Good morning. For more than five years, Canadians have been dealing with a brutal car-theft epidemic. In 2025, more than 47,000 vehicles were stolen, and insurance claims totalled more than $900-million. In focus today, we imagine how just one change could solve this – and more. Also, we catch up on why BHP’s new Jansen potash mine is an example of how to build big. But first, the latest news:

Space: Artemis II is about to break a record, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen is cheered on by fellow astronauts

Trade: While the U.S. accuses Canada of not doing enough to halt import goods made with forced labour, trade statistics and the U.S.’s recent enforcement record suggests Washington faces gaps of its own

Infrastructure: A broken CN Rail bridge over Vancouver’s harbour is sapping Canada’s ambition to be an energy superpower

Telecom: Quebecor’s Freedom Mobile is taking advantage of a federal policy that gives them access to rivals’ networks. That mandated access is set to run out in 2030

Hi, I’m Ethan Lou, the opinion editor for Report on Business.

Today I bring you the latest in our Prosperity’s Path series, which examines solutions for Canada’s economic challenges. This week’s edition is written by James Orr, the chief product and technology officer with Arizona-based ImportGenius.

What’s most galling about Canada’s car theft problem is that these vehicles are passing through our own sovereign ports, right under our noses. One of the first essays in this series notes that Canada is a global top-10 exporter of stolen cars.

Yet each one of those shipping containers has a manifest attached to it that includes the name and address of its exporter, consignee (importer) and carrier, as well as its weight, value, and a description of contents. No container is loaded onto a ship without this information, which the Canada Border Services Agency collects electronically and updates on a daily basis.

In the United States, manifest-level shipping data is used to uncover human trafficking, counterfeit and contaminated goods, sanctions evasion, and all other manner of nefarious activity. There, the data is updated and publicly released daily, allowing anyone to do their own investigative work.

Orr writes that if that data were publicly released in Canada, it would allow media, insurers and others to investigate vehicle theft quickly and independently, which would both assist and pressure law enforcement to act.

And there’s more.

A recent Globe investigation examined public manifest-level data from India to expose the magnitude and severity of the global trade in fentanyl precursor chemicals.

That’s done with India’s data. Imagine what we can do with our own.

Last November, Prime Minister Mark Carney set a goal of doubling Canada’s non-U.S. exports from $300-billion to $600-billion by 2035. As part of those efforts, the government is investing $5-billion in domestic trade corridors to ensure Canadian goods move more efficiently to and through Canadian ports.

Orr argues that open shipping data is a catalyst for increased international trade, and for improved business productivity and efficiency, which are all things that Canada desperately needs right now.

Kate Helmore, our intrepid food policy and agriculture reporter, wrote the past weekend about the $18-billion Jansen potash mine: the biggest investment in the history of Saskatchewan and in the history of the world’s largest mining company, Australian juggernaut BHP Group Ltd.

This is part of our Think Big series, w