GOVERNMENT FUNDING & NEWS

Canada’s “outdated” capital gains policies are driving away entrepreneurs and investors

The Government of Canada needs to update Canada’s “outdated” capital gains policies that are driving away entrepreneurs and investors, says Matt Cohen (photo at right), founder of Toronto-based Ripple Ventures.

Canada has just 33 small businesses per 1,000 people versus 124 in the U.S., he said in a commentary posted on Build Canada

In the 20 years between 2003 and 2023, the total number of Canadian entrepreneurs decreased by approximately 100,000, despite the population

 growing by 10 million, Cohen said. “The country’s best talent is driven to leave and start businesses elsewhere, where they can find easier access to funding and keep more of the upside if they succeed.”

In recent years, entrepreneurship and consequently private sector employment have been slow despite an increasing population, he noted.

One factor driving this change is that Canada’s capital gains tax policies make it significantly less rewarding to start a business compared to other jurisdictions, he said.

“To reverse this trend and reinvigorate our private sector, we must revise our outdated policies to align with global standards.”

Canada should increase the number of small and medium-sized business per 1,000 people over the age of 18 from 33 to 62 to get half of the U.S. rate of 124, he said.

The U.S. Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) policy has a capital gains cap of $15 million or 10 times the original investment amount, five times higher than Canada’s Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption and proposed Canadian Entrepreneur’s Incentive, which has yet to be implemented, Cohen said.

Early-stage U.S. investors are currently increasing their investments into new Canadian businesses, and adding in clauses that would require the Canadian business to reincorporate in the U.S. simply to become eligible for QSBS, he said.

Beyond better gain caps and exclusion rates, the  QSBS allows a wider range of businesses and stakeholders to benefit from the policy, with no minimum ownership requirements, increased asset value caps, and a tiered inclusion rate approach that incentivizes long-term business building, he added.

While Canada’s Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE) and CEI’s $3.25-million cap apply over a taxpayer’s entire lifetime, QSBS’s limits are per issuer or business, Cohen said. “In other words, entrepreneurs, early employees, and investors can use the QSBS more favourable policy again and again for subsequent companies.”

This discourages repeat entrepreneurs in Canada, who statistically have a higher chance of building successful businesses, from creating a second or third company, as Canada’s LCGE and CEI don’t extend to new issuers, he said.

“This means the best Canadian entrepreneurs and companies are leaving the country simply to take advantage of these rules,” Cohen said.

Canada’s CEI also excludes companies in healthcare, food and beverage, and service businesses, he noted. CEI’s minimum ownership rules also exclude early employees and investors who own less than five percent of the business at the time of sale.

Cohen recommended that Canada:

• increase the number of early-stage financing rounds (Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, and Series B) for new businesses from 482 in 2024 to over 1000+ per year.
• increase investments in new businesses through industry-agnostic venture capital financing to 0.5 percent of GDP, up from 0.35 percent of GDP, to get closer to the U.S. figure of 0.72 percent of GDP.
• raise the capital gain exclusion cap to $15 million gain or 10 times the adjusted cost basis per taxpayer, whichever is greater.
• expand the eligibility requirements to ensure Canadian entrepreneurs and risk takers are supported. 
• make structural changes to ensure these new policies scale appropriately. This includes amending the capital gains limit from applying per lifetime to per business to incentivize repeat entrepreneurs to continue building in Canada. Ensure there are no major discrepancies for startups choosing to operate in Canada compared to the U.S.

Maintaining Canadian incorporation, assets, residency and operating requirements, combined with a minimum two-year waiting period before benefits kick in, will ensure that new businesses maintain a presence in Canada, “creating skilled job opportunities for Canadians and contributing to local economic growth,” Cohen said. Build Canada

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Government of Ontario unveils new long-term funding model to provide an additional $6.4 billion to the postsecondary sector

The Government of Ontario announced a new long-term funding model that will provide an additional $6.4 billion to the postsecondary sector over four years.

The model also will raise annual operating funding to $7 billion, a 30-percent increase and the highest level in the province’s history.

The new model also will fund 70,000 more in-demand seats, while better meeting the needs of small, rural, northern, French-language and Indigenous Institutes.

In addition, the government is ending its freeze on postsecondary tuition. Ontario will allow publicly assisted colleges and universities to raise tuition by up to two percent per year for three years, then up to two percent or the three-year average rate of inflation, whichever is less, in the following years.

On average, this change will result in an additional cost of 18 cents per day for college students and 47 cents per day for university students, the government said. Low-income students will have this cost absorbed through an enhanced Student Access Guarantee.

Under the new funding model, base per-student funding at colleges and universities will increase by six percent for full-time students and 30 percent for college part-time students.

The government is also streamlining over 400 transfer payment agreements into 45, five-year Strategic Mandate Agreements with colleges and universities, saving institutions time and money.

To strengthen the long-term sustainability of the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) and bring it in line with other provinces, Ontario students will be eligible to receive a maximum of 25 percent of their OSAP funding as grants and a minimum of 75 percent of their funding as loans.

OSAP will no longer offer grants to students at private career colleges, in alignment with changes made by the federal government to its own student support funding.

The Ontario government noted that federal changes have significantly reduced international student revenues and the province is also facing increased domestic demand for higher-cost programs and a financial aid program that is dramatically out of line with other jurisdictions.

“Postsecondary education is one of Ontario’s most important long-term investments – and [this new funding model] helps ensure that investment remains strong, responsible and sustainable for years to come,” Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance, said in a statement.

“[The] announcement of $6.4 billion is a game changer for the economic future of Ontario,” said Maureen Adamson, president and CEO of Colleges Ontario. “By strengthening Ontario’s colleges, the province has taken a significant step that will power economic growth through a dynamic, skilled workforce in Ontario.”

Steve Orsini, president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities said the funding announcement “comes at a critical time and will help ensure Ontario’s universities continue to protect and grow the province by delivering the talent and innovation needed to remain competitive and position Ontario for the future.”

“This historic investment will contribute to Indigenous learners having equitable access to Indigenous-led, quality postsecondary education and training that is grounded in Indigenous culture, language and knowledge,” said Lorrie Deschamps, chair, Indigenous Institutes Consortium and president, Oshki-Pimache-O-Win: The Wenjack Education Institute. 

"This announcement reflects a priority the Ontario Chamber has championed: if we want a more competitive, self-reliant Ontario, we have to skill up and scale up. That means preparing more people for in-demand careers, and strengthening the programs that power our key sectors. This is an investment in Ontario's productivity and long-term prosperity,” said Daniel Tisch, president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. Govt. of Ontario

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Federal Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said universities and colleges struggling to balance the books after federal cuts to the international student program will have to turn to their provincial governments for financial help. She told a Halifax Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the post-pandemic immigration boom helped employers struggling to find labour, but it also put unsustainable pressure on the health care system, housing and other services. Now, she said, the government is looking for a better balance and part of that is curbing the number of international students. The number of foreign students in Canada dropped from over 1 million at the beginning of 2024 to about 700,000 by November 2025, Diab said. “We are on a path to stability and predictability which is what we promised the sector we [would] do and we will honour that in 2026 and 2027 to ensure that they do well. With respect to financial [support] and so on, I would direct them to contact the provinces,” she told reporters. She said Canada will issue about 408,000 study permits next year, which should result in further reductions as the current crop of international students graduate. Diab said the federal government wants the number of non-permanent residents in the country, a group that includes international students as well as temporary foreign workers, to fall below five percent of the total population. The figures stood at 6.8 percent at the end of October last year, she said, down from 7.6 per cent a year earlier. The Canadian Press

The Government of Quebec is providing nearly $269 million for the expansion of Polytechnique Montréal, which the government said will begin this spring. Polytechnique's financial contribution is $86.5 million. A contribution of $900,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation completes the financing package. The project, valued at a total of $356.2 million, includes:

• Polytechnique's acquisition of half of the J.-Armand-Bombardier pavilion, which belonged to the University of Montreal, to become its sole owner (officially announced in June 2024).
• the expansion of the pavilion, with a new wing and an underground link to the main pavilion.
• the renovation of the spaces vacated by the University of Montreal in the pavilion.
• the modernization of a significant portion of the rear of the main pavilion.
• the redevelopment and greening of outdoor spaces between the pavilions and in the rear part of the campus.

The project, scheduled for completion in 2031, will help meet the significant increase in research activity at Polytechnique Montréal, the government said. “Ultimately, more engineers, researchers, and teachers will be trained here.” The number of students attending Polytechnique has increased from 7,800 in 2016 to nearly 10,400 in 2025. Govt. of Quebec

The Government of Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) launched the Institute of Skilled Trades (IST) to provide students and apprentices with modern training and equipment to develop the skills employers need – today and in the future. The new institute will be supported by a five-year, $25-million investment for new innovative equipment and tools to enhance classrooms, training and workshops across the province – allowing students and apprentices to better prepare for the latest job-site practices and emerging technologies. The IST and skilled trades training at NSCC will now be guided by an industry-led council that will help modernize and strengthen programming. The council’s focus is on improving training quality, transforming learning environments and supporting more graduates and apprentices to meaningful, in-demand careers. The IST will support training across construction, industrial and manufacturing, motive power and service trades. Initial trade and program reviews began in January. Additional reviews are scheduled for priority programming throughout 2026. Govt. of Nova Scotia

The Government of Ontario is investing $30 million to expand the province’s primary care health care workforce. This new funding will upskill over 1,400 registered nurses for primary care, create 170 primary care nurse practitioner education seats and add up to 150 physician assistant education seats, as part of the government’s $2.1 billion Primary Care Action Plan to connect everyone in Ontario to primary care by 2029. To support the recruitment and retention of nurses in primary care, the Ontario government is investing over $4.5 million for a new, innovative program that will help over 1,400 registered nurses gain skills and experience in primary care, including:

• chronic disease management
• cancer screening
• maternal and child care
• immunizations

Launching this year, the program will be delivered in partnership with Conestoga College, Lakehead University, Trent University and Western University to equip registered nurses with the skills they need to immediately work in a primary care setting. The Ontario government is also investing $8.5 million to add up to 170 new primary care nurse practitioner education seats starting this year. Nursing schools implementing these new seats include Lakehead University, Laurentian University, McMaster University, University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Toronto, University of Windsor, Western University and York University. In addition, starting in 2026-27, the government is investing a further $16 million to add up to 150 new physician assistant education seats at Ontario universities. Physician assistants help reduce wait times and improve patient access to primary care services across Ontario. Govt. of Ontario

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Canada’s new AI strategy is off to a bad start

OPINION

By Blair Attard-Frost

 Blair Attard-Frost is an assistant professor of political science at University of Alberta and a fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). This op-ed first appeared here in BetaKit.

If Canada is trying to build public trust in AI, why is the country’s recent AI strategy consultation an untrustworthy mystery box?

In October 2025, Canada’s AI and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon launched a 30-day, whirlwind public consultation on a renewed national AI strategy. As part of this consultation, Solomon sought public input on the new AI strategy through an online survey, while also establishing an AI task force composed of 28 experts who were asked to prepare reports on a variety of AI policy issues.

Noting the short timeline and restrictive format of the consultation process, legal scholar Teresa Scassa referred to the process as a “mad rush to a largely predetermined conclusion.”

The consultation format was widely criticized for its prioritization of business interests, its lack of attention to human rights and labour concerns related to AI, and its disregard for deliberative public dialogue: the short, 30-day time window and specialized knowledge required to meaningfully answer many of the survey questions posed barriers to public participation. 

In response, over 150 individuals and organizations signed an open letter urging Solomon to extend the consultation timeline, reconstitute the AI task force into a more equitable structure, and re-write the survey to better represent the concerns of a broader range of stakeholders.

Several signatories to the open letter have since organized a grassroots consultation process that is grounded in stronger public engagement methods, entitled “The People’s Consultation on AI.”

Last week, findings from the government’s consultation were published in the form of a high-level summary of over 11,000 public submissions and 32 reports from AI task force members. According to the summary report, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) integrated four large language models (LLMs) – Cohere Command A, OpenAI GPT-5 nano, Anthropic Claude Haiku, and Google Gemini Flash – into what it calls an “internal classification pipeline.” This pipeline was used to automate analysis of topics and sentiments expressed in the public submissions and the task force reports. 

ISED notes that human reviewers “validated and refined the AI-generated analyses, ensuring accuracy and comprehensive representation of all perspectives.”

Additionally, some of the summary report’s text is AI-generated: ISED states that “outputs of that pipeline were used in drafting this report, with elements paraphrased or taken directly, because of the capability of the pipeline to provide high-level, public language summaries of the inputs.”

If it was subjected to a scientific peer review process, ISED’s methodology would be severely scrutinized.

Canadians already have low levels of trust in AI, and one of the pillars of Solomon’s new AI strategy is to build public trust. The methodology used to analyze the consultation data and create the summary report is counterproductive to that goal.

It is unclear what prompts, data flows, classification criteria and thresholds were involved in the analysis process. It is unclear what human-review procedures and validation methods were used to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and integrity in the analytics pipeline and its outputs. It is unclear why four models were necessary for this analysis instead of one or two.

Many data protection features of the pipeline are also unclear. In the summary report, ISED states that over 64,400 responses were captured from across the 26 questions included in the consultation survey, but ISED does not specify if any measures were taken to screen responses for personally identifiable information or sensitive business information.

Respondent names have been removed from the dataset of public responses, but the dataset still contains respondent demographic data, descriptions of respondents’ jobs and employers, and personal anecdotes that could be used to infer personal identities or business information. 

Respondents were not given an opportunity to opt out of having their data processed by LLMs, and ISED does not specify if any respondent data was used to train or fine-tune any LLMs.

Despite ISED’s claim that its pipeline demonstrates “responsible, Canadian-centred AI adoption,” three of the four LLMs used in the analytics pipeline were developed by U.S. tech companies: Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Was any personal data or business data transferred to foreign jurisdictions at any point during data collection and analysis? Was Canadian privacy, security or sovereignty put at risk as a result of this analysis process?

ISED states only that its analytics pipeline is an “internal” pipeline, but offers no further clarity on the data architecture of the pipeline.

In addition to the methodology, the content of the summary is also limited in its transparency and reliability. The summary is packed with hundreds of vague action items surfaced from across the survey responses and Task Force reports, but lacks a clear discussion of implementation priorities.

At times, the summary highlights the importance of upholding privacy, safety, democracy, environmental sustainability and Indigenous sovereignty through robust regulation and thoughtful governance frameworks. At other times, it highlights the importance of speedy AI adoption, rapid economic growth and “streamlining regulatory frameworks to accelerate infrastructure development.”

These are conflicting recommendations that reflect sharply different visions for the future of AI and the future of Canada. 

It is not clear from the summary how frequently these kinds of conflicting sentiments were expressed relative to one another. ISED offers no indication of how it might weigh or act upon these kinds of divergent stakeholder preferences and policy tradeoffs. Instead, the summary flattens nuance and political complexity into a false consensus.

The use of LLMs in authoring the summary is cause for further concern. ISED notes that text outputs from its analytics pipeline were used to draft the summary, but does not specify how much or what parts of the summary are direct text outputs from LLMs.

Nor does ISED specify the procedures through which text outputs were verified by human reviewers. These gaps undermine the summary’s informational integrity and trustworthiness.

Large-scale public consultations with thousands of respondents certainly do face time and resource constraints; there is a role for automation here if it is used rigorously and responsibly.

Automated analysis of sentiments and topics is common in qualitative research, and best practices and principles for achieving a trustworthy analysis are well-established: methodological transparency, independent verifiability and traceability of data are key drivers of trustworthiness. Sacrificing transparency on the altar of agility is not a winning strategy for building trust.

Between the flawed consultation format and the opaque LLM daisy-chain used to generate a report on the consultation, Canada’s new AI strategy is off to a bad start. Minister Solomon may find it difficult to accomplish his goal of courting public trust with a strategy that is founded upon black box decision making.

Trust will not be built from a mystery box of made-in-U.S.A. big tech LLMs–trust-building must begin with government transparency and meaningful public engagement. BetaKit

The Government of Alberta is investing $28 million to support six projects, through Emissions Reduction Alberta’s Industrial Transformation Challenge, using technologies that will help energy companies save money, reduce environmental impacts and stay globally competitive. These six projects span the province’s energy sector and economy. For example, with provincial funding, Suffield will test a new technology that makes carbon capture pipelines even more secure, while a first-of-its-kind technology will turn farm waste from cattle into natural gas in Coaldale. In Calgary, new technology will help companies get more energy out of existing wells, keeping energy affordable and supporting jobs. In Yellowhead County, another project will reduce emissions from natural gas operations. In Leduc, advanced cleanup technology will restore old oil and gas sites so the land can be used again, while a project in Edmonton will help cattle produce less methane, lowering agricultural emissions and keeping Alberta’s food sector competitive. Govt. of Alberta

The Canada Water Agency announced an investment of over $1 million in six new projects focused on protecting and restoring the health of the Mackenzie River. These projects are funded through the Canada Water Agency’s Mackenzie River Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative, a part of Canada’s strengthened Freshwater Action Plan. The projects address key priorities that have been shaped through the ongoing collaboration with the Mackenzie River Basin Board, and through dialogue with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners. Canada Water Agency

In collaboration with the Government of Québec and Québec International, the federally funded Montreal-based Scale AI global innovation cluster will fund innovative artificial intelligence projects across the Zone économique métropolitaine (ZEM) in the Québec City region, with the goal of accelerating AI adoption and the commercialization of technological solutions for the benefit of regional stakeholders. This initiative will make it possible to support a growing number of consortia of local organizations in the design and implementation of AI projects with strong economic potential for the region, Scale AI said. These projects aim to improve productivity, strengthen competitiveness and accelerate the sustainable growth of local businesses in the priority sectors identified in the ZEM’s 2025-2029 action plan. This additional support for projects, made possible through a contribution of more than $4.3 million from the Quebec government, represents a strategic lever to strengthen the regional economy through AI solutions designed, developed and deployed locally, Scale AI said. As part of the initiative, Scale AI will play a central role in the selection, structuring and funding of high-impact artificial intelligence projects. Leveraging its expertise, the cluster will support organizations in identifying priority use cases, defining clear performance indicators, and implementing collaborative projects that bring together adopters and solution providers. An additional $252,000 has been entrusted to Québec International by the Quebec government to support the project selection process and carry out complementary promotional activities. Scale AI

The Government of Ontario announced that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) signed a partnership agreement with the Municipality of Port Hope to build the world’s largest nuclear power station at the Wesleyville site on Lake Ontario in Port Hope, Ont. With electricity demand in Ontario set to increase by up to 90 percent on the high side, meeting this growing demand is crucial to avoiding potential future electricity disruptions such as brownouts or blackouts seen in other jurisdictions, the government said. Early assessments show the Wesleyville site alone could support up to 10,000 megawatts of new nuclear generation – enough to power the equivalent of 10 million homes. The Wesleyville site, which is maintained by OPG, is located near existing transmission, road and railway infrastructure, and is already zoned for new electricity generation. On January 12, 2026, OPG submitted its Initial Project Description to the federal Impact Assessment Agency for approval. OPG and Port Hope will work together throughout the impact assessment phase and any additional regulatory approvals and licensing processes. OPG will also continue to engage with Indigenous communities through separate agreements during the project planning and assessment process. Govt. of Ontario

The Atlantic Opportunities Agency (ACOA) announced a federal investment of $997,000 through ACOA’s Regional Defence Investment Initiative to support Fredericton, N.B-based Vimy Forge Corp., as it launches a new innovation accelerator program for Canadian defence-sector small and medium-sized enterprises. The goal of this accelerator program is to contribute toward a more integrated, resilient and future-ready national defence innovation framework. The first cohort of early-stage companies will benefit from hands-on mentorship and targeted training, as well as opportunities to engage with industry leaders, government partners and potential customers. Vimy Forge aims to accelerate early-stage Canadian firms, build sovereign capability in critical technology domains, and generate measurable outcomes in adoption, scale and export readiness. The 10 companies selected for the inaugural cohort represent a diverse range of defence related technologies and capabilities. They include two companies from New Brunswick: Seafarer AI (Saint John) and Vartis Space (Fredericton); four from Ontario: Engineering Design Lab and Wuxly (Toronto), Tehama (Ottawa), and Xubin Aerospace (Oakville); two firms from British Columbia: Prodigy Intelligence (Surrey) and Cellula Robotics (Burnaby); and two from Quebec: 123 Cyber (Montreal) and Bloomsco (Montreal). Atlantic Canada is home to more than 200 firms in the defence industry and nearly 10,000 direct aerospace and defence jobs, representing 20 percent of national defence industry employment. ACOA

The Government of British Columbia is supporting a private-sector-led proposal to the Government of Canada to put forward Vancouver as the preferred home for the new international headquarters of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB). The DSRB is a newly created multilateral institution focused on financing defence, security and resilience projects for NATO members and allied nations. As countries around the world increase investments to secure borders and meet their geopolitical commitments, the DSRB is intended to help address financing challenges facing governments and industry. Once fully established, the bank is expected to include up to 40 member countries and play a central role in supporting global security. Early estimates indicate that locating the DSRB headquarters in Vancouver could create approximately 3,500 high-paying jobs in defence finance, international operations and specialized research and analysis, the B.C. government said. The Vancouver bid is being led by the Pacific Security Bank Bid Committee, which includes prominent local business leaders. The DSRB is expected to be fully established by the end of 2026 and is anticipated to include up to 40 member countries. Govt. of B.C.

The City of Ottawa and City of Gatineau announced the launch of a new task force aimed at turning the country’s capital region into a defence innovation hub. The task force includes 33 defence decision-makers, investors, innovators, industry leaders, veterans and policy experts from both sides of the Ottawa river. Members include Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Gatineau Mayor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, retired Canadian Armed Forces general Rick Hillier, Glenn Cowan, founder and managing partner of defence tech venture capital platform One9, and Hamid Arabzadeh, co-founder and CEO of chipmaker Ranovus, among others. The task force aims to mobilize Ottawa and Gatineau’s defence, diplomatic and technological strengths in verticals like aerospace and cybersecurity to help Canada and its allies achieve their defence goals while also gunning to draw new business and investment to the region. The task force also will lead Ottawa-Gatineau’s bid to host the headquarters of the proposed North Atlantic Treaty Organization Defence Security Resiliency Bank, a Defence Innovation Secure Hub, and a sovereign compound semiconductor fabrication facility. BetaKit

The Government of Ontario declared the Barrie-to-Sudbury new single-circuit, 500-kilovolt electricity transmission line as a priority project and designated Hydro One to develop and construct it. The line will run approximately 290 kilometres from the Essa Transformer Station near Barrie to the Hanmer Transformer Station in Sudbury. The Barrie-to- Sudbury line, expected to be in-service in 2032, will create capacity to deliver up to 1,500 megawatts (MW) to the north and 1,000 MW to the south. The line will support mining sector development and reshoring Ontario’s domestic supply chains. This transmission project will provide significant partnership and participation opportunities for Indigenous communities, helping to advance economic reconciliation. The Ontario government and Hydro One have also committed to leveraging the Canadian and Ontario supply chain, building on Hydro One’s successful track record that saw 93 percent of its $2.9 billion-spend in 2024 going to companies based in Canada. Northern Ontario faces a significant transmission bottleneck because its electricity grid was originally designed to serve small, widely dispersed communities and resource-based industries, not the growing demand from mining expansion, electrification and new industrial projects. With energy demand in the north alone expected to increase 81 percent by 2050, and recent reports predicting 41 potential new mines projected by 2033, the Independent Electricity System Operator’s Northern Ontario Bulk Study identified a bottleneck between northern and southern Ontario. Govt. of Ontario

The Government of Canada said a national digital service to send prescriptions from doctors’ offices to pharmacies – costing more than $250 million since its inception – has been shut down because the program failed to replace fax machines and provinces and territories would not share the cost of running it. Canada Health Infoway, a non-profit funded by the government that has run the service PrescribeIT since 2017, announced the program would shut down on May 29, 2026. The government said the program would be replaced by a “national e-prescribing standard” that it hoped health technology companies would adopt. Although thousands of pharmacies and doctor’s offices across the country had signed up with PrescribeIT, few were using it. The government estimated that less than five percent of prescriptions were sent through PrescribeIT. Most are still sent by fax or on paper. The Globe and Mail had reported that Canada Health Infoway had tried to find a private company to take over the service in recent months. But that process was not finished before the non-profit’s board – made up largely of federal, provincial and territorial government representatives – moved to cancel the program altogether. The service had largely been funded by the federal government. Canada Health Infoway’s public records suggest PrescribeIT’s annual costs were $35 million in recent years, adding up to more than $250 million since 2017. Some of those funds went to TELUS Corp. subsidiary TELUS Health, which was the main developer of PrescribeIT. TELUS retains ownership of much of the intellectual property of PrescribeIT. The Globe and Mail

The Government of Canada in 2024-2025 transferred more than $521.1 billion to provinces and territories through the Canada Health Transfer, to support them in delivering publicly funded care, according to the government’s 2024-2025 Canada Health Act Annual Report. In 2024-2025, $1.05 billion was reciprocally paid by provinces and territories, excluding Quebec, for insured hospital and physician services provided to residents outside their home jurisdiction, through reciprocal billing agreements in place between the provinces and territories. In March 2025, more than $62.2 million in Canada Health Transfer deductions were levied to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Yukon as a result of patient charges for medically necessary services. Based on actions taken to ensure patients don’t face charges for medically necessary services, in March 2025, more than $51.9 million was reimbursed to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. More than $226.9 million has been reimbursed to the provinces since 2018. In  2025-26, provinces and territories will receive $54.7 billion through the Canada Health Transfer (CHT), an increase of five percent over the 2024-25 transfer of $52.1 billion. By 2026-27, the CHT is set to grow by an additional five percent to over $57 billion. Health Canada

The Government of Canada in late 2022 asked the private sector for candid feedback on the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) ahead of a regular legislative review of the Crown corporation. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance, an economic policy think tank, was commissioned by the government to “assess BDC’s role in financing Canadian growth-oriented firms and document anticipated developments in Canada’s private financing markets over the 2022 to 2032 period.” The resulting report compiled pointed critiques and suggestions from 25 Canadian venture capital and private equity investors about BDC’s role in the market. But the feedback in this report wasn’t included in BDC’s official Legislative Review – other than small citations in footnotes throughout. Three years later, investors originally interviewed in 2023 say the problems outlined in the report persist, as the VC industry grapples with tough economic conditions and record fundraising lows. BetaKit

U.S. President Donald Trump called Canada “among the worst in the World to deal with” as the U.S. House of Representatives voted against his tariffs on Canada – a largely symbolic move that shows some wavering Republican support for the president’s massive trade agenda. “Canada has taken advantage of the United States on Trade for many years. They are among the worst in the World to deal with, especially as it relates to our Northern Border,” Trump posted on social media as results of the vote became clear. “TARIFFS make a WIN for us, EASY. Republicans must keep it that way!” Six Republicans joined Democrats in a bipartisan push against Trump’s so-called fentanyl emergency at the U.S.-Canada border, which the president used as justification for economywide tariffs against Canada last year. While the motion passed, it did not get the two-thirds majority it would need to become veto-proof. When it lands on Trump’s desk, it is expected to be shut down. Global News

The Donald Trump administration repealed a 2009 scientific finding that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and welfare, undercutting the legal basis for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate rules. It means GHGs from sources like industrial facilities, power plants and vehicles will no longer be regulated by the federal government. The administration's action formally revokes what is known as the "endangerment finding," which provides the legal and scientific underpinning for the federal government to regulate the emission of GHGs like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. Environmentalists have condemned the move as a dangerous setback for the planet and human health. Dr. Gretchen Goldman, CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists, called it "an obvious example of what happens when a corrupt administration and fossil fuel interests are allowed to run amok." For the past 17 years, the federal government has regulated those emissions to attack the problem of climate change and help reduce associated risks from things like worsening heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods. The Trump administration argues that the endangerment finding is unnecessarily expensive and impedes American energy dominance. Legal experts noted the 2009 endangerment finding is supported by long-standing science and years of federal court rulings. The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that greenhouse gases are air pollutants subject to Clean Air Act regulation.  That backdrop makes the Trump administration vulnerable to protracted litigation over whether it can legally erase the government's own scientific and statutory conclusions. CBC News

RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

TIME published its inaugural World’s Top Universities ranking, which includes several Canadian universities. The ranking includes universities that are at least three years old, have more than 2,000 students enrolled, and offer bachelor’s degree programs. These institutions were scored according to metrics in the areas of academic capacity and performance, innovation and economic impact, and global engagement. Five universities from Canada appeared in the top 100: University of Toronto (#26), University of British Columbia (#34), University of Alberta (#75), McMaster University (#92), and University of Calgary (#97).The top three universities were University of Oxford, Yale University, and Stanford University. TIME

NOSM University, Canada’s first independent medical university, received a $5-million gift from anonymous donors to advance Indigenous health equity. This gift will support the creation of the Circle for Indigenous Health Research and Innovation, housed within the Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity. Once established, the Circle will foster Indigenous-led, health- and wellbeing-focused work that emphasizes place, relationship and self-determination. The Circle will bring together Indigenous health organizations, Elders, community leaders, researchers, learners and faculty. Grounded in the priorities and strengths of Indigenous Peoples, the Circle will foster Indigenous-led work that responds to Northern realities and supports the conditions that sustain health and wellbeing. The work responds to longstanding calls for Indigenous leadership in health research, policy and medical education. NOSM University operates from two main campus locations: one at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and another at Laurentian University in Greater Sudbury. NOSM University

ResearchNB is providing $1.5 million, through the Priority Sector Development Fund, for five research projects in priority sectors. Four University of New Brunswick teams received funding for projects on oceans, forestry and health, with research that supports economic growth, system improvement and community wellbeing. The funded projects span a range of research with practical implications that can help shape programs, services and long-term planning, including ecosystem sustainability, health system transformation, housing stability and forestry management. Research NB

The University of Ottawa’s (uOttawa) Faculty of Medicine launched a hub focused on accelerating AI-driven health breakthroughs. The Ottawa Medical Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (OMARI), is a resource hub that will support AI implementation to expedite research discoveries, enhance education and support data-driven tools. OMARI will be led by Khaled El Emam, Canada Research Chair in Medical Artificial Intelligence, full professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, and senior scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute. As an entrepreneur, Eman has founded or co-founded eight companies involved with facilitating data management and data analytics, areas that are crucial in health care. The hub will focus on a variety of areas, including commercialization of innovations, building communities of practice for the co-creation of medical AI solutions, empowering medical innovators, and eliminating barriers to excellence in medical AI. uOttawa

Conscience, a Canadian non-profit dedicated to enabling drug discovery through collaboration for the advancement of accessible treatments, announced it is accepting applications for the second round of  its Developing Medicines through Open Science (DMOS) program. The program’s next round marks an important shift as it is expanding to fund clinical projects in addition to preclinical projects. The DMOS program aims to foster collaborations that will lead to the development of drug candidates in areas of unmet medical need, establish proof of concept for an open science path to drug development, and further translate innovations into affordable medicines, while generating economic activity and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada. The total funding available for the program is $15 million. Funds will be awarded to projects that focus on life-threatening or severely debilitating diseases that have demonstrated strong target validation and tractability to enable clinical proof of concept as well as projects that undertake either IND-enabling preclinical studies [animal studies] or human safety and efficacy studies. Interested applicants can learn more about the program and application process here. Conscience

Toronto-based Cohere is among 15 companies from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America that announced the launch of the Trusted Tech Alliance (TTA), a group of likeminded global technology providers coming together to work across borders, and based on a shared set of principles for a trusted technology stack – from connectivity, cloud infrastructure and semiconductors to software and AI. These principles are designed to ensure that, regardless of a supplier's nationality, companies in this Alliance will adhere to common commitments of transparency, security and data protection which build trust and pass on the benefits of technology to people across the globe. In defining the attributes for trusted technology and a set of operating principles to which signatories will adhere, TTA members are committing to work with governments and customers to ensure that the benefits of emerging technologies can accrue to broader public trust while driving job creation and economic growth. The Alliance’s commitments are voluntary. The inaugural signatories of the TTA are: Anthropic, AWS, Cassava Technologies, Cohere, Ericsson, Google Cloud, Hanwha, Jio Platforms, Microsoft, Nokia, Nscale, NTT, Rapidus, Saab, and SAP. Trusted Tech Alliance

Carolyn Rogers, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, warned that if AI investment stays concentrated in large companies, it risks worsening the country’s productivity slump and stoking future inflation pressures. Big firms have the scale to make big bets on technology, but Canada will only repair its weak productivity record if small and medium‑sized businesses adopt AI in a meaningful way, Rogers told an AI conference at University of Toronto. “You also don’t want things concentrated in big firms. That’s not good for productivity either,” she said. “If all of the gains are concentrated in big firms, they aren’t likely to translate to gains across the economy.” Stronger investment in machinery, equipment and intellectual property, including AI, is essential “to make long‑term fundamental change, to raise growth on a more permanent basis, to increase production per employee, increase our living standard,” Rogers said. She cautioned that the transition to AI would not be painless. She described a “low-hire, low- fire” labour market in which entry‑level roles and youth employment appeared to be shifting as firms experimented with automation, even if hard data have yet to show a clear AI effect. CMP

Coquitlam, B.C.-based quantum computing company Photonic Inc. announced it and TELUS achieved a significant technical milestone – a world-first quantum teleportation of its kind –  “proving that TELUS’ existing fibre optic infrastructure can reliably carry quantum information.” Photonic announced a new level of partnership with TELUS, to jointly pursue  projects advancing quantum-secure networking capabilities and delivering quantum solutions that will provide social and economic value and transform industries worldwide. As a first demonstration of this collaboration, Photonic used TELUS’ PureFibre existing network to successfully transfer quantum information over 30 kilometres of installed commercial fibre. Using Photonic’s Entanglement First™ architecture, a unique approach that combines silicon-based qubits and native telecom band photonic connectivity, Photonic teleported information into a matter‑based quantum processor that can retain, store and use that information. Unlike previous demonstrations over commercial fibre, which relied solely on photonic qubits that could be measured but not further processed, Photonic said this achievement completed the transfer of quantum information to a remote processing node, a critical capability for establishing long-distance quantum networks and commercial-scale quantum computers. Photonic

Bell Canada and SAP Canada (a subsidiary of Germany-based SAP SE) announced a memorandum of understanding to jointly deliver a comprehensive Canadian‑operated cloud solution designed to meet high standards of data protection and strengthen Canada's digital sovereignty. The partnership will combine Bell AI Fabric's secure national network, compute and data centre footprint with SAP Sovereign Cloud On-Site solution and Canadian‑based operations team. Together, the companies aim to deliver a trusted, fully Canadian-isolated cloud alternative for the public sector and regulated industries that require strict control over sensitive information and mission-critical workloads. The solution is intended to help ensure sensitive government citizen and organizational data remain within Canadian borders, shielded from extra-territorial access. Delivered by security-credentialed personnel in specialized facilities, the platform aims to support compliance with data residency and sovereignty requirements while helping customers to modernize applications, adopt cloud services and drive innovation and AI adoption. SAP Canada is also integrating Cohere's leading enterprise-grade AI platform into SAP Sovereign Cloud to deliver a unique integrated sovereign offering. The federal government currently buys most of its cloud capacity from U.S. companies. Bell Canada

Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.-based edtech company ApplyBoard announced that its research team won the Best Paper Award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)’s 15^th  International Conference on Pattern Recognition Systems (ICPRS 2025) in London, U.K. That paper, Embedding Confidence to Enhance Trust in AI Document Entity Extraction, focuses on tackling the “silent failure” problem – when AI systems hallucinate, or generate incorrect information, without indicating uncertainty. The paper suggests a new way to verify the accuracy and reliability of large language models (LLMs) when processing student transcripts, resumes and other unstructured documents: a “confidence score” that helps gauge the trustworthiness of the LLM’s output. While LLMs can already help organizations extract information from documents much faster and more efficiently than humans, they are also prone to misreading students’ grade point averages or incorrectly transcribing their course grades and failing to flag potential errors. ApplyBoard said its proposed system has proven so effective that the startup plans to implement it into its online platform, which helps international students apply to colleges and universities abroad. BetaKit

Toronto-based Kiwi Charge unveiled a $1.7-million pilot project with automotive manufacturer General Motors Canada and Pfaff Automotive, which owns 15 automotive dealerships across Canada. The project is helping Kiwi rapidly prototype and test its flagship robot at Pfaff’s Porsche dealership in Vaughn, Ont., where it will charge vehicles all day and all night without the need for an attendant to rotate which cars are in the designated EV charging spot. The project is supported by a $500,000 grant from the provincial government’s Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network, $250,000 of in-kind contributions from Pfaff and GM, and capital from Kiwi itself. According to Kiwi, its robot can help multi-unit housing complexes and car dealerships do away with the need to install dedicated charging infrastructure for vehicles. Instead of tenants competing for EV charging spots, a building could have a single charging zone for the Kiwi robot, which knows when a car needs a charge, what parking spot the car is in, and can roll up to fill it outside of active hours. The robot takes about 30 minutes to charge itself and 30 minutes to charge a vehicle, said Kiwi Charge co-founder and CEO Abdel Ali. BetaKit

Toronto-based materials science company Mesosil received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) 510(k) clearance for the firm’s antimicrobial additive technology. The approval allows the company’s global manufacturing partners to introduce new anti-infective dental materials in the U.S. Spun out of CEO Cameron Stewart’s University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry master’s research project, the startup has developed a tiny, “hard materials sponge” filled with an antimicrobial drug designed to be released slowly over a long period of time. Mesosil’s nanostructured silica additive can be integrated into existing dental composites and cements, enabling materials to resist infection and degradation without changing clinical workflows. The technology is designed to prevent secondary caries from bacterial growth at the tooth-filling interface, according to the company. Mesosil is also pursuing Health Canada clearance for its customers. Dr.Bicuspid.com

Researchers have discovered a fungus growing in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine that uses radiation as an energy source rather than being destroyed by it. Similar to how plants use chlorophyll for photosynthesis, these fungi (such as Cladosporium sphaerospermum and Cryptococcus neoformans) use melanin to capture ionizing radiation. The melanin acts as a biological transducer, converting gamma and beta radiation into chemical energy to power the fungus’s growth. These fungi don’t just survive, they exhibit “radiotropism,” physically growing toward the strongest sources of radiation, even decomposing “hot particles” of radioactive graphite. In humans, melanin is a natural, dark-brown to black pigment produced by cells called melanocytes in the skin, hair and eyes, which determines their color and provides protection against ultraviolent radiation. Melanin is also found in the cell walls of radiotrophic fungi. Black molds like Cladosporium sphaerospermum have been reported to thrive inside the damaged reactor walls, growing toward radiation sources despite lethal doses for most life. Their cell wall contains melanin, which can absorb ionizing radiation resulting in dissipation of energy and enabling chemical energy needed for metabolic activity and growth. That observation  highlights adaptation of biological components to extreme environments. From a broader ecological perspective, Chernobyl’s 30-kilometre exclusion zone reveals that some soil biological activity persists and have been unaffected by current dose rates; however, higher exposures impair reproduction in fish and insects. The existence of extremophiles such as the radiotrophic fungi provides a basis for nuclear waste management and radiation protection strategies. In 1986, a nuclear disaster occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. One of the reactors exploded during a safety test, releasing massive radioactive contamination across Europe. Thousands of cleanup workers were reported to have faced health risks and there is an ongoing debate over cancer deaths estimated from 4,000 to 90,000. HazMat magazine

VC, PRIVATE INVESTMENT & ACQUISITIONS

Montreal-based Kainova Therapeutics raised $32 million in a Series B financing round led by Investissement Québec and supported by existing investors CTI Life Sciences, Panacea Venture, 3B Future Health Fund, Seventure Partners, Viva BioInnovator, Turenne Capital, Schroders Capital, adMare BioInnovations, and Seido Capital. It is provincial agency Investissement Québec’s first investment in the drug company. Kainova is working on treatments for cancers and inflammation that target a particular type of protein in cell membranes. Two of its potential drugs – which both attack tumours by improving a patient’s immune system’s ability to fight them – are in early clinical trials. Kainova Therapeutics

Montreal-based Haply Robotics raised $16 million in its Seed Plus funding round,  led by Sound Media Ventures, with participation from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Hanwha Asset Management Venture Fund, returning investor BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Fund, Two Small Fish Ventures, AngelSquad and other supporters. Haply Robotics said that to operate safely, precisely and intuitively, machines need a sense of touch. Haply builds the interface that makes this possible, giving humans precise control over machines and enabling AI systems to learn how the physical world actually behaves. Haply plans to use the funding to fuel its plans for expansion, manufacturing and hiring. Haply Robotics on LinkedIn

Winnipeg-based Taiv raised US$13 million in a Series A+ funding round, led by IDC Ventures, with significant participation from Emerging Ventures, plus continued support from Y Combinator and Garage Capital. Taiv offers a small AI-powered box that connects to TVs and uses AI to detect and replace live TV commercials in bars, restaurants and other venues with relevant content such as drink specials, events and paid ads. Nearly 5,000 venues in 32 metropolitan areas use Taiv’s product, Taiv co-founder and CEO Noah Palansky said. The company provides the box and installation to businesses free of charge; it makes money by selling ads and shares a portion of the revenue with participating businesses. Taiv said it will use the funding for hiring talent and accelerating product development. Winnipeg Free Press

Waterloo, Ont.-based Upside Robotics raised $7.5 million in a seed round led by Plural with participation from Garage Capital and the founders of Clearpath Robotics. Upside Robotics builds lightweight solar-powered autonomous robots that deliver right-sized amounts of fertilizer and nutrients to crops when they need it. The company’s software runs on proprietary algorithms to decipher when and how much fertilizer the plants need using weather and soil data. Upside reported that it has thus far helped its customers cut fertilizer use by 70 percent, which equates to around $150 in savings per acre per season. Upside said the funding will be used to continue to fund research and development and to keep up with demand – there are more than 200 farms on their waitlist. TechCrunch

Port Moody, B.C.-based Hubbl Technologies raised US$6 million in a Series A funding round led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from Industry Ventures. Hubbl sells software that analyzes clients’ data and use of Salesforce sales and customer service tools, then gives them AI-generated recommendations on how to use it better. Its technology also checks for security risks and outdated code. Hubbl said it will use the funding to accelerate development of Hubbl's Intelligence Platform and expand the company's ability to deliver contextual intelligence to enterprises navigating the shift to AI-driven business operations. Hubbl Technologies

Toronto-based Modem raised US$4.4 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Accel, with participation from Inovia Capital and several angel investors, including Cohere co-founder Ivan Zhang and Sentry co-founders David Cramer and Chris Jennings. Sentry has also become a client, using Modem in its workflows. Modem’s AI-driven technology integrates into software teams’ existing platforms to manage its product workflow by proactively flagging bugs, curating support tickets, and even following up with customers after software updates. Like other agentic AI products, Modem can take action on a user’s behalf and respond to natural-language questions. The technology enables AI-developers to develop and ship their products faster. BetaKit

Research in Motion co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin are leading a $3.4-million private placement in Burnaby, B.C.-based Railtown, which consists of shares priced at 30 cents and warrants priced at 45 cents each, respectively. Lazaridis and Fregin have both joined Railtown’s advisory board. Railtown sells tools that developers use to manage AI agents and connect Large Language Models to clients’ data. It also runs a network of firms that build AI applications for sectors like health care and manufacturing. Between Lazaridis and Fregin, they are founding partners of Quantum Valley Investments, the Institute for Quantum Computing, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Quantum Valley Ideas Lab – institutions that have  helped position Canada as a global centre for quantum research and commercialization. “Canada develops exceptional talent, but too many feel they have to leave the country to pursue meaningful opportunities,” Lazaridis said. “It’s critical that we build companies, platforms, and  ecosystems here that allow Canadians to innovate, grow and compete globally.” Railtown

Montreal-based Kaster Technologies raised $1.6-million in a pre-seed funding round led by Graphite Ventures, with participation from Hidden Layers Capital and angel investor Louis-Martin Rousseau. Kaster, a spinoff from Polytechnique Montréal, offers software that helps pharmaceutical manufacturers increase production. The software platform considers a manufacturer’s production cycle, including equipment, constraints and stock, and produces optimized production plans. Kaster said its product can increase production capacity by 20 percent, without new equipment. Kaster plans to use the funding to refine the company’s software as it gears up to sell to new drug makers, as well as add a few more employees to its full-time team of six. The startup also signed a “strategic commercial partnership” with Quebec supply chain company Optel to help bring Kaster’s product to market. BetaKit

Tether Investments announced a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs, the company behind interoperability protocol that enables digital assets to move securely and efficiently across blockchains. The amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed. Tether said that combined with its Wallet Development Kit, this infrastructure provides the most advanced foundational rail for digital assets payments, settlements and custody for real-world use cases, and is also perfected for agentic finance, allowing AI agents to operate their own autonomous wallets and frictionlessly transact with stablecoins and digital assets at scale. Tether said the investment aligns with the company’s broader strategy of supporting systems that reduce fragmentation, improve liquidity efficiency, and enable stablecoins to function as global settlement instruments across multiple diverse blockchain environments. Separately, U.S. firms Citadel and Ark bought an undisclosed amount of $ZRO, the LayerZero crypto protocol’s native token, with Ark also taking an equity position in LayerZero Labs, the company behind the interoperability protocol. Tether

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) disclosed that it invested US$50 million into Toronto-headquartered AI developer Cohere via the second close of Cohere’s US$600-million September 2025 funding round, which valued the company at US$7 billion. CPP investments also invested US$50 million in San Francisco-based AI developer Anthropic’s US$13-billion Series F round the same month, which valued it at US$183 billion. CPP Investments also entered into an agreement to establish the Goodman European Data Centre Development Partnership with Goodman Group. The partners have initially each committed €1.1 billion to develop a portfolio of data centre projects in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. CPP Investments

Montreal-based Bombardier acquired Delaware-based Velocity Maintenance Solutions, a maintenance, repair and overhaul services provider. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. This strategic acquisition was completed through Bombardier’s U.S. subsidiary, Learjet Inc. Velocity Maintenance Solutions utilizes a 35,000-square-feet hangar at the Wilmington, Delaware airport, and can rely on the support of 14 mobile repair trucks across the U.S. With this footprint, Velocity Maintenance Solutions will further enhance Bombardier’s ability to provide operators with a wide range of maintenance, support and service options, close to where they fly, Bombardier said. Bombardier

Toronto-headquartered Thomson Reuters Corporation announced it acquired New York-based Noetica, Inc., an AI-native startup that transforms transaction-deal data into structured market intelligence for deal professionals. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Noetica’s platform provides secure, single-tenant deployments of transaction deal data. Thompson Reuters said Noetica delivers vertical AI specialization with qualitative and quantitative benchmarking, natural-language term search, term-trend analysis, and deal-level risk signals – enabling practitioners to confidently determine what’s market and what’s not. Thomson Reuters intends to integrate Noetica's AI-native analytics and structured market intelligence platform across CoCounsel – Thompson Reuters’ AI technology. This will enable deal professionals to reliably benchmark key deal terms during transaction negotiations, assist with legal drafting, and offer professionals deeper transaction data analysis throughout the deal workflow. Thompson Reuters

Kitchener-Waterloo-based database software startup Kuzu Inc. signed a deal to be acquired by American technology giant Apple. Apple confirmed the deal in a disclosure to the European Commission that was first reported by AppleInsider. That filing indicates that on October 9, 2025, Apple struck an agreement to buy all shares and hire select employees of Kuzu, which develops “lightweight embedded database technology,” through an unnamed subsidiary, but does not share any further details. Kuzu’s software repository on Github was archived on October 10 and the company’s website is no longer operational. Kuzu was founded in 2023 by a group including former CEO Semih Salihoğlu, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Waterloo. The startup had been developing fast, flexible graph databases. BetaKit

Edmonton-based Trust Science acquired Lenders API, a Toronto-based fraud prevention platform co-founded by fintech family Tal and Gary Schwartz. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Trust Science will integrate Lenders API into its AI-driven risk and decisioning infrastructure, enabling expanded adoption across regulated financial institutions and supporting advanced use cases in fraud prevention, identity risk and credit decisioning. Trust Science said the acquisition creates Canada's first industry-wide defense system against coordinated lending fraud, including loan stacking, bust-out fraud, and synthetic identity schemes that cost lenders millions of dollars annually. Demand for consortium-based fraud controls has accelerated as lenders face rising fraud losses, more sophisticated criminal networks, and increasing regulatory scrutiny. Trust Science

TELUS Digital bought Toronto-based tech consulting firm Bitstrapped. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. “Our founding members and existing leadership team are staying right here. We are preserving the expertise that you rely on,” Bitstrapped said in a LinkedIn post. Bitstrapped helps enterprises build scalable AI systems, modernize data infrastructure, and integrate advanced analytics to empower decision-making and create a competitive advantage. Bitstrapped LinkedIn post.

Victoriaville, Quebec-based AI-powered remote monitoring and advanced surveillance company Vosker announced the acquisition of Estonia-based Reconeyez, a leader in AI-powered autonomous intelligent surveillance solutions for large enterprises and international government agencies. Vosker, which has installed more than 3 million cameras in 120 countries, said the acquisition solidifies its leadership in the remote-area monitoring market with a dual-use, vertically integrated, AI-enabled platform for large enterprise-grade performance. Reconeyez and its Defendec brand are deployed by businesses and government agencies in over 60 countries globally. Vosker also announced it closed US$200 million in senior debt financing, with National Bank of Canada acting as sole bookrunner, co-lead arranger and administrative agent, and with the strong support of Scotiabank, acting as co-lead arranger, as well as Export Development Canada, TD Bank Group, and Investissement Québec. Vosker plans to use the debt financing to fund more acquisitions, and to scale up in the company’s priority markets. Vosker

REPORTS & POLICIES

No sign yet that generative AI is causing significant job loss, although some entry-level jobs may be being displaced: Statistics Canada

Employment in Canada generally grew following the mass availability of ChatGPT in November 2022 to December 2025, according to a study by Statistics Canada (StatsCan).

However, job growth varied across worker characteristics, said the study by Tahsin Mehdi and Marc Frenette, both with StatsCan’s analytical studies and modelling branch.

Younger employees and those less educated generally saw weaker job growth over this period.

Coding-intensive professions (e.g., software engineers and web designers) grew at a similar rate as other jobs.

However, gains in coding-intensive jobs were concentrated among workers aged 30 to 49, while the number of coding professionals younger than 30 stagnated, the study said.

Coding-intensive job vacancies increased over the 2021-to-2022 period at a faster rate than other vacancies.

However, after the fourth quarter of 2022, coding-intensive vacancies declined more steeply than vacancies in other occupations. By the third quarter of 2025, vacancies for coding-intensive jobs requiring three years of experience or less fell by about 60 percent, while those for such jobs requiring more experience fell by about 30 percent (a statistically significant difference). 

Separate research found that the relative number of software developers younger than 30 in the United States has decreased since November 2022. 

“Although the immediate impact of generative AI on aggregate employment may not yet be detectable on a large scale, there are growing concerns that it may be displacing certain groups of workers, such as those in entry-level positions,” StatsCan’s study said.

However, it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty whether the steeper decline in coding-intensive vacancies reflects AI supplanting coding tasks or is instead the result of a natural correction following the rapid expansion in coding-intensive vacancies over the 2021-to-2022 period, which may have temporarily satisfied employers’ hiring needs, the study added.

The percentage of Canadian businesses that reported using AI to produce goods or deliver services doubled from six percent during the 2023-to-2024 period to 12 percent during the 2024-to-2025 period, the study said.

“However, the deployment of AI does not necessarily translate to job loss. Indeed, the percentage of AI-adopting businesses that reported reducing employment because of AI remained steady at about six percent over both periods. But the number and characteristics of workers displaced by AI are unknown.”

Previous StatsCan research estimated that 60 percent of the Canadian workforce was potentially highly exposed to AI-related job transformation, but AI may be able to augment the jobs of about half of these workers, rather than replace them, StatsCan said.

Employers may not immediately replace human labour with AI, even if it is technologically feasible to do so, because of financial, legal and institutional constraints, the study noted.

From the fourth quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2025, job vacancies in occupations potentially more exposed to and less complementary with AI decreased at a similar rate as vacancies in occupations potentially less exposed to AI.

Jobs potentially more exposed to AI regardless of complementarity are more likely to be higher-paying, associated with workplace pension plans, full-time and permanent, the report noted. “Thus, AI-driven layoffs could potentially involve the loss of high-quality jobs.”

High exposure and low complementarity jobs – which comprise a mix of skill levels ranging from retail salespeople, data entry clerks and other office support workers to software engineers, economists, accountants and financial auditors – involve tasks that may be more susceptible to replacement by AI.

“There is considerable uncertainly, however, regarding the extent to which AI can actually replace human labour,” the study said. 

High exposure and high complementarity jobs – which comprise professions such as doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers – are characterized by advanced training requirements and tasks that AI may be more likely to augment rather than substitute for human labour.

Low exposure jobs – which comprise a wide range of occupations from the skilled trades, cashiers, bartenders and chefs to first responders – are potentially the least exposed to AI, but they may face a relatively higher risk of automation-related job transformation.

Some of the results reflect longer-term trends predating the widespread availability of AI, according to the study.

In Canada, technological developments in generative AI beginning in 2022 also coincided with rapid demographic changes driven largely by increased immigration – especially the substantial rise in the number of international students entering the labour market.

Thus, observed changes in the labour market since November 2022 may reflect the cumulative effects of recent generative AI developments, the broader ongoing influence of previous AI technologies and rapid demographic changes, the study said.

Canadian research suggests that despite concerns about a rapid transformation of the labour market in the wake of generative AI, the change in Canada’s occupational mix over the three years since the mass availability of generative AI is not markedly different from previous periods of technological disruption, according to the study.

“The pace and magnitude of occupational reallocation following the advent of AI are comparable to those seen after the mass adoption of computers and the Internet.”

It is unclear whether more recent trends reflect the advent of AI, other economic factors such as labour market adjustments after the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid demographic shifts, recent trade tensions with the United States or a combination of factors that are shaping the Canadian economic landscape, the study said.

Substantial uncertainty persists, the study pointed out. The diffusion of AI is still in its early stages, with mass adoption yet to occur and the adaptation of legacy systems potentially delaying impacts.

Moreover, multiple overlapping economic shocks – from the aftermath of the pandemic to rapid demographic shifts caused by increased immigration and to recent trade dynamics with the U.S. – make it challenging to disentangle the effects of AI on employment outcomes.

“Despite the lack of evidence for large-scale AI-induced job loss to date, the transformative potential of AI and uncertainty about longer-term consequences highlight the need for continued tracking and monitoring of the labour market.” Statistics Canada

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AI tools intensify work and an turn an initial boost in productivity into employee overwork, lower-quality work and burnout

AI tools consistently intensified work rather than reducing it, according to a study by researchers at University of Berkeley, California.

In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, the researchers found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so.

Importantly, the company did not mandate AI use (though it did offer enterprise subscriptions to commercially available AI tools), Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye wrote in an article in Harvard Business Review.

Ranganathan is an associate professor of business and the Dong Koo Kim Chancellor’s Chair in Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Berkeley. Ye is pursuing a PhD at UBerkeley’s Haas School of Business.

On their own initiative workers did more because AI made “doing more” feel possible, accessible, and in many cases intrinsically rewarding, they said.

“While this may sound like a dream come true for [company] leaders, the changes brought about by enthusiastic AI adoption can be unsustainable, causing problems down the line,” they noted.

Once the excitement of experimenting fades, workers can find that their workload has quietly grown and feel stretched from juggling everything that’s suddenly on their plate.

That workload creep can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout and weakened decision-making. “The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover and other problems.”

Companies need to develop a set of norms and standards around AI use – an “AI practice,” Ranganathan and Ye said.

From April to December last year, the researchers studied how generative AI tools changed work habits at the tech company. They did this through in-person observation two days a week, tracking internal communication channels, and more than 40 in-depth interviews across engineering, product, design, research, and operations.

The researchers identified three main forms of work intensification:

• Task expansion:

 Because AI can fill in gaps in knowledge, workers increasingly stepped into responsibilities that previously belonged to others. Product managers and designers began writing code; researchers took on engineering tasks; and individuals across the organization attempted work they would have outsourced, deferred, or avoided entirely in the past.

Generative AI made those tasks feel newly accessible. These tools provided what many experienced as an empowering cognitive boost: They reduced dependence on others, and offered immediate feedback and correction along the way.

Workers described this as “just trying things” with the AI, but these experiments accumulated into a meaningful widening of job scope. In fact, workers increasingly absorbed work that might previously have justified additional help or headcount.

There were knock-on effects of people expanding their remits. For instance, engineers, in turn, spent more time reviewing, correcting and guiding AI-generated or AI-assisted work produced by colleagues.

• Blurred boundaries between work and non-work:

Because AI made beginning a task so easy – it reduced the friction of facing a blank page or unknown starting point – workers slipped small amounts of work into moments that had previously been breaks.

Many prompted AI during lunch, in meetings, or while waiting for a file to load. Some described sending a “quick last prompt” right before leaving their desk so that the AI could work while they stepped away.

Ove time, these actions produced a workday with fewer natural pauses and a more continuous involvement with work.

Some workers described realizing, often in hindsight, that as prompting during breaks became habitual, downtime no longer provided the same sense of recovery. As a result, work felt less bounded and more ambient.

The boundary between work and non-work did not disappear, but it became easier to cross.

More multitasking:

 AI introduced a new rhythm in which workers managed several active threads at once: manually writing code while AI generated an alternative version, running multiple agents in parallel, or reviving long-deferred tasks because AI could “handle them” in the background.

They did this, in part, because they felt they had a “partner” that could help them move through their workload.

While this sense of having a “partner” enabled a feeling of momentum, the reality was a continual switching of attention, frequent checking of AI outputs, and a growing number of open tasks. This created cognitive load and a sense of always juggling, even as the work felt productive.

Over time, this rhythm raised expectations for speed – not necessarily through explicit demands, but through what became visible and normalized in everyday work.

Many workers noted that they were doing more at once – and feeling more pressure – than before they used AI, even though the time savings from automation had ostensibly been meant to reduce such pressure.

All of this produced a self-reinforcing cycle. AI accelerated certain tasks, which raised expectations for speed; higher speed made workers more reliant on AI.

Increased reliance widened the scope of what workers attempted, and a wider scope further expanded the quantity and density of work.

Several participants noted that although they felt more productive, they did not feel less busy, and in some cases felt busier than before.

However, the research revealed the risks of letting work informally expand and accelerate: “What looks like higher productivity in the short run can mask silent workload creep and growing cognitive strain as employees juggle multiple AI-enabled workflows.”

Because the extra effort is voluntary and often framed as enjoyable experimentation, it is easy for leaders to overlook how much additional load workers are carrying.

Over time, overwork can impair judgment, increase the likelihood of errors, and make it harder for organizations to distinguish genuine productivity gains from unsustainable intensity.

For workers, the cumulative effect is fatigue, burnout and a growing sense that work is harder to step away from, especially as organizational expectations for speed and responsiveness rise.

Instead of responding passively to how AI tools reshape workplaces, the researchers said both individuals and companies should adopt an “AI practice:” a set of intentional norms and routines that structure how AI is used, when it is appropriate to stop, and how work should and should not expand in response to newfound capability.

“Without such practices, the natural tendency of AI-assisted work is not contraction but intensification, with implications for burnout, decision quality, and long-term sustainability.”

The researchers said as organizations work to build their AI practice, they should consider adopting:

• Intentional pauses:

As tasks speed up and boundaries blur, workers could benefit from brief, structured moments that regulate tempo: protected intervals to assess alignment, reconsider assumptions, or absorb information before moving forward.

• Sequencing:

As AI enables constant activity in the background, organizations can benefit from norms that deliberately shape when work moves forward, not just how fast. This includes batching non-urgent notifications, holding updates until natural breakpoints, and protecting focus windows in which workers are shielded from interruptions.

• Human grounding:

 As AI enables more solo, self-contained work, organizations can benefit from protecting time and space for listening and human connection. Short opportunities to connect with others – whether through brief check-ins, shared reflection moment, or structured dialogue – interrupt continuous solo engagement with AI tools and help restore perspective.

The promise of generative AI lies not only in what it can do for work, but in how thoughtfully it is integrated into the daily rhythm, the researchers noted.

“Our findings suggest that without intention, AI makes it easier to do more – but harder to stop.” An AI practice offers a counterbalance: a way to preserve moments for recovery and reflection even as work accelerates, the said.

“The question facing organizations is not whether AI will change work, but whether they will actively shape that change – or let it quietly shape them.” Harvard Business Review

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Canada’s deep geological repository for nuclear waste raises complex ethical questions about long-term public safety

Canada’s planned deep geological repository for radioactive nuclear waste raises complex ethical questions around public safety, particularly given the millennia-long timescales of nuclear waste, says Maxime Polleri, an assistant professor at Université Laval.

These questions include: How to address intergenerational issues for citizens who did not produce this waste but will inherit it? How to manage the potential dangers of these facilities amid short-term political cycles and changing public expectations?

The deep geological repository is to be built near the Township of Ignace and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation in northwestern Ontario.

The industry-led Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) in charge of the project describes the deep geological repository as the safest way to protect the population and the environment.

However, NWMO’s current management plan does not extend beyond 160 years, a relatively short time frame in comparison with the lifespan of nuclear waste, Polleri wrote in a commentary published by The Conversation.

This gap creates long-term public safety challenges, particularly regarding intergenerational ethics, he said. There are specific issues that should be considered during the federal review of the project, he added.

NWMO argues that the deep geological repository will bring a wide range of benefits to Canadians through job creation and local investment. Based on this narrative, risk is assessed through a cost-benefit calculus that evaluates benefits over potential costs.

Academics working in nuclear contexts have, however, criticized the imbalance of this calculus, as it prioritizes semi-immediate economic benefits, like job creation, over the long-term potential impacts to future generations.

In many official documents, a disproportionate emphasis on short-term economic benefits is present over the potential dangers of long-term burial. When risks are discussed, they’re framed in optimistic language and argue that nuclear waste burial is safe, low risk, technically sound and consistent with best practices accepted around the world.

This doesn’t take into account the fact that the feasibility of a deep geological repository has not been proven empirically, Polleri noted. For the federal review, discussions surrounding risks should receive an equal amount of independent coverage as those pertaining to benefits, he said.

After 160 years, the deep geological repository will be decommissioned and NWMO will submit an Abandonment License application, meaning the site will cease being looked after.

Yet nuclear waste can remain dangerous for thousands of years. The long lifespan of nuclear waste complicates social, economic and legal responsibility, Polleri said.

While the communities of Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation have accepted the potential risks associated with a repository, future generations will not be able to decide what constitutes an acceptable risk.

Social scientists argue that an “acceptable” risk is not something universally shared, but a political process that evolves over time, Polleri said. The reasons communities cite to decide what risks are acceptable will change dramatically as they face new challenges. The same goes for the legal or financial responsibility surrounding the project over the centuries.

In the space of a few decades, northwestern Ontario has undergone significant municipal mergers that altered its governance, he pointed out. Present municipal boundaries might not be guarantees of accountability when millennia-old nuclear waste is buried underground. The very meaning of “responsibility” may also undergo significant changes.

NWMO is highly confident about the technical isolation of nuclear waste, while also stating that there’s a low risk for human intrusion. Polleri said scientists he has spoken with supported this point, stating that a deep geological repository should not be located in an area where people might want to dig.

The area proposed for the Ontario repository was considered suitable because it does not contain significant raw materials, such as diamonds or oil. Still, there are many uncertainties regarding the types of resources people will seek in the future. It’s difficult to make plausible assumptions about what people might do centuries from now, Polleri said.

When the repository is completed, NWMO anticipates a prolonged monitoring phase and decades of surveillance. But in the post-operation phase, there is no plan for communicating risks to generations of people centuries into the future, he said.

The long time frame of nuclear materials complicates the challenges of communicating hazards. To date, several attempts have surrounded the semiotics of nuclear risk; that is, the use of symbols and modes of communication to inform future generations.

For example, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plan in New Mexico tried to use various messages to communicate the risk of burying nuclear waste. However, the lifespan of nuclear waste vastly exceeds the typical lifespan of any known human languages.

Some scientists even proposed a “ray cat solution.” The project proposed genetically engineering cats that could change color near radiation sources, and creating a culture that taught people to move away from an area if their cat changed colour. Such projects may seem outlandish, but they demonstrate the difficulties of developing pragmatic long-term ways of communicating risk.

Current governing plans around nuclear waste disposal have limited time frames that don’t fully consider intergenerational public safety, Polleri said.

“As the Canadian federal review for a repository goes forward, we should seriously consider these shortcomings and their potential impacts on our society,” he said. “It is crucial to foster thinking about the long-term issues posed by highly toxic waste and the way it is stored, be it nuclear or not.” The Conversation  

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Canada’s industrial carbon markets are being “undermined” by market fragmentation and limited transparency

The potential for Canada’s industrial carbon markets to deliver credible incentives for decarbonization while protecting competitiveness is being undermined by market fragmentation and limited transparency, according to the Institute for Sustainable Finance (ISF) at Queen’s University.

To begin to address these issues, ISF’s response to an open consultation held by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) recommends two practical, high‑impact steps toward more cohesive and investable carbon markets across Canada:

• Increase market liquidity via an interprovincial credit trading mechanism, starting with a time-limited Alberta-British Columbia pilot.
• Enhance transparency through standardized public reporting of carbon market transactions.

“ISF supports Environment and Climate Change Canada’s efforts to strengthen industrial carbon markets,” said Yrjö Koskinen, ISF’s director of research.

“It’s hard to justify that the European Union, spanning 27 sovereign member countries, can run a single, transparent emissions‑trading market while Canada is still stuck with fragmented, poorly aligned carbon markets. We must do better than this,” Koskinen said.

“Properly functioning markets need quality data,” said ISF Research Associate Apoorva Hegde, ISF research associate. “Major improvements to digital pricing and data transparency should be seen as low-hanging fruit to advance carbon credit trading in Canada.”

Canada’s industrial carbon markets are currently fragmented, and market participants have highlighted that small markets and limited participation can reduce liquidity and weaken the price signal, ISF noted.

Firms operating in multiple jurisdictions also face a higher administrative burden when compliance units cannot be used across their business portfolio.

“Interprovincial credit trading – designed with appropriate safeguards – would be a practical step toward a more cohesive Canadian market while preserving provincial flexibility,” ISF said.

While this is a long-term goal, a major first step would be to establish a federal interoperability framework and launch two-year Alberta-British Columbia credit pilot, allowing trading between two similar provincial output-based pricing system credit markets.

The pilot would include a pre-determined evaluation plan and an “off-ramp” if integrity or competitiveness risks materialize.

The pilot would involve ECCC convening and providing a template for bilateral linkage agreements (unit definitions, registry interoperability standards, reporting protocols, dispute resolution).

There would also be a joint provincial oversight committee, with periodic public reporting.

The pilot also would include pre-pilot industry and stakeholder consultation to review design parameters and evaluate baseline harmonization (e.g., emissions intensity benchmarks) across both provinces and gather input on implementation challenges and operational impacts from multi-jurisdictional facilities.

The ECCC discussion paper notes that limited transparency on credit supply, demand, trading volumes and prices undermines predictability and the ability to make informed compliance and investment decisions.

More consistent and timely reporting – paired with confidentiality safeguards in smaller markets – would strengthen price discovery, market confidence and oversight, ISF said.

ISF recommended strengthening benchmark public reporting requirements with standardized, timely publication of key market metrics (prices, volumes, supply/demand and compliance), and establishing a national portal for large-emitter trading system daily market information.

This would support stronger price discovery and enable the emergence of derivative instruments (carbon futures and options) to improve hedging, investment signals and liquidity, ISF said.

“A time‑limited Alberta-B.C. interprovincial trading pilot, paired with standardized market reporting that supports both spot and derivative market development, would be practical, high‑impact steps toward more cohesive and investable carbon markets across Canada.” ISF

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Global space economy aims to be worth US$1 trillion by 2034: Novaspace report

The global space economy has reached a turning point, hitting US$626.4 billion in 2025 and setting a course to breach the US$1 trillion mark by 2034, according to the 12^th edition of the Space Economy Report released by France-headquartered Novaspace.

The report portrays 2025 not just as a year of growth, but as a “foundation year” where the sector transitioned from experimental expansion to a mature, security-oriented industry.

With a projected compound annual growth rate of 12 percent, the market is being reshaped by assertive government spending, a recovery in private capital, and the increasing “softwarization” of space infrastructure, the report said.

The Novaspace analysis distinguishes between the core space market – activities directly tied to infrastructure like manufacturing and launch – and the broader ecosystem of space-enabled services.

While the core space market itself is substantial, valued at US$236 billion in 2025 and projected to reach US$323 billion by 2034, the wider economy is heavily leveraged on downstream solutions.

Space-enabled services, including Position, Navigation, and Timing, continue to occupy “a significant share” of economic value. But it is defence and sovereignty which are becoming “dominant market drivers in 2025.”

The emerging defence and sovereignty drivers is something Canada is now seeing and will be reflected in Canada’s space economy throughout this decade.

Canada's space industry generated approximately $5.1 billion in total revenue in 2023, with over 200 firms supporting more than 13,000 direct jobs, largely driven by downstream services like satellite communication, according to a 2024 Canadian Space Agency report.

The sector contributed about $3.4 billion to Canada's GDP in 2023 and holds a strong, R&D-intensive focus, with goals to reach a $40 billion valuation by 2040.

 “Government space spending [globally] reached US$138 billion, driven primarily by security, sovereignty, and exploration programs. These priorities are reshaping procurement models and reinforcing the potential for commercial actors in national space strategies,” said Jan Clarence Dee, Novaspace senior space consultant.

After a period of correction, private investment showed resilience in 2025, totalling US$9 billion – the strongest annual increase since the peak of 2021.

However, the capital is flowing differently than in the boom years. Investors are favouring late-stage companies with established revenue models and lower risk profiles.

This maturation is further evidenced by a wave of consolidation. The report notes 54 merger and acquisition transactions closed in 2025, with another 16 pending. Companies are aggressively pursuing vertical integration and portfolio rationalization to survive and thrive in a more competitive environment.

Beyond the raw numbers, the report highlights a qualitative shift in the industry: the “softwarization” of space infrastructure. As hardware becomes more standardized, value creation is shifting toward software-defined capabilities that make space assets more flexible and resilient.

While the space economy is well on its way along its path to trillion-dollar era, it could get an additional push with the recent news of the SpaceX request to the Federal Communications Commission to license a new orbital data center of 1 million satellites and other as yet announced constellations. spaceQ

THE GRAPEVINE – News about people, institutions and communities

TELUS Corporation’s board of directors announced that, after a 26-year tenure as the company’s president and CEO, Darren Entwistle will retire on June 30, 2026. The board has appointed Victor Dodig president and CEO, effective July 1, 2026. Dodig, who has served on the TELUS board as an independent director since May 2022, becomes CEO designate effective immediately and will join the TELUS leadership team full time on May 1, 2026 to enable a seamless transition. Dodig joins TELUS after most recently serving as president and CEO of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from 2014 to 2025. In conjunction with his retirement as CEO, Entwistle will step down from the TELUS board on June 30, 2026. At that time, in recognition of his transformational leadership at TELUS, he will be accorded the title CEO Emeritus. In support of the transition, Entwistle will also act as an advisor, available to Dodig, until April 30, 2027. TELUS Corp.

Alastair Hall, OMERS (Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System) European senior managing director, and Chriss Hogg, digital infrastructure director, have left the pension fund after it wrote off its stake in Thames Water and portfolio firm Deutsche Glasfaser hit financial trouble, the Financial Times reported. In an emailed statement to Benefits Canada, Michael Hill, executive vice-president and global head of OMERS Infrastructure, said Europe remains an important geography for the organization and integral part of its diversification strategy. Recruitment for a new European head of infrastructure is underway, Hill said. Benefits Canada

The CAAT Pension Plan, which serves Ontario’s colleges and more than 800 public and private sector employers, placed chief executive officer Derek Dobson on administrative leave. Dobson is being sidelined, effective immediately, after some of the plan’s top executives raised concerns about his conduct as well as oversight by CAAT’s board of trustees, setting off multiple investigations into possible governance failures. Kevin Fahey, who was promoted to chief investment officer in late January, was appointed as CAAT’s acting CEO and plan manager, CAAT said in a statement. The pension plan also named trustee Audrey Wubbenhorst as its new board chair and Janet Greenwood as vice-chair. Previous board chair Don Smith was removed from his role earlier this month by the labour group that appointed him, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, days after The Globe and Mail reported that concerns about board oversight and decision-making had spurred investigations into the plan’s governance. Kareen Stangherlin, the previous vice-chair of the board, has resigned as a CAAT trustee, the pension plan. CAAT Pension Plan

Former Liberal cabinet minister Bill Blair resigned as an MP after the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) announced that he will be Canada's next high commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. During his time as the MP for Scarborough Southwest, Blair served in Canada’s Cabinet as Minister of National Defence, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction. The PMO also announced Nathalie G. Drouin as Ambassador of Canada to France and Monaco. Drouin has held senior roles in the federal public service, including as Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council and National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, Associate Secretary to the Cabinet, and Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada. PMO

James L. Barnard, a globally recognized leader in wastewater treatment whose groundbreaking work transformed biological nutrient removal (BNR) and helped shape modern approaches to protecting water resources, has died. Barnard, who retired in 2024, died peacefully on January 27, 2026, at his home in Leawood, Kansas. He was 90. Widely known as the “Father of BNR,” Barnard pioneered biological processes that remove nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater – innovations  now applied at treatment facilities around the world. His work played a critical role in improving water quality, reducing nutrient pollution, and preventing harmful environmental impacts such as eutrophication, algal blooms, fish kills and oxygen-depleted aquatic ecosystems. Barnard supervised the design, construction, and activation of the first BNR system in the U.S. at the Palmetto wastewater treatment plant in Florida in 1978, marking a major milestone in the broader adoption of nutrient removal technologies. He went on to guide the design of more than 100 nutrient removal facilities worldwide. Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

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Innovative “poop pills” can dramatically improve cancer treatment, Canadian researchers show

Fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) – or “poop pills” – can dramatically improve cancer treatment, suggest two groundbreaking studies published in Nature Medicine journal.

The first study shows that the toxic side effects of drugs to treat kidney cancer could be eliminated with FMT. The second study suggests FMT is effective in improving the response to immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer and melanoma.

The capsules were developed by Western University researchers based at Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph’s Health Care London and used in clinical trials at London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI) and Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM).

A Phase I clinical trial was conducted by scientists at LHSCRI and Lawson to determine if FMT is safe when combined with an immunotherapy drug to treat kidney cancer.

The team found that customized FMT may help reduce toxic side effects from immunotherapy. The clinical trial involved 20 patients at the Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre at London Health Sciences Centre.

“Standard treatment for advanced kidney cancer often includes an immunotherapy drug that helps the patient’s immune system tackle cancer cells,” said Saman Maleki, professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and scientist at LHSCRI.

“But, unfortunately, the treatment frequently leads to colitis and diarrhea, sometimes so severe that a patient must stop life-sustaining treatment early. If we can reduce toxic side effects and help patients complete their treatment, that will be a gamechanger.”

Separate Phase II lung and skin cancer studies were led by researchers at CRCHUM in collaboration with Lawson and LHSCRI. The studies found that 80 percent of patients with lung cancer responded to immunotherapy after FMT, compared to only 39 percent to 45 per cent typically benefiting from immunotherapy alone.

Similarly, 75 percent of patients with melanoma who received FMT experienced a positive response to treatment, compared to only 50 to 58 percent response in patients who receive immunotherapy alone. Twenty patients participated in the lung cancer clinical trial and 20 patients participated in the skin cancer clinical trial.

“Our clinical trial demonstrated that fecal microbiota transplantation could improve the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer and melanoma,” said Dr. Arielle Elkrief, co-principal investigator and physician scientist with CRCHUM.

“The results also uncovered one possible mechanism of action of fecal transplantation – through the elimination of harmful bacteria following the transplant. Our results open up a novel avenue for personalized microbiome therapies, and fecal transplant is now being tested as part of the large pan-Canadian Canbiome2 randomized controlled trial.”

Both studies use advanced, world-leading FMT capsules, also known as LND101, produced by Lawson in London, Ont.

The capsules are processed from healthy donor stools and ingested to help restore a patient’s healthy gut microbiome and treat different types of cancer.

The lung and melanoma study was funded by the Canadian Cancer Society. The kidney cancer clinical trial was funded with support from Ontario Institute of Cancer Research, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, AMOSO, Western’s division of medical oncology, donors to London Health Sciences Foundation and St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation, the Hesch Foundation and Weston Family Foundation. Western University

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