GOVERNMENT FUNDING & NEWS 

Federal government lists new West Coast oil pipeline as a project of national interest, over objections of several B.C. First Nations

The Government of Canada referred the proposed West Coast oil pipeline – now called the Pacific Link – to the Major Projects Office (MPO).

Over the past three months, the MPO has conducted rigorous consultations on the pipeline proposal to determine whether this project is in Canada’s national interest, as defined by the core factors outlined in the Building Canada Act, the government said.

The MPO consulted with more than 130 Indigenous communities near or along potential routes in Alberta and British Columbia, as well as with federal departments and the Government of British Columbia.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Ottawa is officially listing the Pacific Link pipeline, which will transport diluted oilsands bitumen oil, as a project of national interest.

Canada and Alberta will share equal ownership of Pacific Link. Indigenous communities will be offered a minimum of 10-percent ownership interest, financed through Canada and Alberta’s Indigenous Loan Guarantee Programs.

The pipeline is expected cost between $35.2 billion and $43.7 billion, including contingency.

Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a private sector investor and is offering its expertise to project development, which is being led by the Trans Mountain Corporation – the company that recently built the largest oil pipeline to Canada’s West Coast.

The new pipeline will follow a southern route which protects British Columbia’s North Coast and avoids highly sensitive ecosystems, including the Great Bear Sea.

Over the next year, the MPO, supported by the Canada Energy Regulator, will lead the federal review process and consultations with all stakeholders on the conditions for this project – including the ownership, benefits, respect for Indigenous rights, environmental protections, and local hiring and oversight – with Indigenous Peoples involved from the start.

The MPO will work to finalize those conditions by September 1, 2027, clearing the way to get shovels in the ground. Ottawa said it expects to spend roughly $4 billion advancing Pacific Link over the next 11 months ahead of the September 1, 2027 deadline.

This means that as the project proponents work over the next year to develop a final concept – from community consultations to route mapping, ecological surveys, cost estimates, procurement and workforce planning – they will do so with confidence that the federal government supports this project, Ottawa said.

Pacific Link will reduce dependence on the United States by allowing Canada to export an additional one million barrels a day to growing markets in Asia. It will create 140,000 jobs across the country and generate over $20 billion in GDP per year, and $100 billion in government revenue by 2060, the government said.

The designation doesn’t guarantee the pipeline will be built. Cabinet made the decision despite Indigenous groups telling the government they needed more time to assess the megaproject.

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) said the government’s incomplete consultation process ignored First Nations inherent and constitutionally protected title and rights, as well as  the dangerous impacts of increased fossil fuel extraction and transmission.

“The Pacific Link pipeline is unique in that it has tossed aside the fundamental pillars of our relationship in terms of respect, in terms of shared communication, and taking up lands in our territories without any form of credible consultation,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of UBCIC

“This is not a cake walk, this is not a ‘gimme,’ this will be hard-fought in the court rooms, and if necessary, with boots on the ground,” he said.

UBCIC said it opposes advancing the pipeline and associated tanker traffic at the expense of First Nations’ territories, livelihoods and future generations.

"The West Coast pipeline project will have big impacts on the Salish Sea – one of the world's most productive inland marine ecosystems – increasing shipping noise, pollution and destroying estuary habitat,” said Margot Venton, lawyer and nature director at Ecojustice.

“Routine operation of the marine terminal at Roberts Bank will have big impacts on salmon, migratory birds and could push the Southern Resident Killer Whale further towards extinction. But a spill or accident involving the proposed very large crude carriers would be catastrophic for the entire region."

"Getting our resources to Asia-Pacific markets is a path to more production, prosperity and a brighter future for workers, their families and communities,” said Bryan Detchou, senior director of natural resources, environment and sustainability for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“This path will strengthen Canada's role on the world stage, connecting our resources with new customers while helping support the stability and resilience of global supply chains, and reinforcing our reputation as a trusted partner to our allies,” Detchou said.

“Even if the downsized Pathways carbon capture project is one day operational, the new pipeline will substantially increase greenhouse gas emissions from the Alberta oilsands, which are already Canada’s single largest driver of climate change,” said Janetta McKenzie, director of the oil and gas program at the Pembina Institute.

No major private pipeline company has stepped forward to take over the Pacific Link project.

Trans Mountain will lead its initial development, the Government of Alberta is participating through the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission, and Pembina Pipeline has a 10-percent economic interest through construction (with an opportunity to increase that later). Prime Minister of Canada

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Ottawa investing more than $1 billion to strengthen ocean conservation, protect marine life and bolster Indigenous partnerships and conservation efforts on the West Coast

The Government of Canada is investing more than $740 million over the next four years to strengthen ocean conservation, including:

• Renewing several existing measures in the Oceans Protection Plan that advance marine science, protect ecosystems and strengthen incident prevention and preparedness.

• Supporting major project expansion on Canada’s West Coast: In expectation of significant projected growth in marine shipping associated with major energy, liquefied natural gas, port, and resource development projects on British Columbia’s coast, the Canadian Coast Guard will enhance marine safety, security, environmental protection and spill response readiness.
• Improving prediction of near-shore ocean conditions for incident response with integrated marine response planning: Fisheries and Oceans Canada will develop a nearshore ocean modelling system that will create timely, targeted predictions of ocean conditions for planning and incident response related to major coastal infrastructure and development projects.
• Recovery from environmental emergencies: In collaboration with federal and Indigenous partners, Environment and Climate Change Canada will finalize tools to operationalize environmental recovery from ship-source marine pollution incidents, including spills of hazardous and noxious substances and other high-volume commercial chemicals with unknown environmental impact.
• Modernizing Transport Canada’s marine safety and oversight systems: Through this initiative, Transport Canada will replace outdated platforms used for cargo inspections, port state control, pleasure craft licensing, domestic vessel oversight and seafarer certification.
• Modernizing Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s conservation and protection: Canada is strengthening the protection, conservation and sustainable use of Canada's oceans and aquatic resources by modernizing Canada's fisheries law enforcement.

The federal government also is investing $136 million over the next four years in initiatives that protect marine life and build on recent whale protection measures, including:

• Marine mammal spill response: Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) will build upon existing investments in the Marine Mammal Response Program to establish an enhanced marine mammal spill response plan, supporting external partners to improve their readiness to spills, and standardizing protocols, training and investing in equipment.
• Expanding ocean noise science and management across Canada's oceans: DFO will advance new regionally-tailored initiatives to better understand and manage underwater noise in areas experiencing increased marine activity, including the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence.
• Assessing and monitoring underwater noise impacts on marine mammals in the Arctic: DFO will establish an Arctic underwater noise and marine mammal monitoring program to assess the impacts of increasing vessel traffic associated with major projects.

In addition, the federal government is investing $186 million to strengthen Indigenous partnership and conservation efforts led by communities. This includes:

• The Northern Shelf Bioregion Reconciliation Framework Agreement: In line with a renewed Oceans Protection Plan, Canada will support long-term ecosystem protection and sustainable management in true partnership with First Nations by expanding the Northern Shelf Bioregion Reconciliation Framework Agreement.
• Investment in Indigenous-led stewardship, restoration and cumulative-effects management in the Lower Fraser River and estuary: The federal government is currently negotiating an initiative to establish Indigenous-led stewardship, restoration, and cumulative effects management in the Lower Fraser River and estuary and other areas. Prime Minister of Canada

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The Government of Ontario is prepared to foot part of the bill for a proposed pipeline that would carry crude oil from Alberta to Sarnia, Ont., Premier Doug Ford said. Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the pipeline plan, called the Northern Shield Energy Corridor, in July. The 3,300-kilometre conduit would move roughly 500,000 barrels of oil per day across four provinces. The Ontario government has yet to determine its exact contribution. It wouldn’t seek to be a majority partner in the project, but the investment would be “substantial,” Ford told reporters. Ford said he believes investing public dollars in the Northern Shield project is the right decision, given the substantial economic gains the proposal presents Ontario and the rest of Canada. Filling the pipeline, however, would require significant investment from oil producers to pump more barrels into the market. And it would be a major financial undertaking for a private backer at a time when domestic energy companies have shown little appetite for such risk. Unlike the Pacific Link pipeline to the West Coast, the Alberta-Ontario proposal has no formal federal backing. The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new National Council on Artificial Intelligence to bring together public and private stakeholders and advise on the evolution of the federal government’s AI for All strategy, including accelerating adoption, fostering national champions, and building sovereign AI infrastructure. Its members will advise on making AI safer, protecting our democracy, and ensuring that all Canadians prosper from AI. The Council will convene Canada’s leading thinkers, builders, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, public servants and international experts to advise on current challenges associated with AI, while helping to generate new ideas, partnerships, AI-focused missions and initiatives. This includes world-leading experts on AI safety, governance, and oversight. The 13 members of the Council are:

• Ajay Agrawal, co-founder of Creative Destruction Lab and Intrepid Growth Partners.
• Yoshua Bengio, scientific director at Law Zero.
• Sanja Fidler, CEO of Veeda AI.
• John Graham, CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
• Gillian Hadfield, alignment and governance professor at Johns Hopkins University.
• Jordan Jacobs, manager partner at Radical Ventures.
• Eric Lamarre, McKinsey advisor.
• Valérie Pisano, president and CEO of Mila.
• Senator Thomas Pitfield.
• Jody Thomas, former national security advisor.
• Louis Vachon, former National Bank of Canada leader.
• Michelle Zatlyn, president of Cloudflare.
• Patrick Pichette (ex officio), CEO of the federal government’s Digital Transformation Agency.

Canada’s AI strategy is built around three clear objectives: building trust in AI, expanding opportunity for Canadians, and strengthening Canada’s sovereign control over critical AI capabilities, the government said. “With the advice of the new National Council on Artificial Intelligence, the government will focus on turning Canadian innovation into stronger companies, better public services, good jobs and greater economic security.” Prime Minister of Canada

Following a report stating Canadian government systems were targeted by AI agents, Canada’s digital security agency says there’s no indication anything was compromised. AI research firm Transluce said it discovered several incidents where AI agents appeared to use “aggressive techniques” to access publicly available data on Canadian government websites. This included an attempted attack against Library and Archives Canada (LAC), which Transluce said failed.  Transluce said it alerted the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, which confirmed in a public statement that there is no indication that government systems were compromised “at this time.”  Transluce’s report said it captured 899 requests hitting the “collection-search” service of LAC associated with retrieving data on divorce records in Canada from between the years 1905 and 1911. However, 13 of these requests carried “attack payloads” that were looking for vulnerabilities. Communications Security Establishment Canada said that public-facing government websites routinely receive requests like this, and that it’s an “ongoing feature of the online environment and does not, on its own, indicate a successful cyber incident.” BetaKit

A Canadian company that has created software to help people living under oppressive regimes evade censorship and retain access to the internet says it plans to leave Canada if the Government of Canada’s lawful-access bill passes in its current form. Toronto-based Psiphon, which has millions of users worldwide including in Iran, Russia and China, told The Globe and Mail it has started drawing up plans to move its operations out of Canada. The company said the bill would force it to compromise crucial safety features put in place to protect the privacy of its users in authoritarian countries. Psiphon this year received about $600,000 in federal funding from the National Research Council to help improve its network. Psiphon, whose origins were at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, said it has about 20 million monthly users worldwide, and the use of its software tends to surge when there is a spike in repression. The Canadian tech company has about 3.5 million users a month in Myanmar, formally Burma, where the military junta has used internet blackouts to cut off communication channels and banned the use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, that encrypt a user’s internet traffic and can disguise the location where they are connecting to the internet from. Psiphon has devised technologies, including a VPN, to evade censorship, as well as complex routing protocols, using servers located around the world, and other security mechanisms to allow people to access the internet without being tracked.  The lawful-access bill, known as Bill C-22, would require telecoms, internet companies and other electronic service providers to make changes to their systems to give surveillance and monitoring capabilities to police services and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The Globe and Mail

The Government of Canada is seeking “associated country” status under the European Union’s Cloud and AI Development Act. This would let Canadian tech firms bid on sensitive and critical infrastructure contracts otherwise off-limits to companies outside the 27-nation bloc, according to a leaked draft joint statement by Ottawa and Brussels, and obtained by POLITICO. The two parties plan to say at their summit in Montreal later this month that they want to speed up investment in critical mineral projects, strengthen supply chains and improve supply security, including by stockpiling critical resources to mitigate “market fluctuations and geopolitical impacts.” "We will align strategies and standards, connect industries, and focus our ambitions on sectors with greatest returns for our peoples. This includes the development of low-carbon, reliable energy that much of the world is hungry for, from liquified natural gas to hydro, solar, wind, and nuclear." Ottawa and Brussels will also announce the joint purchase of 50 De Havilland water bombers, to be ready for use in Canada and Europe in 2030 to fight wildfires. POLITICO

Canada and the European Union plan to link next-generation payment systems to enable faster cross-border transactions, according to a draft joint statement prepared for a summit between Ottawa and Brussels later this month. This will help remove obstacles to business and investment between the two jurisdictions, according to the statement, an early version of a summit communiqué that was viewed by The Globe and Mail. It adds that the new partnership will be called an “Alliance for the Future.” The draft statement doesn’t detail what next-generation payment systems include, but this term has been used by others to refer to a major upgrade of a country’s core payment infrastructure, usually built around real-time payments. The core infrastructure is a central set of systems that clear and settle payments between financial institutions. Fintechs Canada said it supports the initiative, “but global links start at home.” Canada's new instant-payment system, the Real-Time Rail (RTR), is scheduled to begin a phased launch later this year, “and Canada can only plug into international rails once it succeeds here,” said Adriana Vega, executive director of Fintechs Canada. “The real test will be how much of Canada's payment volume actually moves onto the rail, and whether all participants, including fintechs, have fair access to connect and compete,” she said. Fintechs Canada is calling on government and Payments Canada to publish a regular, public adoption scorecard to track progress. “Linking the RTR to international systems before it is widely used at home would add complexity to an already demanding rollout,” Vega noted. Vass Bednar, managing director of the Canadian Shield Institute think tank, pointed out that several major European digital payment networks and wallet providers, including Bizum, Bancomat and Wero, are joining forces to create a cross-border payments network that would challenge the U.S. dominance of payment systems. The Globe and Mail

The federally supported, Atlantic Canada region-based Canada’s Ocean Supercluster announced its largest project to date with the $51-million Marine Donut Adaptation and Commercialization Project led by Bluegreen. This project will adapt and commercialize the Marine Donut®, a fully closed containment aquaculture technology system, and will include six key technologies designed specifically for the Pacific Ocean environment. With the global demand for sustainable protein rising, aquaculture is expected to play a key role in meeting that demand, presenting a significant opportunity for Canada. “This technology will contribute to sustainable growth opportunities for salmon farming in British Columbia and help position the $1.2-billion sector for long-term success,” the global innovation cluster said. The project is led by Campbell River, B.C.-based Bluegreen with support from local Wei Wai Kum First Nation in Campbell River, BC. With a total project value of $51 million, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is investing $14.5 million, with the balance of funding coming from project partners. In collaboration with North Island College, Bluegreen will help build local capacity by recruiting students from local First Nations to join the training program. The program will train up to 140 students in thermoplastic manufacturing in small cohorts of 10 students each. Bluegreen will also recruit and train five to 10 Marine Donut operators. Canada’s Ocean Supercluster

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced a $66.3-million investment, through the Green Municipal Fund’s Community Efficiency Financing and Sustainable Affordable Housing initiatives, for 162 projects across Canada to help people access home energy retrofit financing and build more energy-efficient, affordable and resilient homes. Delivered through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund, these projects will help Canadians lower energy costs, improve housing affordability, and strengthen communities in the face of a changing climate while supporting Canada’s transition to a cleaner, more competitive economy. Municipalities and local delivery partners will make it easier for homeowners to undertake energy-saving upgrades such as improved insulation, high-efficiency windows, heat pumps and other retrofit measures. By helping Canadians improve the efficiency of their homes, these projects will reduce energy consumption, lower household costs, strengthen community resilience and support the long-term infrastructure needed to build a stronger, more affordable, and more sustainable future for Canada, ECCC said. ECCC

The Government of Canada said it will not try to recover any of the at least $34 million in ineligible funding paid out by the so-called “green slush fund,” saying such efforts would not be in the public interest. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly quietly made the revelation in a response tabled last week to questions by Conservative MP Luc Berthold on the now defunct Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). SDTC was a scandal-plagued cleantech fund derogatively referred to as the “green slush fund” by Conservative MPs. It was dissolved in 2024 by then industry minister François-Philippe Champagne after a scathing report by Canada’s Auditor General on the organization. Joly said roughly $34 million was paid out by SDTC to ineligible recipients who applied and performed “in good faith.” “Therefore, as a matter of fairness and sound stewardship of public funds, it was determined that further pursuit of recoveries was not likely to be successful, and not in the public interest,” her response said. In a statement, Berthold and colleague Aaron Gunn lambasted the decision, which they said flies in the face of the will of MPs of all political stripes. In 2024, the Commons Public Accounts committee unanimously expressed “extreme concern with the blatant disregard of taxpayer funds” called on the government to recoup them. In her 2024 report, Auditor General Karen Hogan found that of the 58 SDTC-funded projects she audited, 10 were ineligible for such funding totalling $59 million. Furthermore, she found 90 cases where an SDTC board member participated and voted in a discussion about a contract despite being in a conflict of interest. Hogan also found the organization had serious governance issues. National Post

See also: Trouble-plagued Sustainable Development Corporation is now officially history

Ottawa shutting down SDTC and transferring its programs to the National Research Council

ANALYSIS: Government needs to fix problems at Canada’s main cleantech funding organization

Four astronauts, including Canadian Joshua Kutryk, boarded the International Space Station (ISS) last week for a joint NASA-SpaceX mission. After nearly eight hours of flight, the Crew-13 team greeted their colleagues already on board the station with hugs. NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov made up the rest of the new crew on board SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. They will conduct several experiments, mostly focused on health research, during their time on the ISS, some of which are Canadian. Kutryk will test a new physical training protocol for astronauts and take part in Canadian experiments related to mental health, bone density, cardiorespiratory health, perception of orientation, anemia and ocular rigidity. He will also perform technology demonstrations that will help advance space exploration and improve life on Earth. Kutryk is expected to carry out regular maintenance and repair tasks on the Station, as well as support a broad range of operations, including a vast array of robotics activities and spacewalks. Canadian Space Agency

The Government of Ontario’s spending to lower electricity prices for residents, businesses and other consumers reached an all-time high last year, its financial statements show. The government’s public accounts report spending of nearly $6.9-billion on electricity price mitigation programs during the fiscal year ended on March 31. That is equivalent to more than half of the government’s $13-billion deficit in the same period – and is nearly enough to pay for a new nuclear reactor the province is building. In recent years, the government has offered more than half a dozen programs intended to lower rates for various consumer classes. The largest, the Comprehensive Electricity Plan, was introduced in 2021 to remove most of the cost of renewable electricity generation contracts from power bills for large and mid-sized industrial and commercial consumers. Its cost has held steady since 2022 at about $3.2-billion annually. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) the province’s largest generator, sought in its latest rate application to significantly increase payments it receives for power generated by its nuclear plants. If approved, OPG expected that a typical resident’s bill would increase nearly $8 a month in the next year, followed by smaller increases every year between 2028 and 2031. The Globe and Mail

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe unveiled the province’s nuclear energy plan, including a power production goal within 24 years. Under the plan, the province aims to produce at least 2,600 megawatts (MW) of nuclear power by 2050. By comparison, Ontario’s Pickering Nuclear Generating Station produces 2,100 MW of electricity, powering 1.5 million homes annually. “Nuclear power will be a cornerstone of a reliable, affordable and secure electricity system in Saskatchewan,” Crown Investments Corporation Minister Jeremy Harrison said. The government’s plan contains four priorities:

1. Building electricity capacity for long-term growth.
2. Incorporating large nuclear reactors into electricity supply planning.
3. Continuing nuclear development in Estevan. SaskPower has selected the Rafferty site near Estevan for further study for small modular reactor (SMR) deployment. SaskPower continues to advance planning for potential SMR deployment and a goal of delivering at least 600 MW of power. 
4. Building on nuclear capabilities already established

The first priority is focused on nuclear energy providing a reliable source of non-emitting electricity to strengthen the reliability of the power grid and meeting growing demand.

Incorporating large reactors will see SaskPower begin planning for the potential development of such reactors in northwestern Saskatchewan. Moe said more than 2,000 of the 2,600-megawatt goal will come from large-scale nuclear reactors, the first of which is planned to come online by 2042. Govt. of Saskatchewan

Part 2 of a 2-part public hearing held by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) will take place from October 6 to 9, 2026, to consider an application from Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to renew the power reactor operating licence for the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station and the waste facility operating licence for the Pickering Waste Management Facility. The CNSC will also consider the proposed refurbishment of PNGS Units 5 to 8. During Part 2 of the hearing, the Commission will consider further oral and written submissions from CNSC staff and OPG, as well as oral and written interventions from Indigenous Nations and communities, members of the public and other interested parties. Details about the hearing, including the recording of Part 1, which was held on June 23, 2026, can be found on the CNSC website. Groups like the Canadian Environmental Law Association and the Ontario Clean Air Alliance oppose the renewal and multi-billion dollar refurbishment of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, citing safety, environmental, and cost concerns. The City of Pickering and local chambers support the extension to protect regional jobs and maintain clean base-load power. CNSC

Four former deans of medicine in Alberta have joined a growing chorus of critics asking the Government of Canada to intervene in the Government of Alberta’s dual-practice health care model, which allows eligible doctors to toggle between the public and private systems. Tom Feasby, Jon Meddings and Eldon Smith, all previously with the University of Calgary, and Tom Marrie, who was with the University of Alberta, sent a letter on the contentious issue to Prime Minister Mark Carney. They expressed “deep concern” about the public-private model and assert it violates the Canada Health Act. “It is clear that the Alberta government is not going to change course and, therefore, we strongly request that you and the federal government step in and defend the principles of the Canada Health Act,” said the letter, which was also sent to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Alberta’s model is unlike any other in Canada, allowing some surgical specialists to bill the public purse while also privately charging patients for their services. The legislation, which took effect September 1, covers such procedures as hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and dermatology. The former deans said dual practice will harm patients by allowing those who can afford private care to jump to the front of the line, rather than providing care to the sickest first. The Globe and Mail

 The Bank of Canada published background information on Prima, the Banks’s new model for projection and policy analysis. It builds on the economic foundations of earlier Bank models, adding detail on how sectoral pressures affect production costs and their pass-through to consumer prices. Prima was born out of central banks’ failure to anticipate runaway inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic. Central bankers and their models were conditioned to see inflation as a demand-driven phenomenon, which meant they were blind to supply shocks caused by “black swan” events such as health lockdowns and raging wildfires. Testing suggests Prima’s ability to process granular sectoral data might have detected that inflationary pressures were gathering sooner than previous methods. “Prima does not eliminate uncertainty or the need for judgment,” the central bank said. Prima’s official debut will be at the central bank’s next interest rate decision on October 28, 2026. The Logic

The high-speed Alto rail line from Toronto to Quebec City is expected to cost between $75 billion and $113 billion, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO). The spending watchdog’s estimate of what it will cost to build the rail line is somewhat higher than the $60 billion to $90 billion estimate from the Via Rail subsidiary in charge of the project. The PBO also estimated that construction would provide a modest economic stimulus; for the initial Ottawa-Montreal segment, construction is estimated to increase real GDP annually by about $1.8 billion in 2029 and $2 billion by 2033, with employment gains rising from approximately 4,300 to 9,000 jobs during the construction period. The PBO acknowledged that there’s enormous uncertainty in any estimate, with no route yet decided and a single kilometre of track costing tens of millions of dollars for planning, land acquisition and construction. Tunnels and elevated structures are major construction cost drivers. Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer

The Government of Alberta said plans for high-speed rail service between Calgary and Edmonton are moving forward, with new commitments from the Alberta and federal governments. The Alberta government it is preparing to launch a formal process for private-sector proponents of the rail project to submit proposals. Through Alberta’s Passenger Rail Master Plan, the government found that high-speed rail service between Edmonton and Calgary through Red Deer with more than one train an hour was a "feasible" project "that could generate the greatest benefits for Alberta over 30 years." The plan, which included a rail network more than 500 kilometres long that also includes service between Calgary and Banff and all-day service to and from the Calgary and Edmonton airports, also came with a $15-million investment over the next three years. After the formal request for proposals is launched, Alberta plans to select a private-sector proponent for the project by April 2027, with minimal financial investment expected from the provincial government. Alberta’s announcement also came with a commitment from the Government of Canada that the project corridor will be referred to the federal Major Projects Office. CBC News

The Royal Canadian Air Force partnered with London, Ont.-based Fanshawe College to deliver aviation maintenance training starting in January 2027. The $34.4-million, four-year contract is one of the largest ever awarded to a Canadian postsecondary institution. Through this partnership, the civilian college will deliver and maintain a Transport Canada-approved academic curriculum at the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Technology and Engineering (CFSATE) at Canadian Forces Base Borden. This program will enhance training for Aviation Systems Technicians, Avionics Systems Technicians, and Aircraft Structures Technicians and develop personnel who are prepared to support today's advanced aircraft and increasingly sophisticated aerospace capabilities in the years ahead. CFSATE will remain an RCAF military training establishment, whose instructors and staff will continue to lead the training environment, uphold military standards, provide operational context and deliver military-specific instruction. Instructors from Fanshawe College will deliver curriculum from its Norton Wolf School of Aerospace, Information and Defence Technologies. Through this initiative, CFSATE candidates training at CFB Borden will earn the Fanshawe College credentials associated with the equivalent civilian programs aligned with Canadian civil aerospace standards. Aviators will graduate as qualified technicians prepared to apply their skills in support of RCAF operations. National Defence

The Government of Alberta’s plan to attract $100 billion in data centre development appears to be working. Alberta currently has 22 data centres in operation, with dozens more proposed or in some phase of development. Last week, a handful more were added to that list. Some four-and-a-half hours northwest of Edmonton near Sexsmith, Alta., Grand Prairie County has issued a development permit for an AI data centre, signing off on a proposal for five 80-foot by 180-foot buildings and 15 eight- by 20-foot make-up air generators – HVAC devices that pull fresh air indoors – filed by an undisclosed applicant. In Edmonton, Walton Global Investments, a private real estate and land asset management company from Calgary, has submitted applications to the City of Edmonton requesting changes to its planning documents that would make it easier to build data centres in the city. That comes as the company, which has offices in Hong Kong, Arizona, and Taiwan, plans to build a hyperscale-ready data centre campus at the Edmonton Energy and Technology Park. Further south, a $300-million, five-megawatt AI research lab and data centre has been proposed by Canadian company Wave Infra alongside a tract of land near the Highway 2 corridor between Calgary and Edmonton. BetaKit

The Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario (FedNor) announced an investment of more than $20.5 million to support of 22 projects led by Community Futures Development Corporations (CFDCs) across Northern Ontario. The FedNor funding will help strengthen communities, support businesses and startups, create local jobs and support economic development and growth across Northern Ontario. Last year alone, the Community Futures Program supported 1,092 businesses and more than 1,100 jobs across the region. Across the country, CFDCs are helping entrepreneurs start or expand their businesses and investing in communities to strengthen the economy. In Northern Ontario, 24 of these community-based, not-for-profit organizations provide a full range of business development services, including access to capital, mentoring, information and referrals, as well as support for community economic development and special projects. FedNor

The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) announced nearly $26 million, to support the growth of 31 businesses and organizations across the Greater Toronto Area. The investments, through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI), will help recipients adopt new technologies, increase production, strengthen supply chains and diversify into new markets. As part of this announcement, Scarborough-based Oxygen8 Solutions Inc., which designs and manufactures energy-efficient HVAC and indoor air quality systems for commercial and institution buildings, will receive more than $2.5 million from FedDev Ontario for a $15.5-million project to expand domestic manufacturing capabilities. FedDev Ontario

The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) announced an investment of $800,000 for Ottawa-based H2 Analytics Inc. to support the company’s more than $4.2-million project as it works to address the training needs of defence and security sectors. Through its AI-driven Exercise Architect Suite (EASE®) platform, the company streamlines the development and deployment of realistic intelligence simulations at scale. The investment will support upgrades to the company’s EASE® platform, enhancing functionality, adaptability and use. These improvements will enable users to design and manage more complex training exercises, support multilingual coordination and improve system performance as operational demands grow. The company will also accelerate expansion into international markets. FedDev Ontario

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a landmark AI regulation banning Golden State employers from relying solely on artificial intelligence to fire or discipline workers. The “No Robo Bosses Act” prevents businesses around the state from exclusively using “automated decision-making systems” and restricts AI’s use as a “principal tool” in these worker decisions. Under the bill, employers that rely “primarily” on AI output to make termination or disciplinary decisions must now have a human reviewer corroborate those decisions using additional information, such as managerial evaluations, peer reviews and personnel files. Additionally, affected employees must be provided with written notice that AI was “primarily used” in their termination or disciplinary decision, a description of the employee data used by the system, and a human point of contact who can further explain the decision. Newsom has taken a flurry of recent actions on AI, including signing a broader executive order addressing the potential existential risks posed by AI models “before it’s too late,” and a measure to provide a state framework for independent evaluation and auditing of AI models. CNBC

RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

University of Toronto invests $100 million in a new program for PhD students focused on real-world global challenges

The University of Toronto (U of T) launched an unprecedented $100-million investment in a new program to build a growing fellowship of PhD students focused on real-world global challenges.

The Presidents’ Impact Scholarship Program will seek to attract top PhD applicants from Canada and around the world. It will gather 12 or more PhD scholars annually to work on a specific theme – a major question or vexing problem facing society – in an environment of creative collision and intellectual cross-pollination.

Presidents’ Impact Scholars will receive $80,000 per year for four years. This represents a level of funding comparable to top Ivy League packages and puts these awards in a category of their own nationally.

The program is made possible thanks to an anonymous $50-million commitment – among the largest gifts to doctoral education in Canadian history – and matching funds from the university.

Each year, U of T will select a significant societal challenge – a focus theme such as AI and Health or Sovereignty and the Arctic – and recruit Presidents’ Impact Scholars based on their potential to advance meaningful work in that area. This will build a concentrated cohort of interdisciplinary talent around a unique research theme, which will change annually.

For example, AI and Health as a theme could mobilize fields such as computer science, quantum computing, ethical and regulatory law, ethics and philosophy, social science and AI safety and alignment in a sustained effort to address the multi-faceted challenge of designing, adopting and regulating AI technologies in Canadian health care.

In addition, Presidents’ Impact Scholars will participate in an external engagement experience that enhances their capacity for real-world problem solving. This could mean a government partnership, an international placement or an internship with industry partners undertaking relevant work.

PhD students in the Presidents’ Impact Scholarship Program will work with two faculty supervisors from different disciplines, ensuring they develop the deep interdisciplinary expertise necessary for catalyzing advances in complex fields that span multiple domains of knowledge.

The university will issue a call for applications to the Presidents’ Impact Scholarship Program soon. The inaugural cohort will begin their studies in September 2027. University of Toronto

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Québec City-based laser technology developer Femtum opened a new $2.1-million headquarters at the city’s Metropolitan Technology Park, marking a sixfold expansion of its footprint as it ramps up production for advanced semiconductor manufacturers tied to the AI data centre boom. The company spent four years operating out of the National Optics Institute’s Quantino tech incubator before moving into the new facility, which includes cleanrooms, laboratories and offices. According to the company, the expanded space significantly increases its production capacity and allows research, product development and manufacturing to happen under one roof for the first time. Femtum co-founder and CTO Simon Duval said in a statement that the new labs give the company room to advance research, product development and production side by side, allowing teams to move from idea to prototype and from prototype to delivering a laser to a customer without leaving the building. Duval described the move as the culmination of work that began at Université Laval and the start of a new commercial chapter for the company. CanadianBusinessNews.org

Canada’s largest helium production facility is now operational in southwest Saskatchewan, extracting enough of the gas to fill 180 million party balloons a year. Calgary-based North American Helium Inc. will start supplying the world with more of this crucial gas used not just at birthday parties, but in aerospace, health care and computer chips, filling a gap left by the Middle East conflict. North American Helium said the new facility would account for one percent of the world’s supply of the gas. Qatar had previously been the second-biggest supplier of helium, accounting for one-third of global production. That was until March when Iranian ballistic missiles struck Qatari facilities, with a full recovery expected to take years. The Canadian private helium company expects to produce 73 million cubic feet of helium per year at its Stewart Valley facility north of Swift Current, Sask. The inert gas is  essential for chipmakers while etching circuit paths and for electromagnets in MRI machines. The global market has been undersupplied for the last six months. Regina Leader-Post

Indigenous people are using AI at nearly twice the rate of their non-Indigenous colleagues in some areas of the workplace, according to a new report from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). The report, which examined the broad experiences of Indigenous people in the workplace, found that AI adoption has grown faster among Indigenous people across a variety of education levels and employment types. Conducted between March and April of 2025, the report is part of the Survey on Employment and Skills – a project designed to explore Canadians’ experiences with the changing nature of work. Over the survey period, researchers engaged 281 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people. Individuals between ages 15 and 54 represented the largest cohort. Led by TMU’s Diversity Institute, with research carried out by Environics Institute for Survey Research, the federally funded report found that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are using AI at work to improve productivity. However, Indigenous respondents were far more likely to report higher rates of familiarity with using AI in the workplace, with 32 percent of Indigenous respondents saying they were “very familiar” with AI programs versus 17 percent of non-Indigenous respondents. Likewise, Indigenous workers showed a higher degree of productivity gains, reporting a 46 percent increase versus 30 percent in other groups. They also reported a higher instance of accessing AI-related training programs. The report found that AI use among both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people varied considerably across education levels. TMU, BetaKit

A British Columbia-based startup is trying to turn intent into action when it comes to Indigenous reconciliation with a new app it soft-launched last month. Bridge is a Victoria-based startup whose AI-driven platform, Bridge Impact AI, offers tools for organizations and individuals to measure and implement Indigenous reconciliation practices, as well as fund youth-led community projects and learn about Indigenous culture and history. Founded by Laurel Anne Stark and led by a group of Indigenous advisors, Bridge launched the beta version of its app at Victoria Tech Week. Bridge’s platform connects individual users with measurable actions they can take, like philanthropic giving or personal education, while providing individualized “reconciliation plans” to give structure to the process. There is also an organizational tier to the app that can run an assessment on the organization’s reconciliation plans and develop implementation action plans going forward. BetaKit

Calgary-based infrastructure company Enerflex won a contract to supply 450 megawatts of behind-the-meter natural gas power for an unnamed North American data centre developer, with deliveries due in 2027 and 2028. The contract comes as big tech companies race to build out digital infrastructure across the U.S. to support surging demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing needs. As a result, to avoid critical bottlenecks many companies are seeking to bypass local electrical utility grids and regional transmission interconnections to supply their own power needs. To support its new contract and to tap into the broader demand trend, Enerflex, which provides modular natural gas, power and treated water technology solutions, has plans to invest about $85 million toward its Engineered Systems facilities, largely toward enhancing collaboration, leveraging scale, improving operational efficiency and to solidify capabilities. MarketWatch

German firm Schwarz Digits is considering adding compute capacity in Canada as it prepares to become a major backer of Toronto-based AI developer Cohere. Established in September 2023 by the conglomerate behind the Lidl grocery chain, the division aims to become a true rival to the so-called hyperscalers, the cloud arms of U.S. tech giants. Schwarz Digits sells AI services, processing power and cybersecurity, and sovereignty is a major part of its pitch. The firm sees “a lot of similarities” in Canada to the requirements in Europe, Robert Jozic, executive vice-president for disruption, told The Logic on the sidelines of the All In conference in Montreal. StackIt, the firm’s cloud unit, currently has four data centres in Austria and Germany. Schwarz is building a new 240-megawatt facility in the eastern German town of Lübbenau that could eventually scale to 1.1 gigawatts. StackIt also runs cloud services out of telecom firm KPN’s data centres in the Netherlands, under a deal announced in May. Schwarz Digits could strike similar telco partnerships for AI infrastructure in Canada, although it is not ruling out other approaches, Jozic said. The company will soon have a significant Canadian asset by way of portfolio firm Aleph Alpha’s planned merger with Cohere. The Logic

Google’s philanthropic arm is giving the Canadian Chamber of Commerce over $2.7 million for an AI adoption program for 10,000 small and medium-sized businesses. The tech giant has also partnered with YMCA Canada to give out 100,000 “Grow with Google” scholarships to its AI skills programs. These new initiatives build on Google.org’s $13 million AI Opportunity Fund, which supported the development of Edmonton-based Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute’s AI Workforce Readiness Program, Skills for Change’s AI Upskilling Program, Toronto Public Library’s AI Learning Circles, and First Nations Technology Council’s AI adoption toolkit for Indigenous Communities. Google said since 2009, it has contributed over $1.3 billion in philanthropic funding and social impact support to Canadian organizations and nonprofits, and helped more than 1 million Canadians build digital and AI skills since 2017. Google Canada

BMO and CIBC announced their participation in Project Agorá, the global public-private collaboration convened by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance, to explore how tokenization and programmability could enhance wholesale cross-border payments. The collaboration includes eight central banks and more than 40 regulated global financial institutions. BMO said its participation builds on Project Agorá's progress to date, including successful real-value, multi-jurisdictional testing conducted in July 2026, and complements work with Canadian banks on a secure Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit solution. Through Project Agorá, BMO is extending its involvement in tokenized deposit innovation to a global, multi-currency setting. CIBC said the initiative aligns with its focus on modernizing financial infrastructure and exploring practical ways to improve the speed, efficiency and certainty of institutional payments. The two banks joined competitors RBC, TD and Scotiabank – as well as the Bank of Canada – as participants. BMO, CIBC

Atul Tiwari’s Toronto-based company VerdX applied to become Canada’s first investment dealer with an exclusive focus on prediction markets, which let users bet on the outcome of real-world events. Tiwari, former CEO of Vanguard Canada, said in a LinkedIn post that he believes there is an opportunity to build “a thoughtful, made-in-Canada approach to this emerging category, with strong regulatory oversight and investor protection at its foundation.” VERDX is building in an emerging category of informational and financial markets, with a team that has deep roots in Canadian capital markets and a strong commitment to doing this properly, he said. Atul Tiwan LinkedIn post

Toronto-based Canada Rocket Co. Inc. (CRC) is investing $30 million over three years to build an engine-testing facility outside London, Ont., the latest step toward the company’s goal of launching a medium-lift rocket into orbit in 2032. The company, founded in late 2025, will use the new 50-acre site adjacent to the London International Airport for “static tests” – where the engines will remain on the ground – as well as offices and assembly areas, said CRC’s co-founder and chief executive officer Hugh Kolias. The company, now with 32 employees, has so far raised $22 million from government and private investors toward the development its own reusable rocket, including designing its own engines, as these cannot be affordably sourced from a third party. In London, CRC plans to build three concrete and steel sheds, in which the company will bolt its custom-designed engines to rigs connected to the ground. The company will then fire the engine to test its efficiency, reaching heats of 700 C. The company expects the site will be fully operational by 2028, the same year it plans to have a fully assembled custom engine ready for testing. The Globe and Mail

Montreal-based space-monitoring firm NorthStar started trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company went public after finishing its merger with Viking Acquisition Corp. I, a special-purpose acquisition company that listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year.  NorthStar gathers and crunches Earth-observation data for purposes like environmental monitoring, and tracks objects in orbit to help clients (like the Canadian military) avoid collisions. The deal valued NorthStar at US$300 million to begin with and included a further investment of US$30 million led by the U.S.-based Cartesian Capital Group to deploy more space-based sensors. The Logic

Amazon has become the latest big technology company to promise money for local communities and policy changes in reaction to anti-data centre sentiment that has become a political flashpoint around the U.S. In a lengthy blog post, the company pledged $1 billion over five years to communities for work force development, energy efficiency projects and other local priorities. Amazon also said it no longer used nondisclosure agreements with government agencies, a common practice that has created distrust with local residents. More than 100 data centre moratoriums are being considered across the country, wrote Matt Garman, head of Amazon’s cloud computing division, and “if these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations.” Other large tech companies have made similar commitments this year. Meta, for example, pledged $1 billion for communities and job training programs, and Microsoft pledged this year to stop using nondisclosure agreements with local governments. A Quinnipiac University national poll released last week found that 71 percent of Americans would oppose the building of an AI data center in their community, up from 65 percent in March. The New York Times

The global AI industry needs to earn US$6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 to justify the capital being deployed to build data centres around the world, Bain & Co said. Existing consumer and enterprise AI services may generate as much as US$1.8 trillion of that sum, leaving US$4.2 trillion in new revenue that needs to be created, the consulting firm said in its annual global technology report. The shortfall likely will come from nascent segments ranging from autonomous machines to robotics, as well as emerging fields such as drug discovery, mental health and energy generation, according to the report. Companies led by Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Oracle Corp are investing trillions of dollars in data centres to quench AI's demand for computational resources. The report comes as debate intensifies around the as-yet elusive returns for AI service providers. Critics worry about an increasingly interconnected web of dependencies between technology manufacturers and AI developers that help to propel lofty expectations that in turn require bigger sums of money. Bain & Co. projects US$5 trillion to US$6.5 trillion of data centre spending by 2030, adding at least 150 gigawatts of capacity that will further strain countries' energy resources. Annual spending on AI infrastructure – spanning data centres, computing capacity and upgrades in accelerators and memory chips – may reach as much as US$1.5 trillion by 2031, it said. Bloomberg

Credit market experts at KKR & Co. Inc., the American investment firm that specializes in private assets, are warning investors about the growing pile of artificial intelligence-related debt, adding their voices to the debate about the current health of financial markets. Issuing hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars’ worth of debt to build out AI infrastructure isn’t worrisome on its own, but investors must be aware of the interconnectedness between all of the companies raising money, Christopher Sheldon, KKR’s co-head of credit and markets, and Tal Reback, a managing director in the same group, said in a report. “Diversification is harder than it looks when the same short list of counterparties sit behind the equity book, the debt book and increasingly the infrastructure supporting both,” they wrote. “Power, chips, cooling, land, leases and financing often route back to the same handful of economic actors.” As of August, 31 companies accounted for more than US$500-billion worth of AI-related bonds, with five issuers representing more than half of that total, according to research from JP Morgan Chase & Co. and KKR. KKR’s credit market experts also cautioned that forecasts for AI infrastructure may be justified based on projections of AI use, but building the infrastructure to support it is a complicated task. Examples of risks that may not be accounted for include: AI chips losing value quickly as newer models are released; data centres taking years to build, delaying revenues; and power grids being unable to keep up with the demand, limiting AI usage for years. If one or more of these variables become a reality, borrowers could struggle to pay their back debt. The Globe and Mail

Mother Jones magazine published new details outlining how the shooter in the Tumbler Ridge tragedy allegedly used OpenAI's ChatGPT program to both plan the attack, and evade OpenAI's own security protocols. The report was written by the magazine's national affairs editor Mark Follman, who has been investigating the connection between AI chatbots and violent attacks both in the United States and elsewhere. Follman says through his reporting he was able to review "significant portions" of the chat history between shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar and OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot in the time leading up to the attack, some of which is detailed in his reporting. On February 10, Van Rootselaar shot and killed her mother and half-brother at their family home. She then went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she shot and killed five students aged 12 to 13 and a 39-year-old education assistant, before killing herself. The shooting has left a deep scar on the tight-knit community of about 2,400, in the foothills of northeast B.C.'s Rocky Mountains. OpenAI has already admitted that Van Rootselaar's activity was flagged internally and shut down, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. OpenAI has also apologized for failing to notify authorities in Canada about the activity, and later admitted it had failed to notice a second account created by Van Rootselaar after the first was disabled. Follman says the logs he reviewed reveal far more details about how Van Rootselaar used that second account to get information about violent scenarios by framing them as hypothetical or fictional situations. The magazine report says the alleged interactions with the chatbot vividly describe the effectiveness of a shotgun in a classroom. Multiple community members, including some teachers and the families of children at the school, have filed lawsuits against OpenAI. The B.C. government is also launching its own lawsuit against the company. CBC News

The authors of a new, three-paper series published in The Lancet say it’s time for a major perspective shift that moves beyond fixating on youth screen time, to regulating big tech’s business models and addicting design features, which monetize ever more of people’s data, time and attention at the cost of their well-being. “Time on screen, social comparison through social media, online bullying – these things are having a major impact on experiences of depression and anxiety, particularly for young people,” said study co-author Jay Shaw, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health. The series looked at 121 published reviews involving nine million people under-25 and found associations between addiction-like patterns of digital media use and various harms, including sleep disruption through key phases of neurobiological development, as well as decreased physical activity. Even as social-media platforms are deliberately designed to be addictive, to make people put off sleep and get them riled up, anxious and angry so they keep scrolling, screen time is often still portrayed as a personal lack of self-control, or as parental failure. “Big technology companies are mobilizing a corporate defence playbook that was popularized by big tobacco, but has been used by other health harming industries facing regulation over the past few decades, where keeping attention on individual willpower prevents stronger regulation,” Shaw said. Working across numerous disciplines at universities in 10 countries, the 13 co-authors are pushing for robust, international regulation of big tech business models and the design features built to pull people in, from infinite scroll and autoplay to personalized recommendation feeds. The experts said one-off measures such as age limits aren’t enough. They’re calling for safety standards for platform design, control over how personal data are collected and used, and independent oversight and accountability. They want to see governments force tech giants to first, assess products for risk before launching them, and second, to release internal data on how features affect users’ health – with that intel then scrutinized by independent experts. The authors are also pushing for a dedicated international body to monitor AI harms to youth. The Globe and Mail

U.S. President Donald Trump said he and a large group of leaders of artificial intelligence company leaders signed a voluntary accord during a White House meeting that will include internal and external reviews of the technology. The announcement followed an extensive meeting between Trump and numerous leading executives from top tech firms. These companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out AI infrastructure, including data centres in communities across the country that have sparked grassroots, bipartisan opposition. Many of the executives gathered in Washington have called for a slowdown in the development of the technology after several high-profile incidents where AI agents have gone rogue. But Trump promised that the U.S. government wouldn't limit the development of artificial intelligence or support calls for "guardrails" or other restrictions. Top AI executives met with Trump at the White House, including: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon; and Elon Musk, whose X social media platform includes its own AI model, Grok. CBC News

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has named Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, as the administration's artificial intelligence czar, tasking him with coordinating the government's efforts to maintain U.S. leadership in the technology. Trump, who has pushed ​to rename AI as "super intelligence," said Clayton would head ​the newly created "Super Intelligence Force" (SIF), overseeing the government's engagement with consumers, religious groups, AI companies and other stakeholders. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote ​that SIF would aim to "ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super ⁠Intelligence" and to "protect the interests, ⁠and improve the lives, of all Americans." Clayton told the Wall Street Journal that a task force would have 120 days to produce a report assessing the risks and opportunities posed by AI and recommending what role the federal government should play. Clayton's panel will review AI-related risks and current government reporting mechanisms for breaches, hacks and other incidents, ⁠and recommend ways to strengthen federal response capabilities under existing authorities, the Wall Street Journal said. In addition to Clayton, the task force's leaders will include Andrew Ferguson, Federal Trade Commission chair; Pentagon chief technology officer Emil Michael; and Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, Trump wrote. Thompson Reuters

California-based chipmaker Nvidia unveiled a new security platform designed to stop artificial intelligence agents from going rogue, saying it sets "boundaries" that could have stopped previous breaches. The announcement of the company's Open Agent Safety Platform follows a series of revelations from top AI companies about their models escaping and breaking into other organizations. Nvidia executives said in a media briefing that the new, open-source system could have prevented a recent incident involving a swarm of OpenAI agents that autonomously hacked into AI company Hugging Face. Nvidia's security software, called OpenShell, lets developers "formally verify an agent has enough authority to do its job and no more," said the company’s vice-president of AI enterprise, Justin Boitano. Because it's open source, it can be "extended" to run on rival computing platforms including those from Arm and Intel. The platform also includes a separate security layer called Sentry that runs onboard chips to continuously monitor AI agent activity and can "intervene instantly" if the agent starts trying to move beyond its target, the company said. "It can quarantine a suspicious agent in milliseconds," Boitano said. Nvidia said more than 100 organizations are using the platform at its launch, including Microsoft, Perplexity, Accenture and JPMorgan Chase. PBS News

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is conducting an industry-wide probe into Anthropic, OpenAI ‌and other AI labs to uncover the potential dangers their technology poses to consumers, a senior FTC official told Reuters. The probe is the first official U.S. enforcement action that delves into rogue AI agents, following a surge ​in incidents first reported in July that have stoked fears among the public that uncontrolled ​AI could one day harm humans. The FTC plans to issue formal demands for ⁠information and compel testimony from executives at top AI developers, including Anthropic, OpenAI and the research group ​METR, the official said.  Anthropic and OpenAI have used METR to conduct independent investigations into security incidents involving their ​agentic AI technology. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson had concerns about the companies before AI agents developed by OpenAI hacked ​the open-source platform Hugging Face, the official said. Reuters

VC, PRIVATE INVESTMENT & ACQUISITIONS

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan invested in a US$350-million funding round for New York-based EliseAI that valued the company, which automates housing and health care systems, at US$4 billion. The financing was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Sapphire Ventures, and Navitas Capital. EliseAI will use the capital to automate more of its customers' operations and to grow its engineering, deployment and sales teams across its North American offices. It plans to establish San Francisco as a second engineering hub alongside its New York headquarters. EliseAI

Montreal-based One Silicon Chip Photonics (OSCP) closed US$6 million in Series A funding to accelerate the development of its post-GPS sensor technology. The round was led by New Science Ventures with support from fellow new American investor Emerging Ventures and existing U.K.-based backer 2050 Capital. OSCP develops photonic gyroscopes and inertial measurement units to help corporate and government customers’ autonomous vehicles and robots find their way. The technology is intended for moments when Global Navigation Satellite Systems are jammed, degraded or unavailable, from conflict zones to cornfields and urban canyons. OSCP plans to use this capital to commercialize its existing products and fuel the development of its next-generation offerings. BetaKit

AdBio Partners, a Paris-based early-stage life sciences venture capital fund backed by the French government and the European Union’s investment fund, announced it’s expanding into Canada with a Montreal office. The office, led by Azzi and venture partner Didier Leconte, would be AdBio’s first outside of Paris and Barcelona. AdBio also said it’s launching its third fund with a target size of 120 million euros (Cdn$193 million), backed by 7 million euros (Cdn$11 million) from Québec labour-sponsored fund Fonds de solidarité FTQ. In an email, partner Mounia Azzi told BetaKit she expects 20 percent of the fund to be invested outside of Europe, with a focus on Québec. Founded in 2016, AdBio focuses on early-stage biotechnology companies making therapeutics for health problems in oncology, immunology and rare diseases. BetaKit

Calgary-based PurposeMed, the company behind Freddie and Affirming Care Pharmacy, is set to join California-based Grindr in a US$250-million acquisition, while PurposeMed’s Frida and Floria health care businesses become independent entities. The transaction includes US$190 million in cash and US$60 million in stock, with up to US$70 million in additional payments tied to 2027 performance targets. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to The Wall Street Journal. In an LinkedIn post announcing the changes, PurposeMed said its health care verticals have developed distinct market identities and are ready for dedicated strategic focus. PurposeMed said combining Freddie’s clinical infrastructure with Grindr’s reach and community connections could make affirming sexual health care more accessible across Canada and the United States. The company said the team behind Freddie will carry the business forward alongside Grindr. Frida, which provides virtual ADHD care, will become an independent company focused on expanding access to care for Canadians. Floria will also become independent and continue growing its gender-affirming care services. Calgary.tech

Montreal-based Quantum eMotion Corp. (QeM) , a developer of quantum-secure cybersecurity technologies, and Victoria, B.C.-headquartered Plurilock Security Inc. agreed that QeM will acquire Plurilock in an-shares purchase. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. The acquisition is intended to accelerate QeM’s transition from primarily developing and validating quantum-secure technologies toward a broader commercial cybersecurity business with existing revenues, customers, sales channels and delivery capabilities. QeM expects to add an established cybersecurity revenue base and operating platform, including enterprise and government customer relationships, public-sector procurement channels, cybersecurity services, sales and delivery capabilities, and intellectual property in AI-centric cybersecurity, risk analysis, authentication and identity. Following closing, Francis Bellido, president and CEO of QeM, will lead the combined company as president and CEO. QeM

Burnaby, B.C.-based legaltech firm Clio acquired New York-based legal-AI startup Learned Hand, adding AI tools designed for judges and court clerks to Clio’s offering. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. It is Clio’s first move into serving the judiciary directly. Learned Hand has built an AI workspace specifically for judges and clerks that connects with court case management systems and helps them understand the matters before them, work through filings and disputed issues, conduct legal research, and prepare bench memoranda and draft orders tailored to the procedural requirements of each matter. Learned Hand’s technology is already being used by courts across the U.S. including the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest trial court. Clio

Toronto-based Thomson Reuters announced it closed on its previously announced sale of a majority stake in its Global Print business to KKR, a leading global investment firm, for about US$500 million. Thomson Reuters will keep 49 percent of the print business as it shifts focus toward AI-driven legal, tax, audit and compliance products. The business operates today as Westbridge Print, an independent company serving legal and tax professionals across 13 countries and providing commercial printing services to book publishers across a wide range of markets. Thomson Reuters said this transaction sharpens its focus on providing innovative fiduciary-grade AI solutions for the legal, tax, audit and compliance industries. Thompson-Reuters

REPORTS & POLICIES

Canada’s got research talent: How to translate world-class research into productivity and growth

By Carole Lee Reinhartdt

Carole Lee Reinhartdt is Director Atlantic with the Public Policy Forum. This article first appeared here on the Public Policy Forum’s website.

Canada has invested heavily in building one of the world’s strongest research ecosystems. Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and public laboratories consistently produce internationally recognized research and highly skilled talent.

Yet despite these strengths, Canada’s productivity performance has remained largely stagnant for more than three decades. Business investment in R&D continues to lag, technology adoption remains uneven and too few Canadian firms successfully scale innovations into globally competitive businesses.

Knowledge is not being converted into widespread economic value.

Recent economic developments have made this challenge increasingly urgent. Growing global competition, changing trade dynamics, rapid technological change, demographic pressures and constrained public finances require Canada to generate stronger productivity growth without relying on increased public spending. Improving the return on Canada’s existing investments in research has therefore become both an economic and fiscal imperative.

Importantly, the challenge is not simply one of increasing research funding. Canada already possesses many of the components needed to build a world-leading innovation economy, including a network of colleges and polytechnics conducting applied research, successful commercialization organizations, experienced entrepreneurs and a range of federal and provincial innovation programs.

On May 6, 2026, senior leaders from business, academia, government and the innovation community gathered at George Brown Polytechnic’s Limberlost Place to discuss how can Canada can translate its world-class research into stronger productivity and prosperity.

While participants represented diverse sectors and perspectives, there was broad agreement that Canada’s challenge is no longer one of scientific excellence. The opportunity lies in connecting strengths more effectively and aligning them around a common objective: helping Canadian firms innovate, adopt technology, commercialize at scale and expand internationally.

What’s causing Canada’s innovation gap

The discussion at the Leadership Table closely reflected the findings of the Council of Canadian Academies’ The State of Science, Technology and Innovation in Canada 2025. As identified in that report and by the Leadership Table, several factors contribute to Canada’s persistent innovation gap.

• Business innovation and scale-up:

Canadian businesses invest less in research and development than many international competitors, and many SMEs (less than 500 employees) face challenges accessing the capital, expertise and management capacity needed to commercialize innovations and scale their operations. Although Canada has developed a robust applied research ecosystem supporting SMEs in areas such as artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, clean technology and digital transformation, many promising firms struggle to move beyond early-stage growth.

• Commercialization and intellectual property:

Intellectual property developed through publicly funded research is frequently commercialized outside Canada, while highly skilled researchers and entrepreneurs are often attracted to larger international markets offering greater access to capital and commercialization opportunities.

• Technology adoption:

Canada’s productivity challenge increasingly reflects the slow diffusion of existing technologies rather than a lack of invention. Many SMEs face barriers adopting AI, automation, advanced manufacturing technologies and digital systems that could significantly improve operational competitiveness.

• Capital and competition:

Innovation depends upon firms that are prepared to invest, compete and grow. Participants noted that Canada’s investment environment has historically favoured lower-risk investments, while many innovative firms face difficulties accessing patient capital required to scale globally. Stronger competition, greater availability of growth capital, and improved commercialization support would encourage more firms to pursue innovation-led growth.

• Regulatory complexity:

Businesses continue to identify regulatory complexity across various levels of governments, lengthy approval processes and barriers to interprovincial trade as constraints on innovation and expansion. Modernizing regulatory systems can accelerate technology adoption and improve Canada’s attractiveness as a place to invest and grow.

• Incentives focused on research rather than outcomes:

Canada’s innovation system has traditionally rewarded research activity and knowledge generation more than commercialization and business outcomes. Funding programs frequently measure success through research expenditures, publications or patents rather than productivity improvements, technology adoption, business growth or export performance. Similarly, academic incentives often prioritize scholarly outputs over industry partnerships and applied problem solving.

• Industrial structure:

Canada’s economy is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises. While SMEs are an important source of innovation, relatively few Canadian firms achieve the scale necessary to anchor globally competitive industrial ecosystems. Strengthening Canada’s strategic anchor firms while improving the capacity of SMEs to innovate and grow would create stronger domestic supply chains and increase Canada’s global competitiveness.

• An underutilized competitive advantage:

One of Canada’s greatest but often overlooked strengths is its network of colleges and polytechnics. These institutions work directly with thousands of businesses each year to solve practical challenges involving technology adoption, advanced manufacturing, AI, clean technology, health innovation and process improvement. Acting as innovation intermediaries, they help firms de-risk new technologies, access specialized expertise and accelerate commercialization.

Expanding these applied research partnerships represents one of Canada’s most immediate opportunities to improve productivity without creating entirely new structures or programs.

Solutions: From discovery to deployment

Canada does not need to reinvent its innovation system. It must better align existing research investments, commercialization supports, industrial policy and business development programs around a common objective: increasing productivity and creating globally competitive Canadian firms.

The solutions below outline practical actions to strengthen Canada’s innovation ecosystem.

1. Align incentives to build innovation systems within SMEs.

Most SMEs do not have the financial capacity to maintain dedicated corporate R&D laboratories. Instead, successful Canadian firms build innovation capacity through project-based research teams, partnerships with postsecondary institutions, incubators, accelerators and applied research organizations.

Public policy should therefore focus on expanding access to these innovation ecosystems rather than encouraging every SME to establish standalone research facilities. Building stronger innovation systems around SMEs will enable more Canadian firms to adopt new technologies, improve productivity, commercialize research and compete successfully in global markets. To strengthen Canada’s innovation performance, governments should prioritize policies that:

• Encourage firms to establish structured innovation processes that reward employee-led improvements and continuous productivity gains.
• Expand access to commercialization-focused programs that combine technical expertise, management support and market development.
• Increase support for technology adoption and applied research partnerships, particularly through Canada’s college and polytechnic network.
• Strengthen regional innovation ecosystems that connect SMEs with capital, talent, customers and research partners.
• Shift innovation policy from funding research alone toward supporting commercialization, business growth and productivity improvements.

Canada has developed a number of successful innovation support organizations that help SMEs build internal innovation capability while reducing the risks associated with commercialization, including Mitacs, Invest Ottawa and MaRS Discovery District.

2. Align incentives to reward innovation, commercialization and productivity.

Public funding and support programs should be designed to reward behaviours that lead to innovation and commercialization outcomes rather than simply subsidizing activity. The most successful innovation programs create incentives for firms to invest their own resources, collaborate with external partners, adopt new technologies and focus on measurable business outcomes.

Research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and international innovation agencies, consistently demonstrates that programs generate stronger economic outcomes when they encourage collaboration, co-investment, commercialization and management capability development. Programs that merely fund research activity often have weaker impacts on growth than those that require businesses to actively participate in innovation processes and share in the risks and rewards.

Future innovation programs should increasingly focus on rewarding behaviours that contribute to productivity growth, including:

• Collaboration between industry and research organizations.
• Adoption of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation and digital systems.
• Commercialization of Canadian intellectual property.
• Private-sector co-investment.
• Export development and scale-up.
• Management and leadership capability development.

Existing examples include the Global Innovation Clusters, National Research Council – Industrial Research Assistance Program, Canada Foundation for Innovation, and Strategic Innovation Fund.

3. Embed applied research capacity within companies.

Canada should strengthen mechanisms that embed applied research capacity directly within businesses to help solve practical operational, productivity and commercialization challenges. Many firms – particularly SMEs – lack the internal capacity to identify, test and implement new technologies and business processes.

Applied research partnerships offer a cost-effective way to bridge this gap by connecting businesses with researchers, technical experts and specialized facilities. Strengthening applied research capacity within firms would improve Canada’s ability to translate research excellence into productivity growth, business expansion and global competitiveness.

Rather than creating entirely new programs, governments should focus on scaling proven approaches that embed researchers within firms, support technology adoption and address productivity challenges identified by industry.

Canada should prioritize applied research initiatives that:

• Place researchers and highly qualified personnel directly within businesses.
• Focus on solving defined productivity and commercialization challenges.
• Support adoption of advanced technologies and digital systems.
• Encourage long-term partnerships between industry and postsecondary institutions.
• Measure success through business outcomes, productivity gains and commercialization results.

Several Canadian institutions are demonstrating innovative approaches that embed research capacity within firms and support technology adoption, including Algonquin College’s AI Accelerator Hub and the Carleton University ARISE Institute.

4. Develop sector-based industrial policies.

Canada should adopt industrial policies that strengthen strategically important sectors rather than attempting to identify and subsidize individual companies.

Modern industrial policy focuses on building competitive ecosystems by addressing common barriers to growth – including skills shortages, fragmented supply chains, weak commercialization pathways, limited access to capital and inadequate research infrastructure.

Governments can play an important role in creating the conditions that enable many firms within a strategic sector to innovate, scale, compete internationally and attract private investment.

Sector-based industrial policies also align more effectively with Canada’s trade and export strategies by supporting industries where the country has existing strengths, strategic advantages or long-term global market opportunities.

Evidence from Canada and other advanced economies demonstrates that this produces stronger and more resilient economic outcomes than policies focused on supporting individual firms. Aligning industrial policy with export development will strengthen Canada’s participation in global value chains while improving economic resilience and national security. Effective industrial policy:

• Builds competitive ecosystems rather than creating dependence on government support.
• Encourages competition among firms while strengthening the broader supply chain.
• Attracts private investment by providing long-term policy certainty.
• Addresses common constraints facing entire industries, including labour shortages, infrastructure gaps, access to technology and commercialization challenges.
• Creates lasting economic capacity that remains even when individual firms succeed, fail or are acquired.
• Supports sectors that advance national priorities such as economic security, defence, clean energy, food security and critical minerals.

Canada should identify sectors where it possesses long-term competitive advantages and concentrate resources on strengthening their global competitiveness.

Priority sectors may include:

• aerospace; (Canada’s Aerospace Strategy has been a successful example of industrial policy rather than focusing on select a few companies).
• defence and security.
• artificial intelligence.
• quantum technologies.
• life sciences.
• critical minerals.
• advanced manufacturing.
• clean technologies.
• agri-food innovation.
• ocean technologies.

5. Strengthen business leadership and strategic management capacity.

The OECD’s Leveraging Business Development Services for SME Productivity Growth concludes that business development services are among the most effective policy tools for improving SME productivity when they combine advisory support with access to financing.

The World Bank has reached similar conclusions, finding that firms receiving both financial assistance and advisory support consistently outperform those receiving financing alone. Business development programs that combine investment with management coaching, technology adoption and organizational development produce stronger long-term economic outcomes. Building stronger management capability will enable Canadian firms to better leverage innovation investments, adopt advanced technologies more effectively and compete successfully in global markets.

The Accelerated Growth Service is a good example as it brings together federal organizations to support growth-oriented companies. The concept is important because it treats the company as a whole rather than treating innovation as an isolated R&D problem.

Future SME support programs should therefore integrate:

• executive leadership development.
• commercialization planning.
• technology adoption strategies.
• export readiness.
• workforce planning.
• digital transformation.
• succession planning.
• productivity benchmarking.

6. Reorient research funding toward SME productivity and commercialization.

Canada should rebalance existing research and innovation funding to place greater emphasis on solving business productivity challenges and accelerating commercialization.

This recommendation does not require significant new funding; rather, it calls for aligning existing programs to better support technology adoption, process innovation and business growth within SMEs. This approach would reduce the risks associated with innovation while helping firms adopt technologies that improve productivity and global competitiveness.

Federal innovation programs should increasingly reward projects that demonstrate clear commercial and productivity outcomes, including:

• adoption of advanced technologies and artificial intelligence.
• digital transformation and automation.
• process innovation and operational efficiency.
• commercialization of Canadian intellectual property.
• export readiness and business scale-up.
• collaboration between SMEs and research organizations.

7. Identify and support Canada’s strategic anchor firms.

Canada should identify a small group of strategically important Canadian companies whose long-term success is essential to national prosperity, supply chain resilience, technological leadership and economic security. These firms should receive coordinated government attention to support their continued growth while ensuring that critical Canadian capabilities remain globally competitive.

This approach leverages private sector strengths by recognizing that certain firms function as strategic anchors within larger industrial ecosystems. They generate high-value employment, invest heavily in research and development, support extensive domestic supply chains and create export opportunities for thousands of smaller Canadian businesses.

Government should undertake periodic strategic reviews of these firms to assess emerging opportunities, investment requirements, supply chain risks, workforce challenges and foreign acquisition pressure.

Potential strategic anchor firms should demonstrate several characteristics:

• significant investment in Canada.
• global market leadership or strong export performance.
• substantial business investment in research and development.
• critical supply chain importance.
• strategic relevance to national security or economic resilience.
• the ability to anchor broader industrial ecosystems.

8. Strengthen applied research to solve practical business challenges between SMEs and post-secondary institutions.

Canada should strengthen applied research partnerships between SMEs and postsecondary institutions by refocusing existing programs on commercialization and technology adoption. Rather than introducing new funding streams, governments should streamline and better align current programs to make them more accessible to businesses and more accountable for measurable commercial results. Canada’s colleges, polytechnics and universities represent one of the country’s greatest competitive advantages as they can help SMEs solve practical business challenges.

Programs should increasingly support projects that move innovations from laboratory research to commercial application by:

• increasing industry-led applied research.
• supporting technology readiness and prototype development.
• embedding researchers within businesses.
• improving commercialization planning.
• strengthening intellectual property development.
• helping firms scale products into domestic and international markets.

Future policy should focus on:

• simplifying access to innovation programs.
• aligning funding around commercialization and productivity.
• expanding industry-led applied research.
• strengthening partnerships between SMEs and post-secondary institutions.
• embedding researchers directly within businesses.
• measuring success through business growth, productivity improvements, exports, and commercialization outcomes rather than research activity alone.

The recently launched Labs4 initiative provides one example of how existing programs can be aligned to support commercialization. Its Technology Readiness Level-Up program enables researchers to work directly within college and polytechnic applied research facilities to develop and validate commercial technologies. It further supports commercialization by connecting entrepreneurs with multidisciplinary student teams to address real-world business challenges.

Conclusion

It is evident that Canada is not lacking in ideas, proven practices or potential solutions to better translate knowledge into economic value. Significant effort has already been invested in evaluating the country’s innovation ecosystem.

A broad consensus has emerged that the challenge is not a lack of funding or the need for new programs. Rather, the priority is to better align existing policies, programs and policy instruments around a shared objective: enabling Canadian firms to innovate, adopt new technologies, commercialize research, scale internationally and improve productivity. Public Policy Forum

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Canada has invested in science. Now it must capture the economic benefits.

OPINION

By Cate Murray, Maura Campbell, Jeff Smirle and Penny Walsh

Cate Murray is president and CEO of Canada’s Stem Cell Network. Maura Campbell is president and CEO of the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization. Jeff Smirlie is co-founder and executive director at Capital BioVentures. Penny Walsh is CEO of the Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL). This op-ed first appeared here in The Hill Times.

What if a child born with a faulty electrical system in her heart could one day receive living heart cells instead of relying on a battery-powered pacemaker for life?

In Toronto, stem-cell scientist Dr. Stephanie Protze is working toward that possibility. Her team is developing specialized heart cells from human stem cells that could one day restore the electrical signals that make the heart-beat. It is extraordinary science. It is also Canadian science.

The question is what happens next.

Canada has built a world-class life sciences sector, with leading researchers, leading-edge innovations, promising biotechnology companies, highly skilled talent and new biomanufacturing capacity.

The challenge now is to turn those strengths into globally competitive companies that retain more intellectual property, jobs and economic value in Canada.

And there is urgency. Canada’s share of the global clinical trials market has declined from six percent in 2021 to four percent. The federal Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector Task Force estimates that decline represents $2.5 billion in forgone investment and approximately 20,000 jobs.

Other countries are not standing still. Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain and the United States are using targeted regulatory, commercialization and industrial tools to move advanced therapies toward patients and markets. Canada is competing with them for talent, investment and the companies and health innovations of the future.

Trade uncertainty, geopolitical instability and competition for strategic technologies are reshaping the global economy. Canada is rightly focused on economic resilience, attracting investment and strengthening critical supply chains. Health resilience must be part of that conversation, but it cannot begin only at the point of scale.

Since 2020, the government has invested more than $2.5 billion across 43 biomanufacturing, vaccine and therapeutics projects. But facilities alone do not create an industry. They need products, skilled workers, companies ready to use them and health systems ready to receive them.

If Canada wants anchor companies tomorrow, it must begin today by supporting early-stage companies.

The good news is that we do not need to create another system, program or institution. We already have organizations with expertise in research translation, company building, manufacturing readiness, capital attraction and workforce development. What is missing is a mechanism that connects those capabilities around promising Canadian companies as they move from science to scale.

That is what our proposed Advanced Therapeutics Industrial Acceleration Partnership (ATIAP) would do. Stem Cell Network, Capital BioVentures, the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization and CASTL are ready to integrate their existing capabilities into one national, milestone-based pipeline. No new institution or infrastructure is required.

The economic opportunity is meaningful. A medium-growth estimate suggests a $75-million federal investment could help pre-commercial companies generate approximately $315 million in Canadian economic activity over 10 years.

ATIAP could also help attract an estimated $180 million in private and strategic financing, including approximately $108 million in foreign capital flowing into de-risked Canadian assets. These are estimates, not forecasts, but they show the potential leverage of helping Canadian companies become more investable.

We know targeted support can work. A $500,000-Stem Cell Network investment helped de-risk work with Vancouver-based Aspect Biosystems on a 3D-bioprinted cell therapy for Type 1 diabetes. That work contributed to a subsequent Novo Nordisk partnership, while Aspect is now undertaking a $280-million Canadian expansion expected to maintain 117 jobs, create 283 and support 268 co-op placements.

Government does not need to finance every stage of biotechnology development. Targeted early support can reduce risk until larger pools of private capital can take over. The goal should be to attract global capital to Canadian assets, not push Canadian assets to move to where the capital is.

Canada has already invested to build much of the scientific foundation. Now we need to empower the organizations that know how to turn that science into companies and give them the tools to do it together.

Our choice is whether Canadian innovations simply contribute to the global life-sciences economy, or whether we keep more of that economy here at home. CASTL

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We need to stop resenting entrepreneurial success

OPINION

By Rajen Ruparell

Rajen Ruparell, founder of Endy and co-founder of Groupon International, is a Canadian entrepreneur and investor. This op-ed first appeared here in the Financial Post.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is responding to Donald Trump’s tariffs as though Canada’s economic problems began when Trump imposed them. They didn’t. Trump exposed Canada’s economic vulnerability. He didn’t create it.

For decades, Canada has failed to build enough globally important companies, intellectual property and entrepreneurial infrastructure to give itself real economic leverage. Now we’re fighting an economic war and discovering that many of the weapons we need take years to build.

We need to think about what true economic independence means. Canada should not aim merely to be less reliant on the United States. We should aim to be indispensable to the world. The strongest form of economic sovereignty is not isolation. It is having innovations, products, resources and technologies that other countries compete to obtain.

Carney’s language is clearly stronger than Justin Trudeau’s. Canada will stand up for itself, build, diversify and become more independent economically. That’s all good. But Trudeau also spoke constantly about innovation, attracting investment, growing Canadian businesses and building an economy for the future. Yet that hasn’t happened.

The reason, of course, is that speeches don’t create economic capacity, entrepreneurs do.

Economic sovereignty is built long before a trade negotiation begins. It happens when someone starts a company in Toronto rather than moving it to Silicon Valley. When that company can raise enough capital to remain Canadian. When it scales from 100 employees to 10,000. When its founders become investors and finance the next generation. When Canadian companies own technology, brands, intellectual property, manufacturing capacity and supply chains that the rest of the world actually needs.

For years, our weakness was relatively easy to ignore. Canada enjoyed privileged access to the largest economy in the world. Economic integration worked extraordinarily well. Then Trump changed the equation. Carney is right to negotiate aggressively, diversify our trading relationships and retaliate where strategically necessary. But firm retaliation shouldn’t be confused with economic strength.

Canada has to fight on two fronts: defending our interests today and fundamentally changing the environment for people willing to build tomorrow. We don’t need Ottawa dreaming up even more tax subsidies, credits and special programs for entrepreneurs – who spend too much time already figuring out the rules and navigating the course.

We do need a globally competitive and simpler tax system that lets ambitious Canadians focus, build and compete. And we need to remove the frictions with faster approvals, fewer interprovincial barriers, easier access to global talent and regulations designed with the ambition of creating global companies rather than merely regulating domestic ones.

An even harder change, however, is one of attitude. A country that resents the rewards of entrepreneurial success should not be surprised it produces so little of it. Culture follows signals. Canada cannot build a nation of risk-takers while treating entrepreneurial achievement as something to be restrained or apologized for. Our political leaders, schools and universities need to help make our top talent and cutting-edge companies sources of national pride so that entrepreneurship becomes aspirational for the next generation.

Canada needs to embrace something we rarely say out loud: creating very successful, even very wealthy, entrepreneurs makes the country stronger. Their wealth doesn’t disappear, however. Founders become angel investors. Employees become founders. Executives become mentors. Capital gets recycled. Networks form. One successful company can help create dozens more.

That is entrepreneurial infrastructure. If we’re prepared to spend billions protecting industries once tariffs arrive, we should be equally serious about building the entrepreneurial infrastructure that gives Canada leverage before the next crisis. Carney’s challenge, then, isn’t simply to stand up to Trump. It’s to use this moment to change Canada’s relationship with entrepreneurship and ambition. We ourselves may be fighting today’s economic war without all the weapons we need. But we can decide what arsenal the next generation inherits.

The answer isn’t simply more retaliation or less reliance on the United States. It’s more entrepreneurs, more Canadian companies, more Canadian capital, more innovation – and more things the world cannot afford not to buy from us. Financial Post

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[Editor’s note: Research Money will be highlighting news stories, reports and op-eds about agriculture and agri-food leading up to our annual conference, Food for Thought: Catalyzing Agri-Food Solutions in an Uncertain World, April 21-22, 2027, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa].

Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector faces a significant labour shortfall requiring a dedicated workforce strategy

Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector is entering a decisive period, with a forecasted labour need of more than 300,000 new hires by 2030.

The food manufacturing sector alone is expected to require 173,000 new hires between 2026 and 2034 – about 19,200 annually or 2.4 percent growth per year, according to report by Food Processing Skills Canada.

Forecasted hiring will be fuelled by steady growth in domestic demand and risking international exports.

“Yet the sector faces persistent challenges from shifting consumer preferences, rising operational costs, and growing competition from imports,” the report said.

“If labour needs are not met, domestic manufacturing risks stagnation as cost-conscious consumers turn to lower-cost, foreign-made alternatives.”

Also, in a workforce where immigrants represent about 35 percent, there is a vulnerability with Canada’s tighter immigration targets. Having a pathway to permanency allows employers, especially rural ones, to fill positions in areas where there isn’t the local population available.

In 2022, the federal government estimated that roughly 700,000 Canadian skilled trades workers will be retiring by 2028. Food and beverage manufacturers compete for this limited pool of expertise with the construction, mining, and energy sectors as automation raises the demand for trades who can install, troubleshoot and maintain advanced machinery.

Labour shortages can limit production capacity, slow expansion, increase operating costs and weaken the competitiveness of Canadian-made food and beverage affordability, the report said.

“In a sector that is closely tied to food affordability, trade performance and regional economic development, workforce planning must be treated as a strategic priority.”

Food and beverage manufacturing relies on a broad and diverse workforce across production, logistics, trades, quality assurance, management and technical occupations.

Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector employed 317,000 workers in 2025.

The sector is growing strongly. Sales reached approximately $173 billion in 2025, up 69 percent from $103 billion in 2015, with meat product manufacturing alone contributing roughly 27 percent or $44 billion.

Food manufacturing’s trade surplus expanded 280 percent to $13 billion, though beverage manufacturing runs a $4.7-billion deficit.

The U.S. is by far the largest consumer of food manufacturing exports at 76 percent in 2024, though a smaller (but still significant) 58 percent of meat product exports.

For Canada’s next nine largest partners to match U.S. export volumes, exports to those markets would need to rise about 520 percent. “A targeted, export-led diversification strategy is critical,” the report said.

However, diversifying trade will require more than finding new export destinations, the report noted. To serve more markets, manufacturers must have the workforce, technology, productivity and production capacity needed to increase output reliably and competitively.

As of December 2025, there were 8,862 food and beverage manufacturing establishments with employees in Canada and 15,290 total food and beverage manufacturing establishments.

Employment is concentrated in Ontario (39 percent), Quebec (23 percent), British Columbia (12 percent), and Alberta (nine percent).

Household food expenditures rose 40 percent from 2015 to 2023, with food’s share of total spending climbing from 13 percent to 19 percent.

“The headline concern is efficiency:” food productivity has edged down by -0.17 percent annually since 2015, while unit labour costs rose 36 percent, meaning the sector’s 20 percent-plus growth in real value added came from more workers, not more output per worker.

If population growth slows while hiring requirements are still high, employers will face greater competition for workers across the economy, the report said. “In that environment, recruitment will not be enough.”

Retention, training, newcomer integration, career pathways and productivity-enhancing investments will become important to supporting production capacity.

The food and beverage manufacturing outlook should be understood as a capacity challenge, the report said.

Canada has a large and valuable food and beverage manufacturing base, but its ability to expand will depend on whether employers can attract workers, keep talent, improve productivity and invest in the systems needed to support long-term growth.

After years of pilots, artificial intelligence became everyday infrastructure across food and beverage manufacturing in 2025, touching production, quality control, formulation and supply-chain planning.

The Canadian Food Innovation Network’s 2025 white paper on AI in the food sector concluded that AI-enabled tools spanning food safety, robotics, product development and waste reduction are already working in real-world Canadian operations. The pressing challenge is no longer whether the technology works, but scaling adoption, particularly among the small and medium-sized enterprises that form the backbone of the sector.

The report also noted that weight-management drugs in the GLP-1 class – semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide – have moved from niche to mainstream, and they change how much food people buy.

Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab estimates that roughly one million Canadians were using these drugs in 2024, rising to about 14 percent of households reporting use by late 2025; Ozempic was Canada’s best-selling drug in 2025 at $2.9 billion in sales.

The Agri-Food Analytics Lab estimates GLP-1 use eroded Canadian grocery sales by roughly $720 million in 2025, up from about $400 million in 2023, with snacking and savoury-snack categories among the most exposed.

Manufacturers are responding by reformulating and repositioning toward protein-forward, portion-controlled and functionally fortified products.

The 2025 tariff dispute with the United States triggered a pronounced “buy Canadian” shift.

A Food Processing Skills Canada survey found that 67 percent of Canadians were buying more local products, 76 percent were avoiding U.S. goods, and 43 percent had changed their grocery habits significantly.

With roughly 30 percent of the food and beverages consumed in Canada still imported – and federal measures such as the new Food Security Fund and the One Canadian Economy Act encouraging domestic supply and interprovincial trade – “there is real momentum to process more food at home.”

The report makes several recommendations:

• Position the food economy and its workforce as a government priority. The federal government should incorporate a dedicated workforce strategy into its food security agenda.
• Support a labour-intensive sector. There needs to be support for programs for both domestic and immigration-related to get people into the sector.
• Labour market intelligence serves as a guide to boost productivity. Research should measure and benchmark productivity by subsector, track it against unit labour costs, and combine these findings with qualitative research.
• Labour market intelligence finds the quick wins that progress towards the nation’s goals. Baseline research is needed to identify communities where the conditions for success are already in place to allow for the expansion or new construction of food and beverage manufacturing facilities.
• Build workforce capability and capacity. Increasing Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing capacity requires a corresponding investment in the sector’s workforce.
• Changes to the educational landscape. Providing industry-specific training can attract ore people to a sector facing critical workforce shortages, while raising awareness of the hundreds of career opportunities available in food and beverage manufacturing.
• Get ahead of replacement demand with certification and clear career progression. Standardized certification, food-safety and quality-assurance skills, and visible advancement pathways would both replace departing expertise and give workers careers they choose to day in – improving consistency across the industry.
• Build the skilled trades pipeline the food economy depends on. As Canada invests in recruiting and training Red Seal workers, food and beverage manufacturing should be explicitly included as a priority sector.
• Support a more inclusive food and beverage manufacturing workforce. Greater awareness of food and beverage manufacturing careers, combined with stronger connections among employers, disability employment service organizations and newcomer-serving agencies, can help more people find meaningful work in the sector.
• Develop national awareness initiatives and regionally tailored workforce solutions. Future workforce policies and programs should combine coordinated national action with solutions designed jointly by industry, governments, educational institutions, employment organizations and local and Indigenous partners, to reflect the needs of each region.
• Treat beverage manufacturing as a distinct program priority. Canada’s beverage manufacturing sector faces unique market, trade and operating challenges that require targeted attention. Targeted policies and programs can help strengthen domestic production, improve the sector’s competitiveness and support the tends of thousands of Canadians it employs.

“Canada’s food economy stands as one of the nation’s greatest strategic advantages,” the report noted.

Across the entire value chain, from agriculture and food manufacturing to distribution, retail, and foodservice, more than 2.36 million Canadians – 11.4 percent of the national workforce – contribute to a system that sustains the country.

Together, they operate more than 397,000 establishments that anchor communities, drive innovation, and generate over $143 billion in GDP.

“The food economy forms the foundation of Canada’s prosperity, food security, and economic sovereignty,” the report said.

“Recognizing the strategic importance of the food economy and investing in workforce development and human capital are essential to securing Canada’s future.” Food Processing Skills Canada

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Don’t bring back the Netflix tax

OPINION

By Lawrence Zhang

Lawrence Zhang is head of policy at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation’s (ITIF) Ottawa-based Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness. This commentary first appeared here on ITIF’s website.

A serious campaign is underway in Ottawa to restore a tax on every Netflix and Disney+ bill in the country, with supporters calling the repeal a pre-emptive capitulation to Washington that bought Canada nothing.

This summer, the federal government moved to scrap the CRTC requirement that streaming services contribute part of their Canadian revenue to content funds, replacing it with $600 million a year in direct public funding.

Washington had listed the Online Streaming Act as a trade irritant, but the Canada-U.S. talks have since collapsed and the tariffs landed anyway, making the concession look pointless. Even so, cancelling the levy was the right policy.

Producers and broadcasters have spent decades treating mandated contributions as the cornerstone of cultural policy, so they see the proposed repeal as a loss for Canadian culture rather than a change in how it gets funded. Dozens of organizations wrote to Prime Minister Carney asking him to keep the contributions.

The Canadian Media Producers Association said the collapse of trade talks created an opening to bring the streamers back to the table on funding. Whether that opening exists is beside the point. The tax would not have delivered on its stated purpose, and more leverage to impose it does not change that.

Consider who would actually pay this tax. The CRTC based the contribution on Canadian revenue rather than profit. Because few people would cancel a streaming service over an extra dollar a month, platforms would have passed much of the levy on to subscribers. Spotify did exactly that in France in 2024, raising subscription prices after the government imposed a streaming tax and explicitly stating that was why.

The average Canadian household has roughly 3.5 video streaming subscriptions. Stack the levy across them, and you get a consumption tax on streaming, collected by Netflix and Disney+ instead of the Canada Revenue Agency. In other words, Canadians pay.

That was the political appeal: Every government would like to fund its priorities without putting the cost on its own books.

The pricing problem was only half of it. In May, just weeks before Ottawa announced its reversal, the CRTC raised the total contribution requirement to 15 percent of Canadian revenue. The new rate was three times the original, placing Canada near the top of the international range, behind only France.

France's rules are more demanding, but at least much of the obligation can be satisfied by financing productions the platforms themselves distribute. That gives Netflix an incentive to turn the regulatory cost into something its subscribers might watch.

Canada's framework largely broke that link by making streamers divide their contributions among five separate funds, each with its own eligibility rules and governance, while leaving only a narrow slice for Canadian programming on their own platforms. A meaningful share went toward productions destined for a Tuesday afternoon slot on a cable TV channel with viewership in the low thousands.

If Canadians are going to be taxed for watching Netflix and Disney+, the money should at least buy Canadian shows that appear on those platforms.

The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions warns that a budget line is easier to cut than a legal obligation, and it is right about that. But the levy sidesteps the harder question: How much should the government spend on Canadian cultural production?

With the Netflix tax, Ottawa doesn’t have to decide. It can simply set a percentage and take whatever that percentage happens to generate as Canadians spend more or less on streaming. A budget appropriation reverses that logic. The government must then name a price, say what it expects to accomplish, and eventually defend the results – did Canadians get anything worthwhile for their money?

So the levy should stay dead. The open question is what we’re buying with the $600 million.

If Ottawa pours it into the same funds under the same allocation rules, it will have made the financing honest while changing nothing else. The new policy direction to the CRTC has yet to be published, so there’s still time to get it right.

The money is now the government's to direct. It should go toward productions Canadians will press play on. ITIF

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Ottawa needs to remove structural barriers for domestic defence firms to build a sovereign defence industry

The Government of Canada’s aspirations to build a sovereign defence industry will not bring long-term economic gains without the removal of structural barriers for companies building what it wants to buy, according to a new report by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Business Data Lab.

The federal government has stated its ambition of growing the Canadian defence industry as it works toward spending five percent of gross domestic product on defence by 2035, alongside its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

But first, it needs to fine-tune the pathway from innovation to commercialization for the small to medium-sized companies that make up the bulk of Canada’s domestic defence industry, the report said.

This means creating stronger links between industry and academia, as well as ensuring specific procurement vehicles exist for each of the government’s many innovation programs.

Ninety-two percent of Canada’s 538 firms in the country’s core defence industry are SMEs, but they generate only 30 percent of industry revenue, the report noted. Forty-sven percent of Canadian defence firms’ purchases are imported.

Guided by the Defence Industrial Strategy, released about seven months ago, the federal government has introduced several initiatives, including a new marketplace for autonomous systems and reforms to the industrial benefits policy.

Yet, the intersection of research and innovation with the federal procurement system remains a sticking point, said Robert Asselin, chief executive officer of U15 Canada, an association of the country’s top research universities. He warned that this could hamper the long-term sustainability of a sovereign defence industry.

Canada is projected to increase its pure-play defence spending from $64 billion in 2025 to approximately $160 billion by 2035, the report said.

The share of federal expenditures allocated to defence will increase from about 11 percent to almost 30 per cent by 2035. But the resulting economic outcomes will depend largely on how the money is spent.

Only 88 of 802 innovative Canadian firms identified in the report had recorded sales to the federal government.

According to modelling by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), every additional $10 billion in defence spending can potentially generate $7 billion to $10 billion in cumulative real GDP over three years.

However, this return diminishes if most of the money is spent on imported equipment, rather than government consumption and investment, for instance.

The IMF analysis used Poland as an example. Between 2021 and 2025, the country increased its defence spending by roughly two per cent of GDP. But an estimated 80 percent of its equipment purchases were made through foreign suppliers, owing to limited domestic capacity at the time of its rapid rearmament sparked by the war in Ukraine.

To see an economic payoff, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s report stated, a government must be willing to buy and encourage investment into what it wants to see built at home in the long term. Otherwise, its own defence dollars can easily be funnelled into imports or purchases from foreign-owned companies, minimizing the benefits for domestic industry.

A crucial factor in that potential is Ottawa’s commitment in its industrial strategy to increase investment in defence-related research and development by 85 percent within the next decade, Asselin said. This will be especially important for Canadian universities and small to medium-sized businesses, he added.

“In the best-case scenario, we would have this interface between the Department of Defence and our leading research universities, like they have in the U.S., like they have in most G7 countries,” Asselin said, “where you would work on research problem sets that get translated into products and services that the government can buy for the military.”

Closer relationships between government and academia would also help ensure intellectual property generated through this R&D stays in Canada.

U15 analyzed thousands of global patent families – meaning a collection of patent applications covering similar technical content – that had both a Canadian inventor or applicant and relevance to Ottawa’s industrial strategy.

Of those filed between 2014 and 2023, about 75 percent involved a foreign-controlled firm as the applicant – indicating that even when Canadians are involved, they’re not necessarily in control of the IP they helped create.

Asselin sees room for improvement. Canada is well known for its research and development prowess at postsecondary institutions, but this talent must be transferrable into domestic industry, he said. The Globe and Mail, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

THE GRAPEVINE – News about people, institutions and communities

The Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) announced its 2026 awards. This year’s recipients are:

• Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Ilse Treurnicht, impact investor, director and advisor.

As CEO of the MaRS Discovery District from 2005 to 2017, Treurnicht guided its growth from a nascent initiative into a leading innovation hub. She brought researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, industry, and governments together to help turn promising discoveries into ventures with economic and social impact.

She has brought her deep knowledge and insights to major public policy discussions in Canada through her service on Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council, Advisory Council on Economic Growth, Advisory Committee on Open Banking, and Council of Expert Advisors on Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences.

Most recently, she chaired the Council of Canadian Academies’ expert panel on the state of science, technology, and innovation in Canada, leading an evidence-based assessment of the country’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities.

Trailblazer Award Winners:

• Policy for Science: Frédéric Bouchard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Université de Montréal.

In 2022, Frédéric Bouchard acted as an architect of systemic transformation in research policy as chair of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System. His contribution was not only political but also a transformation of the framework of thought underlying science policy in Canada. The Bouchard Report (2023) shifted the debate from a fragmented funding model toward a systemic approach to governance, coordination, and strategic investment.

• Science for Policy: Claudia I. Emerson, professor in the Department of Philosophy and Founding Director of the Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation, McMaster University.

Emerson’s distinctive analytic approach, ESC (Ethical, Social, Cultural) Thinking, which she co-developed and evolved from her experience delivering the ethics consultation service for the Gates Foundation, is highly effective at identifying and addressing complex moral problems. It has served as the anchor for sound and equitable innovation policy – particularly in the context of high-impact novel health technologies and interventions. In a 12-year period alone, ESC Thinking was embedded across 120+ Gates Foundation-funded global health projects, influencing science innovation policy in over 20 countries, including Canada.

• Innovation Policy: Richard Gold: Chief Policy and Partnerships Officer at Conscience, Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy, and Distinguished James McGill Professor, McGill University.

Throughout his career, Gold has demonstrated a sustained commitment to advancing open science, intellectual property policy and health innovation through institution building, policy One of his most significant contributions has been the creation of Conscience, a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to advancing open science and innovation. He played a central role in establishing the organization, including developing the proposal with federal government policymakers, securing pro bono legal services from a major corporate law firm, overseeing incorporation, recruiting leadership, and contributing to branding and organizational development.

• Science and Society: Cindy Adams, Founding Executive Director, Scientists in Schools.

Since 1991, Cindy Adams has led Scientists in School, a Pickering, Ont.-based social enterprise charity that delivers high-quality, hands-on STEM enrichment workshops to children aged 3-14 across Canada. Under her leadership, the organization has grown from a regional outreach program into a national leader in science education, reaching nearly 12 million young scientists. 

• Youth Award Winner: Jérémie Boudreault, Assistant Professor, School of Actuarial Science, Université Laval.

This award recognizes a young individual (student, postdoctoral fellow, researcher, entrepreneur, etc.) under the age of 35 who proposes an innovative and compelling evidence-based policy that will make a positive difference to Canadians. Boudreault, in his The Right to a Cool Environment During Extreme Heat Events, proposed the establishment of a national policy that protects the right to a cool environment during periods of extreme heat. This would include guaranteeing barrier-free access to air conditioned, green and blue spaces; establishing maximum indoor temperature thresholds for residential buildings, health care facilities, schools and workplaces; and updating building codes and urban planning policies to ensure that future buildings are more resilient to temperature extremes. CSPC

Dr. Sanket Goel is joining the University of Manitoba (UM) as an Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair of Canada in Translating Cyber Physical Sensory Systems to Reimagine Health and Prosperity, and professor in the Price Faculty of Engineering. In this new role, Goel plans to adapt his innovative sensory platforms to improve health systems in Manitoba. Goel, an internationally recognized engineer and educator, will develop miniaturized sensory systems to address real-world challenges in health care, agriculture and environmental monitoring. Leveraging the already strong research ecosystem at UM, Goel will build the next generation of technology needed improve access for people and communities across the province and beyond. Goel brings his expertise designing devices tailored to public needs across bio-medical, agri-food and environmental disciplines from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Hyderabad to the new UM SenSys Lab at Price Faculty. University of Manitoba

University of Alberta (U of A) alumnus Cathy Roozen will receive the Canadian Business Leader Award, established by the Alberta School of Business and presented by the U of A. The award recognizes individuals who demonstrate leadership, business acumen, entrepreneurial spirit, integrity and a commitment to community. Roozen’s career exemplifies those qualities through a long career of sharp investment discipline, corporate governance and board leadership. Her contributions have earned national recognition, including the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2013 and appointment to the Order of Canada in 2015. As chair of the Allard Foundation since 1983, vice-chair of the Alberta Health Services board and a director for STARS Air Ambulance, she has helped guide strategic health-care investments across the province — including support for the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and cancer research at the U of A.

Toronto AI startup Peripheral Labs hired former Meta Reality Labs head of product Shaun Carrigan as its first chief product officer. Peripheral is building spatial intelligence tech for the sports market, namely volumetric video capture and marker-less tracking infrastructure for live sports. Carrigan, who is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, joined the company in June. The veteran sports tech leader has been tasked with heading product and go-to-market for Peripheral’s volumetric platform. BetaKit

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New B.C. study will identify pathways for First Nations to develop and operate their own energy utilities

A unique partnership between clean energy leaders, researchers, the Government of British Columbia and multiple First Nations is accelerating Indigenous energy sovereignty and advancing equitable clean energy development across B.C.

The multi-partner, cross-sectoral First Nations Utility Study will identify pathways for First Nations to develop and operate their own energy utilities by outlining the financial, technological and policy conditions needed for long-term success. The study will deliver tailored utility models for each participating Nation while generating practical insights to support Indigenous-led energy development across the province.

Partners behind this study include Accelerating Community Energy Transformation, (ACET) the Clean Energy Association of British Columbia (CEBC), the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions, the Penticton Indian Band (Snpink’tn), Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, and Quatsino First Nation.

The First Nations involved will also lead collaborative research on the traditional role that energy utilities have played in the past and define what a utility means for their communities today.

The study is being led by ACET, a multi-partner initiative based at the University of Victoria that is accelerating the global push for resilient and equitable clean-energy solutions through local, community-based collaborations.

The First Nations Utility Study stands on years of meaningful work between First Nations in dialogue with the province – work that has steadily shaped the path toward Indigenous-led energy systems in British Columbia – including the BC Utilities Commission’s Utilities Inquiry in 2019-20, which asked fundamental questions about the ownership, services and regulations of utilities operating under First Nation authority.

Commitment by the province to advance this work was reinforced in the Declaration Act Action Plan, which called for the identification of First Nations-led clean energy opportunities and co-development of supporting policies.

Subsequent collaborations between the B.C. government and Indigenous leaders and knowledge holders, which were highlighted in the June 2025 Declaration Act Annual Report, reaffirmed that commitment and ultimately laid the foundations upon which the First Nations Utility Study was built.

Behind this project is a shared commitment to collaboration and a belief in the central role of First Nations leadership the province’s clean energy future.

While each partner contributes distinct strengths, the study will be shaped and guided by the First Nations involved, who will define its goals, approaches and desired outcomes. Their leadership, knowledge and lived experience will inform the development of Nation-led models that others can learn from and adapt.

ACET researchers involved in the First Nations Utility Study will provide technical, financial and policy leadership through a community-based research approach grounded in reciprocity and respect, ensuring that the research is equitable and provides direct benefits for the communities it serves.

The Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions will support review of research deliverables to provide policy relevance and implementation pathways and assess study outputs along with provincial regulatory priorities and clean energy objectives.

CEBC will help to coordinate the study and provide sector-wide advocacy to help translate the project’s outcomes into practical applications for First Nations and BC’s energy sector.

The research involved in the First Nations Utility Study is funded in part by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, through the ACET initiative. University of Victoria

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