GOVERNMENT FUNDING & NEWS

 Alberta government’s agentic AI model flags federal government spending scandals and other spending that warrants investigation

The Government of Alberta’s Ministry of Technology and Innovation used agentic AI to analyze every dollar the federal government has recorded giving away through grants and contributions, across every department, for every fiscal year on record from 2006 to 2025.

That amounts to 1,275,521 records and $533.65 billion in original grant spending, all of it published on the Government of Canada’s own Open Data portal, available to everyone.

The Alberta government team downloaded every record, cleaned the data, loaded it into a database, scored it against a risk framework, and cross-referenced the highest-risk findings against public internet sources.

The data download alone took 12 minutes. The full pipeline, from raw data to validated findings, was done in a few hours. “Work that would take a team of analysts weeks or months, completed before the end of the day,” Nate Glubish (photo at right), Alberta Minister of Technology and Innovation, said on his substack.

The model flagged 846 entities as “CRITICAL” risk and 6,931 as “HIGH” risk.

The team took the top 25 highest-scored entities and searched public sources to see if the risk model was right.

Among the 25, the AI model found three confirmed scandals, five genuine investigation targets, seven explained by corporate restructuring and roughly 10 cleared as operational entities with data quality gaps.

Three of these were confirmed failures that Canadians already know about:

• WE Charity Foundation: $543 million. This foundation wound down after a political scandal in 2020.The federal government awarded WE a $543-million contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant before the conflict-of-interest revelations forced a reversal. The charity subsequently shut down its Canadian operations.
• Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC): $134 million. SDTC was abolished by the federal government in 2024after Canada’s Auditor General found 90 conflict-of-interest violations in its grant approvals. The RCMP is investigating.
• Canada World Youth: $37 million. This non-profit organization was shut down in 2022after decades of federal funding.

The agentic AI model confirmed $717 million in confirmed waste to these three entities before any internet research was performed, Glubish noted.

Beyond the three confirmed failures, the analysis flagged several entities that deserve further investigation.

“These are not confirmed scandals. They are patterns in the data that raise legitimate questions,” Glubish said.

• Halagonia Tidal Energy (Nova Scotia, $30 million).A subsidiary of Irish-based DP Energy that received a $29.8 million federal grant in 2018 for a Bay of Fundy tidal energy project. DP Energy subsequently abandoned the project. It joins a long list of failed tidal ventures at the same site, including companies that went bankrupt, leaving abandoned turbines on the ocean floor.
• TMT International Observatory ($214 million).Canada committed $243.5 million in 2015 toward the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii. Construction was halted by protests from Native Hawaiians who consider the summit of Mauna Kea sacred. Over a decade later, the telescope has not been built, costs have risen from $1.5 billion to $3 billion, and the project faces a $1 billion funding shortfall.
• Carisbrooke Shipping ($13 million).A U.K.-based company headquartered on the Isle of Wight that received a federal Strategic Innovation Fund grant despite having no visible Canadian operations. The company operates cargo vessels between the U.K. and Canada but is registered and managed entirely out of England.

“Each of these deserves a straightforward answer from the federal government,” Glubish said.
“What was the money for? What was delivered? If the entity ceased operations, did taxpayers get what they paid for?”

The team’s AI model found that $71.5 billion in federal grants over $1 million each have no description or expected results documented in the public record, Glubish said.

“The money went somewhere. The dataset tells you who received it and how much. It does not tell you what it was for or what the government expected in return.”

“That is not a finding about fraud. Most of that money probably went to legitimate purposes,” he said. “The problem is that there is no way to verify that from the data. The government records what it spent, not what it bought.”

Four percent of for-profit grant recipients have no business number on file. These are companies receiving public money without the most basic identifier that would let anyone cross-reference them against a corporate registry, Glubish said.

“When we looked at amendment patterns, we found 19,303 grants across the federal government where amendments more than doubled the original value. Some of these have legitimate structural explanations. Others warrant a closer look.”

Four percent of for-profit grant recipients have no business number on file. These are companies receiving public money without the most basic identifier that would let anyone cross-reference them against a corporate registry.

“When we looked at amendment patterns, we found 19,303 grants across the federal government where amendments more than doubled the original value. Some of these have legitimate structural explanations. Others warrant a closer look.”

“None of these are accusations,” Glubish said. “They are questions that the data raises and that the data alone cannot answer. That is the point. The data should at minimum be structured to allow Canadians to verify how their money is being spent. Right now, for billions of dollars, it is not.”

The Alberta ministry’s agentic AI agent downloaded all 1.275 million records from the federal government’s Open Data API in 128 sequential batches.

It designed and built a purpose-built database with five reference tables, 12 performance indexes, and three analytical views.

It identified and fixed data quality issues: 19,204 records with inconsistent agreement type codes, 100 records with free-text province codes like “Rome” and “N/A” instead of proper codes, and 318,030 amendment records that had to be separated from original grants to avoid double-counting.

Then the AI agent ran eight advanced analytical scripts that included provincial equity analysis, for-profit deep dives, amendment creep detection recipient concentration scoring, zombie and ghost-capacity entity identification – comprehensive risk register scoring 109,795 non-government entities across seven dimensions.

Every script is open source. Every query is reproducible, Glubish said. The read-only database credentials are available for anyone who wants to verify the work independently.

His department will publish the full repository, scripts and database access alongside the Agency 2026 hackathon in Ottawa on April 29.

“A team of human analysts could have done this. It would have taken weeks, maybe months. Our AI did it in hours,” Glubish said.

On April 29 at Agency 2026, teams from across Canada will tackle challenges exactly like this, he said. Zombie recipients. Ghost capacity. Funding loops. Sole-source amendment creep.

They will use the same agentic AI methods on the same public data, and they will do it in a single day.

Glubish noted that when his team ran the provincial equity analysis, “something jumped out of the data that every Albertan, and frankly every Canadian, should see.”

“The way federal grant money is distributed across provinces is not what most people would expect. The numbers raise serious questions about whether Canada’s federal funding system is working the way it should.”

“The numbers are significant, and I intend to lay them all out,” Glubish said. “Stay tuned for Part 2.” Nate Glubish substack

Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a three-part series on what AI revealed inside Canada’s federal grants data. Part 2 examines how federal funding is distributed across provinces and what that means for Alberta. Part 3 looks at how Canada allocates research funding between social sciences and engineering, and what the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation data says about the consequences. Research Money will report on Parts 2 and 3 as they become available.

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The Government of Canada launched its call for applications for the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program, supported by investments announced in Budget 2024 and Budget 2025. This program, part of the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy, will provide approximately $890 million to enable the development of large-scale, Canadian-based compute infrastructure to advance AI research and innovation, while safeguarding Canada’s national interests. These systems will form a core part of Canada’s digital backbone, enabling breakthroughs in areas like health care, energy, advanced manufacturing and scientific discovery, Ottawa said. This will strengthen Canada’s global competitiveness, support world-leading research and ensure secure, reliable access to critical digital infrastructure for Canadian innovators. This competitive call for applications invites eligible proponents to submit applications to rapidly design, build operate and maintain a large-scale, AI-optimized high-performance computing system. According to the program guide, applicants must show a viable plan toward providing “significant service delivery” within 18 months of being selected, as well as a target date for full operation. Applications are due by 1 p.m. ET on June 1, 2026. To learn more and apply, visit the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program web page. Queen's University and Simon Fraser University have partnered to design and build a national sovereign, secure and sustainable high-performance supercomputing system to grow Canada's research and development capabilities, and plan to jointly apply. (See item under “Research, Technology & Innovation in April 1, 2026 Short Report). The Digital Research Alliance of Canada, a federally funded non-profit that pools computing power from universities, has also publicly expressed interest. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Canada needs to work with international partners in artificial intelligence to counter U.S. protectionism and the rising power of hyperscalers, federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told The Logic, in remarks that suggest a potential merger of Toronto-based Cohere with German AI firm Aleph Alpha could play a role in efforts to build a “trading bloc” of like-minded countries. While careful not to comment on the talks specifically, Joly said Cohere is “a gem” that Canada needs to “be able to develop.” “At the same time, we need to create a new trading bloc of countries that can counter U.S. protectionism, and . . . the power of the hyperscalers,” she said. “We need to be able to, concretely speaking, create this trading bloc, to have businesses working together, to anchor clear national champions that will then have an impact on the supply chain,” she said. In conversations with the German government and businesses, she has stressed her goal to “build a national champion,” Joly said. German business daily Handelsblatt reported that Cohere was in discussions to merge with Aleph Alpha, a startup based in Heidelberg that makes software to help businesses use AI. Cohere, meanwhile, secured a deal with Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) that will see up to 1,400 users at ISED get access to Cohere’s AI workplace platform North. Department staff will use the tool for building AI agents to help with search, summarization, drafting and task automation. Joselle Pineau, Cohere’s chief AI officer, said in a post on X that Cohere intends to remain headquartered in Canada. The Logic

Canada and Finland committed to exploring Finland’s participation in the Sovereign Technology Alliance in order to deepen coordination with trusted partners to strengthen sovereign AI capacity and reduce strategic technology dependencies in key strategic sectors. In addition, both countries will work to expand practical cooperation on advanced technologies, with a focus on delivering real capability and shared economic benefit. Federal Minister of Artificial Intelligence Evan Solomon and Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs Sakari Puisto committed to explore collaboration in the following areas: 

• Expanding access to AI compute capacity, and promoting sustainable, resilient and environmentally responsible digital infrastructure, and supporting innovators while enhancing Canada and Finland’s shared economic security and prosperity.
• Exploring collaboration in frontier AI models that establish safety and responsibility as a foundational design principle as well as broader safety initiatives.
• Fostering AI and technology adoption across industry and governments, through reducing bureaucratic burdens, and advancing the use of AI solutions to improve public services.
• Exploring ways to advance shared interests in artificial intelligence and across quantum research, innovation, commercialization and workforce development by working together to identify areas of cooperation.
• Exploring ways to strengthen research and commercial ties as well as highlight investment and business opportunities that AI can transform small and medium-sized enterprises to large firms in both countries. Innovation, Science and Economic Development

New NDP leader Avi Lewis is calling on the federal government to ban a practice known as surveillance pricing that New Democrats say is unfair to consumers. The text of the NDP’s motion – which was defeated in Parliament last week – describes the practice as companies using a customer’s personal data, like search history or how long they stay on a web page, to increase prices both in store and online. Lewis said this can include a parent with a sick baby being charged a higher price for a thermometer or medicine based on internet search history. “This means that two different people could pay two different prices for the exact same product in the same store or on the same website on the day. It’s unfair, it’s a rip-off and it’s downright creepy. And it’s time to put a stop to it,” he said. The Manitoba NDP government introduced legislation to ban the practice provincially last month. Lewis said he wants to see the idea be adopted federally as there are mechanisms Ottawa can employ that provinces don’t have access to. A recent poll from Abacus Data suggests 52 per cent of Canadians want to see this practice banned. Thirty-one per cent of respondents said the practice should be allowed, but strictly regulated. CTV News

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the first-ever Canada Investment Summit will take place from September 14 to 15, 2026, in Toronto. This Summit will convene the world’s largest investors, including top CEOs, entrepreneurs and prominent global business leaders. The Summit is focused on attracting new investment into Canada to advance Canada’s nation-building projects, create new career opportunities for Canadians, and grow the country’s economy, Carney said. The Summit will be hosted by the federal government in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, two of Canada’s largest and most sophisticated institutional investors. Over the past year, Canada’s new government embarked on a clear mission to position Canada as a top destination for foreign direct investment, Carney said. This Summit builds on the progress over the past 12 months: Canada has secured more than 20 new economic and defence partnerships and $97 billion in foreign investment commitment. Prime Minister of Canada

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the creation of the new Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations. The committee will serve as a forum for expertise and strategy on all aspects of the Canada-U.S. economic relationship. The Advisory Committee will include leaders from major sectors of the Canadian economy, representing extensive experience in business, investment, trade, and labour. It will be chaired by the President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, Internal Trade and One Canadian Economy, Dominic LeBlanc. The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) said it welcomes a formal advisory process on Canada-U.S. relations, but is calling on the government to expand the committee, which the CCI said excludes the very firms whose business models, assets, and competitive realities will be most directly shaped by the upcoming CUSMA review. “There is no representation from Canada’s digital and innovation economy. No voice for the companies building, owning and exporting the intangible assets that now define global trade,” the CCI said. Intangible assets make up 92 percent of the S&P500 and are approaching $100 trillion in value globally, the CCI noted. Digitally delivered services account for more than half of global services trade. Economic and security advantage now flows through control of data, intellectual property, and the standards that govern their use. “The 21st-century economy belongs to those who write the rules, not those forced to follow them. Right now, the United States is shaping the rules for data, platforms, and algorithms through procurement, standards, and trade policy, while Canada remains reactive,” said Patrick Searle, CEO of the CCI. “Canada must urgently build the expertise and capacity to negotiate effectively, because the next phase of CUSMA will determine who captures value in the next generation of global markets,” he said. None of the 24 members named to the new Advisory Committee speak for the cohort of Canadian-headquartered firms that are building new markets, scaling globally, and competing daily for customers on both sides of the border, Searle said. “Leaving them outside the room weakens Canada’s position before negotiations even begin. “We urge the federal government to add expertise to this council that reflects the 21st-century economy.” Prime Minister of Canada, CCI

The Government of Ontario is investing $57 million in Indigenous Institutes across the province, the largest single investment in Indigenous higher education in the province’s history. This funding will create hundreds of new seats in labour market-driven programs and maintain the long-term sustainability of Indigenous Institutes as part of the government’s $6.4-billion investment to protect students’ access to the education they need to launch successful careers. The new $57-million investment will nearly double operating funding for the nine Indigenous Institutes in Ontario, bringing the total to more than $50 million per year by 2028 and includes $33 million to expand up to 780 seats for in-demand programs. A call for proposals is now open to allocate the seats, with a specific focus on health care, education, trades, transportation, STEM and Indigenous languages. These seats will be open to students as early as January 2027, with a second call for proposals in fall 2026 for additional seats to come online in the 2027-28 academic year. Govt. of Ontario

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly announced a $23-million federal investment to Germany-headquartered Siemens subsidiary Siemens Canada from the Strategic Response Fund towards a $70 million project, part of an overall $150-million project for Siemens to scale up its Global AI Manufacturing Technologies Research and Development Center for Battery Production in Canada. This centre focuses on pioneering automotive R&D development aimed at advancing battery efficiency and production methods, enhancing Canada’s leadership and competitiveness. The R&D hub will develop and commercialize advanced manufacturing technologies to strengthen Canada’s battery value chain. The technologies developed at the facility will address critical barriers in the global battery sector and increase Canada’s competitiveness in the battery ecosystem. With this project, Siemens will maintain 3,310 jobs in Canada, create 90 new full-time jobs and secure 625 co-op positions, Joly said. This project will foster collaboration between academia, industry leaders and researchers to accelerate battery innovations, solidifying Canada’s role as a key player in the green economy. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security launched the Critical Infrastructure Resilience and Escalated Threat Navigation (CIREN) initiative. CIREN helps critical infrastructure organizations understand, prepare for and practise responding to severe cyber incidents. Its purpose is to help organizations maintain essential services during worst-case scenarios, including widespread and prolonged cyber disruptions. Canada’s critical infrastructure – including energy, telecommunications, transportation and water – faces a growing range of cyber threats. State-sponsored actors may seek to disrupt or damage these systems as part of broader geopolitical tensions. Non-state actor threats may also pursue cybercrime activities for financial gain. At the same time, rapid advancements in artificial intelligence are being leveraged to scale attacks and exploit vulnerabilities more quickly. While the motivations and threats might differ, the potential impacts are similar. Severe cyber incidents can disrupt essential services and undermine public safety, economic stability and national sovereignty. CIREN outlines three key actions organizations can take to strengthen their cyber readiness and resilience:

• Prepare to isolate critical systems for up to three months.
• Develop and test response plans to operate independently.
• Plan for rebuilding systems after severe cyber incidents. Communications Security Establishment Canada

Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan) announced a federal investment of over $10.5 million in nine companies in Delta and Richmond in British Columbia to help businesses scale and compete. These investments will strengthen local supply chains, boost productivity and open global markets to B.C. exporters, PacifiCan said. Richmond-based Ideon Technologies, which helps mining companies locate critical mineral deposits deep underground, is receiving $2.3 million to help commercialize the company’s subsurface imaging system by expanding production capacity, hiring staff and growing Ideon’s presence in key international mining markets. PacificCan

The Government of Canada introduced in Parliament the Canadian Space Launch Act to deliver Canadian sovereign space launch capabilities. The Act would enable the government to safely regulate and oversee space launch and re-entry activities conducted from Canadian territory, while also establishing the necessary authorities to provide regulatory certainty to industry, support investment and infrastructure development, and strengthen Canada’s ability to meet its international obligations related to space. Establishing Canadian sovereign space launch capabilities would drive billions in investments, create good paying jobs, increase Canada’s sovereignty, reduce our economy’s reliance on the United States, and support a commercial space launch and re-entry industry that could be worth $40 billion, Ottawa said. The Canadian Space Launch Act’s regulatory framework is key to securing Canada’s place in the rapidly growing global space economy, the government said. Canada has two companies vying to run private commercial spaceports: Maritime Launch Services in Nova Scotia and NordSpace in Newfoundland. Transport Canada

Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) announced a federal investment of more than $8.4 million through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative to support seven projects in the greater Edmonton area. These investments will help small and medium-sized businesses expand operations, build resilience and strengthen their capacity to navigate in a more competitive global market. The funding will support more than 150 jobs in Alberta while advancing innovation and manufacturing efficiency across a range of sectors, including homebuilding, cooling products and steel parts manufacturing. These investments will help businesses integrate automation into production lines, adopt artificial intelligence tools to improve productivity, hire more staff to increase production capacity, and expand sales of Alberta-made products in new international markets. PrairiesCan

Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) announced up to $1.5 million for the Nihtat Gwich’in Council to establish the Nihtat Operations, Readiness & Training Hub (NORTH), which will provide training that prepares local Gwich’in suppliers and workers for procurement and employment associated with anticipated defence activity. Through NORTH, the Nihtat Gwich’in Council will provide support focused on practical supplier and bid readiness, procurement and document management processes, cybersecurity readiness and targeted skills training in Inuvik. CanNor said by strengthening the ability of local businesses and workers to compete for and deliver contracts, NORTH will help drive significant economic growth while ensuring more of the resulting employment and contracting benefits remain in the North. CanNor

SaskPower signed a memorandum of understanding with Bruce Power to access the Ontario-based company's expertise in nuclear generation, project development and long-term operations as Saskatchewan evaluates large nuclear technologies. The Government of Saskatchewan's Energy Security Strategy sets out a pathway to nuclear power generation from both small modular reactors and large nuclear reactors, using Saskatchewan uranium. In January, the Saskatchewan government and SaskPower announced plans to formally evaluate large nuclear reactor technologies for potential use in Saskatchewan. With much of Canada's nuclear industry and supply chain based in Ontario – and with so much promise for economic growth from nuclear in Saskatchewan – the MOU with Bruce Power will formalize information-sharing, enable alignment on federal and provincial nuclear strategy, and leverage Bruce Power's national leadership in nuclear expertise, the Saskatchewan government said. Govt. of Saskatchewan

BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada) made its first investment from its new $300-million Strong North Fund, in Medicine Hat, Alta.-based Landing Zones Canada Inc., which designs, develops, produces and deploys advanced uncrewed aerial systems for stratospheric altitudes. The amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed. Landing Zones Canada makes reusable, remotely piloted winged aircraft that carry sondes, small instrument packages that single-use weather balloons carry up into the stratosphere to measure pressure, temperature and relative humidity. The company’s Gitpo drone — Canada’s first reusable alternative to single-use weather sondes — operates in near-space in the stratosphere while significantly reducing one of Canada’s largest sources of electronic waste from meteorological monitoring. The BDC investment will accelerate the company’s research and development programs, scaling and manufacturing capabilities, and commercialization of its next-generation stratospheric technologies. BDC

The Bank of Canada expects to implement a new regulatory framework governing stablecoins – crypto assets pegged to the value of a government-issued currency – in less time than the five years it took to introduce its oversight of payments companies, managing director of supervision Anne Butler said at a Toronto conference. The Carney-led Liberals broadened the Bank of Canada’s mandate over fintech in their November budget, giving the institution jurisdiction over open banking and stablecoins in addition to non-bank payments companies and the forthcoming Real-Time Rail instant payments system. The U.S. Genius Act, which paves the way for banks and other firms to issue stablecoins, has put pressure on Canada to introduce similar legislation. Butler made the remarks at the Ontario Securities Commission’s annual conference, saying the Liberals’ new majority government should further speed up the process of putting stablecoin regulations in place. The Logic

RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) announced close to $6 million in funding to support a total of 90 quantum science and engineering projects. Through the Defence Industrial Strategy, presented in Budget 2025, the Government of Canada committed to investing further in strengthening the country’s quantum ecosystem. NSERC’s new funding advances this aim as well as the implementation of Canada’s National Quantum Strategy (NQS). The funded projects are aligned with the three missions of the NQS, which aim to advance quantum computing, quantum communications and quantum sensing. They will enable the development of technologies to address Canada’s needs in domains such as medical imaging, monitoring the environment, sensing for security and defence applications and guiding autonomous vehicles. For example, researchers are working on the development of practical room-temperature light sources used in quantum technologies. They are also working on stronger cybersecurity methods that can protect data even in a future where quantum computers are common. Altogether, the projects will contribute to the advanced training of more than 125 graduates and postdoctoral researchers at post-secondary institutions across Canada. NSERC

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) announced that the  Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP) for Social Sciences and Humanities has launched a fifth joint research funding opportunity: Preparing for Tomorrow – Societies and Strategies in Times of Transition. By supporting innovative, transnational social sciences and humanities research, this funding opportunity will help research teams strengthen society’s capacity to anticipate, understand and respond to future challenges and opportunities. T-AP brings together researchers, research organizations and funders, including SSHRC, from countries in South America, Africa, North America and Europe, to engage in transnational dialogue and collaboration. This funding opportunity is open to teams with members from at least three participating countries, and must have both sides of the Atlantic represented. Successful partnerships will receive funding from their country’s national funding agency, for projects that can last 24 to 36 months. Proposals are invited from transnational research teams to address one or more of the following overarching themes: 

• Uncertainty: sources, costs, communication and improvement. 
• The many faces of the future and crisis: historical, cultural and regional perspectives. 
• Scope and coordination of response strategies.
• Normative inquiry into prevention and preparation for future crises.

The deadline to submit a letter of intent is July 8, 2026. The full application deadline is October 28, 2026. Grant applications will be submitted to the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). Researchers from Canadian institutions will also have to submit additional information to SSHRC. Consult SSHRC’s Trans-Atlantic Platform web page for application instructions. SSHRC

adMare BioInnovations officially opened its state-of-the-art wet lab facility in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant district to help early-stage life sciences companies grow. The Government of British Columbia invested $10 million in the ready-to-use M4 Innovation Centre, a 30,000-square-foot facility providing wet-lab space designed for early-stage and growing life-sciences companies. The Government of Canada, through Pacific Economic Development Canada, also contributed financially. The centre features turnkey wet labs, office and collaboration space, shared scientific equipment and a flexible design that can evolve as companies grow. With construction just completed, three growing companies have already taken occupancy at the M4 Innovation Centre, signalling the immediate need in the ecosystem. Over the initial five years, the facility is expected to support more than 20 companies. Access to specialized wet-lab space has long been one of the most significant barriers facing biotech companies, as these facilities are expensive, highly technical and in short supply. Local life science companies will be able to use this facility to expand scientific research into biomanufacturing, mRNA and lipid nanoparticle capabilities, and strengthen clinical trials and health data access. adMare BioInnovations

Simon Fraser University (SFU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Siemens Canada that will advance research collaboration on clean hydrogen technologies and expand opportunities for innovation, training and industry‑academic engagement. This SFU-Siemens partnership enables joint exploration of a state‑of‑the‑art hydrogen testing facility and deeper collaboration between SFU’s Clean Hydrogen Hub and Siemens’ product development teams. Through the MOU, SFU and Siemens will jointly identify and evaluate opportunities to co‑develop research projects supporting hydrogen production, performance testing and digital transformation. Siemens’ proposed involvement includes leveraging expertise in automation, smart microgrids, energy management, and cybersecurity. The Clean Hydrogen Hub is a one-megawatt testbed and global research and innovation platform dedicated to advancing hydrogen production, storage and applications. The hub works across disciplines and sectors to reduce the costs of clean hydrogen production and co-develop technologies that will decarbonize Canada’s economy. SFU

Canada needs a sovereign AI solution that is affordable for small businesses and turns funding grants around in weeks, not years, says Lesley Murfin, founder and CEO at Calgary-based Revive Business Solutions. Murfin said she spent months searching for a Canadian sovereign AI solution for her small business. “What I found should concern every Canadian entrepreneur,” she said in a LinkedIn post. She called Cohere, but said that to use their models you have to route traffic through U.S. providers like Amazon Web Services, Azure or Google, making the data subject to access under the U.S. CLOUD Act. CoreWeave’s Cambridge, Ont. data centre was built with $240 million in public money, but Murfin said she can’t access it at a price that works for a small business. Bell and TELUS have AI compute, but both are priced for large enterprises, not for small businesses.  By most estimates, 75 percent to 80 percent of Canada's data centre capacity is foreign-owned, Murfin noted. Bell sold 13 of its own data centres to California-based Equinix for US$780 million in 2020. Alberta has 33 data centre proposals totaling 20.7 gigawatts, but the province’s electricity grid can only handle 1.2 GW of it. Murfin tried Leaseweb (iWeb) in Montreal. But she found out that all traffic routes through Ashburn, Virginia or Chicago. “Montreal-to-Montreal traffic left Canada and came back. That's not data residency. That's a Canadian flag on an American network.” Canada controls less than one percent of global AI compute, and is ranked last in the G7, she pointed out. Murfin said what Canada actually needs is:

• Canadian sovereign inference endpoints, priced for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
• Compute grants that disburse in weeks, not years.
• Canadian ownership requirements on publicly funded infrastructure.
• Network sovereignty – the path matters, not just the postal code.
• A national compute pool for SMBs under $10 million revenue.

“We have the talent. We keep gifting billions in public money to foreign companies to build data centres that Canadian SMBs can't afford to use – and calling it Canadian AI strategy. I'd love to see that change,” she said. Lesley Murfin on LinkedIn

Bell Canada and the Government of Saskatchewan announced the approval of a new 300-megawatt data centre in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, Saskatchewan, just outside of Regina. However, delegates and RM of Sherwood councillors were often drowned out by around 100 protesters chanting outside, banging on windows, and honking horns. Ultimately, in under an hour, the development agreement for Bell’s data centre was approved by RM of Sherwood council. Dan Rink, the president of Bell Fabric AI, said in a presentation to the council that the data centre’s cooling system won’t draw on municipal water and that light and noise mitigation strategies are included in the project’s plans. Rink said the project hadn’t triggered the formal process for an environmental impact assessment. Bell said in a statement that “this major investment aligns with Bell's strategic priority to lead in enterprise with AI-powered solutions and will significantly increase Canada's domestic compute capacity while supporting Saskatchewan's long-term economic growth and diversification.” Once complete, the facility will be the largest purpose-built AI data centre development in Canada. The first stage is expected come online in the first half of 2027. Cerebras and CoreWeave are secured as the tenants for the facility. Global News, Bell AI Fabric

The Canadian Digital Media Research Network warned that it found a network of 20 inauthentic YouTube channels that exploit Albertans’ genuinely held grievances to normalize secession and U.S. annexation, and it has flagged the push as a potential covert influence campaign. The videos posted on the channels appear to come from an Albertan perspective, but the research network found no evidence that the accounts belong to Albertan users. The AI avatars or paid American voice actors featured in these videos frequently mispronounce, miscontextualize and misunderstand the politics they cover, the Canadian Digital Media Research Network said. The videos often feature deepfakes of Prime Minister Mark Carney or Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in front of a map depicting prairie provinces as part of the U.S., and include false or misleading information. Altogether, the channels have accumulated nearly 40 million views in the last year – more than double the reach of the Russian-funded Tenet Media network that came to light in 2024. The Canadian Digital Media Research Network said it was flagging the phenomenon as a “potential convert influence operation.” Canadian Digital Media Research Network

AI large language models (LLMs) fail to produce an appropriate early medical diagnosis more than 80 percent of the time, suggesting they are not yet safe for unsupervised clinical use, according to a new study. Generative artificial intelligence still lacks the reasoning processes needed for safe clinical use, said the study by researchers at Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based non-profit hospital and research network and one of the largest health systems in the United States. The results of the study, published in the open-access JAMA Network Open medical journal, found that large language models fall short of the reasoning required for clinical use. “Despite continued improvements, off-the-shelf large language models are not ready for unsupervised clinical-grade deployment,” said Marc Succi, co-author of the study. He said AI cannot yet replicate differential diagnosis, which is central to clinical reasoning and which he considers the “art of medicine.” Differential diagnosis is the first step for health care professionals to identify a condition, separating it from others with similar symptoms. The research team analyzed the functioning of 21 LLMs, including the latest available versions of Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, GPT, and Grok. They evaluated the LLMs on 29 standardized clinical vignettes using a newly developed tool called PrIME-LLM. The tool assesses a model’s ability across different stages of clinical reasoning: conducting an initial diagnosis, ordering appropriate tests, arriving at a final diagnosis and planning treatment. The researchers found that the large language models achieved success rates of about 60 percent to over 90 percent on final diagnoses, depending on the model, but performed poorly in generating differential diagnoses and navigating uncertainty. Euronews

U.S. President Donald Trump announced an easing of restrictions on research into psychedelic drugs – such as so-called "magic mushrooms" – that have shown promise in treating people with Trump signed an executive order that would help federal researchers cut through the red tape to allow for quicker studies. The president said the order would "clear away unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, improve data sharing among the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the Department of Veterans Affairs and facilitate fast rescheduling of any psychedelic drugs that become FDA-approved." Currently, many psychedelics including LSD and psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") are classified – or "scheduled" – as having high abuse and addiction potential, and are not approved for medical use, limiting the ability for scientists to study them. If the FDA, which is charged with regulating pharmaceuticals in the U.S. officially finds a medical benefit for some of the psychedelics, they could be rescheduled, allowing for greater clinical use. The order only provides for accelerated research and does not immediately require law enforcement authorities to reclassify the drugs, meaning therapeutic use will not expand immediately. In Canada, the Special Access Program allows health care providers to request limited access to restricted psychedelic drugs for patients with serious or life-threatening conditions, if conventional treatments have failed, are unsuitable, or are unavailable. While there are no approved therapeutic products containing psilocybin, clinical trials are  ongoing to explore its potential in treating various mental health disorders. Euronews

Stockholm-based legaltech firm Legora announced the opening of it first Canadian office in Toronto. Daniel Himmel, Legora’s head of legal engineering for North America, will be based in the Toronto office. The launch in Canada builds on Legora's acquisition of the Canadian legal AI company Walter, and an already strong foothold in the Canadian legal market with leading customers including McMillan LLP and Stewart McKelvey. Canada's legal sector has emerged as one of the most dynamic markets for legal AI, and Legora's local presence will enable deeper collaboration with law firms, corporate legal teams, and technology partners across the country, Legora said. Legora said the Toronto office is part of a long-term Canadian expansion plan to tap the country’s talent pool and collaborate more closely with clients. Legora, which sells itself as an operating system-style suite of artificial intelligence tools for lawyers, has grown rapidly over the past year, adding new offices and expanding its staff from 40 to 400. Legora

Quantum computing stocks closed last week with massive gains of over 50 percent, fuelled by chip giant Nvidia’s new open source AI models designed to advance quantum computing. Canadian-founded DWave, now based in California, and Toronto-based Xanadu – which had its public market debut last week – were among the benefactors, with Xanadu CEO Christian Weedbrook becoming a billionaire. Nvidia said in a press release that its new Ising family of open-source models “provides high-performance, scalable AI tools for quantum error correction and calibration – two of the most critical challenges in building hybrid-quantum classical systems.” The company named Ising after a famous mathematical model. Over the last few years, hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon have announced chips to power quantum computing tools. IBM is racing to develop the first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. CNBC

Sherbrooke, Que.-based quantum sensor startup SBQuantum is expanding to the U.S., where it will operate as Zero Drift Technologies, based in Cambridge, Mass., to meet demand from the defence sector. SBQuantum delivers quantum diamond magnetometers – sensors capable of providing accurate and timely data for threat detection applications in public safety, navigation and defense. The company also announced it raised US$4 million in a seed funding round, led by Quantonation  and Quantacet, with participation from Investissement Québec. SBQuantum said financing will be used to expand the team and accelerate growth, with Eric Giroux joining as CEO. He brings a track record of founding and scaling deep tech companies, with over more than a decade in the security and defense sectors leading RaySecur Inc. SBQuantum

The Woodland Cree First Nation received clearance from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) that the Nation’s planned 650-megawatt (MW) data centre near Peace River in northwest Alberta doesn’t require a federal impact assessment. Any potential adverse effects within federal jurisdiction from the data centre would be limited or addressed through other means, IAAC said. The proponent, Cree Ative Datacenter, will be required to seek any necessary federal and provincial authorizations and permits for the project. The company will acquire a partially complete natural gas-fired power plant, its associated land and equipment, with two 200-MW Siemens turbines already being procured. The power plant will be repurposed and combined with a data centre. The Woodland Cree First Nation said the site is located near natural gas supplies, reservoirs for carbon capture and storage, fiber optic networks and water supplies. The project will see involvement from developer Sovereign Digital Infrastructure, law firms Cassels Brock and Blackwell, and Latham and Watkins, investment bank Eastdil Secured, and energy technology firm Siemens Energy Canada, the First Nation said. Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

Ottawa-based cleantech firm BluWave-ai announced a major expansion of its intellectual property strategy following a milestone achievement in its global patent portfolio. The company is launching a new Partners IP and Patent Licensing business unit to complement existing software product offerings, deployed worldwide with over 60 international filings and 14 granted or recently allowed patents. This move is designed to support market partners in grid  optimization, electric vehicle management, battery energy storage, and data centre energy efficiency. BluWave-ai provides artificial intelligence  software for renewable energy and transport electrification for the global energy transition. By opening its foundational IP stack to the wider market, BluWave-ai is providing a structured pathway for global energy players to accelerate their own innovation cycles without the need to design around existing protected inventions. By securing a license to the BluWave-ai IP stack, the company's partners – including startups, multinational original equipment manufacturers, large utilities and governments – can immediately build their own bespoke products and custom solutions on top of a proven, protected technical foundation. BluWave-ai

Government of Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Ottawa wants to start shipping liquefied natural gas from the Port of Churchill by 2030, calling it “a very aggressive, ambitious” target that will likely also include the construction of a new pipeline connecting to the Hudson Bay region. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Kinew outlined his government’s early plans for the small, deepwater port in Northern Manitoba after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. “The Prime Minister was very clear about shipping LNG by 2030,” Kinew said, adding that the onus is now on the Manitoba government to begin construction and secure private-sector investment “as soon as possible.” Since last year, the federal and provincial governments have committed about $280 million toward planning and design for the port, eyeing it as a major infrastructure project for fast-track approval and funding. Critics have raised concerns about the environmental impact on a region that is a crucial ecological hub for polar bears and beluga whales and functions as a global climate regulator. Industry officials and experts have been wary of Churchill’s short shipping season, as it is frozen for about eight months a year and would require icebreakers to expand access. Arctic Gateway Group LP, a partnership of 41 northern communities and First Nations that operates the port and the railway that serves it, has been conducting feasibility studies with the province and federal government to gather industry perspectives about the possible export hub and energy corridor. The University of Manitoba has been examining how new machinery could enable year-round shipping without harming the environment. The Globe and Mail

Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia have abandoned plans to reduce the carbon footprint associated with loans to heavy emitters such as oil and gas producers. The Canadian banks, announcing their decisions in separate statements, said they are withdrawing their 2030 emissions targets. Both cited the geopolitical and energy-security context. RBC said it will retain its 2050 ambition to achieve net zero emissions via its loan book, while Scotiabank said it had retired that goal altogether. Just half a decade ago, banks in North America and Europe lined up to join net zero alliances, as they touted their dedication to addressing climate change. Since then, such commitments have been dramatically wound back against a backdrop of war, higher interest rates, political opposition and energy crises. Scotiabank listed the U.S. government’s decision to curb “major parts” of the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the failure to implement an oil and gas emissions cap in Canada, as headwinds that “are likely to decelerate the uptake of decarbonization activities in the North American economy.” Financial Post

Montreal-based engineering services and nuclear company AtkinsRéalis and South Korea-based Hanwha Ocean, a global shipbuilding and submarine manufacturer, signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on opportunities to strengthen Canada’s submarine capabilities and reinforce a resilient Canadian defence industrial base. Aligned with Canada’s new Defence Industrial Strategy, the agreement marks an initial step in an ambitious partnership between AtkinsRéalis and Hanwha Ocean and creates a framework for long-term collaboration to explore opportunities supporting Canada’s submarine capability, including the sustainment and development of domestic industrial capacity. It combines AtkinsRéalis’ deep expertise in submarine infrastructure across the entire lifecycle – including its extensive experience supporting the U.K.’s submarine enterprise – with Hanwha Ocean’s proven submarine design and manufacturing capability. The MOU identifies three areas of intended collaboration:

• Submarine infrastructure design and delivery across the full platform lifecycle, working alongside government, industry and the Royal Canadian Navy.
• Supporting the establishment of manufacturing capability in Canada, helping to create the industrial base required for domestic submarine production and related initiatives.
• Leveraging the strengths, technologies, and industrial capabilities of AtkinsRéalis and Hanwha Ocean in the nuclear, power, and wider defence sectors to generate new strategic collaborative opportunities for Korean and Canadian industry in these high-technology markets. AtkinsRéalis

Canada’s uneven regulatory regime for testing autonomous vehicle is not is not set up for self-driving trucks to move easily from province to province, said Toronto-based Waabi, which makes virtual driver systems. “The U.S. is leading globally on self-driving trucking, long-haul trucking, in terms of the deployment,” Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun told The Logic. The federal government and the provinces have committed to tearing down as many of those impediments as possible – including in trucking – to shore up Canada’s economy amid the U.S. trade war, but Urtasun suggested they are taking too long. “Canada needs to understand that this is now,” Urtasun said. “It’s happening now, and if you don’t want to be left behind you need to safely adopt this technology.” Rémi Slama, a corporate lawyer in the Montreal office of Fasken who has written about autonomous vehicles, said provincial jurisdiction over road usage and driver licensing has created a “legal maze.” A 2024 paper on barriers to interprovincial trucking published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute estimated that the hodgepodge of standards and regulations – governing everything from cargo weight allowances to driver qualifications – upped the cost of freight by about 8.3 percent. The Logic

Brampton, Ont.-based MDA Space Ltd. at the 41st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs announced MDA MIDNIGHT™, a space control platform for defence organizations to defend and protect the space domain. MDA MIDNIGHT™ is a maneuverable spacecraft that employs high-reliability rendezvous and proximity operations to detect, identify, counter and deter threats to critical space assets and orbits, the company said. The spacecraft can also be used to augment existing military missions through on-orbit surveillance, asset relocation and satellite refueling. Equipped with a suite of active and passive payload capabilities and world-leading robotics, MDA MIDNIGHT™ “turns space domain awareness into actionable decision-making, enabling defence organizations to maintain operational continuity in the increasingly contested domain,” the company said. The initial MDA MIDNIGHT™ mission is designed to rendezvous with multiple collaborative assets in low Earth orbit and employ a range of protective and defensive capabilities, including:

• On-orbit inspection and reporting of satellite status.
• Electronic counter measures detection, attribution and mitigation.
• Rendezvous and proximity operations, cooperative satellite capture and release.
• De-orbiting of a customer’s non-operational asset. MDA Space

Toronto-based Kepler Communications Inc. announced it was selected as prime contractor for HydRON Element 3, part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) High-throughput Optical Network (HydRON) project. HydRON, within ESA’s Optical and Quantum Communications – Scylight program, will develop a high-throughput optical network enabling secure, real-time data transport across multiple orbits and between space and ground systems. The €18.6-million (Cdn$30.1 million) award builds on Kepler’s role as prime contractor for HydRON Element 1, extending into hosting payloads for users of the HydRON network. For Element 3, Kepler will deliver a hosted-payload mission with multiple European optical communication terminals and payloads from service providers on a standard Kepler-built satellite used in Kepler’s network. The mission will validate interoperability of several optical communication terminals and bring online real-time data for space domain awareness services. In March, Kepler announced the commissioning of distributed on-orbit computing across its Tranche 1 optical data relay constellation, the world’s first commercially operational optical data relay network. This expands the network’s capabilities beyond connectivity to deliver scalable, cloud-like processing directly in space. Kepler Communications

Toronto-based Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) is the grand prize winner of The Aqualunar Challenge, presented by Canadian Space Agency and the Privy Council Office’s Impact Canada initiative. A jury of experts selected CSMC, which will receive $400,000 to continue development of its LunaPure technology. Luna is designed to provide a self-contained, low-maintenance, sustainable system that purifies water on the Moon. Canadian Space Agency

Voters in Virginia, a global hub for data centres, have turned sharply against the facilities after previously welcoming them, a Washington Post-Schar School poll has found. The share of Virginian voters who would be comfortable with construction of a new data centre in their community has plunged to 35 percent, according to the Post-Schar School poll conducted late last month, as worries mount in the state and across the nation that the projects are a scourge on the environment and household utility bills. The poll shows a striking drop since the same question was asked in 2023, when 69 percent of voters said they would be comfortable with a new data center in their community. In a sign of the growing resistance, Prince William County abandoned plans for one of the country’s biggest and most controversial data centre projects: a 1,700-acre campus on the edge of Manassas National Battlefield Park that would have hosted as many as 37 of the compute warehouses. Data centres enjoyed bipartisan support from Virginians as recently as 2023, but that has flipped to dismay throughout the state, including in regions that are far from the dense cluster of hundreds of facilities outside Washington known as “Data Center Alley.” Nationwide, 62 percent of Americans say the cost of data centers outweighs the benefits, according to a Marquette Law School poll conducted in January. The Washington Post

VC, PRIVATE INVESTMENT & ACQUISITIONS

The OMERS pension plan is looking add at least $10-billion in new investments in Canada to its portfolio over the next five years, as chief executive Blake Hutcheson said a push to attract more capital to Canadian projects is starting to show results. The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System has about 18 percent of its $145-billion portfolio invested in Canada – about $26 billion. Over the next five years, Hutcheson aims to increase that share to 25 per cent, he told The Globe and Mail. Among its existing Canadian investments, OMERS has a major stake in nuclear energy provider Bruce Power, and it owns land registry provider Teranet. But roughly three-quarters of the $2.6-trillion that Canada’s largest pension funds collectively manage is invested abroad, and governments have urged them to do more at home. At all three levels of government, Hutcheson said the approach from policy makers has shifted from “expectation without opportunity to one of partnership with real opportunity.” The Globe and Mail

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CEO Harry Culham said the lender is bolstering financing for businesses as Ottawa injects cash into building major infrastructure. The federal government and Canada’s bank regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) have been seeking ways to encourage more lending from the country’s largest banks to finance major projects and help businesses scale up. CIBC plans to ramp up lending for energy, agriculture, transportation, small and medium-sized businesses, and other sectors deemed critical to Ottawa’s strategy to reinforce the economy as geopolitics upends global trade. “We have ample capital, we have a really strong balance sheet, and we are positioning ourselves to be very involved in the commercial and business banking part of economic growth over the next years,” Culham told The Globe and Mail. The fall federal budget included several measures aimed at creating competition in the banking sector, and the OSFI is proposing changing the way banks treat certain loans, in a bid to make it easier for them to lend to businesses. The Globe and Mail

Ottawa-based early-stage venture capital fund Mistral Venture Partners raised $75 million to back companies building AI, a round that included the Alberta Enterprise Corporation. Other investors included the Business Development Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Venture Ontario, and HarbourVest, among others. The company also hired a full-time staff member to expand the firm’s reach and activities in Alberta. With a focus on early-stage enterprise startups, Mistral already has a track record of investing in Alberta, including investments in Calgary’s artificial intelligence-powered architecture platform Bidaya AI and academic admissions coaching platform Youthfully. BetaKit

Toronto-based venture capital fund Georgian led a Series B round for California-based Expo that raised US$45 million. Other investors included Toronto-headquartered Leadout Capital, as well as U.S. funds A.Capital Ventures and Red Swan Ventures. Expo said it will use the funding to keep developing its technology. Developers at large organizations like Pizza Hut and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority use Expo’s software to build and run apps using the popular React framework for user interfaces. Expo is integrating AI into its products, recently  launching an AI agent that can code based on users’ prompts. The Logic

Toronto-based Biossil raised US$43 million in a funding round co-led by the ChatGPT maker and Founders Fund, Peter Thiel’s VC firm. Former tech banker Anthony Mouchantaf and medical doctor Alexander Mosa co-founded Biossil in March 2023. The firm uses large language models to identify drug candidates that failed in clinical trials, then see whether they might have other uses or work in different settings. Biossil buys or licenses the potential medicines from the original maker, then runs new tests to try to take them to market. The Globe and Mail

Toronto-based Common Wealth, a group retirement provider, raised $12 million in new equity financing to accelerate its mission of making retirement security accessible to every Canadian. The round includes participation from new and existing investors, including the Broadbent group, Good & Well, AgeTech Capital, Deokali Capital, Eventi Capital Partners, and Flow Capital, and a distinguished group of other Canadian families and individuals. Common Wealth provides digital workplace retirement plans for small and mid-sized employers, and said it plans to use the funding to expand distribution and enhance its proprietary platform and AI capabilities. More than 10 million Canadians working in the private sector lack access to a workplace retirement plan. At the same time, Canadians approaching retirement face a growing income gap. Common Wealth’s technology and retirement services platform is designed to address both sides of this challenge. Common Wealth

Vancouver-based A&K Robotics raised $8 million in a Series A all-equity capital funding round led by BDC’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, part of BDC Capital, and Vantage Futures, the corporate venture arm of Vantage Group. Additional investors include RiSC Capital, Grep VC, Nimbus Synergies, and Dan Gelbart, co-founder of Creo and Kardium. A&K Robotics m is the company behind Cruz™, a self-driving mobility robot that carries passengers through high-traffic, dynamic environments such as airport terminals. Riders select a destination and Cruz navigates autonomously using onboard sensors and advanced AI. It dynamically adjusts its path to move safely alongside pedestrians and arrive precisely at the intended location. Cruz is designed to operate continuously, enabling airports to deliver consistent, accessible passenger mobility at scale. Cruz is already deployed in complex, real-world airport environments, working with leading airport operators across North America and Europe, including Vancouver International Airport. The company said the financing supports A&K’s transition from pilot programs to permanent deployments, expanding production capacity (including a new manufacturing facility in Surrey, B.C.), and accelerating adoption across major airport networks. A&K Robotics

Vancouver-based NorthX Climate Tech is investing $2.2 million in follow-on capital in CRWN.ai, Nova, and Skyward Wildfire Technologies, three B.C.-based companies building and deploying field-tested technologies to detect, prevent and manage wildfires. Building on early commercial traction and real-world deployment, these investments will accelerate the scale-up of solutions protecting communities, critical infrastructure and air quality across British Columbia and beyond. This funding builds on initial investments made through NorthX's 2024 Call for Innovation: Wildfire Tech, Canada's first dedicated funding program for wildfire technologies. These solutions are targeting the most destructive and costly aspects of wildfire through prevention and detection technologies. With live units in the field and partnerships with Powertech and the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, CRWN.ai is supporting utility operations to prevent industrial fire risks. Nova is turning aerial intelligence into clear, intuitive insights for more than 200 clients across North America and Australia. Skyward is expanding pilots of its predictive intelligence and targeted aerial intervention with wildfire authorities. NorthX

Toronto-based startup Wygo raised nearly $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. The funding round was supported by investors including N49P, StandUp Ventures, Garage Capital, Zero 21 Partners, Backbone Angels, Good Future, and Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke. Wygo is a community event platform designed to encourage offline social interactions. The platform allows hosts to create events, attract attendees and manage ticketing. Wygo aims to be an economic engine for independent community builders by facilitating events such as The GO OUTSIDE Games and workshops for Socratica. The company plans to use the funds to expand its team by hiring a designer, software engineer and multimedia storyteller. Startup Ecosystem Canada

Edmonton-based startup Fairly Staffing announced an investment from Alberta Enterprise Corporation-backed Accelerate Fund. The amount wasn’t disclosed, but the fund, which targets early-stage and pre-Series A startups in Alberta, typically invests up to $500,000. Launched in 2024 by dental hygienist Aisha Abdul and current CEO Amir Reshef, Fairly Staffing pairs verified dental professionals with clinics facing staffing shortfalls. Via its platform, clinics can select from a pool of temporary workers to cover shifts, while workers can clock in and out and invoice through the platform. Having grown its user base to more than 600 clinics and 3,000 temporary dental workers (the lion’s share of which are located in Alberta), Fairly Staffing intends to use the capital to further develop its presence across Canada. BetaKit

Montreal-based satellite defence company NorthStar Earth & Space Inc., Florida-based Space Domain Awareness, and New York-based Viking Acquisition corp., a special purpose acquisition company, announced a definitive business combination agreement to form a combined company in the U.S. that will trade on the New York Stock Exchange. The deal values NorthStar at US$300 million before a US$30-million capital injection led by Cartesian Capital Group, money that NorthStar plans to use for engineering services and parts. NorthStar aims to launch and operate satellites that can do environmental monitoring of Earth’s surface, and also track other satellites and space junk in Earth orbit to warn customers of collisions – and even potential attacks on their equipment. The federal and Quebec governments were early supporters of NorthStar. NorthStar Earth & Space

Canadian-founded, San Francisco-based AppDirect, a global business-to-business (B2B) subscription marketplace provider, acquired Toronto-based Partnerstack, which provides partner relationship management software and a network B2B partners. The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. PartnerStack’s 110 employees have joined AppDirect, which is retaining the company’s leadership team and its operations in Toronto. AppDirect, which helps other firms buy, sell and manage recurring tech services, said this strategic integration injects a powerful partner ecosystem engine into the company’s subscription commerce platform, enhancing AppDirect's ability to help companies leverage ecosystems and distribution as a primary growth engine. The acquisition builds on AppDirect’s recent acquisition of Tackle.io, the cloud go-to-market platform supporting over $20 billion in cloud hyperscaler marketplace transactions. AppDirect

 REPORTS & POLICIES

 More businesses in Canada have closed than opened amid an “entrepreneurial drought:” Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses

More businesses in Canada have closed than opened for six consecutive quarters, and more than half (55 percent) of small business owners say they would not recommend starting a business right now, according to research by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

CFIB’s new report, Canada’s Entrepreneurial Drought, Part 1: The Shrinking Business Landscape, is the first in a two-part series examining the growing imbalance between business creation and closures across the country.
The entrepreneurial drought, a sustained period of four or more quarters where business exits outpace new business entries, has been ongoing since early 2024, the report said.

While the overall trend of business creation in Canada has been declining since mid-1980s, openings had mostly outpaced business closures. That’s not the case anymore.

“Small and medium-sized enterprises are facing one of the most challenging business environments in decades,” the report said.

“Small businesses have watched governments hand out billions of dollars to multinationals while ignoring the realities on Main Street,” said Michelle Auger, CFIB director of trade and marketplace competitiveness.

“Governments need to wake up. If we want a more productive and competitive economy tomorrow, we need more small businesses today,” she said.
“Small business priorities should be government priorities. That means reducing taxes, cutting red tape, and promoting investment and entrepreneurship across the country,” she added.
Escalating input costs, tax burdens, labour shortages, regulatory pressures and global economic uncertainty are collectively constraining entrepreneurial activity nationwide.

In the second quarter of 2025, business exit rates reached 5.6 percent, while entry rates fell to 4.8 percent in Q4 2025, “marking some of the highest closure rates and weakest startup activity outside the pandemic.”

The erosion of business dynamism (notably its firm entry/exit dimension) matters because new and growing firms drive innovation, competition, job creation and productivity, the report noted.

As firm turnover slows, competitive pressure weakens, investment lags and productivity growth suffers – contributing to Canada’s prolonged productivity slump. “If these trends persist, Canada risks losing a critical source of resilience and long-term economic growth.”

One in two business owners say they would not recommend starting a business today, citing financial risk, regulatory barriers and doubts about long-term viability, according to the report.

In 2024, businesses spent an average of 735 hours (equivalent to 32 working days) on compliance, costing the economy roughly $51.5 billion, with $17.9 billion attributable to red tape alone, the report said.

“These pressures, combined with rising costs, labour challenges and an uncertain economic environment, contribute to fewer business entries, slowing the renewal cycle that fuels innovation, job creation and productivity growth.”

Canada’s entrepreneurship problem is not due to a lack of interest; approximately 16 percent of Canadians would consider business ownership, but rather reflects hesitation driven by high costs and regulatory complexity, the report said.

Unlocking this latent entrepreneurial potential will require reducing barriers to entry, lowering costs of doing business, and creating a policy environment that encourages experimentation, risk-taking, and second chances, according to the report.

“When entrepreneurs themselves are reluctant to encourage new business creation, the pipeline of new firms weakens, risking a deeper and more persistent drought,” the report said.
The challenges behind the entrepreneurial drought go beyond business entry and exit trends, according to CFIB’s report.

Two‑thirds of small firms said they feel unsupported by their provincial governments, only three percent strongly believed their government had a clear vision for entrepreneurship, while 73 percent are not confident in the federal government. 

High costs, tax and payroll pressures, complex rules, red tape and ongoing labour challenges against a backdrop of persistent global uncertainty all make entrepreneurship more difficult and less attractive. 
“Canada’s economic foundation is crumbling. Governments need to stop just papering over the cracks and really refocus efforts on policies that improve the small business environment,” said Brianna Solberg, CFIB’s director for the Prairies and the North.

“We cannot afford to regulate ambition out of our economy. When more than half of current small business owners are telling you they wouldn’t recommend starting a business, it’s time to listen,” she said.

Canada must also confront a broader cultural challenge: entrepreneurship is not consistently recognized or celebrated in the same way it is in other countries, and business success is too often viewed with skepticism rather than as an achievement to be encouraged, the CFIB said. Shifting this narrative, so that building a successful business is seen as a positive and valued contribution, will be an important part of rebuilding the pipeline of future entrepreneurs.

“By making it simpler and more attractive for Canadians to start and grow businesses, and by fostering a culture that supports and celebrates their success, we can help ensure that entrepreneurship remains a viable and rewarding path, while strengthening the foundation of Canada’s economy.”

Reversing Canada’s entrepreneurial drought must be treated as a national economic priority. Strengthening the environment for starting and growing a business, while restoring confidence in the viability of entrepreneurship, is critical to rebuilding Canada’s economic momentum and prosperity, the CFIB said.

Part 2 of CFIB’s entrepreneurial drought report series: “Fixing Canada’s Shrinking Business Landscape” will be released on April 28, 2026. Part 2 will provide practical recommendations for governments to help end Canada’s entrepreneurial drought. CFIB

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Federal government provided $6.4 billion in innovation and growth support to over 47,000 businesses in 2023

In 2023, the federal government provided innovation and growth support valued at $6.4 billion to over 47,000 businesses through 166 federal programs, according a report by Statistics Canada (StatsCan).

Both funding (+8.5 percent) and the number of businesses (+8,000) increased from 2022, while the number of programs (-6) decreased slightly.

Ontario (41 percent) received the largest proportion of Business Innovation and Growth Support (BIGS) among provinces in 2023, followed by Quebec (19.1 percent).

Historically, small and medium-sized enterprises, defined as those with fewer than 500 employees, have made up the majority of BIGS beneficiaries.

The number enterprises with zero to four employees that received support increased by over half in 2023. The number of BIGS beneficiaries in this category increased 65.5 percent to 13,914 in 2023, and this includes an increase in non-employer enterprises (+48.6 percent).

Around one-fifth of BIGS beneficiaries with zero to four employees in 2023 were operating in the professional, scientific and technical services industry (3,011 enterprises), up from 2022 (+51.6 percent).

The second-highest category in business size receiving BIGS in 2023 was businesses with five to nine employees, with 6,043 firms supported – up from 2,900 in 2019.

In comparison, BIGS supported 1,116 businesses with 500 employees or more in 2023, an increase from 918 in 2019.

BIGGS supported 12,490 businesses with revenues of zero to $249,999 in 2023, up from 4,552 firms in 2019.

In comparison, BIGGS supported 514 businesses with revenues of $500,000 or greater in 2023, an increase from 393 firms in 2019.

The professional, scientific and technical services industry was the biggest beneficiary of BIGGS in terms of number of companies, with 9,527 companies receiving support. This sector received more than $821 million in BIGGS support in 2023.

Second-highest for number of companies was the manufacturing industry, with 6,606 companies receiving more than $1.56 billion in BIGGS support, followed by retail trade (4,075 companies and over $231 million in support), accommodation and food services (3,706 companies and over $777 million in support), and “other services (except public administration” (3,051 companies and more than $445 million in support.

The utilities industry was at the bottom in terms of number of companies, with 124 businesses receiving BIGGS support.

The manufacturing industry received the greatest amount of BIGGS support in terms of dollars, with more than $1.56 billion.

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction received the lowest dollar amount of BIGGS support, receiving over $41 million in support.  StatsCan

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Only one-fifth of global organizations are capturing nearly three-quarters of AI’s economic value: PcW survey

A small group of companies is pulling sharply ahead in the race to generate real financial returns from artificial intelligence, according to PwC’s new AI Performance study.

The global study interviewed 1,217 senior executives, primarily at large, publicly listed companies across 25 sectors, asking them about the revenue and efficiency gains they are seeing from AI today, alongside questions about how they deploy the technology.

It finds that nearly three‑quarters (74 percent) of AI’s economic value is captured by just one‑fifth (20 percent) of organizations, revealing “a stark and widening divide between a small group of AI leaders and the majority of businesses still stuck in pilot mode.”

Fifty-six percent of companies reported seeing no significant financial benefit from AI to date.

The research shows that these top‑performing companies are not simply deploying more AI tools. Instead, they are using AI as a catalyst for growth and business reinvention, particularly by pursuing new revenue opportunities created as industries converge, while building strong foundations around data, governance and trust.

“Many companies are busy rolling out AI pilots, but only a minority are converting that activity into measurable financial returns,” said Joe Atkinson, global chief AI officer at PwC.

The leaders stand out because they point AI at growth, not just cost reduction, and back that ambition with the foundations that make AI scalable and reliable,” he said.

Leaders at Canadian companies reported limited access to high-quality data sources for employees working with AI, and fewer centralized tools that can be reused – meaning staff were more likely to build tools from scratch, according to the survey.

The 34 Canadian company leaders surveyed said their workforces were less likely to be offered ongoing, role-specific AI training sessions and were less likely to trust AI-generated insights than the global average of corporate leaders surveyed. 

Organizations with the strongest AI performance treat the technology as a reinvention engine, using it to reshape business models and expand beyond traditional industry boundaries, PwC said.

Companies leading on AI reported:

• 2.6 times as likely as peers to report AI improves their ability to reinvent their business model.
• Two to three times as likely as others to say they use AI to identify and pursue growth opportunities arising from industry convergence, such as collaborating with partners outside their core sector.

PwC’s analysis shows that capturing growth opportunities from industry convergence is the single strongest factor influencing AI‑driven financial performance, ahead of efficiency gains alone.

The research also highlights significant differences in how leading companies deploy AI inside the enterprise. Companies with the best AI-driven financial outcomes are nearly twice as likely as other companies to say they’re using AI in advanced ways: executing multiple tasks within guardrails (1.8 times) or operating in autonomous, self-optimizing ways (1.9 times).

AI leaders are increasing the number of decisions made without human intervention at almost three times (2.8 times) the rate of peers.

This automation is enabled by a focus on “trust at scale.” AI leaders are more likely than other companies to have mechanisms such as a Responsible AI framework (1.7 times as likely as other companies) and a cross-functional AI governance board (1.5 times). As a result of their efforts, their employees are twice as likely to trust AI outputs.

“Without a shift in approach, the performance gap between AI leaders and laggards is likely to widen further as leading companies continue to learn faster, scale proven use cases and automate decisions safely at scale,” PwC said. PwC

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Competition Bureau Canada needs to regulate AI space carefully to not stifle innovation: C. D. Howe Institute

Competition Bureau Canada should use a case-by-case, evidence- and effects-based approach, with a particular focus on the state of innovation, in assessing artificial intelligence’s impact on the competitive environment, according to a commentary from the C. D. Howe Institute.

“Such an approach is warranted because AI technologies and business models are changing rapidly,” Daniel Schwanen, senior vice-president at the C. D. Howe Institute, said in the commentary.

These changes include potential convergence among different layers of AI technologies and between these technologies and a range of economic sectors, he said.

As a result, authorities should avoid any temptation to define AI “markets” too rigidly, including when evaluating potential anti-competitive effects of mergers and acquisitions, or the dominance of specific firms, Schwanen said.

Attempts by competition authorities at second-guessing the development or applications of AI technologies risk stifling beneficial innovation while offering no compensatory benefit, he said.

Instead, authorities should pay particular attention to competitive conditions in so-called “innovation markets” that encompass competition through research and development and the building and acquisition of talent and intellectual property – the sources from which new AI technologies and applications emerge and through which they spread.

Government intervention can also act as a pro-competitive force by giving smaller players and innovators access to the tools and markets they need to grow, Schwanen said.

This is generally the case when governments support more – and more accessible – AI infrastructure. It also applies to policies that support open-source models or increase the availability of data, a vital input into AI models and systems.

The Competition Bureau should provide clearer guidance on how it will evaluate the state of competition, or the likely state of competition in fast-evolving markets, when it considers potential cases of abuse of dominance, or the impact of certain conducts in the marketplace, or when it assesses the impact of mergers, he said.

Where other government policies already promote access, the Bureau should exercise forbearance in assessing the impact on competition of players they consider dominant, he said. “Where policies create barriers to competition, the Bureau should advocate for change in these policies.”

Given increased government intervention to support emerging players, competition authorities should also explicitly recognize the benefits of scale and scope that large firms provide to the AI ecosystem, Schwanen said. Frontier innovation in AI requires enormous investments, and there is little evidence that competition at that frontier is not intense.

That said, when market structures or business arrangements suggest bigger players in the infrastructure layer could wield sufficient market power to stifle access for emerging competitors across the stack, there are ways that the Competition Bureau can best use its recently strengthened powers (as well as the public directly) under the revamped Competition Act to address anti-competitive practices and agreements, he said.

The first layer of “AI markets” concerns the availability of, and competition in, specialized AI chips, computing power, data centres, cloud computing and data.

Although data is an essential input for foundation models, firms can compete in this space through multiple pathways. No competitive foundation AI model is trained exclusively on proprietary data. Firms also train models using publicly available and licensed content, including public-domain texts and structured datasets around dozens of fields of knowledge.

The key point is that while proprietary data can be embedded in some firm’s AI modelling strategy, it does not by itself confer an insurmountable competitive advantage, Schwanen noted.

Indeed, given the high costs of producing, operating, and improving on frontier models, the “coopetition,” or the simultaneous collaboration and competition between competitors, can expand the range of available foundation models and facilitate wider AI diffusion at lower cost.

If competition authorities take a less benign view of foundational models, they should focus on investigating mechanisms that limit a junior partner’s ability to exit – such as mandatory use of proprietary application programming interfaces, he said.

The second layer of “AI markets” concerns the development of AI models, algorithms and architecture. By all accounts, it is multifaceted, characterized “by the presence of large technology companies, startups, and academic research groups.”

As the Competition Bureau has noted, some worry that the market power that some firms may hold in the infrastructure layer could limit competition down the AI stack – and thus limit the growth of emergent innovators, notably in the development layer.

Classic business practices leveraging market power could lead to such an outcome in any industry: self-preferencing (systematically favouring one’s own products regardless of the client’s needs); exclusive dealing (conditioning access or preferential terms on the use of goods, services, or data from a single provider); and tied selling (bundling products or services that a client or users need with others they may not need or prefer to source elsewhere).

In theory, such practices can be used to limit users’ access to competing products and services – for example, by restricting the interoperability between an emerging firm’s products and those of incumbents, or even by foreclosing access to key inputs or customers.

However, in competitive markets, these practices can also benefit business users and consumers by promoting product efficiency, scale and convenience, Schwanen said.

“Because these practices may generate both harms and benefits, competition authorities should assess them on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

When contemplating action that might boost competition in the deployment layer, authorities should refrain from acting based on general assumptions about the future shape of so-called “AI markets,” he added.

Looking forward, it is similarly unclear which AI model, if any, will dominate particular applications – or whether revolutionary technologies such as quantum computing will shift the position of even the largest players in the field.

Accordingly, the Competition Bureau should be wary about defining the “relevant market” too narrowly or treating its boundaries as permanent when assessing potential harms to competition in a highly innovative space – particularly one touted as the fount of a new general-purpose technology.

This fuzziness or likely impermanence complicates Canada’s recent shift to a structural (or “presumptive”) approach to evaluating the impact of mergers and acquisitions on competition, enshrined in the 2023 reform of the Competition Act.

That approach automatically assumes greater potential anti-competitive effects – harm to competition – based on market share in a defined market. Market players can seek to rebut that presumption, and if market boundaries are inherently unstable, they will have an easier time doing so.

Rather than focusing primarily on size and market share, competition authorities could more specifically assess the impact of specific practices on innovation, including the types of potentially anti-competitive tactics discussed above, Schwanen said.

The Bureau should intervene, along with sister national competition authorities, when there is clear evidence that a firm’s suite of products or ecosystem risks becoming so dominant that innovative products cannot reach the market. Such interventions should not be based only on theoretical concerns, and they should seek to preserve existing economic benefits of scale and scope.

The AI deployment layer concerns the production of “any products or services which applies or integrates technology” produced in the AI development layer, or “AI product.”

As the Competition Bureau notes, these products are used across many industries. Examples include “AI-powered assistants and chatbots, self-driving vehicles, recommendation systems, speech-to-text software, content generation, and AI-powered search.”

Schwanen pointed out that the lack of openness to competition in the Canadian economy may be a significant culprit in Canada’s low AI adoption rate.

AI and digital technologies often disrupt existing delivery mechanisms for goods and services. The people who benefit from incumbent systems may seek to preserve them.

At times, Canadian governments and public bodies have responded by protecting incumbents that use old technologies rather than encouraging adaptation to new technologies and emerging forms of competition. This regulatory dynamic has appeared in public health care and in markets ranging from retail and taxis to finance, logistics, entertainment and markets for information itself.

“Governments should be aware that, by slowing down AI deployment, such protections ultimately slow down the growth and competitiveness of both Canada’s AI sector and the broader economy,” Schwanen said.

The Bureau’s advocacy and competition promotion branch should therefore identify and address areas where regulation or public policy unnecessarily inhibits AI adoption.

Unfortunately, the Anti-Competitive Conduct and Agreements Enforcement Guidelines, released by the Bureau on October 31, 2025 (Competition Bureau Canada 2025b), paint a rather broad and imprecise picture of the potential ways it can interpret conduct and market developments, he said.

To be effective in this rapidly changing space, the Bureau should issue clearer guidance about the anti-competitive effects it seeks to prevent or remedy, and the market indicators it might monitor to assess such risks, including in innovation markets.

Enforcement should be grounded in evidence regarding the effects or likely effects of a particular conduct or agreement, in light of market conditions, rather than directed at firms solely because they are large or even dominant, as has sometimes been the case in the EU.

An effects-based framework would allow for more explicit and reasoned recognition of the positive impact of scale and scope in providing for AI-related goods and services, while ensuring that smaller innovators and potential users retain access to each other and to growth opportunities.

Schwanen said if evidence shows that a firm, regardless of how it achieved its position, controls a uniquely valuable “chokepoint” that innovators must access, or exerts a “chokehold” over bundled offerings that users must accept, the Bureau could seek solutions that address the specific harm to competition, for example through commitments to expand choice or share access to inputs such as data or facilities.

“What they should avoid, however, are breakups that would sacrifice economies of scale or scope and risk entrenching a low-productivity equilibrium.”

Competition authorities should use a “light touch or sandbox approach” to assessing partnerships, Schwanen said.

The Bureau also should proactively consult market participants about barriers that may prevent them from growing. The goal should be to ensure that emerging firms have reasonably open access to a variety of suppliers and customers.

“The principles guiding the Bureau’s evaluation of mergers, conduct and overall competitive conditions should be clear,” Schwanen said.

“The Bureau should focus on removing barriers to innovation, including by not stifling the myriad benefits that come from the economies of scale and scope brought by large and growing market participants.” C. D. Howe Institute

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Editor’s note: The theme of the 25^th Annual Research Money Conference, June 3 and 4 in Ottawa, is “Acting on Health: Reimagining Canada’s Promise.” Leading up to the conference, Research Money will be highlighting news stories, reports on research, commentaries and analyses focused on health and life sciences.

Canadians want a more accessible, less bureaucratic health care system that allows more room for the private sector

Canadians want a more accessible, less bureaucratic health care system that allows more room for the private sector, according to a new Montreal Economic Institute (MEC)-Ipsos poll.

“Canadians understand that a universal system does not have to be run exclusively by government,” said Emmanuelle Faubert, economist at the MEI. “They see private providers as a concrete way of reducing wait times and having better access to care.”

A sample of 1,159 Canadians aged 18 years and over were polled online by Ipsos between March 26 and 29, 2026.

A majority of Canadians (56 percent of respondents) want greater access to health care services supplied by independent providers. Quebec and Alberta are the regions where support is the highest, at 67 percent and 65 percent respectively.

Nearly three in four Canadians (72 percent) believe that private facilities can provide health care services faster than hospitals that are run by the government.

Similarly, 72 percent of Canadians support the adoption of a mixed universal health system, as exists in France and Sweden, where treatment is provided in both public and private hospitals, but covered by public health insurance. This proportion is up eight points compared to last year.

The idea of introducing what are known as care guarantees, which is to say allowing patients who have waited too long to obtain private treatment reimbursed by the government, is supported by 83 percent of Canadians polled.

“Governments should not stubbornly cling to what isn’t working, but should instead look at what does work elsewhere and adopt it here,” Faubert said. “Canadians clearly want change, and policymakers should listen to them.”

The poll also shows a profound dissatisfaction with the bureaucratization of the health system.

Three-quarters of Canadians (76 percent) consider their healthcare system to be overly bureaucratic. This sentiment is particularly strong in Alberta and Quebec, where the proportion rises to 81 percent of respondents.

The population is also worried about the growth of health spending and the poor results obtained.

Across the country, 60 percent of respondents recognize that the rate of growth of health care spending in their province is unsustainable.

Meanwhile, only 34 percent of them believe that increased spending has improved the state of their province’s health system.

“Although we keep throwing additional billions of dollars at healthcare, our access problems have persisted, and Canadians know it,” Faubert said. “It’s time for politicians to recognize that the state of our health care systems is not explained by a lack of resources, but rather by the rigid and excessively bureaucratic nature of our model.” Montreal Economic Institute

See also: The end of Canadian medicare? Alberta legislation opens the door to U.S. health care

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Rigid bureaucracy and funding models in Canada’s health care systems slows the adoption of new medical technologies

The rigid bureaucracy and funding models of Canada’s health care systems slows the adoption of new medical technologies, to the detriment of patients, according to an economic note from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).

“Because of the lack of incentives in the current system, administrators often see the adoption of new technologies solely as a risk,” said author Emmanuelle Faubert, economist at the MEI. “As a result, we continue to use outdated methods and equipment, which is safer for administrators, but doesn’t help patients get the best care.”

The incentive structure typically present in governmental organizations negatively impacts the adoption and deployment of novel medical technologies, Faubert said. Public decision-makers generally operate under fixed budgets and intense scrutiny, which leaves little room for considering the adoption of innovations.

“This explains why Canadian patients often wait longer than necessary to benefit from innovations that have already been proven safe and effective elsewhere,” she said.

Faubert cites the slow adoption of surgical robots as a telling example of this lag.

Intuitive, the company that manufactures the da Vinci robotic surgery systems, is the main player in this market, and international comparisons generally refer to the number of its systems that have been installed, given its dominant position and the availability of data. In 2025, only 39 Canadian clinics and hospitals used these systems.

In the United States, over 2,000 clinics and hospitals use 5,500 robotic surgery systems. In Germany, over 200 surgical robots are installed in the country’s hospitals, and have been used to perform over 200,000 operations.

Faubert said a substantial proportion of these systems being used in Canada were financed by philanthropic donations in Canada.

“If not for foundations and philanthropy, innovative medical equipment would be almost entirely absent from Canadian hospitals,” she said. “Excessive centralization, funding by historical budgets, and the lack of competition between hospitals essentially kills the incentive to innovate.”

The situation is even more striking when it comes to proton beam therapy, a type of radiology that is used to treat certain cancers that are difficult to treat otherwise.

Canada is the only G7 country without a proton beam therapy clinic. In the United States today, there are 40 active centres, while Germany has five of them.

Currently, Canadian health care systems send patients in need of proton beam therapy abroad for treatment, notably to the U.S. at high cost.

In Ontario alone, 143 requests for treatment abroad were approved between 2018 and 2024, at an average cost of over $80,000 per patient.

“Canada is paying to send its patients abroad, while our health bureaucracies are slow to open their own centres, when they aren’t causing independent projects to fail,” Faubert said. “Unfortunately, in the battle between health bureaucracies and project developers, it is patients who suffer.”

Faubert cites the example of an independent proton beam therapy centre project, to be accessible through Quebec’s public health insurance plan, proposed for Montreal in 2018 by CDL Laboratories, which was subsequently cancelled by a governmental decision.

“The reason why a centre has yet to be built in Canada is mainly the bureaucratic inability to manage covering high fixed capital costs,” she said.

There’s a lack of competitive pressure in Canadian health care systems, Faubert noted. In contrast, in decentralized systems where the money follows the patient, clinics or hospitals that provide even marginally worse service may lose significant numbers of both patients and funding.

Sometimes, innovations will not be adopted even when public decision-makers are willing to do so, simply due to the lack of available funding to cover their cost.

This is exacerbated by the fact that Canadian hospital funding generally does not follow the patient. Most of the funding received by hospitals is needed to cover the costs of providing existing care to patients.

“This is why many innovations fail to move from the pilot phase to the deployment phase, unless they can be funded through philanthropy,” Faubert said.

Contrary to public hospitals, it is possible for private clinics, diagnostic centres and autonomous group practices to adopt new technologies without depending on a centralized bureaucratic process, Faubert said.

Philanthropy has already demonstrated that alternative financing can accelerate access to innovation. The private sector now needs to be allowed to play this role on a larger scale, she added.

Many countries with universal health care systems already rely on this model to accelerate the adoption of new technologies, without abandoning access to care.

In heavily centralized and bureaucratic systems like Canada’s, it is hard for new technologies to smoothly go from pilot phase to deployment due to the lack of proper incentives, Faubert said. Other countries with universal health care systems have better incentive structures and leverage the private sector to promote the implementation and deployment of novel technologies that greatly benefit patients, she said.

“Canadian health care systems should emulate this approach in order to bring beneficial medical innovations to Canadian patients sooner.” Montreal Economic Institute

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Media reports of generative AI-related psychiatric harms focus on severe outcomes attributed to AI system behaviour, but better evidence is needed

Mass media reports of generative AI-related psychiatric harms are heavily concentrated on severe outcomes like suicide and hospitalization, frequently attributed to AI system behaviour despite limited supporting evidence, according to an article in The Conversation.

Generative AI chatbots are now used by more than 987 million people globally, including around 64 per cent of American teens, according to recent estimates. Increasingly, people are using these chatbots for advice, emotional support, therapy and companionship.

In the article, Alexandre Hudon, medical psychiatrist, clinician-researcher and clinical assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and addictology at the Université de Montréal, said there has been media scrutiny of a few tragic cases involving allegations that AI chatbots were implicated in wrongful death cases.

A jury in Los Angeles recently found Meta and YouTube liable for addictive design features that led to a user’s mental health distress.

Hudon said his research team recently led a study, published in JMIR Mental Health, that examined how global media are reporting on the impact of generative AI chatbots on mental health. The team analyzed 71 news articles describing 36 cases of mental health crises, including severe outcomes such as suicide, psychiatric hospitalization and psychosis-like experiences.

Unlike search engines or static apps, AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Perplexity and others produce fluent, personalized conversations that can feel remarkably human, Hudon noted.

This creates what researchers call “compassion illusions:” the sense that one is interacting with an entity that understands, empathizes and responds meaningfully.

“In mental health contexts, this matters,” Hudon said. Especially as a new wave of apps are created with a specific focus on companionship, such as Character.AI, Replika and others.

Studies have shown that generative AI can simulate empathy and provide responses to distress, but lacks true clinical judgment, accountability and duty of care.

In some cases, AI chatbots may offer inconsistent or inappropriate responses to high-risk situations such as suicidal ideation.

Across the articles Hudon’s research team analyzed, the most frequently reported outcome was suicide. This represented more than half of cases with clearly described severity.

Psychiatric hospitalization was the second-most commonly reported outcome. Notably, reports involving minors were more likely to be about fatal outcomes.

“But these numbers do not reflect real-world incidence. They reflect what gets reported,” Hudon pointed out.

 In general, media coverage of stressful events tends to amplify severe and emotionally charged cases, as negative and uncertain information captures attention, elicits stronger emotional responses and sustains cycles of heightened vigilance and repeated exposure, he said. “This in turn reinforces perceptions of threat and distress.”

For AI-related content, media reports often rely on partial evidence (such as chat transcripts) while rarely including medical documentation. In the research team’s data set, only one case referenced formal clinical or police records.

“This creates a distorted but influential picture: one that shapes public perception, clinical concern and regulatory debate,” Hudon said.

In many of the articles the team reviewed, AI systems were described as having “contributed to” or even “caused” psychiatric deterioration.

“However, the underlying evidence was often limited,” Hudon said. Alternative explanations –such as pre-existing mental illness, substance use or psycho-social stressors – were inconsistently reported.

“In psychiatry, causality is rarely simple,” he noted. Mental health crises typically arise from multiple interacting factors. “AI may play a role, but it is likely part of a broader ecosystem that includes individual vulnerability and context.”

A more useful way to think about this is through interaction effects: how technology interacts with human cognition and emotion. For example, conversational AI may reinforce certain beliefs, provide excessive validation or blur boundaries between reality and simulation.

Another recurring pattern in media reports is intensive use. Many of the cases the research  team reviewed described prolonged, emotionally significant interactions with chatbots – framed as companionship or even romantic relationships. “This raises an issue: over-reliance.”

Because these systems are always available, non-judgmental and responsive, they can become a primary source of support. But unlike a trained clinician or even a concerned friend, they cannot recognize when someone is getting worse, pause or redirect harmful interactions. They cannot take steps to ensure a person connects with appropriate care in moments of crisis.

Despite growing concern, “we are still at an early stage of understanding the impact of generative AI chatbots on user mental health,” Hudon said.

There is currently no reliable estimate of how often AI-related harms occur, or whether they are increasing, he said. There’s a lack of reliable data on how many people use these tools safely versus those who experience problems. And most evidence comes from case reports or media narratives, not systematic clinical studies.

This is not unusual, he said. In many areas of medicine, early warning signals emerge outside formal research (through case reports, legal cases or public discourse) before being systematically studied.

One example is the thalidomide tragedy, when initial reports of birth defects in infants preceded formal epidemiological confirmation and ultimately led to the development of modern pharmacovigilance systems.

“AI and mental health may be following a similar trajectory. The challenge is not to panic, but to respond thoughtfully,” Hudon said.

“We need better evidence,” he said. This includes systematic monitoring of adverse events, clearer reporting standards and research that distinguishes correlation from causation. Safeguards – such as crisis detection, escalation protocols and transparency about limitations – must be strengthened and evaluated.

Furthermore, clinicians and the public need guidance, he added. Patients are already using these tools. Ignoring this reality risks widening the gap between clinical practice and lived experience.

“Finally, we must recognize that generative AI is not just a technological innovation – it is a psychological one. It changes how people think, feel and relate,” Hudon said.

“Understanding that shift may be one of the most important mental health challenges of the coming decade.” The Conversation

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Banning teenagers from social media platforms won’t fix social media harms in Canada

A blanket social media ban for teenagers, or “age gating,” won’t fix social media harms in Canada, according to a commentary from the Ottawa-based Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competition.

“The evidence suggests this focus is misplaced: Harm is not driven by access alone, but by specific experiences,” said the commentary by Lawrence Zhang, head of policy at the Centre, affiliated with the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation in Washington, D.C.

 “A blanket social media ban does not address those dynamics, it just removes some users from view while leaving the underlying sources of harm unchanged,” he said.

The evidence for age gating doesn’t support the premise, Zhang argued. Studies often cited to justify restricting access to social media don’t show a clean relationship between time spent and harm.

A large longitudinal study from the University of Manchester tracking 25,000 adolescents found no evidence that time spent on social media predicts emotional or behavioural struggles.

Reviews from the American Psychological Association reached the same conclusion: Social media can be both harmful and beneficial to children. Outcomes depend on what content users encounter, the design of the platforms, and how young people engage with them.

Canadian evidence points the same way, Zhang said. Mental Health Research Canada found that specific online experiences, not general access to social media, are linked to negative mental health outcomes.

Cybervictimization correlates with sharp increases in distress and suicidal ideation, he said. Persistent social comparison correlates with worse psychological outcomes, whereas positive relationships and resilience dampen these effects, he added.

Ottawa’s current policy debate misses this important nuance, Zhang maintained. “The problem is not that young people use social media, but the specific experiences they may have on it. A ban does not engage with that reality; it operates on the assumption that less access automatically means less harm. That logic is too shallow to guide policy.”

This distinction will determine whether policy actually reduces harm in Canada or merely reduces its visibility, Zhang said.

The drivers of harm will not disappear when access is restricted, he noted. They will simply move, reappearing on adjacent platforms, in private channels, and across harder-to-observe spaces.

There is no “Harassment App™” policymakers can ban and call the problem solved, he said. The primary issues facing children on social media – social comparison, bullying, child sexual abuse, and exposure to age-inappropriate content – predate the Internet itself.

Historically, virtually every major media innovation has triggered a moral panic resembling today’s debate over children’s access to social media, Zhang pointed out.

“Banning social media will not change the rates of depression, anxiety, or other mental health challenges among teenagers. If only it were that easy.”

Blanket restrictions also assume a level of compliance that does not exist, he said. Age limits are easy to route around. Teens can use shared accounts, misstate their age, or move to adjacent platforms, resulting in a less visible environment that pushes risks into spaces that are harder for parents, platforms, and policymakers to monitor or influence.

Also, bans weaken the incentives needed to improve platform safety because the users most at risk are no longer part of it, Zhang said. “If young users are excluded, platforms face less pressure to design safer experiences for them. Responsibility moves away from system design and toward user exclusion.”

The same flaw appears in more invasive proposals, he said. Age verification systems based on identity checks or biometric data promise precision but deliver new problems. They create privacy risks, impose compliance costs and remain easy to circumvent.

The bigger problem is that they are built on the same premise as bans: Age verification systems assume the central policy challenge is determining who should be allowed to participate rather than how participation is structured.

The alternative isn’t inaction; it is regulation at the level where harm actually occurs – through platform design, content exposure, and user interactions – while preserving flexibility for families and users, Zhang sad.

One practical approach is a device-level child flag system. Instead of requiring users to prove their age through intrusive verification, operating systems could allow parents to signal that an account belongs to a minor.

Platforms would then be required to recognize that signal and apply appropriate safeguards, which could include safer defaults, limits on features and restrictions on age-inappropriate content. This system would not attempt to perfectly determine age, but rather ensure that platforms respond differently to underage users.

Crucially, this model allows for variation, Zhang said. Young people develop at different rates, and families have different expectations and risk thresholds. A uniform ban overrides those differences. A signalling-based system would allow them to be managed.

More broadly, effective policy should concentrate on addressing specific harms, he said. It should support parental control tools that are usable and consistent across platforms. It should prioritize transparency where it improves accountability, not impose sweeping mandates that create new risks.

“The objective should not be to eliminate social media from young people’s lives, but instead to make those environments safer in ways that reflect how harm actually occurs.”

The momentum behind proposals to ban teens from social media is not accidental Governments across Europe and Australia are moving in the same direction, driven by knee-jerk reactions and public pressure rather than science-backed evidence, Zhang said.

“While other countries may be converging on responses that are easy to explain, not ones designed to work, Canada does not have to follow the trend. Policy diffusion is not validation.”

Ottawa has a habit of choosing policies that are easy to announce and difficult to justify, he said.

A youth social media ban would fit that pattern, offering a clear story: “remove the source of harm.”

But for anyone willing to read past the headlines, the evidence is clear and points elsewhere, he said. “Harm is driven not by access, but by how these systems operate.”

“A blanket ban would do little to address the root causes of harm and risks pushing young people into less visible online environments. A serious policy response should start there.” Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness

THE GRAPEVINE – News about people, institutions and communities

MaRS Discovery District promoted William Ma to managing director of the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF). Ma joined IAF in 2023 as director of investment, leading investment decisions and portfolio support through a significant period of growth. Prior to joining IAF, Ma was an operator at several firms. He joined Plooto at the seed stage and supported its growth, and later led finance and operations at Validere Technologies, backed by BlackRock and Greylock. Since its launch in 2008, IAF has invested more than $100 million in early-stage Ontario companies, catalyzing more than $2.3 billion in follow-on capital. More than 200 ventures have been backed, with more than 50 exits. MaRS Discovery District

Waterloo, Ont.-headquartered OpenText named James McGourlay, its outgoing interim CEO, as president, chief client officer. In this role, McGourlay will lead OpenText's global client experience, professional services and renewals organization. Ayam Antoun takes over as CEO as of April 20, 2026. The company also announced that effective April 20, 2026, Paul Duggan will be stepping down from his position as president, chief customer officer and will continue to serve as executive vice-president, special advisor. Duggan will also remain a member of the OpenText executive leadership team until his departure from OpenText on July 1, 2026. New boss Ayman Antoun takes over today. OpenText

Billie Little, former editor at Thomson Reuters Corp. filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Portland alleging she was fired on March 20 because she reported her belief that Thomson Reuters had been helping U.S. immigration authorities use information gathered by its data-brokering service in ways that violated the law, the suit contends. 404 Media first reported on the case against the Toronto-headquartered news and information company. Thomson Reuters told the Financial Times it disputes the allegations and intends to defend itself. The Oregonian

Toronto-based online storytelling and social media platform Wattpad has undergone a key leadership change: president Aron Levitz has departed after 12 years with the firm and David Lee has taken over. Lee also currently serves as the chief financial officer of Wattpad parent company and digital comic producer Webtoon Entertainment, owned by South Korean internet conglomerate Naver. In a LinkedIn post,  Levitz said he stepped down from Wattpad “to build a new thing,” which he promised to share more about in a few weeks. Webtoon said in a release that Lee has previously led transformations at Zynga, Impossible Foods, and Best Buy, and said he steps into the role of president as Wattpad “continues its transformation efforts, with a deepened focus on ad-supported free content and expanded access for its global community of readers and writers.” Webtoon also announced that under new president Yongsoo Kim, the company has made three other promotions, a new hire, and eliminated the chief technology officer role. Leah Goeun Yeon was named the firm’s first chief business officer, while Yuki Chae, Teo Taeyeong Jang, and Sean Shinhyung Kim have been elevated to chief product officer, head of AI, and head of IP business, respectively. BetaKit

Bob Rae, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations, will become chair of the advisory board of Université de Montréal’s Centre for International Studies (CÉRIUM) on May 1. “We need people willing to conduct rigorous research to influence global policy and improve the human condition,” said Rae, whose five-year mandate as Canada's ambassador to the UN ended last November. The UN’s current funding crisis will play a large role in what Rae considers one of the greatest challenges of the coming decade: the plight of displaced persons and refugees across the globe. Wars, climate change and economic inequalities will force millions more into exile in the coming years, Rae predicted. There are already nearly 120 million displaced people worldwide, according to the UN Refugee Agency. “The world is not yet prepared to welcome as many refugees and immigrants as would be needed,” Rae said. Université de Montréal

Business leaders Shelley King and Dan Matthews will receive top honours from Memorial University’s Faculty of Business Administration at its annual Partners Celebration. The ceremony recognizes entrepreneurial and student excellence. King, founder and CEO of Natural Products Canada, will receive the 2026 Alumni Honour Award. Matthews, a second-generation leader in the automotive industry and chair of the Volkswagen Canada National Dealer Advisory Council, will receive the P.J. Gardiner 2026 Newfoundland and Labrador Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Recent business graduate Chinedu Wisdom and fifth-year commerce student Russell Noseworthy will be recognized for their contributions to student and university life through volunteerism and their demonstrated ability to apply academic experience in a real-world context. Memorial University Gazette

The University of Manitoba’s AirSAFE lab is Canada’s first and only multi-disciplinary research centre dedicated to studying the impact of air quality on human health. Two years after the initiative received transformative gifts and grants, AirSAFE co-leads Dr. Andrew Halayko and Dr. Neeloffer Mookherjee are establishing AirSAFE as a national hub for research on air quality and human health. Since 2023, they have secured state-of-the-art equipment, made strides in the construction of three lab spaces, and assembled a team of multidisciplinary researchers to lead work that advances sustainability, health and well-being. Today, researchers from the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, Price Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, and Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources are collaborating at AirSAFE, located at the Bannatyne Campus of the University of Manitoba and Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. AirSAFE is now home to Canada’s only new generation, constrained drop surfactometer. The device, custom-made by a small company out of the University of Hawaii, measures pulmonary surfactant, a material found in the lungs that supports healthy breathing by preventing lungs from collapsing. AirSAFE has made great strides in Canada’s research infrastructure thanks to transformative grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Research Manitoba. University of Manitoba

McGill University inaugurated state‑of‑the‑art teaching greenhouse and plant phenotyping research facilities at its Macdonald Campus in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. These represent major investments in teaching and research focused on food security, crop resilience and sustainable agriculture. The new greenhouse, attached to the Raymond Building, will be used for teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It features seven independently controlled greenhouse bays connected by a hallway, two demonstration rooms for laboratory practical sessions, a tissue culture facility and a classroom. Built into the greenhouse are several features that enhance the sustainability of its operations, including extensive use of LED lamps, the capture of rainwater on the roof that will be used to irrigate plants and technology that maximizes energy efficiency. The $24.4-million project was funded through the Government of Québec’s Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur ($23 million) and McGill University ($1.4 million). The Eastern Canadian Plant Phenotyping Platform, a collaboration with Université de Sherbrooke, will enable researchers to accelerate technological innovations necessary to identify traits that allow plants to adapt to changing climate conditions and technologies that reduce the impact of agriculture on the environment. Funding for the $23.8 million platform came from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Quebec government’s Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur. McGill University

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Amount of microbial methane leaking from non-producing oil and natural gas wells is 1,000 times higher than previously estimated: McGill University researchers

Microbial methane leaking from non-producing oil and gas wells is being emitted at rates about 1,000 times higher than previously estimated, according to a new study led by McGill University researchers.

“Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas when released into the atmosphere, regardless of its origin. In particular, this study implies that non-producing oil and gas wells could continue to emit microbial methane long after the targeted formation has been fully depleted,” said Mary Kang, study co-author and Associate Professor of Civil Engineering.

“However, the exact source of this methane is often unclear because the subsurface is a complex system with multiple gas-bearing formations,” she said.

The team not only found microbial methane at 23 percent of the non-producing wells sampled – roughly three times higher than earlier estimates – but also detected traces of microbial methane in another 50 percent of them.

Canada has nearly 500,000 non-producing oil and gas wells. While not all leak methane, the study noted previous research by the same team that found the top 12 percent of emitting wells account for 98 percent of emissions from this source.

Understanding where these emissions come from and their nature is key to managing them effectively, the researchers said.

The team collected samples from 401 non-producing wells across the country, particularly in Western Canada where more than 90 per cent of these wells are located. “Non-producing wells” included inactive wells, those that have never produced and those that have ceased production.

“For this  study, we  looked at chemical properties such as gas composition and stable isotopic signatures, which enable a better understanding of the origins of the leaking methane. This analysis is highly sensitive, and we were able to reliably characterize the origins of emissions from 100 of the 401 wells sampled,” said Gianni Micucci, study co-author and postdoctoral researcher in Civil Engineering.

The researchers showed that most methane leaks typically derive from “thermogenic” sources – usually found in petroleum formations deep below ground, where organic matter derived from ancient life “cooks” under high temperatures.

Previous research appears to have underestimated the contribution of microbial methane, which is typically found in shallow formations.

The researchers said the findings raise new questions about how methane moves underground and escapes through wells.

The team’s research, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, was published in Environmental Science and Technology. McGill University

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