The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Video)

Last spring, the Ontario government struck an expert panel on intellectual property to help figure out ways to get businesses to better capitalize on their innovations and inventions. That panel delivered its recommendations this month. One of the findings was that there's not enough understanding of this entrepreneurial opportunity. To help with that, The Agenda welcomes Myra Tawfik, a member of that expert panel and the EPICentre Professor of Intellectual Property Commercialization and Strategy at the University of Windsor's Faculty of Law

As the Conservative Party of Canada prepares to pick a new leader, it might also need to face hard choices between the party's ideology and seeking power. For their perspectives on who might be best prepared to navigate the party toward an agenda that Canadians can accept are Garnett Genuis, an Alberta Conservative MP; Sean Speer, professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy; Jamil Jivani, Ontario's Advocate for Community Opportunities; Ginny Roth, a former organizer for Ontario's PC Party; and Ben Woodfinden, doctoral student in political theory at McGill University.

Northwestern Ontario Hub reporter Jon Thompson discusses a program that helps newcomers train for work in the food industry, or open their own restaurants or catering businesses, while at the same time introducing their food and culture to the city.

The Agenda's week in review begins analyzing energy pricing in Ontario since the last election and before. We also had a discussion on paid sick day policy in this province and checked on the health of the family farm in Ontario.

Finalists for this year's Taylor Prize for non-fiction - Mark Bourrie, Robyn Doolittle, Jessica McDiarmid, Zia Tong, and Timothy C. Winegard - talk about what compelled them to write and what being nominated for this award adds to their work.

Governments collect taxes. They also give tax breaks, deductions, and credits. Ontario's Financial Accountability Office just released a report raising real concern that those tax breaks are growing more quickly than program spending. In fact, the FAO found that if that expense had its own line in the budget, it would overshadow most other spending categories. To discuss what this means for the province's finances The Agenda welcomes Sheila Block, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and Finn Poschmann, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

With concerns about spread of COVID-19, not to mention the regular flu season, medical professionals are calling on the Ontario government to restore the paid sick day policies it cancelled a year ago. The Agenda looks at the cost those days off have on public health and businesses.

Agriculture employs many fewer people in this province than it once did, but it remains a critical force, contributing billions every year to the provincial economy. And for those thousands of family farms dotting the countryside, it's serious business that's getting harder every year. To discuss what's happening to people making their living off the land, we talk to Keith Currie, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture; Maggie Van Camp, owner of Redcrest Farms and director of agriculture at the consulting firm BDO, in Guelph; and Crystal Mackay, CEO of Loft 32, a company specializing in communications for the agriculture sector.

There's a debate underway at Queen's Park over the welfare of animals on farms. The government says it's trying to protect farmers and animals from trespassers; the opposition thinks the bill is a so-called "ag gag," meaning it would prevent whistle-blowers from bringing attention to animal cruelty. To argue their respective sides, we welcome Ontario's Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs Ernie Hardeman and John Vanthof, the NDP's agriculture critic.

Ontario Power Generation has a big agenda for the next decade. A $12.8 billion Darlington nuclear plant refurbish. It will decommission the nuclear plant at Pickering some time this decade. It's moved into the gas-plant business, and has to find a place to bury its nuclear waste. We welcome the new president and CEO Ken Hartwick to discuss how the OPG plans to accomplish these important tasks.

It was one of the highest-profile promises that candidate Doug Ford made 21 months ago in the last Ontario election campaign: the commitment to reduce electricity prices for ratepayers by 12 per cent. We look at how close the Ontario government is to making good on that commitment with guests Green Party leader Mike Schreiner; Charles Keizer, co-head of the Infrastructure and Energy Practice and lead of the Energy Regulatory Team at Torys LLP; and Jean Cumming, a legal consultant with an interest in hydro issues.

Gross domestic product - or GDP, for short - measures the relative health of economies. That's often taken as an indicator of the well-being of a society as well. But some question what GDP can really tell anyone about how the citizens in that economy are doing. We ask Carol Graham, the Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being."

What are the consequences of endless economic expansion? To discuss the potential risks, we welcome Chris Ragan, director of McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy; Celine Bak, president of Analytica Advisors; Atif Kubursi, professor Emeritus of Economics at McMaster University; Peter Victor, author of "Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster;" and Sarah Kaplan, director at U of T's Institute for Gender and the Economy at Rotman School of Management.

Cutting phone plan rates by 25 per cent. Putting a cap on how much telecom companies can charge. Reliable high-speed internet for all. Those were some of the promises made during last year's federal election campaign. Journalist Jesse Hirsh explains why Canadian cell phone bills are so much higher than those in other countries, and what can be done about it.

This week, Ontario Liberal leadership candidates debated the issues in a round table with Steve Paikin. We also discussed the Wet'suwet'en pipeline protests and their effects around the country. And learned about why the coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread so fast, and what more can be done to contain it.