News That Matters To You

By Kineta Tober
Kineta H. Tober, a European MSc student in cyberpsychology, researches how voice-based AI companions can offer residents with dementia the patient, conversational engagement that overstretched care staff often cannot provide. By scaling these assistive technologies, Canada could bridge the critical gap between dementia care needs and the current realities of limited staffing and pilot-focused funding, she says.

By Rosalind Lockyer
Rosalind Lockyer of PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise argues that Canada’s support systems for entrepreneurs are fundamentally failing women by forcing them to pay a 'legitimacy tax' on their businesses and navigate complex, broken bureaucracies. Transforming these outdated institutional practices is essential to unlocking the full economic potential of women and gender-diverse business owners across the country, she says.

By Jason Leong
Jason Leong of PocketSmith argues that Canadian regulators and policymakers should not use bank switching rates as the primary metric for open banking success. Instead, the country should focus on fostering a richer, more competitive ecosystem of financial tools and services, along with reliable data infrastructure and quality data that enhance services for existing bank customers.

By Alexander Zelenski
Canada is pursuing record-breaking infrastructure investments, but risks failing to engage young workers, says Alexander Zelenski of the Institute for Collaborative Innovation Canada. By shifting from siloed youth training programs to integrated pathways aligned with national missions and priority sectors, Canada can solve its productivity gap and grow its economy while providing stable career paths for the next generation, he says.

By Guy Levesque
Universities often struggle to integrate entrepreneurship centres due to four major structural contradictions, says Guy Levesque, executive Director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary. Overcoming these contradictions, and treating entrepreneurship as a shared institutional capability, is essential for universities aiming to cultivate entrepreneurial talent and support innovation across all disciplines.

By Andrew Maxwell
Andrew Maxwell from York University argues that Canada must shift from a reactive, fragmented approach to a strategic, outcome-focused innovation policy to bridge the country's persistent productivity gap. By establishing a non-partisan national innovation institution, Canada can better leverage its world-class research to commercialize technology, retain intellectual property, and secure the economic growth needed to sustain essential public services.

By Peter Josty
Canada's relatively low R&D spending reflects its resource-based economy, but Peter Josty points out that increased spending on R&D alone won't guarantee a higher standard of living. Improving labour productivity and focusing on high-growth sectors like AI and automation, quantum computing, synthetic biology, advanced manufacturing, space industries, health care and renewable energy could boost Canada's economic growth more effectively.

By Andrew Maxwell
Canada's universities excel at generating knowledge, yet struggle to translate research into tangible impact, says Andrew Maxwell, Bergeron Chair in Technology Entrepreneurship in the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University. He argues for linking research funding to productivity outcomes, reinventing how academia and industry interact, and focusing on diffusion, adoption and behavioral change to covert knowledge into real-world impact.

By George Poulakidas
Canada's reliance on foreign-controlled digital infrastructure raises concerns about health data sovereignty, security and economic benefits, says George Poulakidas at Genome BC. Other countries prioritize digital infrastructure as a matter of sovereignty, which should prompt Canada to build domestic compute capacity and take measures to ensure interoperability of Canadian health data and control by Canada for the economic benefit of Canadians.