Tara Deschamps

Tara Deschamps is a business reporter with The Canadian Press who covers how technology reshapes retail, finance and the wider business landscape, with an emphasis on concrete business outcomes. Her beat centres on tech and retail, including artificial intelligence, digital platforms, real estate and cannabis, treated as parts of a single, connected economy. She consistently looks at who is helped or harmed by these shifts, focusing on workers, investors and underrepresented groups rather than on product alone.

Retail and Brand Transformations

Deschamps regularly reports on the fortunes of major retail brands, tracking earnings swings, guidance changes and market reaction at prominent apparel and lifestyle companies. Her coverage of a recent profit drop and downgraded outlook at a global athletic-wear retailer combined financial performance with commentary from analysts on shifting consumer demand and competitive pressure.

She follows long-running retail stories through restructurings and closures, documenting how a historic department store chain’s creditor protection and subsequent shutdown left dozens of properties in limbo and only a minority with new tenants identified.

In that work, she uses data on store counts and leasing outcomes to show how brand collapses ripple through landlords, local economies and competing retailers. She also turns to retail construction trends, reporting that the amount of space under development in major markets has fallen to a decade low and exploring how that shortage complicates expansion plans for chains seeking new locations. Her coverage of restaurant franchising includes deal-focused stories such as the acquisition of ramen chain rights by a large franchisor, situating the transaction in broader efforts to grow portfolios and reach new customers.

She brings historical context to brand revivals and nostalgia plays, as in a feature tracing nearly a century of openings, closures and relaunches at a discount department store chain and what those cycles reveal about changing retail strategy.

Technology Platforms, Finance and Regulation

Technology’s integration into financial services is a core thread in Deschamps’ reporting, particularly where new features alter how people invest or understand markets. In a recent story on Wealthsimple’s partnership with social media platform X, she explains how in-app links from stock tags to performance pages could expand the firm’s reach while raising questions about investor risk and impulse trading. Her earlier coverage of the company has included workforce angles, such as a report on layoffs affecting more than a tenth of staff and the role of market conditions in the firm’s restructuring plans.

She follows enforcement actions in the crypto sector, detailing record penalties imposed by the financial intelligence regulator on firms that failed to register properly or flag suspicious transactions, and noting links to sanctioned jurisdictions.

In companion pieces, she reports on crypto exchanges being fined for inadequate monitoring, using those cases to show how compliance expectations are tightening around digital assets. Artificial intelligence appears in her business beat through governance and investor pressure, including stories on shareholder proposals pushing banks, retailers and other companies to commit to responsible AI use. She also covers macroeconomic and policy contexts such as central bank decisions shaped by trade uncertainty, and business-group warnings about the costs of poorly structured trade deals and tariffs.

Diversity, Labour and the Tech-Driven Economy

Deschamps’ work frequently brings labour and inclusion into business and technology coverage, reflecting priorities she has described for her beat. She has said she often focuses on the gig economy, labour dynamics, women in tech and business, and diverse groups, examining how they are helped or harmed by technological change. That perspective shows up in reporting on representation in capital markets, such as coverage of a study finding women and visible minorities gaining ground in venture capital and private equity while still facing significant gaps.

In those stories, she combines data with interviews from industry leaders to underline both progress and persistent barriers. Across her labour-focused work, she treats workforce experiences and equity as central business questions rather than side issues, placing them alongside earnings, strategy and regulatory developments.

Trade, Defence and Wider Economic Pressures

Beyond company-level news, Deschamps reports on the broader economic forces shaping corporate decisions, including trade policy and defence spending. Her coverage of tariffs has featured interviews with former central bankers who frame certain levies as among the most destructive policy choices for global income over the coming decade. She has written on business groups arguing that no trade deal is preferable to a bad one, capturing how executives weigh political risk against market access. In monetary policy reporting, she has examined central bank meeting summaries that adopt a wait-and-see stance on interest rates in light of shifting trade conditions, highlighting the layers of uncertainty policy-makers face.

Her defence-industry stories look at companies calling for more government and investor support, linking procurement, innovation and capital access to the viability of firms in that sector.

Across these strands, Deschamps uses a mix of breaking news, explanatory pieces and longer analytical features to show how technology, retail and regulation intersect at the business level. Her consistent focus on tangible impacts, combined with attention to labour and diversity, makes her coverage distinct from more narrowly product-focused tech reporting.