Canada’s music scene might be more exciting than ever and this is the perfect primer to catch up on what going on in the North that’s not just Drake and JB. 

If you’ve been reading The Peak at all the past few months (and we know you have!) you’re aware that Canada’s international airports are places you should avoid visiting unless you really have to. But if you want to stay in-province for your getaway, you’ll still have to pay. Especially if you’re planning to go to cottage country. 

What happened: Cottage rentals are both more expensive and harder to come by this summer as people shirk international travel for the simple comforts of lake life. 

Airbnb has seen demand for so-called “leisure stays” within Canada increase significantly since the pandemic with non-urban nightly bookings up ~45% at the end of last year compared to the end of 2019.

• People are staying for longer too, with the average length of stay increasing by 15% since 2019. 

The Muskokas, Canada’s premier cottage country have seen prices go through the roof, with “entry-level” rental prices starting at $2,500 for a week on average, all the way up to $20,000 a week for “luxury” cottages, Troy Austen of Haliburton Cottage Rentals told The Globe and Mail.  Over a thousand dollars a week is par for the course for other cottage areas in BC and the Maritimes, too. 

• To put that in perspective, for the price of a week’s stay at an entry-level cottage in Muskoka, you could fly a round trip on Air Canada to London, England and still have money left over for plenty of fish and chips.

Bottom line: There are still deals to be found if you do enough scouring, but they’re going pretty quickly. Our recommendation: get really close with that one friend you know whose family owns a cottage and try and snag an invite. 

⚾️ 93.6%. Accuracy of MLB umpires this season in calling balls and strikes according to data from Umpire Scorecards—apparently, that’s not good enough as MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced the league intends to introduce some robo-umps in 2024. 

🏙 250. The number of employees IBM plans to hire at its newly announced Client Innovation Centre in Calgary which will provide consulting services to customers on technologies like 5G, AI, and the blockchain.

🍽 $700. The cost of lunch at Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant that ranks #1 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list—despite marking up the price of a beetroot by 10000%, the eatery lost money in 2021 for the first time since 2017.  

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