GOVERNMENT FUNDING & NEWS

The Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario will pay $384 million more than previously planned to have 55 subway cars for Toronto’s Line 2 to be made at an Alstom factory in Thunder Bay, Ont., with 55 percent Canadian content. This represents a nearly 30-percent increase over the initial Canadian content in the subway cars. The Ontario government’s investment will now be nearly $1 billion, up from $758 million, which will be matched by the federal government. This is the first application of the “Buy Canadian” policy announced in December, requiring that projects supported by federal funding favour Canadian suppliers. Alstom is a French company that bought Bombardier’s rail business in 2021, including the Thunder Bay factory where the Toronto contract will directly create 240 jobs, the Ontario government said. Other Alstom facilities in Ontario will also work on the project. Under the Buy Canadian Policy, the federal government considers Alstom to be Canadian because it carries on business regularly in Canada and the subway car manufacturing will be done in Canada. Govt. of Ontario

The Government of Québec launched the 2025-2031 Québec Strategy for the Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals and its action plan, with a budget of $88.1 million. Critical and strategic minerals are at the heart of clean technology, electrification, and, more broadly, the energy and digital transition. The strategy aims to accelerate projects, strengthen mineral processing and recycling in Quebec and consolidate the province's reputation as a reliable, responsible and strategic partner for its economic allies. The action plan is structured around four priorities;

• Improve the business environment and accelerate projects.
• Develop the entire critical and strategic minerals value chain.
• Deploy strategic infrastructure and logistics corridors.
• Engage partners.

The strategy is directly aligned with Quebec’s 2025 economic vision, Le pouvoir québécois, which puts value creation, local transformation and economic diversification at the centre of government priorities. Govt. of Québec

The Government of Ontario is investing more than $47 million in 195 research projects at universities, colleges and hospitals across the province. This funding, delivered through the Ontario Research Fund, can be used to build, renovate and acquire state-of-the-art equipment for critical research projects and research facilities. The projects will drive economic growth in key sectors like agri-food, critical minerals, information technology, life sciences. and manufacturing, the government said. Govt. of Ontario

The Government of Manitoba is providing $16.8 million to the University of Manitoba (UM)  to build two new biological research facilities, foster innovation and create quality jobs and hands-on training opportunities for students. The funding supports two new biological research facilities at UM:

• the Prairie Biologics Accelerator at the Fort Garry campus will be a biosecurity facility supporting biomanufacturing and vaccine development, enabling scientists and engineers to enhance vaccine production capacity.
• the One Health Emerging Respiratory Disease Centre at the Bannatyne campus will house a highly secure laboratory with specialized testing capabilities not currently available in Manitoba. The facility will support bioprocess development, diagnostics research and hands-on training for testing vaccines against high-risk pathogens.

Both facilities, supported by the Manitoba government and the Canada Foundation for Innovation, will contribute to the new PRAIRIE Hub on Pandemic Preparedness, a joint effort between UM, University of Alberta, University of Saskatchewan and University of Calgary to bring together expertise from across Western Canada. Govt. of Manitoba

Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) announced a federal investment of $1.96 million, along with $4 million from the Government of Saskatchewan, for the University of Regina to build the Small Modular Reactor Safety, Licensing and Testing centre (SMR-SLT). The new testing facility will ensure that Canadian researchers and businesses are equipped to safely develop and deploy these next-generation nuclear technologies, PrairiesCan said. The SMR-SLT will provide industry and academic partners with access to the first modern SMR test loops in Western Canada and will enable the testing of components under conditions that replicate operating reactors. This will support innovation, workforce development and the safe deployment of next-generation nuclear technologies. Canada generates 15 percent of its power from nuclear energy, but none of it is produced in Western Canada. Saskatchewan has the largest high-grade uranium deposits in the world and provides almost a quarter of the world's uranium supply for electrical generation. Ottawa said that small modular reactor deployment in Saskatchewan and across Canada will harness more value from the country’s natural resources, meeting Canada’s energy production needs while driving down emissions. PrairiesCan

Sixty-five projects from all of Quebec's northern regions will receive more than $8 million in financial support from the Fonds d'initiatives Nordiques. These projects will generate total investments north of the 49^th parallel of over $15.9 million, the Government of Québec said. Of the 65 selected projects, 37 are from the Côte-Nord, four from the north of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and 22 from the Nord-du-Québec regions. Two projects involve more than one of Quebec's northern regions.  Initiatives cover a wide range of areas, including family and senior services, public safety, biodiversity protection, transportation and tourism infrastructure development and economic diversification. Govt. of Québec

The Saskatchewan Research Council and the Global Institute for Energy, Minerals and Society Inc. (GIEMS), signed a memorandum of understanding with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC). The three-year agreement is for the organizations to collaborate on the development of a nuclear energy program in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The agreement will encompass evaluation of technologies related to small modular reactors and microreactors, nuclear plant efficiency and reliability. The program will also include collaborative work in nuclear waste management, technology transfer innovation and adoption, the application of artificial intelligence and robotics in nuclear energy, and capacity building and knowledge exchange. ENEC has over 20 years of experience and has become a world-class nuclear energy organization with a workforce of more than 3,000 people from 50 nations. Govt. of Saskatchewan

Health Canada is planning to speed up reviews of some medications by piggybacking on the decisions of foreign regulators, including possibly the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has been in turmoil since Donald Trump returned to the White House a year ago, The Globe and Mail reported. Ottawa has not yet revealed which foreign drug authorities or which classes of drugs will be subject to the change, outlined in a draft ministerial order designed to quicken the pace of pharmaceutical approvals in Canada. Neither the office of Health Minister Marjorie Michel nor Health Canada ruled out including the U.S. FDA on the forthcoming list. The draft ministerial order acknowledges that “stakeholders have recently raised concerns about the time it takes to get a product to market in Canada.” “Taking a regulatory approach to modify the manner in which the minister may examine a new drug submission by leveraging international collaboration and reliance would allow Health Canada to refocus resources, as needed, as one way of further supporting the health and safety of Canadians and the public interest,” the order said. Matthew Herder, director of the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University, said he would be particularly concerned if the current incarnation of the FDA made Canada’s list of trusted foreign regulators. The Trump administration has cut thousands of jobs at the agency and installed some leaders who are skeptical of vaccines. The Globe and Mail

 [Editor’s note: It is puzzling that Health Canada appears to be going in the direction of relying on assessments of foreign regulators when it comes to drugs, but doesn’t seem to heed the most current science when it comes to herbicides like glyphosate. A “cornerstone” study that Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) relied on to deem glyphosate safe was recently retracted after court documents revealed it was ghost-written by employees of Monsanto, the company that developed the substance. Despite that revelation, Health Canada said the new information doesn’t change the PMRA’s view that glyphosate is safe].

 The Government of Alberta launched a new health system dashboard that aims to provide Albertans with direct, clear, accessible insight into how care is delivered in their communities and how the health system is performing on outcomes that directly affect patients. The online tool is designed to provide transparent, up-to-date performance data, helping Albertans track results and see where the system is succeeding and where improvements are being made. The dashboard will be rolled out in phases, starting with surgical data that includes comparisons across facilities provincewide. In the coming weeks, the dashboard will be expanded to include primary care indicators, such as provider attachment and cervical cancer screening rates, as well as additional acute care metrics. The dashboard features an interactive map of acute care facilities across Alberta that perform surgeries, highlighting the number and types of procedures completed at each site. The initiative comes amid emergency physicians in Alberta warning of an “unprecedented” crisis in emergency departments and a letter from physicians detailing what they said were six potentially preventable deaths and over 30 close calls for patients in just a two-week period, due to extreme overcrowding and long wait times in ERs. Govt. of Alberta

Federal officials have drawn up plans to include a ban on social media for children under the age of 14 in the government’s coming online harms bill, part of a suite of possible measures aimed at protecting young people in the digital space, three sources told The Globe and Mail. The proposal follows a social-media ban for young people under 16 that took effect in Australia in December. The move has caused other countries, including Canada and Britain, to consider following the Australian example. In Canada, there is currently a ban on social media use by children under the age of 13, though many children circumvent it by pretending they are older. The proposal to raise the cutoff age to 14 would first need cabinet approval. Ministers are expected to consider the measure as early as next month, according to two of the sources. They said there have also been discussions between civil servants in government departments in recent weeks about whether a new regulator would be required to police the ban. Data released last week by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection found that online violence primarily targeting girls on social media is trending upward. From June 2022, through to the end of December 2025, the centre received 127 reports of extreme violence online, the majority in the past 12 months. This included aggressive coercive tactics, such as making threats to distribute intimate images in order to force teenage victims to engage in dangerous behaviours such as self-harm. The Globe and Mail

BC Hydro has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ksi Lisims LNG to deliver as much as 600 megawatts of clean electricity to Ksi Lismis LNG’s proposed floating LNG facility on Nisga’a Treaty Lands, enabling one of the largest industrial projects on B.C.’s North Coast. The MOU helps Ksi Lisims LNG move toward a final investment decision and reaffirms the need for the North Coast Transmission Line. Ksi Lisims LNG is expected to attract nearly $30 billion in investment, create thousands of skilled careers and strengthen Canada’s position as a global LNG exporter, the B.C. government said. The project is required to be net-zero ready by 2030. Once connected to BC Hydro’s clean-electricity grid, Ksi Lisims will produce LNG with net-zero emissions, giving B.C. a competitive advantage over other jurisdictions by supplying reliable, lower-carbon energy to its customers. The North Coast region is experiencing rapid expansion in mining, critical minerals, LNG, ports and technology. Demand for electricity exceeds the capacity of the existing 500-kilovolt transmission line running 450 kilometres from Prince George to Terrace. To meet this demand and unlock clean economic growth, BC Hydro is advancing the North Coast Transmission Line. This investment will twin the existing line, more than doubling electricity capacity in the region Govt. of B.C.

BC Hydro said it received proposals for nearly two times more clean energy than it was targeting in a call in July 2025 for up to 5,000 gigawatt-hours of power. Independent power producers throughout B.C. submitted 14 proposals totaling more than 9,100 gigawatt-hours per year, enough to power about 900,000 homes annually, as well as capacity of more than 3,000 megawatts (MW). The proposals represent a mix of technologies and regional participation: 13 wind projects and one solar project, with five proposals from the southern Interior, two from the central Interior, four from the North Coast and three from the Peace region. With no maximum size cap in this call, unlike the 2024 call for power that limited projects to 200 MW, 10 proposals exceed 200 MW. All projects include a minimum 25-percent equity ownership for First Nations partners. Similar to 2024, Canada Infrastructure Bank continues to support First Nations as active participants in British Columbia’s clean energy transition by providing access to competitive financing in the 2025 call for power. BC Hydro will evaluate proposals and award electricity-purchase agreements in the coming months. Projects could begin coming online as early as fall 2031, with all projects in service by October 2033. Govt. of B.C.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) announced a renewed $3.9-million, multi-year partnership with two research organizations, the Prairie Swine Centre and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon. Projects are selected through an annual competitive process to identify research with the potential to help Saskatchewan’s livestock producers remain innovative, profitable and competitive. This year’s livestock and forage projects include a range of topics such as developing new types of hybrid bromegrass with more consistent yield and improved digestibility; exploring biomarkers to develop an earlier and more reliable test for Johne’s disease; and enhancing sustainable bison production through improved grazing strategies and the preservation of prairie ecosystems in Saskatchewan. This year’s ADF projects were supported by an additional $1.3 million from 13 industry partners. AAFC

The Government of Canada is seeking proposals for the development of sovereign, large‑scale AI data centres with total planned capacities greater than 100 megawatts (MW) designed to serve a broad spectrum of Canadian clients. Preference will be given to projects that demonstrate a clear path to completion, include Indigenous participation, minimize environmental impacts and maximize the use of Canadian partners and supply chains. Intake forms should clearly demonstrate how AI data centre project proposals meet the following criteria:

• Economic/ecosystem benefit.
• Indigenous participation.
• Sovereignty factors.
• Energy considerations.
• Performance capabilities.
• Readiness level.
• Project cost and structure.

The submission form includes questions asking if the proposed project will be majority-controlled by a Canadian organization, and if all of the data processed will be domiciled in Canada. Proponents are asked to email their completed intake form to ai-infrastructure-ia@ised-isde.gc.ca by February 15, 2026. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Canada's federal court has overturned a ​government order to close TikTok's Canadian operations, allowing ​the short-form video app to continue operating for the time being. In a short judgment, federal court judge Russel Zinn set aside the order and sent the matter ⁠back to Industry Minister Mélanie Joly for review. He did not give any reasons. A spokesperson for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada told CBC News in an emailed statement that the issue now goes back to the minister and Joly "will now proceed with a new national security review." TikTok welcomed the decision to set aside the shutdown order, a company spokesperson told Radio-Canada. In November 2024, Canada's industry ministry ​ordered TikTok's business to be dissolved, citing national-security risks, but added the government was not blocking ⁠access or users' ability to create content. TikTok appealed the decision. CBC News

TikTok said its Chinese owner, ByteDance, has struck a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to create a new U.S. TikTok, concluding a six-year legal saga that saw the app banned by Congress and ensnared in politicking between two global superpowers. Investors, including the software giant Oracle, MGX, an Emirati investment firm, and Silver Lake, another investment firm, will own more than 80 percent of the new venture. That list also includes the personal investment entity for Michael Dell, the tech billionaire behind Dell Technologies, and other firms, TikTok said. Adam Presser, TikTok’s former head of operations, will be the chief executive for the U.S. TikTok. The deal is intended to loosen TikTok’s ties to China and address national security concerns that Beijing could use the app to surveil or manipulate its more than 200 million users in the U.S. The New York Times

The Government of Canada’s forthcoming online harms and privacy bills should regulate aspects of artificial intelligence, including by introducing a requirement for platforms to label AI-generated photos and video, according to members of the government’s AI strategy task force. Federal AI Minister Evan Solomon is preparing to publish a government AI strategy as early as next month. Last year he appointed an expert task force to advise him, including on the safety aspects of the technology. Members of that task force have advised the minister to take action to protect children under the age of 18 from being harmed by AI models, such as chatbots. A briefing paper on safe AI and public trust submitted to the task force by one of its members, Taylor Owen, founding director of McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, said online platforms should have a responsibility to inform consumers when material is AI-generated. Owen’s paper said photos and videos generated by AI should include a digital watermark to help people differentiate between genuine images and those created artificially. The paper expressed concern that AI chatbots have the potential to cause significant harm. Some have encouraged desperate young people to hide eating disorders and to end their own lives. The Globe and Mail

Competition Bureau Canada published a report highlighting the feedback received through its recent public consultation on algorithmic pricing and competition. The Bureau received more than 100 submissions from a range of domestic and international respondents, including individuals, businesses, industry associations, members of the academic and legal communities, and consumer interest groups. The report outlines the main issues that they raised and the four key themes echoed in their feedback:

• Dynamically setting or recommending prices creates market efficiencies. Algorithmic pricing was criticized for enabling discrimination based on factors such as individual characteristics, socioeconomic status and purchasing behavior, potentially leading to unfair treatment of certain consumer groups.
• Algorithmic pricing can lead to anticompetitive behaviour. There were significant concerns about how algorithms might collect and use consumer data. Respondents mentioned the risk of consumer information being shared with data brokers and questioned how consent is obtained online.
• A lack of data transparency could harm consumers, workers and competition. 
• Government regulations should address anticompetitive conduct without stifling innovation. Some respondents advocated for the government to regulate algorithmic pricing to ensure fairness and transparency in pricing practices. Others called for it to be banned, citing concerns about economic inequality and impact on vulnerable groups.

Some individual respondents mentioned potential benefits, including improved efficiency, inventory management and the matching of supply and demand. The purpose of the consultation was for the Bureau to build a robust understanding of algorithmic pricing so it could respond swiftly and effectively to this emerging trend. Competition Bureau Canada

The Government of Canada recently announced the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force to identify pathways to restructure, retool and transform Canada’s forest sector. The task force member have held their first meeting. Over the next 90 days, the task force will engage with industry, provinces and territories, Indigenous groups and labour organizations and will gather public comments through a web portal to be launched shortly. The task force’s work will focus on strengthening the sector’s long-term competitiveness and sustainability, including:

• Expanding modern construction methods, such as mass timber, modular systems and prefabricated building solutions, particularly for homebuilding.
• Supporting product diversification, including advanced wood materials and bioproducts.
• Strengthening access to domestic and international markets.
• Improving productivity through innovation, digitalization and advanced technologies.
• Retooling and restructuring the industry to position it for the future.

At the end of the 90 days, the task force will deliver a report with recommendations to Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. Natural Resources Canada

RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

Canada’s three national AI institutes and CIFAR proposed that the federal government invest $434 million to renew Canada’s AI strategy. In a proposal to AI Minister Evan Solomon in July 2025 ahead of the fall budget, Amii, Mila – Quebec AI Institute, the Vector Institute, and CIFAR warned that funding for a key national AI chair program was running out and told Solomon the federal government needed to replenish it to keep top AI talent in the country. “An unprecedented global war for AI talent is underway, which demands an immediate and robust response from the federal government to secure existing AI talent and expand our base of AI expertise,” they wrote in a document obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request. There are 126 CIFAR AI research chairs at 17 universities across six provinces. They said the Canadian research chairs are behind only Google and the Max Planck institutes, and are ahead of Meta, MIT, Oxford, Stanford and Tsinghua, along with many others. “Without a strategic and sustained response,” they said, “Canada’s ability to retain these leading minds, and by extension, their innovations and the corresponding economic benefits they support, will be compromised.” The organizations asked for a $186-million top-up over 10 years, part of a $434-million fund that would also go toward supporting early-stage AI ventures and commercialization. The government didn’t implement the recommendations in Budget 2025 and has yet to release its updated national AI strategy. The Canadian Press

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) will assess, at the request of Natural Resources Canada, how geodetic infrastructure impacts Canada and its economy. This assessment will examine opportunities associated with renewed domestic investment in geodetic infrastructure, the risks associated with reduced access to high-quality geodetic information, and whether Canada has sufficient infrastructure to meet the needs for its activities reliant on geodetic information. An expert panel will be appointed in the coming weeks, and the report is expected to be published in late 2026. Canada doesn’t have its own Global Navigation Satellite System and its geodetic infrastructure is missing core elements that enable positioning, navigation and time (PNT) synchronization. A robust geodetic infrastructure – the backbone for everything from aviation safety, monitoring climate change and bolstering telecommunications, to supporting emergency services, enabling efficient transport and logistics operations and Arctic observation – allows nations to ensure the integrity of their own PNT services in a world increasingly dependent on satellite-based positioning. CCA

Federally supported FABrIC introduced Canada’s first Quantum Computing Sandbox (QCS). QCS aims to accelerate the adoption of quantum computing technology in Canada by providing technical expertise and enabling access to state-of-the-art quantum computing platforms for academics, startups and small and medium-sized enterprises. FABrIC’s QCS consists of calls to stimulate the development of industrially relevant applications of quantum computing in Canada, strengthen Canadian quantum computing R&D in areas of strategic importance, and drive the adoption of quantum computing solutions by end-sector users. The QCS will financially support direct access to quantum computing cloud services offered by global quantum computing providers and provide technical expertise from CMC Microsystems’ dedicated team of quantum application scientists. FABrIC

Two years after Techstars’ Toronto accelerator paused programming, a group is working on rebuilding Techstars Toronto. In the coming months, the group said it will be building the team to take this ecosystem to the next level and hiring the next managing director, who’ll be a leader deeply rooted in the Greater Toronto Area “and knows how to build, invest, scale, and push early-stage companies from momentum to true lift-off. This role will help shape the next wave of standout Canadian companies, and it marks an important step in the next chapter of Techstars Toronto.” The revived program will be financed by Techstars’ global platform and a group of local limited partners. Techstars offers three-month accelerator programming for startups in more than 30 cities around the world. Techstars Toronto Accelerator on LinkedIn

The “I Adopt Quebec Tech” campaign was launched by the provincially funded not-for-profit Québec Tech, government agency Investissement Québec, and capital development fund Fonds de solidarité FTQ. The initiative hopes to encourage startups and established businesses to buy tech products and services from local companies, instead of looking to the U.S. or international markets. Companies that join as members will get preferred access to a directory of made-in-Quebec enterprise services and products, custom support in adopting the technology, and additional resources through government programs and local organizations. Québec Tech’s latest annual report listed more than 2,500 startups in the province in an ecosystem worth $99 billion. Québec Tech

The Canada’s Ocean Supercluster-supported Ocean Startup Project (OSP) announced the second round of startups selected for funding through Amplify, OSP’s collaborative commercialization program for high-potential Canadian ocean technology ventures. The selected companies are advancing solutions that range from container-based solar energy systems and autonomous ocean data platforms to nature-based systems that restore polluted waterways. Through Amplify, companies can receive up to $25,000 in funds to support pilot projects, customer demonstrations and early deployments. The program is designed to close the gap between innovation and commercialization by helping startups validate their solutions with early customers and progress toward revenue, procurement and scale. The newest Amplify winners are:

• REPWR (Waabaag Energy Corp.) (Ontario): Developing a standardized, modular solar energy system that can be rapidly installed on shipping containers to provide renewable power for marine transportation and port logistics.

• Sailbotix (British Columbia): Developing compact, affordable, long-duration autonomous vessels that make offshore and nearshore ocean data collection more accessible and scalable.

• Lillianah Technologies (Nova Scotia): Restoring polluted waterways through a proprietary, diatom-based biofiltration system that removes excess nitrogen, carbon and organic pollutants using a scalable, low-capital, nature-based approach.

With this second round of Amplify, the Ocean Startup Project and its partners have now distributed a total of $100,000, supporting six high-potential Canadian ocean startups. Ocean Startup Project

St. John’s, Nfld.-based Co. Innovation Centre (COIC) officially incorporated as an independent, not-for-profit organization effective January 1, 2026, under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. The incorporation formalizes COIC’s evolution into a standalone, federally incorporated organization with a clear mandate to serve as Newfoundland and Labrador’s industry-led hub for cross-sector innovation, commercialization and economic competitiveness. COIC said federal incorporation strengthens the organization’s governance and independence while enhancing its ability to engage national and international partners, access broader funding, and support industry across sectors and jurisdictions. Seamus O’Regan, former minister of Indigenous Services of Canada in Justin Trudueau’s government  is serving as inaugural chair of COIC’s board of directors. Funding support for COIC has been provided by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and through the Government of Canada’s Atlantic Cananda Opportunities Agency. COIC

Denmark-based Novo Nordisk and Vancouver-based Aspect Biosystems announced they are entering a new phase of their partnership to develop advanced cellular medicines for diabetes.  Since 2023, Aspect and Novo Nordisk have collaborated to develop cellular medicines designed to replace, repair or supplement biological functions to deliver truly disease-modifying therapies. This new phase of the partnership builds on the momentum achieved in the existing collaboration. Aspect has acquired rights to stem cell-derived islet cell and hypo immune cell engineering technologies from Novo Nordisk and will lead development, manufacturing and commercialization. Novo Nordisk will have defined rights to expand its role in later-stage development and commercialization. Novo Nordisk will make an additional equity investment in Aspect and provide research funding to advance these potentially curative therapies. Novo Nordisk will be eligible to receive royalties and milestone payments on future product sales from Aspect. The agreement involves integrating select Novo Nordisk cell therapy research, development, and manufacturing capabilities and expertise from the United States and Denmark into Aspect’s Canada-anchored platform. Aspect Biosystems

Markham, Ont.-based NordSpace secured advisory services and up to $335,000 in funding from the National Research Council of Canada-Industrial Research Assistance Program to refine the additive manufacturing process for its rocket engines. Through a collaborative R&D project with the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology and German engineering firm SWMS, NordSpace aims to integrate high-speed laser deposition and AI-driven path planning into its production line. The funding comes after NordSpace announced a new Advanced Manufacturing for Aerospace Lab last fall. This initiative is a targeted step in the company’s broader roadmap to scale its launch vehicles from light payloads to the medium-lift “Titan” class, capable of carrying over 5,000 kilograms to orbit, by the early 2030s. SpaceQ

Demand for data centre capacity in Canada is causing BCE Inc. to accelerate work on its new artificial intelligence business, and the construction of new facilities is ahead of schedule. Canada’s largest telecom company by revenue introduced its Bell AI Fabric division last year, which aims to provide computing power driven by 73 megawatts of electricity – enough to power more than 30,000 homes. BCE has partners in the data centre buildout, such as Groq Inc. and Hive Digital Technologies Ltd., which make the bulk of the investment and manage the servers. BCE has committed to invest $300 million, with the expectation that the business will produce about $400 million in revenue by 2028. A first data centre was opened in Kamloops, B.C. in June, and another is set to go live by March in the nearby city of Merritt. Other facilities will start operating later this year. Bloomberg

Toronto-based legal artificial-intelligence software startup Alexi Technologies Inc. said a lawsuit against it by B.C. legal technology powerhouse Clio (legally named Themis Solutions Inc.) has forced it to slash staff and scared off clients and suitors. Alexi made the claim in its legal reply and countersuit against Clio’s Fastcase Inc. subsidiary, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Alexi refuted allegations Clio made in its claim, filed in December, that Alexi had misused access to the Fastcase’s research database to build a rival AI-powered tool for lawyers. Alexi in turn accused Fastcase/Clio of breach of contract, interfering with its business and acting anti-competitively. Calling the Fastcase suit “sham litigation,” Alexi accused Clio in its statement of causing “irreparable and compounding harm” and trying to drive it out of business and eliminate a rival. Alexi entered into a data-licence agreement in 2021 with Fastcase, giving it access to the U.S. company’s law database. Fastcase claims that access was restricted to internal research purposes for Alexi’s staff lawyers to prepare memoranda for clients and not for commercial purposes. The Fastcase claim alleges Alexi used its data to build and scale its own legal research platform and eventually began publishing and distributing Fastcase-sourced case law directly to its users “in clear violation of the agreement’s core restrictions.” None of the claims has been tested in court. The Globe and Mail

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) invested about $416 million last year into xAI, Elon Musk's AI company. The money helped fund the billionaire's push to build three of the world's largest, natural gas-powered data centres to power Grok, the controversial chatbot integrated into X. CPP Investments announced the move last year in a quarterly report but it did not attract media attention at the time. Musk and xAI have been under fire since late December for allowing Grok to virtually "nudify" people, mostly women and children, without their consent and put them in sexualized positions. CPP Investments, the pension fund most Canadians are invested in, retains its nearly half-billion-dollar stake in the company behind the controversy. CPP Investments will push xAI for “hard blocks for non-consensual sexualized imagery and anything involving minors at generation time (not only after posting),” spokesperson Michel Leduc told the Toronto Star. He also said CPP Investments will seek an independent review of xAI’s safety measures, more reporting and “clear accountability” between its model and moderation staff under board supervision. Canada’s National Observer

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Natural Products Canada-supported companies show impressive return on investment to Canada’s GDP

Eighty-four Canadian companies in federally supported Natural Products Canada’s (NPC) investment portfolio contributed $896.4 million to Canada’s GDP from 2021 to 2025, according to an independent report by commissioned by NPC.

The report was done by SUMMIT72, an independent advisory firm specializing in quantitative economic analysis.

According to the report, from 2021 to 2025, NPC’s portfolio companies:

• Supported an average of 1,454 jobs each year. For every direct job at an NPC-supported firm, 1.4 additional jobs are supported elsewhere in the Canadian economy.
• Paid over $387 million in wages to Canadian workers.
• Generated an estimated $68 million in tax revenues for governments.

The data in the report shows a direct return on NPC’s work: for every $1 NPC invested, our companies have generated $3.

Every dollar of NPC funding is directly associated with generating $3.10 in new revenues for the company and $2.70 in new GDP for Canada, according to the report.

“This is the very definition of a smart investment in Canada’s future,” Shelley King, founder and CEO of NPC, said in the report.

“These early-stage companies are driving the productivity and economic growth our country needs. They are the driver for a more innovative, competitive, and resilient Canada,” she said.

A $4-trillion global bioeconomy has emerged, driven by a massive demand for sustainable, bio-based solutions, the report noted.

Canada, with its vast natural resources, has the potential to seize 10 percent of this opportunity – a potential of $400 billion in new economic activity, the report said.

NPC’s model is to act as a strategic catalyst for high-potential firms. NPC said it provides a proven combination of expert advice, powerful connections, and targeted capital which is tailored to each early-stage company’s unique needs.

This helps companies derisk their innovation, bridge the commercialization gap, and prepare for private investment, NPC said.

NPC supports companies across several traditional industry verticals incorporating biological innovation, including:

• Agriculture, Animal, Agtech.
• Cleantech, Greentech, Bioequivalents.
• Food, Nutrition, Foodtech.
• Household, Personal Care.
• Packaging, Apparel, Biomaterials.

If NPC’s support continues at its current pace, the cumulative GDP impact from its portfolio companies is projected to exceed $1.8 billion over the next five years and support 3,290 jobs in the year 2030 alone, according to the report.

NPC’s new strategy involves deploying a $35 million “capital stack” of non-dilutive, debt, and equity investments.

Based on NPC’s proven performance, this expanded funding envelope is projected to unlock over $4 billion in cumulative GDP impact and support 7,590 jobs in the year 2030 alone, the report said. Natural Products Canada

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Vancouver-based fusion energy developer General Fusion announced it has an agreement with Dallas, Texas-based Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III for a business combination that will take General Fusion public with its shares trading on the Nasdaq in mid-2026. If the deal with Spring Valley Acquisition goes through, General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney told The Logic, the company will have enough money to advance its experimental fusion-energy reactor through critical milestones by 2028. The deal values General Fusion at US$724 million before the transaction, according to an investor presentation. It would bring in US$230 million from Spring Valley, plus US$105 million in further outside investment. General Fusion’s current investors would own 58 percent of the company. General Fusion

Hootsuite Inc. CEO Irina Novoselsky defended the Vancouver tech company’s contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States, telling employees the deal will stand so long as ICE abides by the terms of service. Novoselsky said on an internal all-hands call that Hootsuite will work with any customer that follows the usage guidelines for its software, which can manage social-media accounts and provide sentiment analysis, or “social listening,” as Hootsuite calls it. The company has terminated relationships with customers as recently as a few months ago for violations, she said on the call, a recording of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail. “We did nothing wrong here,” Novoselsky told employees. “ICE is a customer within the public affairs group, so we help them from our social-media management perspective.” The Globe and Mail

Toronto-based CHAR Technologies Ltd. announced that the Espanola, Ont. project engineering and design study continues to advance with The BMI Group. With a commitment of $10 million, BMI reaffirmed its dedication toward the development of the Espanola biocarbon project. The project will be located at Bioveld North, a former pulp and paper mill site in Espanola, which BMI recently acquired with a focus on putting wood back to work in Northern Ontario. The Espanola project is expected to produce up to 50,000 tonnes of biocarbon per year, representing five times the production capacity of the partners' Thorold Renewable Energy Facility. The project's final scope and BMI's final capital allocation will be determined through completion of the engineering and design study, expected to be completed by the end of March, 2026. The proposed facility would use CHAR Technologies’ high-temperature pyrolysis platform to convert locally sourced wood waste and forestry residuals into low-carbon biocarbon and synthetic gas, with the potential to valorize the gas, including either direct use on site by the broader Bioveld North facility, or upgrading the synthetic gas to renewable natural in a later phase. CHAR Technologies

One-quarter of proptech startups working to tackle problems across Canada’s real estate industry were launched in the past five years, a seven-percent drop year over year from 2024, according to a report by Proptech Collective. The report’s authors said the decline in startups signalled “a maturing ecosystem.” However, the report also found that companies in the proptech space still face a challenge raising venture capital, raising $450 million across 30 disclosed rounds in 2025, “reflecting a tighter capital market.” Proptechs raised a median amount of $3 million, with a decline of 40 percent in total disclosed rounds since the peak in 2021. Fifty-six percent of proptech startups in Canada are in the Greater Toronto area, while 18 percent are in B.C. Seventy percent of all Canadian proptech startups were founded in the past decade, with 30 to 35 companies launching per year in 2022 to 2025. Sixty-five percent of companies are at the pre-seed/seed stage of VC funding. The top three funded proptech startups are GoBolt (storage and logistics), Jobber (home improvement and maintenance) and dcbel (energy management). Proptech Collective

About 47 percent of Canadian CEOs expect global economic growth to improve in the next 12 months (compared with 61 percent of CEOs globally), while only 27 percent of Canadian CEOs expect Canada's economy to improve, according to PwC Canada’s 29^th Annual CEO Survey. Fifty-three percent of Canadian CEOs are concerned about the impact of U.S. trade policy and tariffs; 35 percent expect reduced profit margins in the next year. Short-term revenue confidence (12 months) is also down to 36 percent, but nearly half of CEOs remain optimistic over a longer-term period (three years). “This gap signals that Canadian CEOs are worried about current economic and geopolitical headwinds – but believe reinvention strategies, including AI adoption and sector expansion, will pay off, over time,” PwC Canada said. Ninety-four percent of Canadian CEOs use AI to some extent, but Canada lags with only 29 percent scaling it across their business (versus 43 percent globally). Fifty-six percent of Canadian CEOs have entered new sectors in the past five years (+19 points year over year), and 64 percent plan to expand into at least one new sector in the next three years. PwC Canada

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it will consolidate the licensing and permitting process for Vancouver-based deep-sea mining company The Metals Company. That would mean a single and ostensibly shorter review of the company’s proposed deep-sea mining project. Under the new guidelines, The Metals Co. resubmitted an application it had filed last April to operate in part of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The company said two zones that it has applied to operate in contain an estimated 800 million metric tons of rocks known as polymetallic nodules filled with critical minerals including nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese. The Metals Co. and other supporters of deep-sea mining say it would lessen the need for large mining operations on land, which are often unpopular with host communities. Environmental groups have called for deep-sea mining to be banned, warning that industrial operations on the ocean floor could cause irreversible biodiversity loss. Mining.com

German submarine builder TKMS is in talks with Norwegian and German companies to offer a multi-billion-dollar investment package to Canada in a fiercely competitive submarine tender,  seeking to beat a rival South Korean bid. The talks go beyond submarines and cover possible investment commitments in rare earths, mining, artificial intelligence and battery production for the automotive sector, TKMS CEO Oliver Burkhard told Reuters. The investment package plan could boost TKMS as it vies to win the tender after being short-listed last year along with South Korea's Hanwha to supply up to 12 state-of-the-art submarines to Canada's navy. Burkhard said TKMS was in discussion with German space startup Isar Aerospace about the investment initiative but did not name the other companies involved in the talks. The submarine order alone is estimated to be worth more than 10 billion euros ($12 billion), according to industry sources. Reuters

VC, PRIVATE INVESTMENT & ACQUISITIONS

 Toronto-based Cyclic Materials raised US$75 million in a Series C funding round led by accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., alongside continued support from existing shareholders and additional participation from the Canada Growth Fund, which invested US$25 million. Positioned as both a diversified source of supply and a circular solution that interrupts waste streams, Cyclic Materials operates a two-stage physical and hydrometallurgical recycling technology to produce rare earth elements from magnet-containing end-of-life scrap and magnet production waste. The aim is to create a secure and circular supply chain for rare earth elements and other critical materials that underpin the rapid growth of AI, robotics, defense, electric vehicles and more. The funding will go toward research and development in Canada and help Cyclic scale its U.S. and European operations. Cyclic Materials

Calgary-based data analytics provider Chata Technologies Inc. closed a US$10 million Series A funding round. The round included 7RIDGE and Izou Partners as major investors. Chata is a pioneer in conversational data access, enabling users to bypass static dashboards and technical bottlenecks by querying data in natural language and transforming those queries into AI workers to monitor data and automate reporting. Chata said the capital will drive expansion of its Chata.ai’s proactive self-service analytics platform beyond current industry verticals, with specific emphasis on the Traditional Finance, Decentralized Finance, and Wealthtech sectors. Chata Technologies

Toronto-based construction technology company Brickeye raised $10 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by GreenSky Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Graphite Ventures, Export Development Canada, Beauchamp Construction, and one material supplier in North America. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development in Internet of Things-enabled software and AI services to monitor sites for water issues and other risks, expand its engineering and field operations teams, expand into healthcare and data centre facility construction, and grow sales across North America and international markets including the Middle East, South America, and Europe. FinSMEs

Toronto-based Canada Rocket Company launched the firm with $6.2 million in public and private capital in a seed funding round. The round was co-led by the Business Development Bank of Canada and Garage Capital, and included participation from Ripple Ventures, Panache Ventures, Northside Ventures, and Cold Capital. Additional backing came from Canadian founders and angels associated with companies including Shopify, Wealthsimple, Ada, Humi, Inkbox, Holos, and Kepler Communications. Canada Rocket Company is developing a scalable launch system intended to support national security and commercial missions while building Canada’s launch workforce and supply chain. The company aims to make two models of rocket capable of delivering 6,500-kilogram payloads to low-Earth orbit – a light-lift version that can be ready to go within 96 hours of a call and a reusable medium-lift one. The firm plans to pursue a partnership-driven development model, working with Canadian suppliers to localize production and build out a resilient launch supply chain. Canada Rocket Company

Toronto-based real estate AI company Mave raised $5 million in a seed funding round. The round included participation from Staircase Ventures, along with returning investors Relay Ventures, N49P, and Alate Partners. As part of the round, Staircase Ventures founder and managing partner Janet Bannister will join the Mave board. Real estate agents use Mave’s tools to generate and post content to promote their listings online. Alongside the launch of Mave’s new AI platform, the company said the funding will accelerate engineering and product expansion. Mave also announced its partnership with myAbode and its agent and brokerage services platform to integrate Mave’s solution with myAbode’s 10,000+ realtor network nationwide. Business Wire

Vehicle parts maker Martinrea International Inc. bought a 10-percent equity stake in Waterloo, Ont.-based AI startup Polyalgorithm Machine Learning Inc. (PolyML) for $1.5 million, in an agreement that gives Martinrea the exclusive right to use PolyML’s technology in the automotive industry. PolyML’s novel, proprietary Fiins AI technology serves as the core intelligence behind Martinrea’s adaptive welding software platform, which is driving significant improvements in weld quality, efficiency and energy usage. Martinea said the initial investment is expected to grow to $3 million over the next two years, representing a 20-percent interest, subject to conditions. Martin Rea International

Vaughn, Ont.-based waste management company GFL Environmental Inc. announced it relocated its executive headquarters from Vaughan to Miami Beach, Florida. The company's jurisdiction of incorporation will remain in Ontario. GFL said the relocation is intended to broaden the company’s shareholder base via eligibility for inclusion in major U.S. equity indices. The relocation will not impact GFL's eligibility for inclusion in Canadian stock indices, including the TSX 60, the company said. The move follows a trend of Canadian companies redomiciling to tap U.S. capital markets, with firms such as Brookfield Asset Management and RB Global relocating to New York and Chicago, respectively. GFL Environmental

Toronto-based enterprise learning platform Docebo bought the private French upskilling platform 365Talents for approximately US$54.6 million. The 365Talents platform uses AI agents to help enterprises understand workforce skill gaps and guide employees toward appropriate roles, projects and development opportunities. Docebo said it intends to maintain the 365Talents brand while integrating the two platforms into one product. Both companies will continue to support customers as usual, with the 365Talents leadership team continuing to lead the business. By combining with 365Talents’ learning platform, Docebo said it can now manage skills detection, development, and deployment. BetaKit

Boston-based Dynatrace acquired Toronto-based DevCycle for an undisclosed amount to bring DevCycle’s progressive rollout features to Dynatrace’s software monitoring platform. DevCycle’s feature flags and experimentation software allows updates to be introduced in controlled phases, go through an A/B test, and then be rolled back if proven problematic. DevCycle said its platform can help safely roll out large language models and prompts, or limit usage to small cohorts. It can also measure the quality and cost of production in AI model variants through A/B testing. Dynatrace

REPORTS & POLICIES

Canada must couple its research strength in AI by investing in “venture scientists” and their startups: Mila

Canada captures only a fraction of the value created by its AI breakthroughs, despite hosting about 10 percent of the world’s top AI researchers, according to a new report by Mila - Quebec AI Institute and Bain & Company global management consulting firm.

In 2024, two-thirds of high potential Canadian led startups that raised more than $1 million were headquartered outside Canada, the report said.

That same year, Canada deployed $2 billion in venture capital toward AI startups (those that raised more than $1 million) – less than two percent of global AI VC investment.

Nearly 40 percent of Canadian VC investment comes from the U.S., and two-thirds of Canadian startups are backed by American venture capital.

The small Canadian VC investment is despite Canada being home to multiple A.M. Turing Award-winning pioneers – including Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Richard Sutton.

Canada also benefits from a dense scientific landscape, with a number of leading universities (McGill University, Université de Montréal, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, University of Alberta) and national AI research centers (CIFAR, Amii, the Vector Institute). Mila alone unites 1,400 advanced AI researchers and professors from several affiliated universities.

“Canada has proven it can lead in AI science. Now it needs the on-ramps that help researchers turn breakthroughs into companies that start and scale here, so we are not just a farm team but a place where enduring companies get built, before the window closes,” Stéphane Marceau, managing director at Mila Ventures, said in a statement.

“That means faster paths to founding, strong operator partners, and early access to capital, compute, and real-world testing. If we get it right, we keep talent and value in Canada,” he said.

Last week, Mila partnered with multi-stage software investor Inovia to launch the Venture Scientist Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund designed to transform frontier AI research and scientific expertise from Canada’s leading academic institutions into impactful and enduring AI-native companies.

Combining Mila’s concentration of AI scientists and frontier research with Inovia’s deep fund management expertise, the Venture Scientist Fund is designed to translate this opportunity into a structured, repeatable pathway from research to company creation.

Unlike traditional vehicles, the Venture Scientist Fund is integrated with Canada’s three national AI Institutes’ venture creation programs and research ecosystem, enabling engagement at the earliest stages of company formation, often before a startup formally exists.

The fund target size is US$100M, with plans to invest in about 55-plus AI-native companies emerging from Canada’s dense scientific landscape.

Canada is well-positioned to unlock generational value from its scientific edge by empowering venture scientists – technology leaders who translate research breakthroughs into venture-scale companies, the report by Mila and Bain and Company noted.

Canada’s venture ecosystem has an estimated $11.5 billion in available “dry powder,” and AI represents about 30 percent of Canadian VC investment.

While still subscale, the share of capital directed toward AI opportunities is growing rapidly. In 2024, AI represented 30 percent of Canadian VC investment – nearly double its 2022 share of 16 percent.

“The limiting factor is not the availability of individual building blocks, but the absence of coordinated mechanisms that can rapidly align capital, talent and execution when founders are ready to build and scale,” the report said.

“Bridging this gap requires individuals who can operate fluently across research, venture formation, and early execution – capabilities that are increasingly embodied in the role of the venture scientist.”

Venture scientists have already shaped and influenced several of the world’s largest companies, including OpenAI and Moderna. It is becoming increasingly clear that tomorrow’s unicorns and decacorns will require a venture scientist as a core founding member, the report said.

Large Canadians corporations must play a role in fostering AI venture activity, the report said. Rather than relying solely on inward-looking AI pilots and initiatives, leading companies can differentiate themselves by co-creating startups with researchers and academic institutions, acting as early customers, partners and investors.

Co-created models – seen in initiatives like the AI Fund in the U.S., Founders Factory in the U.K., and Highline Beta and Koru Labs in Canada – allow corporations to actively co-build AI-native companies, shape use cases and develop strategic AI-first solutions that would be difficult to incubate internally, the report said.

By offering compelling domestic venture-building pathways, Canada could halve founder outflows, effectively doubling the share of entrepreneurs who build locally – from one-third to two-thirds, returning to levels seen in 2015 through 2019.

Aligning venture creation with Canada’s 10-percent share of global AI talent would require more than incremental change. It would require a fivefold increase in AI VC investment – from about $2 billion to about $10 billion annually (two percent to 10 percent of global AI VC investment).

To meet this ambition, Canada’s venture scientists need an empowering and supportive ecosystem that goes beyond research alone, the report said. Building it would require:

• Establishing programs within academic institutions to develop venture-building skills and tool kits.
• Pairing scientists with experienced entrepreneurs and venture capital.
• Facilitating corporate partnerships as real-world testing grounds and early customers of frontier AI startups.
• Providing deep tech and AI startups easier and deeper access to capital at the earliest stages.

Realizing this shift requires not only conviction, decisive action and meaningful change management, but also scale, the report noted.

In the U.S., AI hyperscalers are expected to invest over $500 billion in 2026. The U.S. government’s Genesis Mission aims to maximize impact by coordinating AI discovery across 24 organizations, 17 innovation labs, and 40,000 engineers and scientists.

Canada must align around a focused, breakaway venture scientist strategy before this opportunity escapes, the report said. Every sector can play a role in cultivating and expanding Canada’s AI environment:

• AI and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics researchers: Expand your horizons and look for big problems to solve. Consider becoming venture scientists.
• VC investors: Back frontier innovation with conviction.
• Private equity and pension funds: Rapidly allocate a material portion of your portfolio to support early-stage funds in deep tech and AI.
• Policymakers: Accelerate compute infrastructure development and ease pathways for global talent to study, build and stay in Canada. Support venture scientist development across the country.
• Corporations: Engage as long-term innovation partners, customers, and investors.
• Academic institutions: Empower venture scientists and collaborate at scale to amplify collective impact.

Canada can achieve lasting AI potential by engaging its research, investment, policy and industry ecosystem around a focused strategy that aligns capital, talent and execution, the report said.

"Canada has a unique window of opportunity now to become a global pole to build the next generation of AI companies leveraging its unique deep tech research edge and heritage. This will require a focus on execution and an all-around mobilization to support its venture scientists." said Luca Diomede, a Montreal-based partner at Bain & Company. Mila

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Government needs to combat misinformation and disinformation – the “most significant existential threats to Canadian democracy”

Misinformation and disinformation represent the most significant existential threats to Canadian democracy today, according to a new report by Evidence for Democracy (E4D).

The report, drawing on Canadian research and international best practices, examines how misinformation spreads in Canada, how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence are accelerating its reach, and the consequences for democracy, public trust and marginalized communities.

Marginalized communities have been seriously harmed by disinformation-fueled activities frequently driven by foreign actors using advanced AI technologies and manipulation, the report said.

Simultaneously, low levels of digital media literacy and fallen public trust in traditional news outlets have left Canadians even more vulnerable to misinformation-driven manipulation.

Canada needs targeted government regulation, consistent content moderation and algorithmic transparency on social media platforms, and sustained investment in digital media literacy for Canadians, Trevor Potts, director of research and policy at E4D, wrote in a blog post.

Harms from misinformation and disinformation manifest in very real ways that affect Canadians, including generating malicious sexual deepfakes, sowing public distrust in climate scientists and public health experts, and amplifying hate speech against minority communities, he said.

Disinformation-fuelled activities have seriously harmed marginalized communities, including Indigenous and gender-diverse groups, disrupting their access to social services, “and, in many cases, manifested as physical violence and psychological harm.”

Canada’s unique challenges and vulnerabilities are driven by an increasingly digitalized media landscape dominated by foreign content, a significant decline in public trust for traditional news sources, and the growing influence of very large online platforms, Potts said.

A recent Pollara survey found that nearly one in two Canadians (44 percent) use social media as their primary source of news, echoing a similar finding from Statistics Canada, although TV and radio continue to dominate among those over 50 years of age, according to E4D’s report.

Canada’s media landscape has become increasingly dominated by American-based content, from major news platforms (such as CNN and the New York Times), to content circulated on American social media platforms (such as Twitter/X, Meta) – “leaving Canadian traditional media outlets further estranged.”

Digital platforms now dominate the Canadian media landscape, with social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube as key sources of news for Canadians, particularly younger demographics.

Additionally, Meta’s ban on sharing news in Canada has had a profound impact on Canadian media, resulting in an 85-percent loss of engagement for Canadian news outlets on Facebook and Instagram, proving a major challenge for most Canadian news outlets.

New technological changes in social media and artificial intelligence, as well as unregulated online spaces, facilitate the rapid creation and spread of misinformation, which ultimately amplifies polarization between Canadian communities and erodes Canada’s democratic institutions, according to the report.

The misinformation-driven trucker occupation of Ottawa is the perfect example where misinformation radically altered behaviours and beliefs, and directly led to very real harms for Ottawa residents and businesses, including physical violence, sexual harassment, hate speech, and over $37 million in damages to the city, Potts said.

Leading up to the occupation, misinformation was rampant across social media and actively amplified by so-called “convoy influencers” on Facebook and TikTok, featuring fake photos, deepfake videos of politicians, and posts pushing conspiracy theories, according to E4D’s report.

These included false claims that half of the Ottawa police force had resigned, that an officer on horseback killed a protester, that former prime minister Justin Trudeau had declared martial law, and that 50,000 trucks were involved in the occupation.

As documented in the Ottawa People’s Commission official report, Ottawa residents testified that convoy participants subjected them to physical violence and verbal abuse, toxic fumes and weaponized truck horns, blockaded roads and transit disruptions, incidents of hostility and aggression, and a climate of fear that prevented many from leaving their homes out of safety concerns.

The current trade war with the United States has been intensified by the use of misinformation by key actors, including AI-generated fake images posted by the Trump administration showing Trump in the Canadian Rockies.

Trump’s unfounded statements claiming an “invasion” of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants allegedly crossed borders, as well as false statements about Canada being “one of the highest tariffing nations anywhere in the world” – have since been resoundingly debunked by fact-checkers.

Artificial intelligence, specifically generative AI, allows for the creation of synthetic content indistinguishable from human made content including deepfakes of political actors, the report noted.

This problem extends to research and data pertaining to matters which may impact public trust such as public health and climate policy.

Examples include the manipulation of health data by generative AI systems in the United Kingdom, which saw generative AI models mimic manipulative language and behaviour to produce harmful health advice for British psychiatric patients.

Other examples explore AI-generated fake scientific papers on Google Scholar that directly manipulated environment, health and computing findings, threatening to overwhelm scholarly publishers and compromise scientific integrity more broadly.

“The heightened capacity for misinformation content to target Canadians weakens democratic participation, increases distrust and polarization, and erodes decision-making abilities,” the report said.

“The result is a more divisive society, which – in turn – grows more vulnerable to consuming misinformation content in the modern digital landscape.”

Potts pointed out that while technological innovations have moved quickly, the Canadian government’s legislative and policy responses have been slow-paced and cautious.

Most Canadian laws instead target the harms of misinformation in limited circumstances (e.g. hate speech, defamation and fraud), while attempts to broadly criminalize both misinformation and disinformation (for example, the Online Harms Act, 2024) have faced repeated constitutional challenges, rarely passing into law.

Newer proposals have since focused on high-risk areas (such as  election interference) but have failed to pass through Parliament due to persistent political opposition and legal hurdles, Potts said.

On the positive side, the Government of Manitoba recently took a lead on combatting election misinformation, passing a bill to address deepfakes and misinformation spread during elections.

E4D’s report shows that misinformation has significant impacts on Canadians’ personal beliefs, civic behaviours, and public trust, Potts noted.

Research shows almost two in five Canadians attempted to source health advice online due to a lack of access to health care, with nearly one-third reporting they actually followed through on this advice, and 23 percent suffered negative consequences as a result of doing so, according to E4D’s report.

“Ultimately, efforts to counter misinformation in Canada must be multi-faceted,” Potts said.

“This means we need targeted government regulation, consistent content moderation and algorithmic transparency on social media platforms, and sustained investment in digital media literacy for Canadians.”

The Foreign Interference Commission, in its list of recommendations, criticized the federal government for delayed action, poor coordination and lack of transparency, calling for a federal entity that monitors the domestic online information environment, with the authority to share intelligence across multiple agencies and with civil society.

The Commission also recommended the government pursue a parallel approach based on transparency and civic education, the use of more open-source intelligence, clearer public communication with declassified materials, and mandatory labelling of any AI-generated political content.

Despite Canada’s incremental progress, the country’s approach remains largely fragmented and reactive, rather than proactive, E4D’s report noted.

There is no centralized body with a clear mandate to monitor the domestic information environment, outside of the Security Intelligence Threats to Election Taskforce which collects and analyzes electoral threats.

International best practices, especially the EU Digital Services Act and EU Artificial Intelligence Act, provide models for improved platform accountability, content regulation and risk management – models which we can use to build our own legislation and strategies, Potts said.

The federal government must move beyond fragmented efforts by establishing a centralized entity to monitor Canada’s information environment and enable cross-agency intelligence-sharing, including with civil society, E4D’s report said.

The government must remedy the “evidence” gap, enact targeted legislation against malicious AI-generated content, implement real-time crisis response protocols, and require mandatory transparency measures like labelling, according to the report.

In addition, government must criminalize the failure to adequately monitor online content, responding to the soft law of goodwill monitoring by content platforms.

Finally, a strong response must invest in civic education, digital literacy and trustworthy journalism, ensuring Canadians are equipped to navigate today’s complex information ecosystem that will, presumably, get more advanced, difficult to discern, and more ubiquitous.

“A proactive, transparent, and legally sound strategy is urgently needed to rebuild public trust and safeguard democratic resilience in the digital era,” the report said.

“Canada’s democracy is under threat from misinformation, which is actively undermining evidence and experts, sowing distrust in our institutions, and harming our most vulnerable communities,” Potts said.

“It is essential that we take action to safeguard our democracy and ensure that evidence-informed decision-making continues to build a better future for all Canadians.” Evidence for Democracy

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Researchers examine media’s role in phenomenon of “girlboss” entrepreneurs

Janice Byrne, professor of entrepreneurship at Western University’s Ivey Business School, and Antonio Paco Giuliani of the University of Bologna explored the “girlboss” phenomenon in the startup world.

Their first-of-its-kind study, The rise and fall of the girlboss: Gender, social expectations and entrepreneurial hype, was published in the Journal of Business Venturing.

Using the girlboss as their lens, Byrne and Giuliani analyzed more than 2,600 global news stories to examine the media’s role in shaping public perceptions of women founders and leaders.

What they found reveals a powerful paradox: the same narrative devices the media uses to celebrate successful women can just as easily be turned to discredit them.

Defined as “a collective vision and promise of a possible future, around which attention, excitement and expectations increase over time,” hype is often seen as a positive force for entrepreneurs.

It’s a tool to rally support, attract investment and inspire belief. Stories of bold visionaries, overnight success and ambitious claims ignite investor enthusiasm and capture public imagination.

The media, eager for narratives that inspire and sell, amplify these tales – but often through a particular frame.

“In the way they sculpt their words, emphasize certain things – while completely leaving out others – the media play a key role in actively shaping (or reinforcing) public perceptions toward a phenomenon. Founders are no exception,” Byrne said.

But what begins as celebration can just as quickly turn to skepticism. This shift is part of what researchers call the hype cycle: a pattern that starts with a trigger event, builds through intense engagement and expectation, and ends either in sustained credibility or collapse. Or, as Byrne simplifies it: the boom and the bust.

The term “girlboss” was popularized by Sophia Amoruso, founder of the online fashion retailer Nasty Gal.

Starting from her bedroom in 2006, Amoruso transformed a small eBay store into a booming brand that, by 2012, generated more than $100 million in annual sales and employed over 200 people.

In 2014, she released her bestselling memoir #GIRLBOSS, inspiring a generation of young women to pursue entrepreneurial success on their own terms.

But the momentum was short-lived. Within a year, reports of employee mistreatment surfaced, the company’s finances faltered, and by late 2016, Nasty Gal had filed for bankruptcy.

“By framing women’s success through lenses like personalization, exceptionalism and essentialism, the media built a narrow ideal of the girlboss,” Byrne said. “It’s not that traits like balance or compassion don’t matter, but why do they dominate the story? Do we describe male founders the same way?”

After a surge of hype, media framing began to shift between 2018 and 2021. The narrative turned critical, and the same storytelling devices that once elevated these women were now used to tear them down.

Once praised for their appearance, girlbosses were recast as manipulative, accused of using femininity to deceive. Their drive and ambition, once celebrated, became evidence of arrogance or cruelty.

And perhaps most damaging, their individual failures were treated as collective setbacks for women everywhere, reinforcing the notion that when one woman falls, all women fall with her. Take Elizabeth Holmes, the American biotechnology entrepreneur convicted of fraud in connection with her company, Theranos.

While Byrne and Giuliani agree that the media was right to expose wrongdoing, the press treatment of Holmes went beyond accountability.

In addition to scrutinizing her crimes, coverage fixated on her “villainous” personality – her deep voice, steely demeanor and enigmatic persona. She was cast as a woman who weaponized her gender to manipulate powerful men.

As one article put it, “Holmes’s gender . . . attracted the attention of venture capitalists and powerful older, wealthy white men . . ..”

For her transgressions, Holmes was not only branded a fraud but also a failure for women as a whole. The Economist declared, “Holmes’s tabloid-like saga means female founders have to work twice as hard.”

By contrast, Sam Bankman Fried, who was convicted of acts of fraud and conspiracy with his company FTX, was portrayed by the media as an individual “who made bad choices,” Bryne said.

“The tech industry ‘moved on’ – business as usual – while Holmes’s story became a referendum on whether women founders could be trusted or not,” she said.

By showing how media coverage of the girlboss both celebrated and derailed women entrepreneurs, Byrne and Giuliani illustrated the continued role of gender norms shaping whose ventures get attention, which founders get funded and what counts as “legitimate” entrepreneurship.

“It’s a tiring refrain, but the same patterns of gender bias keep showing up, albeit in more covert forms,” Byrne said.

“The girlboss narrative seemed new and empowering, but it was built on the same old foundations – impossible expectations, personalization over competence and the continued celebration of stereotypically feminine acumen,” she said.

“The seeds of discontent were sewn from the outset, the girl boss’s demise an inevitable eventuality: she was bound to fail. The real question isn’t ‘What’s the next version of the girlboss?’ It’s: ‘Why do we need gendered categories for entrepreneurs at all?’” Western University

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Canadian government spending on climate resilience technologies is “reactive” and mismatched to where climate risks are escalating

Canada’s spending across all three levels of government on climate resilience technologies and the innovation ecosystem that supports them is reactive and relatively non-diversified, according to a new report by MaRS Discovery District and Tailwind Futures.

Most public spending on adaptation measures is triggered by damage, limiting governments’ ability comprehensively to plan, pilot and scale preventative solutions ahead of risk across all sectors, the report said.

“This playbook is the first comprehensive mapping of Canada’s emerging adaptech ecosystem. It is an important first step in understanding venture activity, private and public spending and capital flows towards these solutions,” Ana Gonzalez Guerrero, senior manager of Climate and Cities at MaRS, said in an email to Research Money.

Using Tailwind Futures’ taxonomy, the report’s authors have been able to identify sectors where there is need for further investment and innovation – such as water and sanitation and wildfires – “where we know there is a high demand for solutions, but we aren’t seeing as much venture activity,” she said.

This type of information can help us make more targeted efforts on ecosystem supports, such as MaRS and Definity’s Adaptech Accelerator, she added.

“This playbook seeks to translate climate risk into actionable market signals, as we are able to show where adaptation demand is material and where innovation is lagging,” Guerrero said.

The report’s analysis reveals a stark mismatch between where climate risks are escalating and where market-ready, innovative adaptation solutions are emerging, MaRS said.

“Despite pockets of strong innovation activity, critical gaps in financing, scaling pathways and public-sector adoption are hindering the growth of technologies that could safeguard Canada’s communities and economy.”

The report, Canadian Adaptation and Resilience Innovation Playbook, tracks public and private demand alongside startup and investor activity to identify where climate risk awareness is – and is not – translating into scalable solutions.

Last year, the Insurance Bureau of Canada calculated that insured damages caused by severe weather events across the country exceeded $8 billion – nearly triple the losses in 2023.

The Canadian Climate Institute estimates that the impacts of climate change will slow Canada’s economic growth in 2025 by $25 billion annually, which is equal to 50 percent of projected GDP growth.

Research shows that for every $1 spent on adaptation measures today, an estimated $13 to $15 will be returned through direct and indirect benefits, the report noted.

However, it said: “Overall, the Canadian adaptation innovation landscape remains narrowly concentrated and misaligned with national climate hazard exposure.”

The majority of federal spending of $1.22 billion in 2024 was focused on disaster relief, with 70 percent of adaptation spending allocated to infrastructure; water and sanitation; and cities and settlements, according to the report.

Provincial and territorial spending of $995 million in 2024 was highest in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario (70 percent), due to recent wildfires, floods and major climate events in those regions. Overall, provinces and territories had narrow adaptation spending profiles, with most allocating funds to just a few sectors.

Of the six municipalities (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Halifax) that were reported on, 92 percent of adaptation spending of $1.3 billion in 2024 was directed to water and sanitation, indicating the urgency to repair and upgrade aging water infrastructure and stormwater management systems.

While 96 percent of 27 of Canada’s largest publicly traded corporations recognize climate change as a material threat, only 11 percent disclose quantifiable spending on adaptation and only 15 percent have a formal adaption plan.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, 31 percent of were negatively impacted by severe weather events in 2024.

Mining and rail companies are the most advanced in recognizing and responding to physical impacts; all reported being directly affected by climate change.

There is a growing adaptation presence in Canada’s cleantech sector, with adaptech ventures making up 10 percent of funded climate startups.

However, pure-play adaptation startups currently receive only four percent of total climate funding, the report noted.

Funding is narrowly concentrated, with the bulk of capital being directed toward solutions in food, agriculture and forestry. Meanwhile, the smallest portion of startups are working on solutions in areas where there is high public demand, such as in cities and settlements; water and sanitation; and ecosystems.

“The playbook emphasizes the need to pair venture support with mechanisms that unlock first customers,” Guerrero said.

This includes, for example, procurement pilots, outcome-based contracts and partnerships with municipalities, utilities and large asset owners.

“Creating repeatable adoption pathways is critical to moving solutions from pilots to scale,” she said. It can also further incentivize innovation in areas that are highly needed, such water and sanitation, but where entrepreneurs are less active due to the difficulties they oftentimes face working with public entities.

“In order to crowd-in more private investment and accelerate the scale of solutions, we need to align policy, capital and innovation support around priority climate risks. Adaptation markets will not scale without coordination,” Guerrero said.

The playbook calls for aligned adaptation plans and investment strategies across all levels of governments, ideally using consistent monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

 Once priorities are aligned, governments can more effectively target R&D funding, demonstration projects, accelerators and early-stage capital toward sectors where Canada faces both high risk (such as water and sanitation, and wildfires) and high innovation needs (for example, in health and ecosystems).

The report highlights key areas of opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs, adopters and policymakers:

• Bright spots: The food, agriculture and forestry sector has an established venture pipeline and strong commercial traction and demand. More diversified capital participation is required to support growth without concentrating in a few large ventures.
• Hidden gems: There is clear demand for solutions in water and sanitation, as well as infrastructure, but these areas are currently undercapitalized.

Mechanisms are needed to translate public demand into clearer market pull for innovation, particularly through public procurement pilots that reduce barriers of adoption and demonstration projects.

Capital is required that can enter earlier in the venture lifecycle (including research funding), addressing lack of early-stage funding and limited follow-on pathways.

• Blind spots: Solutions to address emerging risks in health and ecosystems lack defined commercialization pathways, demand signals and early-stage funding. Technologies in this category are sparse, early-stage or absent, signalling a need to create R&D pathways and an integration of adaptation metrics into existing systems to lower barriers to entry.

Public and philanthropic early-stage catalytic funding is necessary to enable initial R&D, prototyping and pilot projects where private investment is not yet viable.

Government and philanthropic funders are critical in the earliest stages (R&D, pre-seed and seed) where market signals remain weak, and venture formation is thin, the report said.

Private investors become increasingly important at seed, early venture and later venture stages, where patient, structured and scale-oriented capital is needed.

More support is needed for translational research and talent pathways (lab-to-market programs, fellowships and university commercialization) to grow venture formation in categories where startup activity is thin.

For corporate and public innovation adopters, pilot projects and providing access to data can shorten validation timeline and accelerate proof of concept.

Companies need to develop clear investment priorities in line with highest exposure and risks. Clear priorities reveal innovation gaps researchers and entrepreneurs can fill.

Government should use innovation-friendly tools to make it easier for public agencies to test and adopt new adaptation solutions in a timely way. They should consider aggregating or standardizing procurement calls across regions facing similar hazards to accelerate scaling of solutions.

Startup founders should look beyond crowded sectors, and concentrate instead on hidden gems and blind spots in areas where we understand there is a high level of climate demand or need that hasn’t translated into spending, such as water and sanitation, infrastructure, industry and commerce, and health.

Recommendations for policymakers include:

• Set the standard: Mandate adaptation tagging, risk disclosure and governance; ensure all levels of government are using standardized adaptation tags, taxonomies and climate-risk disclosures.
• Streamline procurement: Reform procurement and infrastructure programs to foster adaptation innovation adoption.
• Coordinate efforts: Develop and align adaptation plans and investment strategies across jurisdictions; support federal, provincial/territorial, municipal, Indigenous governments in developing adaptation plans where they do not yet exist, grounded in local hazard profiles.; ensure on-going development.

“The playbook’s core message is that adaptation is no longer a niche policy issue, but an emerging market that requires deliberate governance, strengthening adoption and procurement pathways and aligned innovation funding,” Guerrero said.

“Acting on these three priorities would immediately strengthen Canada’s ability to turn climate risk into economic and resilience advantage.” MaRS

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Government needs to swiftly provide solutions to Canada’s housing crisis: Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy

Expanding the GST/HST rebate on housing and helping municipalities reduce development charges and regulatory burdens will help ease Canada’s housing crisis, the Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy said in a report.

The report, Out of Reach: Unlocking Canada’s housing affordability crisis, makes 12 recommendations to achieve key housing goals: lowering prices and increasing supply, cultivating a robust housing sector and improving access to housing for all Canadians.

“All Canadians should be able to access housing without taking on high levels of debt. Municipal, provincial and federal governments all contributed to housing unaffordability; each must now do its part to de-escalate what’s become a national crisis,” said Senator Clément Gignac, chair of the committee.

Among the committee’s key findings were shocking disparities between Canadian municipalities in the average fees and development charges on single-family homes.

Also, depending on the city, it can take anywhere between five months and 31 months for a municipality to render a decision on a development application. In the Greater Toronto Area, however, the full process – from a builder’s first meeting with municipal officials to homes being ready for occupancy – can take up to 11 years.

“The committee believes the severity and urgency of Canada’s housing crisis require swift and coordinated action from all stakeholders and levels of government,” the report said. Among the report’s findings:

• The GST/HST New Housing Rebate allows an individual to recover 36 percent of the GST – or the federal part of the HST – that was paid on a new, substantially renovated or owner-built house that will be owner-occupied. rebate was established in 1991. At the time, 95 percent of newly built homes met the rebate’s criteria. But the rebate has not been updated since its introduction 35 years ago.
• The average level of municipal fees embedded in a single-family home in Toronto is $200,000, while in Moncton and Charlottetown, it is less than $10,000.

The report’s recommendations range from lowering prices and increasing housing supply, to cultivating a robust housing sector, to improving access to housing for all Canadians. Recommendations for the federal government include:

• Consider providing a 100-percent Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax rebate on all new housing valued below $1 million, with the rebate phased out for houses between $1 million and $1.5 million.
• Work with provinces/territories and municipalities to reduce reliance on development charges and explore alternative municipal funding models.
• Invest in a national housing data and accountability framework to track approvals, development charges, construction timelines, number of housing completions, fees, renovation outcomes and affordability targets.
• Provide support to small and medium-sized enterprises in their efforts to modernize Canada’s construction sector, with particular focus on their participation in modular and factory-built housing. Consider offering subsidies to create a demand for modular and factory-built housing in Canada.
• Consider a national home renovation tax credit to help update older homes, improve energy efficiency and accessibility, and support the creation of secondary or multi-unit suites to expand rental supply.
• Study whether regulation should be introduced to restrict the acquisition of residential rental housing by institutional investors. Senate of Canada

THE GRAPEVINE – News about people, institutions and communities

CIFAR appointed Kate Geddie as executive director of research, effective February 1. Geddie has served in the role on an interim basis over the past year and was appointed following a comprehensive and competitive international search. In her interim role, Geddie strengthened strategic alignment, advanced the organization’s evaluation and learning work, and supported its research department through a period of growth and transition, CIFAR said. Geddie brings deep experience in global, interdisciplinary research and research leadership across Canada and Europe. Prior to joining CIFAR, she led public policy research and analysis on higher education, research and innovation, and has held roles at the University of Toronto, the European University Association in Brussels and Universities Canada in Ottawa. CIFAR

Kristan Straub was named the inaugural president and CEO of the Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation (CILGC). Straub, a member of Henvey Inlet First Nation and French River No. 13 First Nation, served for two and a half years as the CEO of Ring of Fire developer Wyloo Metals Canada, before stepping down from the position in October. In his new role, he’ll lead the CILGC in providing loan guarantees to enable Indigenous ownership in major projects, through the $10-billion Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program, first announced in Budget 2024. Straub was chosen following a rigorous national search and competitive process, the CILGC board said. TimminsToday.com

Venture investor Alfred Burgesson is joining the federal government’s AI ministry as a senior advisor. Burgesson will be on leave from his role as founder and CEO of the Halifax, N.S.-based Tribe Network, which helps racialized founders. Burgesson supported the African Canadian Senate Group and the office of Senator Colin Deacon as project lead, gathering data and insights on Black Entrepreneurship in Canada. He is also a co-chair of Canada’s first-ever State of the Youth Report. Alfred Burgesson LinkedIn post

Federally funded global innovation cluster Protein Industries Canada announced that David Dzisiak assumed the role of chair of the board of directors effective January 1, 2026, with Annette Revet transitioning to the role of vice-chair. In addition, Graham Markham will serve as chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee, while Dave Donnan will continue in his role as chair of the Audit and Finance Committee. Dzisiak, who grew up on a family grain farm in Dauphin, Manitoba, had a 35-year career with Dow AgroSciences/Corteva and he was deeply involved in the original design of Protein Industries Canada as a founding director. Protein Industries Canada

Montreal-based Bombardier announced new appointments to its leadership team aimed at supporting long-term growth and advancing strategic investments and mergers and acquisitions, including:

• Sandra Hodgkinson, who joins the company as senior vice-president, strategy and M&As. Hodgkinson has had a distinguished career in corporate strategy, defense and law, including active service in the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General corps
• Stephen M^cCulloughis appointed executive vice-president, engineering product development and Bombardier defense. M^cCullough’s has 36 years’ experience in aircraft design and flight testing, all with Bombardier.
• Paul Sislianis appointed executive vice-president, aircraft sales and Bombardier aftermarket services. Sislian has been at Bombardier for 17 years and previously led business jet manufacturing operations, Bombardier’s aerostructures business and most recently was responsible for aftermarket services and corporate strategy. 
• Mercedes Glockseisenwill succeed Pierre Gagnon, who is retiring in June, as senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Glockseisen has successfully led contracts and legal Services teams within Bombardier for more than 10 years. Bombardier

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University of Calgary quantum researchers discover rule-breaking new uses for diamonds

University of Calgary researchers at the university’s Quantum Nanophotonics Lab made a discovery into the fundamental properties of diamonds and their relation to use in quantum nanophotonics – basically, tiny structures and the physics of how they interact with light.

Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, outlines how researchers were able to demonstrate what’s known as second-harmonic generation – or the conversion of one colour of light to another through changes to the frequency and length of a Lightwave – in diamonds.

Prior to this discovery, diamonds were widely believed to be too symmetrical in their crystalline structure to achieve such optical transformation.

“There is a whole class of applications relating to wavelength conversion that aren’t possible in diamond for reasons that are fundamental and related to the nature of the diamond crystal. So, not only are we kind of breaking the rules by seeing these effects, but we’ve done so in a way where we can control how strongly we are breaking the rules,” said Dr. Paul Barclay, PhD, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and head of the Quantum Nanophotonics Lab.

By leveraging tiny defects in the crystal structure of diamonds, the research team was able to circumvent pre-existing limitations, allowing for new diamond uses in the field of quantum nanophotonics. 

“Diamond is very good at handling a lot of laser power—you can have a lot of power coming in without breaking material,” said Sigurd Flågan, a postdoctoral scholar with the lab who led the experiments leading up to this discovery.  

“So what we can do with our discovery now is, in principle, create an optical switch, laser, or modulator that can handle a lot more power than is currently achievable,” Flågan said. BetaKit

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