GOVERNMENT FUNDING & NEWS

Federal government announces $35-billion plan to defend, build and transform Canada’s Northern and Arctic region

The Government of Canada announced a comprehensive plan including more than $35 billion in federal investments to defend, build and transform Canada’s Northern and Arctic region. (Photo at right by Master Corporal Sarah Morley). Major projects represent about $10 billion in investment. 

“We will no longer depend on any one nation, and instead build a stronger, more independent country. With this new plan, Canada is taking full responsibility for defending our Arctic sovereignty,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement.

“We will boldly develop the critical minerals, clean energy, and trade corridors – the full economic potential – of the region,” he said.

At the centre of this plan are the 140,000 Northerners and Indigenous Peoples who will have stronger, more sustainable, more connected communities, greater opportunities, and a lower cost of living, the government said.

To defend fully Canada’s Arctic and North, deter new threats, and support NATO Allies and NORAD continental defence, Canada’s new government is:

• Investing $32 billion at Forward Operating Locations in Yellowknife, Inuvik,and Iqaluit, and at Deployed Operating Base 5 Wing Goose Bay. These locations provide hangars, fuel and accommodations to support fighter squadrons deployed in service of the Canada-U.S. North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).

This investment will also build both military power and economic strength, Ottawa said.

It will enable the Canadian Armed Forces to defend the Arctic without the help of Allies, allowing Canada to take control of its Arctic security.

This includes infrastructure upgrades such as airfield upgrades; new or repurposed hangars; ammunition and fuel facilities; and buildings and equipment for accommodations, warehousing, IT, and general support.

• Announcing two new Northern Operational Support Hubs at Whitehorse and Resolute, and two new Northern Operational Support Nodes at Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet, backed by an investment of $2.67 billion.

This network will enable the Canadian Armed Forces to deploy rapidly and support year-round response across the Arctic and North, no matter how remote.

• Investing $294 million in Arctic airports, including building a runway overlay and modernizing Rankin Inlet Airport and upgrading Inuvik Airport.

This will ensure larger aircraft can land, connecting Northern communities to the rest of the country year-round to enable faster, more convenient, and lower-cost travel for both the military and civilians.

To connect, build, and transform Canada’s Arctic and Northern region, the government is referring four projects to the Major Projects Office:

• The Mackenzie Valley Highway.

This 800 km-long highway will become a vital artery for the region, providing essential year-round access to Indigenous and remote communities in the Mackenzie Valley, building on an initial federal investment of over $100 million.

This road will connect Yellowknife to Inuvik, and open up commercial opportunities along the route.

• The Grays Bay Road and Port and the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor.

These projects will connect Nunavut to the national highway system via the Northwest Territories and become Canada’s first overland connection to a deepwater port on the Arctic Ocean.

Together, these projects will connect strategic mineral deposits to national road networks and tidewater – linking Canada’s North to new global markets and ensuring reliable access to Canadian minerals.

The Grays Bay Road and Port is a proposed all-season road of approximately 230 kilometres from the Nunavut border to a deepwater port and airfield at Grays Bay, on the strategic Arctic Ocean. The project includes a deepwater export terminal for minerals and an airstrip, which will both have dual-use civilian and military potential.

The Arctic Economic and Security Corridor project is a proposed all-season road of approximately 400 kilometres through the Slave Geological Province to the Nunavut border, where it will connect with the Grays Bay Road.

Collectively, these projects will build the infrastructure required to advance potential copper, gold, and zinc mining projects, and support increased mining exploration activity.

• The Taltson Hydro Expansion Project will add 60 megawatts to the existing hydro system, doubling the Northwest Territories’ hydro capacity and serving 70 percent of residents.

Much of the money for the Arctic and Northern plan comes from a 2022 spending commitment for NORAD modernization made by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, and has already been accounted for in federal spending.

The government said it is already accelerating major projects such as the Iqaluit Nukkiksautiit Hydro Project and the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor, and has made significant investments to build local infrastructure and empower Northerners and Northern Indigenous communities with better housing, education, and access to health care. Prime Minister of Canada

**************************************************************************************************************************** 

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) is increasing its defence funding to $6 billion from $4 billion. This second layer of support aims to connect Canadian SMEs and startups with priority defence and sovereignty needs in Canada and allied countries, focusing on targeted initiatives and partnerships. This includes working with incubators, accelerators, universities and other organizations that support defence-focused businesses, connecting them with mission owners, buyers and key ecosystem stakeholders, and helping companies test and scale their technologies. As part of an update on the rollout of its Defence Platform, BDC reported that, since its launch in December, $91.7 million in financing has already been provided to 16 businesses. BDC is also exploring new partnerships to reach more entrepreneurs and recently announced it is co-developing a strategic forum with the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal on April 2 focused on strengthening Canada’s defence and security ecosystem. BDC

*****************************************************************************************************************************

Canada needs to boost critical minerals refining capacity, say mining industry experts and executives

Canada must immediately address its fragility in critical minerals refining capacity to bolster the country’s defence capabilities, mining industry experts and executives said during a parliamentary committee hearing.

Modern defence systems, including advanced communication networks, aerospace sensors, autonomous systems and electrified military infrastructure, all heavily rely on access to critical minerals such as nickel, copper, cobalt and rare earth elements, Nadia Mykytczuk, executive director of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University in Sudbury, said in her testimony to the Standing Committee on National Defence.

“The real strategic vulnerability today is not our geology,” she said. “It is our processing capacity and supply chain dependence. In many cases, Canadian minerals are exported for refining and upgrading abroad before returning its inputs into advanced technologies.”

Reliance on foreign refining for defence minerals exposes Canada to supply disruption, export controls and geopolitical pressure, Mykytczuk said.

China controls the refining for much of the world’s critical minerals and rare earths. Most of the copper mined in British Columbia goes to China for processing, as well as much of the lithium mined in Quebec and Manitoba

Jim Balsillie, chair of the Canadian Council of Innovators, founder of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and former chairman and co-CEO officer of Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Ltd.) told the committee that if Canada doesn’t start to control reasonable amounts of the processing supply chain for critical minerals, it risks evolving into an extraction-focused economy similar to Russia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rather than having the economy of a sophisticated Scandinavian country.

We must reorient,” Balsillie said. “And it’s because our thinking is rooted in the 1970s, that production was sufficient, and it’s not. The ability to turn these [minerals] into products and have leverage so you’re not easily weaponized against is where the action is.”

Sean Boyd, chairman of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., Canada’s biggest gold mining company, said in his testimony that Canada used to have a much stronger presence in refining, when it had homegrown champions such as Falconbridge Ltd., Inco, Noranda Inc. and Alcan Inc. All have since been acquired by foreign buyers. The Globe and Mail

*****************************************************************************************************************************

The Government of Canada will spend $228.8 million over the next three years to help Ontario workers in industries hit hard by U.S. tariffs, acquire new skills and adapt to the trade war disruption. The new Canada-Ontario Workforce Tariff Response will support workers and job seekers in the province's softwood lumber, steel and automotive industries – areas still facing steep sectoral tariffs from the United States. "This is really about trying to ensure that the skills training lines up with what the market needs," federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters on Parliament Hill. Ottawa estimates the funding will allow 27,000 people to access training or other supports through existing provincial programs and Skills Advance Ontario, a new program aimed at tariff-affected workers. The federal government announced similar plans last week to spend $70.4 million over three years to support workers in British Columbia facing tariff impacts. Hajdu said Ottawa is in the process of signing such agreements with every province and territory. The Canadian Press

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue, welcomed the second loan guarantee transaction under the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program (ILGP). Through a federal loan guarantee via the ILGP, Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation will acquire a nearly 20 percent equity interest in the Chatham-to-Lakeshore electricity transmission project. The ILGP is a key economic reconciliation initiative that supports Indigenous groups in obtaining more favourable borrowing rates, making it more affordable for most Indigenous communities to have a greater share in the economic benefits of major projects. The Chatham-to-Lakeshore line is a fully operational, cost-of-service regulated transmission line in southwestern Ontario. Built by Hydro One, the project came into service in December 2024. The 49-kilometre, 230-kilovolt line increases the reliability and resiliency of the grid and brings 400 megawatts of clean and affordable electricity to the Windsor-Essex Region. By purchasing an equity share in this energy asset, the two First Nations are expected to generate long-term, stable cashflows that they will be able to invest in their community priorities. Department of Finance Canada

The Government of Canada may exclude ChatGPT and other AI chatbots from its upcoming online harms bill and instead rely on cabinet to regulate the technology at a later date. The move could allow the government to pass its long-delayed online harms legislation without needing to make wholesale changes to account for the surge in the use of AI chatbots. Details of the potential plan were included in a list of questions sent to members of the online safety advisory panel obtained by The Logic. In the questions, the Department of Canadian Heritage said the move would reflect the “urgency” to get the legislation passed without letting questions around how to specifically regulate AI slow the bill down. The federal cabinet could instead “bring into force” rules for AI chatbots at a later date, according to the document, “after sufficient consultation and regulatory design.” The government is also considering creating a digital regulator to better respond to safety issues surrounding rapidly emerging technologies including AI and specifically chatbots, according to the notes. In an emailed statement, Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller’s press secretary Hermine Landry said the government hadn’t yet decided on whether it will exclude AI chatbots from its online harms legislation, or what if any further measures it will implement. The Logic

The Government of Ontario is taking action to better protect people’s privacy, public information and sensitive data, including stronger safeguards for children’s information. These updates will modernize the province’s digital government and privacy framework by introducing enhanced cyber security rules for the broader public service as well as updated Freedom of Information (FOI) timelines and processes. The changes include the exclusion of cabinet ministers and their offices from FOI requirements, which will more closely align Ontario with the approach taken by other jurisdictions in Canada. Introduced in 1988, Ontario’s current access and privacy framework has gone nearly four decades without any major updates and is no longer reflective of today’s technology or digital practices, the government said. The new measures include:

• Implementing enhanced cyber security rules for vital public services with mandatory cyber security practices for hospitals, school boards, children’s aid societies and post-secondary institutions. This includes requiring school boards to notify parents or guardians when students’ personal information is disclosed to third-party software, ensuring families have the information they need to make informed decisions.
• Requiring broader public sector organizations to complete cyber maturity assessments every two years, report critical incidents and designate a single point of contact in the event of a cyber security incident, enhancing the province’s ability to prevent and respond to cyber-attacks.
• Allowing information contained in employee accounts to move between institutions or ministries when a public sector employee moves positions. Govt. of Ontario

The Government of Manitoba is launching provincewide public consultations to confront the growing risks posed by artificial intelligence, strengthen protections for personal data, and ensure children and families are shielded from emerging digital threats. The consultations will focus on two urgent and interconnected priorities:

• modernizing Manitoba’s data privacy laws so every person has enforceable rights, strong protections and confidence their information cannot be misused, exploited or accessed without authorization.
• establishing clear, practical rules for the responsible AI use, particularly when AI systems are used to make, recommend or influence decisions that affect a person’s rights, opportunities, benefits or access to essential services.

The measures will address risks such as identity theft, deepfakes, child-targeted manipulation, biased algorithms and misuse of personal data in public and private systems. Based on the results of the consultations, the Manitoba government will consider setting age limits for access and a requirement for the private sector to establish consent as part of an opt in process for Manitoban’s data. Govt. of Manitoba

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has overhauled its process for awarding contracts after false citations thought to be generated by artificial intelligence turned up in two reports, including one prepared by Deloitte Canada. Vendors bidding on work for the provincial government must now say if they intend to use AI in completing the contract, said Barry Petten, the Progressive Conservative minister responsible for public procurement. The province can also audit a company's use of AI, he said. The changes were introduced after the false citations in the reports submitted to the Newfoundland and Labrador government attracted attention from across the country amid widespread scrutiny of large language models and their use. The government is "reviewing options related to compensation" for the mistakes in the Deloitte report, said an email from Jennifer Konieczny, a spokesperson for the provincial Health Department. The Canadian Press

Canada exported $5.4 billion worth of motor vehicles and parts in January – a 21-percent decrease over the previous month that brings that category to its lowest level since September 2021, Statistics Canada reported. Exports of passenger cars and light trucks (-32.5 percent ) saw the largest decline, mainly due to lower motor vehicle production in Canada in  January 2026.  After posting a strong increase in December to close a record year in 2025, exports of aircraft and other transportation equipment and parts decreased 16 percent in January. Higher exports of energy products (+4.1 percent) partially offset the overall decline in exports in January.  Overall, merchandise exports fell by 4.7 percent and imports by 1.1 percent in January over the previous month. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world widened from $1.3 billion in December to $3.6 billion in January. Statistics Canada

Several federal public service unions are trying to codify language around artificial intelligence and layoffs into collective agreements, a push that is facing resistance from employers, who see the technology as integral to transforming their work forces. A number of federal public sector unions currently negotiating new contracts have proposed specific changes to existing collective agreements that state AI should not be used as a justification by management to reduce staffing. But the inclusion of those clauses has become a subject of much contention at the bargaining table, according to union representatives. The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada is currently negotiating a new agreement with the government on behalf of roughly 20,000 information technology professionals across the federal public service. The current agreement expired in December, 2025, and it has a broad clause on technological change that states that the employer should “seek ways and means of minimizing adverse effects on employees” if such change is implemented. But the agreement has no specific language on the use of generative-AI tools or AI more broadly. At the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the federal union that represents approximately 245,000 public sector workers, AI is shaping up to be a critical part of bargaining with the federal government. In continuing negotiations on behalf of more than 1,000 federal employees responsible for education and library services, PSAC has asked for the inclusion of 15 new clauses related to AI adoption, including that AI not be a “substitute” to public service employees. After five months of bargaining, the union and the government sides are at an impasse. The Globe and Mail

*****************************************************************************************************************************

Federal researcher job cuts at Environment and Climate Change Canada threaten Canada’s global contribution to environmental science, law and policy

The dismantling of research teams at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) threatens Canada’s role in global environmental science, law and policy, according to an article by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) researchers.

The government’s plan to reduce the public service by 15 per cent over three years means that more than 800 positions at ECCC will be cut, said the article published by The Conversation.

The article’s co-authors are Roxana Suehring, assistant professor in environmental analytical chemistry, and Patricia Hania, assistant professor, law and business development – both at TMU.

For decades, ECCC research scientists have been integral to the work of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, a working group that provides advice and assessments to the Arctic Council, they said.

This intergovernmental group comprised of Indigenous Peoples, Arctic states and non-Arctic states with observer status is the major platform for protecting the environment and coordinating sustainable development initiatives in the Arctic.

Scientists at ECCC have played a leading role in more than 20 international reports on persistent organic pollutants and mercury, Suehring and Hania noted. ECCC researchers have acted as the largest group of chapter leads in these global assessments since the 1990s.

“Budget cuts at ECCC raise concerns about how governments will develop effective polices and laws that rely upon scientific research,” they said.

Many of the scientists who lead projects on the long-term trends of toxins in Arctic wildlife face cuts or might lose their jobs entirely, they added.

Scientists at ECCC are often the ones to identify and assess “chemicals of emerging Arctic concern” — newly discovered chemical threats to human and environmental health that scientists are only just beginning to understand.

“Losing the scientists who lead and interpret contaminant data in Arctic wildlife will take much more from Canada than scientific expertise; we risk losing our ability to understand and effectively react to chemical threats and their potential environmental and health impacts,” Suehring and Hania said.

Data collection for unique monitoring datasets spanning up to 50 years is at risk of being discontinued, they said. “Even more concerning is the potential loss of national tissue archives if monitoring and research projects are cut.”

Contaminant data in Canadian wildlife have been instrumental to the listing of toxins under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an international treaty to control the global production and use of particularly hazardous chemicals.

Similarly, monitoring for mercury in Arctic air and biota is an important part of the rationale for the Minamata Convention, a global treaty designed to protect human and environmental health from mercury contamination.

In many ways, these global agreements exist because Canadian data, produced by ECCC scientists, proved that chemicals used thousands of miles away end up in the bodies of Arctic wildlife and Indigenous Peoples who rely on healthy wildlife for food security, cultural identity and practices, Suehring and Hania pointed out.

These international treaties set out the norms, legal principles and regulatory schemes that have been incorporated into Canadian law. They support the risk assessment and management of many toxic chemicals under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

“Losing these samples and monitoring programs would set back Canadian and global contaminant research and reinforce criticisms that Canada is a laggard in environmental law and policy,” they said.

Budget cuts could also intimately impact the daily lives of those living in the Arctic and raise questions of environmental justice. Indigenous communities in the Arctic face higher exposure to many toxins than other Canadians due to their reliance on foods like fish, belugas and seals, Suehring and Hania said.

Despite global efforts, blood mercury levels in many Inuit communities remain higher than the general Canadian population. Furthermore, concentrations of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals,” are consistently higher in these communities than in the south.

“Without ongoing research, we risk creating a vacuum in environmental governance and law,” they said.

Current legislation, like the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, aims to protect vulnerable populations and uphold the right to a healthy environment and environmental justice. But we cannot uphold these rights if we stop measuring how contaminants are impacting the health of the environment, food and water of the populations most affected by these chemicals, Suehring and Hania said.

Across Canada, the cuts undermine effective chemical management, they said. Canada’s chemical management plan depends heavily on the expert assessment of government scientists. This expert-based risk assessment has enabled the discovery and monitoring of new chemical risks with comparatively few bureaucratic hurdles. “However, it also means that the proposed cuts are particularly devastating to this program.”

“If we remove the scientists the regulatory system depends on, the system breaks,” Suehring and Hania said.

“This means that these proposed cuts could not only cost jobs and reduce scientific excellence in Canada, but also leave the health of Canadians and our environment less protected.” The Conversation

RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

Federal government invests $552 million through Canada Foundation for Innovation for research infrastructure projects

The Government of Canada is investing more than $552 million through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to provide researchers with the high-impact equipment they need to strengthen Canada’s innovation capacity, deliver lasting benefits for Canadians and build economic resilience.

The investment, made through the CFI’s Innovation Fund, supports 92 research infrastructure projects at 32 higher education institutions across the country.

The Innovation Fund equips researchers to find solutions in areas that matter most to Canadians, including health care, energy, food security, quantum technology and AI.

The fund serves to not only invest in new infrastructure, but also to support and renew existing equipment and specialized research hubs, known as core facilities.

These facilities are instrumental in attracting and retaining top researchers from across Canada and around the globe. They also maximize equipment use and foster collaborations across sectors and can provide valuable support to the private sector.

Projects being funded through the Innovation Fund include:

• Building Canada’s quantum ecosystem (British Columbia): The Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute is a core facility at the University of British Columbia. With CFI support for new and upgraded tools, researchers will be better equipped to synthesize quantum materials, fabricate them into devices, then test and optimize them. Their work spans precision medicine, green energy, smart mining, information processing and climate solutions, including developing technologies for nerve repair, hydrogen fuel storage and advanced mining sensors.
• Powering microelectronics innovation from lab to market (Quebec): The Institut Interdisciplinaire d'Innovation Technologique is a core facility at the Université de Sherbrooke. It houses one of the largest microelectronics research hubs in Canada and  accelerates the path from lab to market. The interdisciplinary lab has more than 700 users across several scientific disciplines in academia and the public and private sectors. CFI-funded equipment supports semiconductor commercialization and enables innovations, including more energy-efficient artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, safer medical technologies and monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions in remote areas such as Canada’s Far North.
• Evolving sustainable poultry farming (Saskatchewan): Responding to the needs of poultry farmers across Canada, the University of Saskatchewan’s new CFI-funded poultry research facility will be unique in North America. Canadian regulators are set to ban conventional cages by 2036 to improve bird welfare. While producers will need to change to free-run or free-range systems, more study is needed on how to use these systems most effectively. The new core facility will support field-leading work to improve animal welfare, increase productivity, mitigate the environmental impacts of the poultry industry, and promote consumer and bird health.
• Securing and shaping Canada’s ocean resources (Nova Scotia): The Ocean Tracking Network, a CFI-funded national research facility at Dalhousie University, will enhance their aquatic animal tracking systems with additional autonomous underwater vehicles co-developed with industry partners. These upgrades will increase capacity for near real-time monitoring of ocean ecosystems and marine life, supporting everything from fisheries management and conservation in a changing climate to marine spatial planning – all critical for advancing Canada’s current infrastructure priorities, including deep-sea and Arctic ports and renewable offshore energy sources like wind and tidal power.
• Enabling advanced materials breakthroughs with real-world impact (Ontario): The Canadian Neutron and Positron Beam Laboratory at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor offers the only access to neutron beams in Canada. These beams reveal internal material structures that other scientific tools simply can’t detect. With CFI-funded equipment at this core facility, research teams in partnership with industry are developing technologies to safely store nuclear fuel, capture carbon dioxide, innovate battery design and explore new superconducting materials for fusion energy, quantum processors and next-generation MRI technology. CFI

See also: CFI spent $490 million of federal funding to upgrade biocontainment facilities and life sciences infrastructure

******************************************************************************************************************************

Toronto-based Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., a photonic quantum computing company, announced it has entered negotiations with the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario for support for Project OPTIMISM, an initiative to establish advanced semiconductor and photonic manufacturing capabilities for the quantum technology supply chain in Canada. Subject to due diligence and the execution of definitive agreements, up to $390 million in combined government support is under consideration. Under Project OPTIMISM, Xanadu would aim to establish new domestic capabilities for heterogeneous integration, photonic integrated circuit packaging, wafer-level semiconductor test and measurement, and quantum module assembly. By building this infrastructure in Canada, the initiative is expected to significantly advance Xanadu’s roadmap toward utility-scale quantum computing and future quantum data centre infrastructure, while offsetting a substantial portion of the capital required to develop that next phase of quantum computing deployment. Xanadu

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), at the request of Public Services and Procurement Canada, has formed an expert panel to examine the state of citizen science in Canada and how it compares internationally. Citizen science – sometimes called community science or participatory research – engages the public as research partners with valuable skills, perspectives, and experiences to contribute. Jeremy T. Kerr, FRSC, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa, will serve as chair of the expert panel. Kerr is a leading ecologist and conservation scientist. He previously co-chaired an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development working group on citizen science, helping countries worldwide to use public engagement and scientific evidence as a guide for policy. As chair, Kerr will lead a diverse, multidisciplinary group of panel members to answer the following question: What is the current state of citizen science in Canada and how does it compare internationally? CCA

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) at the request of Natural Resources Canada, has formed has formed an expert panel to examine opportunities associated with renewed domestic investment in geodetic infrastructure and whether Canada has sufficient infrastructure to meet its current and future needs. Geodesy is the science of accurately measuring and understanding three fundamental properties of Earth its geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravity field – and how they change over time. A robust geodetic infrastructure – the backbone for everything from aviation safety to Arctic observation – allows nations to ensure the integrity of their own positioning, navigation and time services in a world increasingly dependent on satellite-based systems. Denis Hains, president and CEO at H2i Inc. and guest professor in geomatics sciences at Université Laval, will serve as chair of the expert panel. Hains is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of the international Seabed 2030 initiative, senior special advisor to the Canadian Ocean Mapping Research and Education Network, affiliate research scientist at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, and a member of the Hydrographic Professional Accreditation Scheme of the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies. As chair, Hains will lead a multidisciplinary group of panel members to answer the following question: How does geodetic infrastructure impact Canada and its economy? CCA

The Google for Startups Accelerator unveiled the 14 companies participating in its seventh annual Canadian program, one year after focusing the program on companies building with AI or machine learning. The startups touch a variety of industries, including real estate, construction, agriculture, finance, manufacturing, e-commerce, health care, and life sciences. This is the second year in a row Google has loaded up on “AI-driven” startups in the Canadian accelerator cohort. While Montréal-based companies led the pack last year, Toronto has the most representation in the class of 2026, with six startups. Other participants hail from Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Kitchener-Waterloo, Québec City, and, for the first time, Sudbury, Ont. During the 10-week program, Google mentors will help each participating startup sharpen its business model, scale its AI capabilities, and network with potential investors and partners, according to Google. The program does not provide equity funding to the selected startups. BetaKit

Telecommunications company Bell and Québec City- and Montreal-headquartered Coveo announced a strategic sovereign AI partnership to accelerate the modernization of digital services for Canadian federal and provincial governments and regulated industries. The partnership combines the Coveo AI-Relevance Platform with Bell AI Fabric, a full-stack AI offering anchored by the company's nationwide fiber network, data centre infrastructure, software, cloud capabilities and advanced professional integration and adoption services. Together, the companies aim to deliver secure, compliant and scalable AI solutions to help organizations modernize citizen services, enhance workforce productivity and unlock the full value of their data – while keeping sensitive information, data and AI operations within Canada, under Canadian law. Bell's technology services division, Ateko, will play a central role in solution design, integration and governance advisory services to support responsible adoption of the Coveo AI-Relevance platform within complex public sector and regulated environments. Coveo's platform leverages advanced semantic search, machine learning, generative AI and contextual relevance to unify enterprise data and deliver secure, real-time insights across digital and agentic channels. These capabilities are designed to support improved citizen engagement, faster self-service case resolution, reduced operational complexity and greater employee empowerment – key priorities in the digital evolution of Canada's government and regulated industries. Bell Canada

Sixty-three percent of more than 700 software tools used by Canadian organizations are owned by U.S. companies, according to an analysis by Vancouver-based policy researcher Joshua van Es, founder of research platform Upper Harbour. Only 17 percent of the software tools have Canadian parent companies. Much of the discussion around digital sovereignty in Canada focuses on infrastructure – cloud computing, data centres and AI compute. But the application layer – the software tools organizations rely on every day – is rarely measured, he said in a post on LinkedIn. Even tools that market themselves as offering “Canadian data residency” often aren’t governed by Canadian law, van Es noted. In the dataset, roughly 88 percent of those tools fall under the U.S. CLOUD Act, which allows U.S. authorities to compel American technology firms to provide data they control – even if it is stored on servers in Canada. LinkedIn post by Joshua van Es

The family of one of the victims of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. is suing OpenAI. The mother of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old who remains in hospital with severe brain injuries after being shot in the head and neck three times by Jesse van Rootselaar on February 10, alleges the U.S. tech company failed to alert authorities to chat prompts from the shooter related to violence. The claim was filed in B.C. Supreme Court on behalf of Gebala by her mother, Cia Edmonds. It alleges that the company designed its chat tool, ChatGPT, in such a way that there were risks users "would become psychologically and socially dependent" upon it. The lawsuit states that the company "had specific knowledge of the shooter's long-range planning of a mass casualty event," but "took no steps to act upon this knowledge." None of the claims has been proven in court. A statement from the lawyers representing Gebala's family said the lawsuit seeks learn the truth of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, to impose accountability and "prevent another mass-shooting atrocity in Canada." Bob Zimmer, the member of Parliament for Tumbler Ridge, B.C., said he supports the lawsuit. Families of Tumbler Ridge shooting victims pursuing lawsuits against artificial-intelligence companies could face a long road ahead, according to a lawyer who has represented hundreds of clients in similar cases, The Globe and Mail reported. Matthew Bergman, a lawyer with the Seattle-based Social Media Victims Law Center, predicted the proceedings would likely play out over years, though not decades. CBC News

TELUS Digital confirmed it suffered a security incident after threat actors claimed to have stolen nearly one petabyte of data from the company in a multi-month breach. TELUS Digital is the digital services and business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of telecommunications provider TELUS, providing customer support, content moderation, AI data services and other outsourced operational services to companies worldwide. Because BPO providers often handle customer support, billing and internal authentication tools for multiple companies, they can become attractive targets for threat actors seeking access to large amounts of customer and corporate data through a single breach. The breach was carried out by threat actors known as ShinyHunters, who claims to have stolen a wide range of customer data related to TELUS’ BPO operations, as well as call records for TELUS’ consumer telecommunications division. ShinyHunters told Bleeping Computer they began extorting TELUS in February, demanding $65 million in exchange for not leaking the company's data, but TELUS did not respond to their emails. TELUS Digital said it is investigating a cybersecurity incident and that all business operations within TELUS Digital remain fully operational. ShinyHunters are responsible for a large number of breaches, including Google, Cisco, PornHub, and online dating giant Match Group. Bleeping Computer

Calgary-based NanoTess signed a distribution deal with diabetes care company Embecta, bringing NanoTess’s flagship product to more than 14,000 pharmacies across Canada. NanoTess, which develops technology to treat chronic wounds, announced the partnership that will see Embecta distribute NanoTess’s NanoSALV Catalytic, a topical gel that uses tiny, catalytic particles to accelerate healing in chronic wounds like diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, and other difficult-to-heal sores. The partnership is between NanoTess and U.S.-headquartered Embecta’s Canadian division. It marks the first time Embecta has distributed a wound-care product in Canada. Authorized by Health Canada in 2022, NanoSALV makes use of micron-scale catalysts to speed up the natural chemical reactions involved in the healing process. It also helps regulate inflammation and provides antimicrobial protection to lessen infection risk. Since being authorized by Health Canada, NanoSALV has been adopted by both the BC Provincial Health Services Authority and Alberta Health Services. Calgary.tech, BetaKit

Burnaby, B.C.-based Xeon Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced positive results from its flagship drug candidate, called azetukalner, for use in focal onset seizures associated with epilepsy. Focal onset seizures are caused by malfunctioning electrical activity in one part of the brain and their effects are typically less severe than more widespread misfiring, but they can still be very problematic. A large-scale study found azetukalner could reduce the monthly frequency of focal onset seizures by a median of 53.2 percent. A smaller dose had a lesser effect, but both were much better than placebos. Xenon said it plans to submit the drug for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this summer. If approved, azetukalner would be the only K_V7 potassium channel opener available for the treatment of epilepsy. Xeon Pharmaceuticals

Canadian-made medications should get priority in government procurement and during Health Canada reviews, according to manufacturers who are urging members of Parliament to boost domestic pharmaceutical sovereignty. The House of Commons health committee began hearings on how Canada can promote a strong domestic pharmaceutical industry and ensure access to essential medicines and supplies. U.S. President Donald Trump has targeted Canada’s pharmaceutical industry by demanding companies move production to the United States, threatening them with tariffs and urging them to lower prices in the U.S. and raise them elsewhere. Jeff Watson, CEO of generics drug maker Apotex Inc., said that “given those policy incentives being adopted in the U.S. and Europe, and the overreliance on generic pharmaceuticals produced outside of North America, Canada’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sovereignty is at risk.” The Globe and Mail reported last year that Health Canada was increasingly missing its six-month target for reviewing new generic drug submissions. Generic forms of Ozempic, the bestselling drug in Canada, have been legal since January 5 of this year, but no applications have yet been approved, despite some being filed more than a year ago. Jim Keon, president of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, said the federal government should increase staffing at Health Canada to speed up approvals of generic drugs. The Globe and Mail

Telesat has gained access to more land across Canada to set up landing stations ahead of plans to deploy pathfinders for its Lightspeed broadband satellite constellation in December. Telesat said it acquired sites in Estevan, Sask. and Papineauville, Que., and leased land in Shaunavon, Sask., for stations that would route data between the satellites and major fiber and internet exchange points. Additional sites are set to be contracted in the coming months as the company targets the start of initial global services in 2027, according to Telesat chief network and information officer Asit Tandon. “We expect to have 24 Telesat landing stations operational when global services begin,” he said via email. Telesat has previously disclosed plans for a Lightspeed landing station in Timmins, Ont., alongside agreements with Orange in France and Vocus in New South Wales, Australia. The company has already ordered 127 gateway antennas from South Korea’s Intellian to populate the landing station sites, along with an agreement with Israel-based SatixFy for their signal processing systems. Brampton, Ont.-based MDA Space is building the satellites and is equipping them with optical inter-satellite links that enable data to be routed in orbit, reducing reliance on ground-based relay infrastructure. SPACENEWS

A British Columbia pulp mill that has been in operation for more than 50 years will test a way to replace carbon-emitting natural gas with clean-burning “green: hydrogen made from water. The novel $21.7-million project is expected to reduce the Kruger Kamloops Pulp Mill’s greenhouse gas emissions by 7,000 tonnes a year – the equivalent of removing 1,200 to 1,500 vehicles from the roads, according to Zachary Steele, chief executive of New York-based Elemental Clean Fuels, the developer behind the green hydrogen project. The initiative aligns with a federal strategy that prioritizes hydrogen over coal, oil and natural gas in the industrial, power generation and transportation sectors. The government expects hydrogen to be a core component of achieving Canada’s net-zero-by-2050 target and is offering investment tax credits to clean hydrogen producers. To lower the mill’s carbon footprint, the 10-megawatt Kamloops Clean Energy Centre will be located alongside the mill’s existing lime kiln, an industrial unit used in the pulp and paper-making process. The centre will house electrolyzer equipment that splits water into its two elements: hydrogen and oxygen. These gases will be stored in tanks, with the hydrogen used to power the kiln and recycle the lime used in the process, while the oxygen will be used to bleach the paper and lighten its colour. Since 2020, at least 80 low-carbon-emitting hydrogen projects have been announced, representing over $100-billion in potential investment, according to Natural Resources Canada. The Globe and Mail

A Calgary-based startup has attracted sizable private investment for its plans to drill for geological hydrogen, a carbon-free resource its founders say has the potential to provide major energy and climate benefits for Canada. Kavenex Energy is working to nail down its first target sites, where it could begin drilling in 2027 or 2028. Its long-term strategy calls for production of hydrogen in various parts of the country, using techniques developed over decades for oil and gas. Under its strategy, “off-takers” such as power plants, steel mills and ammonia facilities would be located atop hydrogen pools to make use of the gas, rather than requiring long-distance transport. So far, privately held Kavenex has raised $28 million for its exploratory efforts, and has signed a partnership deal with Denver-based Koloma Inc., a leading hydrogen explorer, to employ some of its knowhow within Canada. Saskatchewan-based MAX Power Mining Corp. said earlier this year that its first well, drilled 140 kilometres south of Saskatoon, confirmed the presence of natural hydrogen in a geological system known as the Genesis Trend. It began drilling a second well at the end of February. The Globe and Mail

Barbados-based OneMove Capital Ltd., the activist investment firm, led by former Dye & Durham executive Tyler Proud, is pushing for Proud to be added to Calgary-based Sylogist’s board. OneMove said Sylogist’s strategy is moving too slowly to benefit shareholders, in part because the board and management team don’t understand the software industry. OneMove alleged Sylogist’s current board has overseen “the destruction of shareholder value” in Sylogist, which makes software for government, non-profit and education clients. A special meeting is scheduled for April 7, at which OneMove hopes to get its new board nominees elected. As of last month, Sylogist’s largest shareholder, PenderFund Capital Management Ltd., opposed OneMove’s requisition request. OneMove Capital

San Francisco-based Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude family of AI models, is in discussions with a group of private equity firms, including Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, to form an AI-focused joint venture, The Information reported. The proposed partnership would focus on selling Anthropic’s technology to companies owned or backed by the investment firms, with the structure modeled on Palantir Technologies’ blend of software deployment and consulting services. The talks represent a significant strategic move for Anthropic, which has been building an enterprise sales machine at a time when corporate demand for large language models is growing sharply. The proposed venture would, if finalized, give Anthropic a structured distribution channel into thousands of portfolio companies managed by some of the world's largest alternative asset managers. Private equity firms would gain a systematic way to accelerate AI adoption across their holdings, potentially improving operational performance and valuations. For Anthropic, the arrangement would provide a predictable revenue channel and a rapidly scalable path to enterprise adoption beyond direct sales. The joint venture discussions are taking place against a backdrop of a legal conflict between Anthropic and the U.S. government. On February 27, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a "supply chain risk," a label historically reserved for companies linked to foreign adversaries. On March 9, Anthropic filed two federal lawsuits against the Trump administration challenging the designation. Forbes

Wall Street is worried that artificial intelligence’s “creative destruction” may destroy entire businesses, not just their employees’ jobs. Economists expect AI will deliver higher productivity, which is key to raising growth rates in the long run. But investors are growing nervous about what damage might be done on the way, in capital markets as well as labor markets. “Having some boom-bust in a sector is normal,” said Simon Johnson, the Nobel prize-winning economist at MIT. “Maybe even how it has to be.” But as companies go under, he said, it can create wider risks – especially if the failed businesses borrowed lots of money. “What you don’t want is to infect the credit, and you definitely don’t want to get inside the banking system.” Shares of software and other companies with business models considered vulnerable to replacement by AI have been selling off for months, dragging down major indexes like the S&P 500, the U.S. benchmark, Reuters reported. A selloff driven the “AI scare trade” is affecting Canada’s large-cap software and platform businesses listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), even as their fundamentals remain intact. Investors are turning to Canada’s resource-rich stock market for shelter from the turmoil around AI. The Globe and Mail reported that by utilizing AI, Lightspeed Commerce Inc. has slashed its customer support team. Shopify Inc. has grown its revenue without adding a single net new hire in two years. And Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has saved one million work hours by way of automation, reaching its goal one year ahead of schedule. At least a dozen companies on the TSX have acknowledged a reduction in employee headcount, or that they intend to freeze hiring and possibly downsize their workforce in the future, because of AI. Bloomberg

VC, PRIVATE INVESTMENT & ACQUISITIONS

California-based startup Replit raised US$400 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $9 billion. The round included Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue and the Qatar Investment Authority, as well as basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and actor Jared Leto. Toronto-based Georgian’s growth fund first backed Replit in its US$250-million Series C last September. Replit sells subscriptions to AI agents that let users with no technical expertise build websites and apps. So-called “vibe coding” firms are among the fastest-growing startups in history. Replit

Paris-headquartered digital health company Alan, which expanded into Canada last year, raised €100 million (Cdn$157 million) in a funding round led by Index Ventures through its growth fund, with participation from Belfius, Greenoaks, Kaaf Investments and SH Capital, alongside several individual investors including Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke and Wealthsimple co-founder and CEO Mike Katchen. The company operates from Toronto and plans to expand to Montreal as it continues to grow its Canadian team. Canada's employee health benefits market has seen little change in decades, leaving many employers with plans that are often difficult for employees to understand and use, the company said. Alan was built to simplify that experience by bringing health insurance, care and prevention programs together through a single app. Alan

Stockholm, Sweden-based legaltech company Legora, which offers a collaborative AI platform for lawyers, raised US$550 million in a Series D round. The round was led by Accel, with participation from existing investors Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, ICONIQ, Redpoint Ventures, and Y Combinator, as well as new investors, including Alkeon Capital, Bain Capital, Firstmark Capital, Menlo Ventures, Sands Capital, Starwood Capital and Salesforce Ventures. Legora also announced the acquisition, for an undisclosed price, of Vancouver-based Walter Software, Legora’s first acquisition. Walter co-founder and CEO Ryan Wilson said the company’s full nine-person team is joining Legora, with eight moving to Sweden. Legora said it will use the funding to accelerate its expansion across the United States, including with new offices in Houston and Chicago. Legora

San Francisco-based Gumloop, which was founded in Vancouver, raised US$50 million in a funding round led by tech investor Benchmark. Others participating in the financing included Nexus VP, First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Box Group, The Cannon Project and Shopify Ventures. Firms use Gumloop’s software to set up and run AI agents that do data analysis, customer research and other tasks. The firm’s selling point is that lawyers, sales and marketing staff, and other non-technical users can automate work without needing to call their IT teams. Founded by McGill University engineering graduates in mid-2023, Gumloop went through Y Combinator’s accelerator program, and relocated to Silicon Valley last year. Gumloop

Brampton, Ont.-based MDA Space launched a marketed public offering of US$300 million in common shares of the company in the United States and Canada, representing the company's initial public offering in the U.S. MDA said it wants the money to fund growth and pay off debt. In connection with the initial public offering in the U.S., MDA Space also filed an application to list its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading of the common shares is expected to commence on the NYSE following pricing of the offering and will continue on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The public offering will be conducted through a syndicate of underwriters led by J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets, who are acting as joint lead active bookrunners, and BMO Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies, Scotiabank, and Canaccord Genuity, who are acting as joint active bookrunners. MDA Space

Vancouver-based Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. launched an underwritten public offering of US$650 million of its common shares, after initially planning to offer US$500 million in common shares. The announcement followed news that company’s flagship drug, called azetukalner, had shown strong results in late-stage trials of its usefulness against certain forms of epilepsy. J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, TD Cowen, Stifel, RBC Capital Markets, and William Blair are acting as joint book-running managers for the proposed offering. Baird is acting as lead manager for the proposed offering. Xenon Pharmaceuticals

Québec City-based Femtum, which develops advanced fiber laser solutions for manufacturing silicon photonics, raised $16 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by BDC Capital, with participation from Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Cathay Venture Inc., i4 Capital, Boreal Ventures, Quantacet, Hamamatsu Ventures and Eureka. Femtum's patented fiber laser platform delivers measurable sustainability benefits and integrates directly into existing production equipment from the world's leading semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Femtum said the funding will support the company's international expansion, accelerate adoption of its laser technologies among global leaders in advanced semiconductor technologies, and expand production capacity to support high-volume manufacturing. Fentum

Miami-based AI tax startup Remitian, which relocated from Ottawa, raised US$7 million in a seed funding round. Previous investors N49P and Garage Capital participated in the round, along with Koho’s Daniel Eberhard and Ryan Lazanis, founder of Montreal accounting startup Future Firm. Remitian co-founder Solon Angel, who previously founded the Ottawa tax auditing startup MindBridge, moved Remitian to Miami after working out of Ottawa. Angel participated in a National Angel Capital Organization online roundtable in February, where panelists said Canada needs more investment in early-stage startups and to build an investment community “ecosystem.” Remitian said it plans to use the money to speed up the development and marketing of its software, which helps companies initiate and track tax payments. Remitian

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) acquired Toronto-based digital mortgage firm Pinch Financial Incorporated, whose technology verifies information online submitted by people trying to qualify for a mortgage and submits applications to lenders. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. RBC said the acquisition supports its vision of leveraging new technologies to create exceptional, personalized experiences for Canadians. Other big Canadian banks are also investing in technology to automate mortgage approvals amid competition from fintechs like Wealthsimple. TD launched AI-powered software to speed up mortgage approvals in 2024, while BMO introduced digital mortgage pre-approvals in 2020. RBC

The Superior Court of Quebec approved the proposed sale of much of Montreal-based tights maker SRTX Inc.’s assets to A.Y.K. International Inc. despite shareholder opposition, after a strategic review concluded that would be the best path forward. SRTX asked the court to approve the deal in February, surprising at least one shareholder who said they would have considered an equity investment if given the chance, according to court documents. SRTX spokesperson Eva Hartling said the court’s approval addressed any shareholder claims. A.Y.K .acquired all of SRTX’s equity, but not all of its assets and liabilities. Seven SRTX employees were expected to receive job offers with AYK. SRTX

REPORTS & POLICIES

 Canada needs sovereign artificial intelligence, including cloud infrastructure and procurement

Canada needs its own sovereign cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence and procurement reforms to ensure purchase of Canadian AI technologies and solutions, according to a new report by the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

The country also needs to support domestic champions like Cohere and treat sovereign artificial intelligence as a strategic national priority, said the report, Sovereign by Design: Strategic Options for Canadian AI Sovereignty.

Canada has all the ingredients, including world-leading researchers, abundant clean energy, a world-class foundation model company, a growing sovereign infrastructure ecosystem, AI firms, and democratic institutions worth protecting, the report said.

“The window to act is open, but opportunities will narrow as global investment decisions harden into long-term commitments and advantages for other nations,” said report co-authors Jaxson Khan and Sean Mullin – both senior fellows at the Munk School.

Khan and Mullin were key architects of the Liberal government’s $2.4-billion Sovereign AI Compute Strategy, presented in the 2024 federal budget.

AI has the potential to be the most significant economic transformation since the computing revolution, with capital deployment at historically unprecedented levels and credible projections of productivity gains that could reverse decades of stagnation, they said in their report.

AI capabilities are advancing at an extraordinary pace, and the advantages compound rapidly for early movers, the report said.

Nations and firms that establish strong positions in compute infrastructure, model development, and talent pipelines will use those advantages to accelerate subsequent progress. Those that fall behind will find the gap widening rather than narrowing.

Canada is the birthplace of modern AI, yet controls neither the major firms that dominate its deployment nor the critical infrastructure that powers it, Khan and Mullin said.

“This dependency is a dangerous vector for coercion, and recent tariff threats, territorial provocations, and "51^st state" rhetoric have clarified that the rules-based order Canada once relied upon can no longer be assumed.”

Sovereignty in the AI era means freedom from coercion, not digital isolationism or technological self-sufficiency, the report said.

While no country can achieve complete independence across the AI technology stack, the question is how to structure dependencies to preserve choice, reduce foreign leverage, and ensure that Canadian data and infrastructure remain governed by Canadian laws and values.

The majority of new AI investment over the next half decade will reshape the technology stack, particularly for inference and deployment: the operational layer where AI systems process data, serve users, and generate value, according to the report.

“Decisions being made today about infrastructure, platforms and standards will shape the landscape for a generation, and making these decisions without regard for sovereignty risks locking Canada into dependencies that will be difficult to reverse.”

Khan and Mullin said their assessment revealed critical weaknesses in Canada at the middle layers of the AI stack.

Canada has a fragmented regulatory framework for AI and data. Federal privacy law remains outdated with no clear AI law in place, and provinces have moved ahead in the absence of federal leadership.

A common misconception holds that storing data in Canada provides legal protection. The reality is more troubling: if the provider is subject to foreign law, data is exposed to foreign legal processes regardless of physical location. This affects any service from foreign-headquartered companies, including cloud services, foundation model APIs, and software-as-a-service applications.

American firms own almost one-third of Canada’s nearly 300 data centres and U.S.-based hyper-scalers dominate capacity expansion.

Cloud infrastructure is Canada's most acute controllable vulnerability: extraterritorial legal reach means that Canadian data residency does not equal Canadian data sovereignty, and recent incidents have demonstrated that foreign providers can deny service entirely under geopolitical pressure, they said.

The compute hardware layer presents equally severe vulnerabilities that cannot be addressed domestically, they noted.

Most advanced AI chips and components are designed and fabricated outside Canada, with extreme concentration among a handful of foreign suppliers.

At the AI foundation model layer, a small number of American companies dominate enterprise AI usage, and Canada has only one domestic alternative in Cohere.

Khan and Mullin offer strategic options for Canadian AI sovereignty:

1. Sovereign cloud infrastructure:

• Cloud is Canada's most acute vulnerability, yet it is also the layer where realistic domestic solutions exist. Two primary models present distinct approaches to achieving cloud sovereignty: Juridical cloud sovereignty (modelled on France and Germany) requires Canadian-owned and operated infrastructure that creates a legal air gap from foreign jurisdiction. This includes licensed operator arrangements where a Canadian entity operates foreign technology under Canadian control.
• Contractual cloud sovereignty (modelled on Australia) achieves sovereignty through outcome-based controls – encryption keys held by Canadian entities, cleared personnel, and audit rights – that any provider can meet regardless of corporate nationality.

One feasible set of minimum requirements could include self-hosted government infrastructure or juridical sovereignty for classified workloads; juridical sovereignty for sensitive personal and organizational data held by the government; and contractual sovereignty for private-sector data at the same level of sensitivity.

For general business operations, which account for most cloud usage, market conditions should determine adoption.

2. Additional AI tech stack options:

• Compute hardware: Canada could pursue a managed dependency strategy involving supply chain diversification across allied nations, bilateral assurance agreements linked to Canadian strengths in energy and critical minerals, multilateral semiconductor engagement, and contingency stockpiling for critical systems.
• Foundation model access: Options could include establishing procurement preferences for Canadian providers, deploying opensource models on sovereign infrastructure as a strategic hedge, and diversification across model sources to avoid single-provider lock-in. Enterprise policies could address shadow AI, where most Canadian workers using AI rely on uncontrolled consumer tools rather than enterprise-grade alternatives.
• Data and data governance: Options include introducing data governance frameworks that enable AI development while maintaining sovereignty and implementing measures to address Canadian content underrepresentation in global training datasets.

3. Cross-Cutting Enablers:

Four policy mechanisms span multiple layers of the AI stack and require sustained attention to enable the strategic options outlined above. Procurement reform is needed to align government cloud and AI purchasing with sovereignty objectives, including updating the Government Cloud Framework with explicit sovereignty tiers and translating the Buy Canadian Policy into ICT-specific guidance.

Workforce and security clearance requirements could be reassessed (including modernizing the security classification framework itself) to accommodate increased demand for qualified staff to operate sovereign infrastructure.

Data portability requirements should ensure that switching between cloud providers remains practically feasible, not just theoretically possible.

And domestic sovereignty audit capabilities are needed to validate provider claims on an ongoing basis, ensuring compliance rather than one-time certification.

4. CUSMA preparation:

The scheduled CUSMA review in July 2026 presents both risk and opportunity for Canada's digital sovereignty position. The United States has signalled aggressive positioning against what it characterizes as digital trade barriers, and U.S. industry groups are advocating for constraints on Canadian sovereignty measures.

Canada should defend national security exceptions and government procurement carve-outs as non-negotiable foundations for sovereign cloud and AI policy. Digital sovereignty provisions should not become bargaining chips for concessions in unrelated sectors.

5. Foundational model training and domestic research:

Even with robust sovereign AI inference capacity, Canada remains vulnerable if every model it uses originates from foreign suppliers or if model makers revoke access or restrict functionality. The first option would be to support Cohere (one of very few foundation model companies outside the United States and China) more explicitly as a national champion, ensuring it has the resources and government support to remain competitive as global competition escalates.

The second option would be for Canada to pursue multinational frontier AI partnerships with like-minded democracies, pooling compute and committing to open-source collaboration, because no single middle power can sustain frontier model training alone.

Canadian researchers also face severe capacity constraints that risk driving talent abroad, in which case domestic research compute would also require expansion.

6. Strengthening state capacity and AI leadership:

Building sovereign AI requires matching state capacity. Canada's digital and AI governance is dispersed across at least six institutional actors, and no single entity possesses both the strategic authority and the operational capacity to drive a coherent sovereign AI strategy.

To treat sovereign AI as a strategic national priority, the federal government should consider consolidating authority into a single institutional vehicle, including, potentially, a fully resourced Ministry of Digital and AI with cross-government delivery authority and/or a dedicated Sovereign AI Unit with investment capital and a clear mandate to buy, build and invest in major sovereign AI projects.

Institutional reform should be complemented by treating digital government modernization as a core component of sovereign AI strategy, and by establishing federal-provincial-territorial coordination on AI and data governance.

“AI sovereignty will not be achieved overnight, but meaningful progress is achievable by 2030 with deliberate action,” Khan and Mullin said.

Sovereignty in the AI era means something precise: freedom from coercion. It does not mean digital isolationism, technological autarky, or retreat from the global economy, they said.

“The question for Canada is not whether to have dependencies, but how to structure them to preserve choice, reduce vulnerability to foreign leverage, and ensure that Canadian data and infrastructure remain governed by Canadian laws and values.” Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

*****************************************************************************************************************************

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 following health advice from AI are more likely to experience harms than those who did not: Canadian Medical Association

Canadians who followed health advice from AI were five times more likely to experience harms than those who did not, according to a new survey from the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).

The survey showed that most Canadians (89 percent) go online for health information for a variety of reasons, including that it’s faster and more convenient than trying to access care through the health system.

While only a quarter of Canadians (27 percent) trust AI to provide accurate health information, about half are using AI tools to diagnose or treat their health issues. 

“For years, we’ve been talking about how too many Canadians struggle to access health care when they need it,” said Dr. Margot Burnell, CMA president.

“This leaves people little choice but to turn to dubious sources of information, and now we know that it is hurting them. We fear what this will mean for patients in the future if action is not taken now,” she said.

The CMA’s third Health and Media Tracking Survey, conducted by Abacus Data, also revealed:

• a majority of Canadians (77 percent) are concerned about an increase in the amount of false health information coming from the United States.
• the increase in false health information online has made Canadians (69 percent) skeptical of any health information they find online, even from sources they think they should trust.
• 85 percent of Canadians trust physicians to help them navigate health information.

Nearly all Canadians surveyed believe that the responsibility to curb the spread of false health information falls to social media platforms (87 percent) and governments (90 percent). 

Although Canadians have concerns about the accuracy of health information online, a majority of them continue to use online information (including using AI) because it’s easy to access and they can't get help from a health care professional, the report said.

“AI is already reshaping the delivery of health services, and it’s not going away,” Burnell said. “It is critical that government, health providers, patients work together to ensure AI is a tool for reliable health information.”

In October 2025, the CMA submitted to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada a series of recommendations to shape AI in a way that strengthens trust, protects privacy and enhances health care for all.

The physician community is keenly aware of the evolving impact of AI on how Canadians

will receive care. AI is already reshaping the delivery of health services and will continue

to be a major disruptor in the future of care provision, the CMA said in that report.

“While the technology holds immense promise, particularly in reducing administrative burden, improving system efficiency and supporting clinical decision-making, AI also presents significant risks within health care that must be addressed with urgency and governance.”

Health care innovation and infrastructure spending have long been neglected by the federal government, according to the report.

“The government ignored the recommendation of the 2015 Advisory Panel of Healthcare Innovation to create a Healthcare Innovation fund,” the report said.

The government has provided funding to Canada Health Infoway to deploy electronic medical records, but the job is far from finished and AI is only going to increase the demand for tools to exploit the connectivity of health information.

“At the same time, we must prepare and strengthen our health workforce to optimize the benefits of AI-enabled care in Canada.”

The report’s recommendations, aimed at guiding the responsible and effective deployment of AI in Canadian health care, were:

1. Build privacy-first health AI systems rooted in trust, safety, ethics, and physician and patient involvement.

Build trustworthy, safe, effective, physician-informed and patient-centred AI systems through inclusive co-design and oversight.

Embed physician and patient perspectives and experiences in health AI systems. Technologies must be co-designed and evaluated with both patients and caregivers, including those from underrepresented populations.

Including physicians and patients in model design and implementation will improve trust in the technology.

2. Safeguard Canadian health data and strengthen AI security within Canada.

Align health AI systems with Canada’s ethical and privacy frameworks, updating and ensuring compliance with privacy legislation and Indigenous data sovereignty principles.

Modernize Canada’s health data privacy framework to ensure that health data remain sovereign and secure and that health care systems can adapt as new technologies emerge.

“Canada’s current privacy laws are outdated and not fully equipped to address the complexities of AI in health care.”

3. Introduce new federal legislation to more effectively regulate AI systems and standardize key core requirements.

Accelerate validation and support infrastructure for health AI tools.

• Establish a $500-million health AI innovation fund to be allocated as follows:

$200 million for curriculum development and training and $300 million allocated on a competitive basis for the development, deployment and evaluation of health AI tools.

• Prioritize the rapid validation of health AI tools and provide the infrastructure that is necessary to support both development and deployment.
• establish a Canadian research resource centre for digital health technology. This centre would serve as a national hub to support innovation, equity and competitiveness in health AI.

4. Build AI literacy, skills and readiness across the health sector through health professional education

Support the development of training and curricula to address emerging AI considerations and ensure that current and future generations of health professionals are fully equipped to work in AI-enabled health care systems.

Create a partnership between federal government entities and the relevant bodies, such as the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing and the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada.

“Without federal involvement and support, the development of AI-related training and curricula will continue to be incremental and haphazard, and Canada’s health care system will not be able to harness the tremendous potential offered by AI to improve health care delivery and health outcomes.”

5. Streamline processes to help health professionals, including experts in AI, enter Canada’s health workforce more efficiently.

Modernize immigration policies, leverage ministerial exemptions and introduce legislation to improve labour mobility for health care workers.

The CMA encouraged the federal government to take swift action to protect Canadians from false health information coming from the United States, invest in domestic sources and protect Canadians from online harms.

“The CMA advocates for solutions that will improve access to care for Canadians so they can rely on the health care providers they trust. We are ready to collaborate with government and other partners to deliver to Canadians the health care they deserve.” Canadian Medical Association

******************************************************************************************************************************

Federal government has the constitutional authority to override all interprovincial trade barriers, but political will is required

OPINION & ANALYSIS

By Lawrence L. Herman

Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) contributor Lawrence L. Herman is international trade counsel at Herman & Associates, a senior fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute, and a member of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations. This article, first published here by MLI with more hyperlinks, is adapted from a longer commentary soon to be issued by the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations.

Faced with a hostile American administration, the Carney government has, to its credit, acted on two fronts.

Internationally, it has moved to diversify Canada’s trade relations to reduce dependence on the US. Domestically, it has sought to remove barriers to the cross-Canada flow of goods and services to strengthen economic resilience in the face of the U.S. challenge.

In mid-2025, the federal government enacted groundbreaking legislation to remove federal barriers to interprovincial trade and free the movement of federally regulated goods and services.

Provincial trade barriers, however, were left untouched, especially the most notoriously protectionist ones, like agricultural marketing boards under supply management, trucking and transportation, professional engineering, alcohol distribution – to name but a few.

Instead of pursuing legislation, the Carney government engineered new interprovincial agreements to free up domestic trade – an expedient, decades-old approach that has avoided constitutional battles but delivered less-than-perfect results over time.

The federal government could go further and invoke its constitutional authority to override provincial trade barriers.

But in today’s political climate, that is a non-starter: the risk of a constitutional blow-up – especially with resurgent separatism in Quebec and nascent stirrings in Alberta, underscored by the recent referendum announcement by Premier Danielle Smith – makes national unity too fragile to gamble.

Circumstances may change. At some point, Ottawa may have to seriously consider federal legislation that directly prohibits provincial trade barriers – especially in light of the fractured trade and commercial relationship with Canada’s southern neighbour and the urgent need to strengthen the country’s internal economy.

Parliament has the necessary powers to do this. Ultimately, it is a question of political will.

Releasing economic potential

Internal fragmentation has long weighed on Canada’s economy, well before the added damage of Trump-era tariffs. Study after study has reached the same conclusion.

In response, the Carney government introduced landmark legislation in mid-2025: the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act, passed by Parliament as part of a broader reform package.

Groundbreaking though it is, the statute removes only federal trade barriers, leaving provincial laws intact. To close that gap, Ottawa turned to interprovincial agreements. Building on the 2017 Canadian Free Trade Agreement, the 2025 Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement ensures that a product certified in one province or territory is accepted in all others.

This approach, following a long history of co-operative federalism, is pragmatic and expedient, getting things done through co-operation and avoiding a constitutional confrontation by enacting federal trade legislation.

There is a case for going further: new legislation, grounded in the constitutional trade and commerce power, could render any provincial law that blocks interprovincial trade to protect local businesses null and void.

Some of the more egregious were noted previously, starting with protectionist supply management marketing boards. The following sections outline ideas for moving in this direction, while acknowledging the political sensitivities involved.

Historical context is critical

It’s important to recall that, notwithstanding the expediency of co-operative federalism, the Fathers of Confederation actually designed Canada as a strongly centralized country during the lead-up to the 1867 British North America Act. These founding principles remain especially relevant in addressing today’s national challenges.

Certainly, Parliamentary authority has been weakened over the years by Supreme Court of Canada judgments (and prior decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council). Hundreds of scholarly articles have reviewed these judgments. The key point to remember is, those decisions were written in different times when the country’s future was not under serious attack as it is today.

Facing today’s challenges – which some describe as existential – it is worth recalling that a strong central government was central to the 1864 to1866 pre-confederation debates in the United Canadas’ Parliament, especially in light of the devastating and bloody U.S. Civil War. As Eugene Forsey noted in a seminal article some 50 years ago, these debates, including in the United Canadas’ legislature in 1865, highlight this enduring principle.

This view that Parliament should have overarching jurisdiction to unify a small, dispersed population was reiterated during the BNA Act debates in the British Parliament in February 1867, first in the House of Lords and later in the House of Commons.

The Confederation principle of a strong central government, articulated by Canadian and British leaders from 1865 to 67, needs to be resurrected today to counter the aggression the country is facing from its unfriendly southern neighbour, strengthen Canada’s internal economy, and address disruptive policies aimed at creating a “sovereign” Alberta promoted by Premier Smith and – as politically difficult as it may be – some of Quebec’s protectionist policies that go beyond safeguarding the French language.

 Distribution of constitutional ;powers

Examining the BNA Act’s division of powers (now part of the 1982 Constitution Act) shows that it says nothing about provincial “sovereignty.” Section 91, moreover, grants Parliament overarching authority over the country’s “peace, order and good government” (POOG), covering matters of broad national concern.

Section 91 goes on to say that “without restricting the generality” of those powers, the federal government has specific jurisdiction over a list of matters of national importance, such as banking, currency, defence, criminal law, as well as “trade and commerce” – and not just foreign trade and commerce, but trade and commerce generally, external and internal.

And since nothing in the enumerated list in section 91 restricts the generality of Parliament’s POGG jurisdiction, it has broad authority to remove provincial trade barriers that impede the realization of a truly national economy.

Premier Smith talks about the federal government staying in its own constitutional “lane” when dealing with Alberta. Contrary to her assertions, however, it’s the provincial lane that is the narrow one, restricted under section 92 to an enumerated list of purely local matters – things like municipalities, hospitals, property and civil rights, and education.

And, to underscore the limits of that authority, section 92 says provincial jurisdiction is confined to matters “merely” of a local or private nature. The word “merely” is an important qualifier.

There is more in the BNA Act that underscores the intention to have strong governance from the centre. Section 92 excludes provincial jurisdiction over any interprovincial work. It also allows the federal government to take over any work, even one entirely within a province, declared to be for the “general advantage” of the country as a whole.

In addition, the federal government has authority under sections 56 and 90 of the BNA Act to disallow any provincial law – without restriction – to make it absolutely certain that federal authority predominates.

Although these powers are embedded in the Constitution, successive federal governments have, for the sake of political harmony, refrained from exercising that authority. Instead, they have negotiated internal trade agreements with provinces as if they were independent countries. In calmer times, this pragmatic approach – while limiting a true national economy – made some sense. Today, the world has changed.

Internal barriers – meeting the challenges

Given today’s urgent challenges – from repairing shattered U.S. relations to reshaping the domestic economy – the question is how far Canada’s constitutional architecture allows federal law to override provincial trade barriers alongside the Free Trade and Labour Mobility Act. This article argues that the authority exists; it has simply been waiting in the wings for determined leadership.

There are many possibilities for formulating a federal override, and it is not the intention here to try to prescribe just how those might be drafted and packaged. As a sampler, however, one suggestion would be to elaborate on the words used in section 8 of the Act by amending it to say something like:

“. . . a good produced, used, or distributed in accordance with a provincial or territorial requirement is considered to meet any comparable requirement of any other province or territory.”

The exact legislative details can be refined later. The purpose here is to highlight the need to expand these laws, providing additional tools for urgently strengthening Canada’s national economy.

The time has come to revive the 1860s vision of a strong central government and give it real force against the existential challenges Canada faces today. MacDonald-Laurier Institute

********************************************************************************************************************************

Federal-Alberta government energy agreement much result in four outcomes: Pembina Institute

The energy agreement between the Government of Canada and Government of Alberta must have four specific outcomes, according to the Calgary-based Pembina Institute clean energy policy think tank.

“This list is meant to help Canadians judge whether the agreements reached between Ottawa, Alberta, and industry are a fair deal for climate competitiveness,” said Chris Severson-Baker, executive director of the Pembina Institute. 

“While there are definitely opportunities to reach an even better result, these four pieces are the difference between the MOU being the foundation on which successful climate policy in Canada is built, or the beginning of its unravelling.”

The four necessary outcomes are:

1. An effective carbon price of $130 by 2030.

“This is the most important piece; we need carbon credits to be trading for at least $130 per tonne by 2030,” Severson-Baker said. A delay in reaching $130 means it will be harder for Canadian businesses to make the investments they need to cut emissions.

Alberta’s industrial carbon pricing system – known as TIER – has been repeatedly undermined by the provincial government, he said.

In 2025, despite a headline carbon price of $95 per tonne (the industrial carbon price set by government), TIER credits traded at anywhere from $17 to $39 per tonne, far below the level needed to spur investment in decarbonization.

Carbon prices in Alberta fell to $30.60 per tonne last week, after rising to about $40.47 per tonne in January.

2. Any new rules in Alberta must not create unfairness for industry elsewhere in Canada.

“The MOU suggests Alberta is going to get a special deal on methane rules and a special deal on clean electricity, but that would be unfair for businesses across Canada, Severson-Baker said.

Companies should get broadly similar treatment across Canada – whether they’re fixing methane leaks at oil and gas wells, or trying to build lost-cost renewable energy projects.

Alberta must show it will still achieve the same emissions outcomes, on the same timeframes as the rest of the country, so companies can confidently plan.

The language of the MOU suggests that oil and gas companies in Alberta will get twice as long as companies elsewhere in Canada to reduce their methane emissions by 75 percent below 2014. If left unchanged, this would create unfairness for oil and gas producers elsewhere in the country, notably British Columbia, which has made impressive progress in reducing methane emissions while nonetheless growing oil and gas production.

The MOU text also indicates that the federal Clean Electricity Regulations will be placed in abeyance if Alberta can demonstrate a different path to growing its electricity supply while also achieving a net-zero emissions grid by 2050.

However, Alberta’s renewable energy industry is continuing to suffer under policy uncertainty and restrictions that the province implemented after its 2023 moratorium on wind and solar development. Alberta’s electricity plans presented as part of the MOU talks must therefore be carefully evaluated to ensure the province has a viable path to achieving equivalent emissions outcomes as would have been achieved under the Clean Electricity Regulations. 

3. The oilsands companies must immediately put money on the table for their $16.5-billion Pathways Alliance carbon capture project.

“Industry has been talking about this project for years, and it’s time for them to make good on it. Pathways is not a silver bullet, but it’s an important tool to reduce oilsands emissions,” Severson-Baker said.

Taxpayers will already be paying for two-thirds of the project through very generous tax credits, he noted. “These very profitable companies must now show their commitment by allocating the funds.”

4. No taxpayer money for another pipeline.

“Either an oil pipeline is a good business idea, or it’s not. If it is a good idea, then the private sector should be happy to invest in it. If they won’t invest, then it’s a bad idea and taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to pay for it,” Severson-Baker said.
Talks between the provincial and federal governments and industry are ongoing and are expected to produce an agreement by April 1. Pembina Institute

******************************************************************************************************************************* 

Canada needs to digitally transform its infrastructure sector, including using digital twins

Canada needs to digitally transform its infrastructure sector, including with the use of digital twins for most efficient, cost-effective projects, according to a report by Toronto-based Future of Infrastructure Group.

The level of investment in infrastructure that’s currently planned or underway is at levels rarely seen in Canadian history, but this has been accompanied by a challenging environment for project delivery that has seen project delays and cost overruns, as well as overall cost inflation as projects get bigger and more complicated, the report said.

“Digital technology provides a platform to enable transformation of the sector,” it said.

Overall change is overdue as the sector is among the least digitized, spending less than one percent on revenues on information technology, less than one-third of what is typically spent in the automotive or aerospace sectors, according to the report.

At the same time, Canadian construction leaders recognize the need to invest, with nine in 10 respondents to a Canadian Construction Association survey stating the sector needs to embrace advanced technologies to address sector challenges, notably skills and labour gaps.

Research by McKinsey estimated that leveraging digital twins across planning and delivery of infrastructure into operations promises can bring improve capital and operational efficiency by 20 percent to 30 percent.

“There are numerous benefits along the way from moving paper-based records and processes into the digital space with the volume of information shared, and the number of stakeholders involved in each project,” the report said.

A 2023 report by KPMG found that a return on investment of $9 for every $1 spent on digital twins for infrastructure.

A digital twin is a virtual model of an object, a system, or a process. It is connected to its real-world counterpart by a two-way flow of right-time data, meaning it mimics the real-world version in all aspects.

Finland introduced a mandate for Building Information Modelling (BIM) back in 2007 and Quebec became the first (and still only) province in Canada to require BIM on projects in 2021. 

A more structured, organized approach to data built on common international standards is the foundation for change, according to the Future of Infrastructure’s report.

Doing so unlocks a range of other digital tools and process improvements that could help provide greater value for infrastructure investment, save on operating costs and deliver better services for end users

Along with digital twins, technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, drones, and offsite manufacturing could all play a greater role if there is a solid foundation of quality, standardized data.

The report said that Canada should:

• Create a Canadian digital infrastructure policy.

Canada should develop a clear national data and digital twin strategy for infrastructure and construction based on solving real world issues.

This should be in collaboration with provinces, municipalities and industry to set a framework for digital twins and digital transformation overall.

This must include clearly delegated leadership and lines of responsibility, set milestones and mechanisms to support adoption including funding, timelines, available expertise, and tools and processes that ensure digital is embedded in planning through to operations.

• Enable early adopters and momentum.

Identify high-impact pilots in a range of sectors aligned with key challenges faced within the sector overall to showcase tangible benefits and share learnings.

Leverage funding, visibility, and competitions to drive early adoption at the department, agency, municipal and company level.

• Build a strong data foundation.

There needs to be consistent open standards built around ISO 19650 and other key standards listed adopted across Canada with staged BIM mandates associated to receiving funding starting with the largest projects.

Infrastructure data should be shareable and digital-by-default and accessible via the cloud with guidance on what data is typically needed and adds value.

• Prepare the market.

Both public sector and private sector needs adequate training and support to ensure that people are prepared at three priority levels: strategic (policy and agency leaders), operational (process and procurement), and technical (BIM, data, Digital Twin).

There should be skills assessments for the market and a government-industry advisory board including strategic and operational expertise to guide rollout.

• Enable legal and regulatory innovation.

Update policies and contracts to enable data sharing and reuse beyond project close-out and across organizations.

Require regulatory and permitting approvals to be digital-by-default, with timelines for a single digital platform for reviews and approvals linked to project data and digital twins.

Address any lingering legal barriers to sharing data by providing clarity and restricting any carveouts.

The report’s recommendations are:

Clear digital strategy:

• Develop an overall digital strategy mapping out transformation, goals, and timelines.
• Set out a timeline for a national BIM Mandate for federally funded projects and provincially.
• Set a requirement that infrastructure processes are digital by default.

Delegated and empowered leadership and expertise:

• Appoint a designated leader with cross-government responsibility for transformation.
• Create a dedicated team with experts to work in coordination with other ministries.
• Have a clear ministry or agency responsible for enabling the transformation.

Clear process, procurement, and contracting approach.

• Create overall digital guidance that is embedded in overarching processes:
• Develop a tool to support decision making for the right fit for incorporating digital.
• Leverage contracting strategies, provide language and budgets to realize benefits.
• Enabling early adopters and gaining momentum.
• An audit to identify challenges and high-impact opportunities for digital.
• Set transparent milestones that enable incremental benefits.
• Set up a demonstrator program to drive adoption, shares results and refine approach.
• Establish competitions with funding and visibility to enable grassroots adoption
• Track tangible impacts to demonstrate benefits in key areas.

Data structure:

• Outline the core open standards that are required to drive consistency.
• Provide quality assurance through standards and processes.
• Provide guidance on information requirements for different types of projects.

Data availability.

• Host infrastructure data in the cloud to allow for sharing.
• Create a common data environment to drive consistency.
• Introduce an information exchange standard.
• Develop contract language ensuring that data can be shared by default.

Data skills.

• Undertake an audit of skills gaps for digital in government and across the sector.

Data Ethics.

• Provide clear principles of use that cover privacy, ethics and security.
• Create robust policies to safeguard privacy and security but enable progress.

Preparing the Market.

Undertake a concerted program of engagement and awareness building.

• Require early market engagement around data requirements and market experience.
• Ensure all documents use plain language that is more widely accessible.
• Provide training programs from strategic to technical levels.
• Develop supplier digital assessments to ensure they are adequately prepared.
• Provide funding opportunities for training and investment in digital.

Enabling legal and regulatory environment data requirements.

• Clear policy direction that sets the expectation around data in the infrastructure sector.
• Legislation to address any specific barriers to data sharing.
• Require established open international standards.
• Develop regulatory sandboxes to test technology and innovations.
• Project-related regulatory requirements.
• Map regulatory and permitting requirements, and make that process digital-by-default.
• Provide a single platform for regulatory submittals.

The report set out the steps for a three-stage implementation plan that includes setting direction, early adoption, and maintaining momentum. Future of Infrastructure Group

THE GRAPEVINE – News about people, institutions and communities

Dr. Bill Rosehart, PhD, a three‑time University of Waterloo graduate, was appointed the next president and vice‑chancellor of the University of Waterloo. His five‑year term will begin on July 1, 2026. Rosehart brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience at major Canadian research universities, including serving as provost and vice‑president, academic at the University of Guelph and dean of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. He is known for guiding institutions through periods of significant change with clarity, collaboration and principled decision‑making. Rosehart succeeds Dr. Vivek Goel, who will complete his term on June 30, 2026. University of Waterloo

Peter Suma, a longtime Canadian tech executive and investor, was appointed to lead BDC’s new $300-million defence-focused deep tech fund, called the StrongNorth Fund. The fund will back Canadian early‑stage companies building deep‑technologies with defence-focused or dual-use applications essential to Canada’s sovereignty and national security. Suma brings more than 25 years of experience in deep‑tech investing and company building. He is the co-founder and former chair and co-CEO of Kitchener-Waterloo deep tech startup Applied Brain Research, which catered to defence customers. Joseph Regan at BDC on LinkedIn

Adobe said CEO Shantanu Narayen will step down after a successor has been appointed, and he will remain as the design software company’s chair. Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 as a vice-president and general manager, and he became CEO in 2007. Under Narayen, Adobe pushed from software licenses to subscriptions to its Creative Cloud application bundle, and the company is now working to expand through generative artificial intelligence. Narayen sought to acquire fast-growing design software company Figma, but regulators pushed back, and the companies called off the deal, resulting in Adobe paying Figma a $1-billion breakup fee. Narayen, 62, is lead independent director of Pfizer in addition to his responsibilities at Adobe, where he received $51 million in total compensation for the 2025 fiscal year, according to a filing. He owns $118 million in Adobe shares, according to FactSet. CNBC

Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree announced Anton Boegman as the proposed Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner. As Commissioner, Boegman will play a leadership role in administering and enforcing the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act. This includes managing and overseeing a public registry of foreign influence activities in Canada. The registry will help increase public awareness of efforts to influence Canada’s political and governmental processes. Boegman brings extensive experience in the field of electoral processes to this role, including as the chief electoral officer of British Columbia from 2018 to 2025. Boegman’s proposed appointment received approval from both the House of Commons and the Senate. Public Safety Canada

The Government of Ontario appointed Bernard Derible to serve as the province’s first-ever Ontario Military Defence Representative. In this role, Derible will promote Ontario’s defence industry in global markets, attract new defence investment to the province and help Ontario companies take advantage of growing export opportunities. This new position also builds on Ontario’s ongoing advocacy to secure Toronto’s selection as the headquarters of the newly created Defence, Security and Resilience Bank and the 3,500 direct jobs it would bring to Canada if the city is selected. Derible is a Canadian Armed Forces veteran who has served as a senior military officer for the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Derible is currently Ontario’s Agent-General in Southeast Asia, located in Bangkok, Thailand, and will serve in dual roles to leverage existing in-market resources. Govt. of Ontario

Victoria-based cybersecurity company Plurilock downsized its C-suite and executive compensation in a move it hopes will help it reach profitability. Plurilock announced that it has “phased out” its chief technology officer (held by Michael Ruiz) and chief operating officer (held by Tucker Zengerle) roles, and that the executive leadership team voluntarily implemented a 30-percent reduction in executive compensation as part of a broader cost-optimization effort. The company said it expects the moves to net $900,000 in annualized savings over the next 12 months, after accounting for severance obligations and strategic investments in additional sales personnel. Plurilock added that the savings will be redeployed towards “high-impact growth initiatives,” including investments in customer acquisition and market development. BetaKit

Québec City-based iA Financial Group announced the appointment of Julie Gallagher as president and CEO of Richardson Wealth, effective immediately. Gallagher was senior vice-president and head, investment products & solutions and capital markets, at iA Wealth. She will provide strategic direction and vision, drive growth and profitability, and continue to strengthen the firm’s support for its advisory teams. On October 31, 2025, iA Financial Group completed the acquisition of RF Capital Group Inc., a leading independent wealth management company, operating under the Richardson Wealth brand. Dave Kelly, outgoing president and CEO of RF Capital, will remain with the organization until the end of June in the capacity of vice-chair to help Gallagher during her transition period. Beyond that, Kelly will retain a seat on Richardson Wealth’s board of directors, continuing to provide guidance and counsel going forward. iA Financial Group

*******************************************************************************************************************************

Université TÉLUQ researchers develop AI model that analyzes emotional cues in voices, to better understand situations of psychological distress

A Université TÉLUQ team led by professor Wassim Bouachir, Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence for Suicide Prevention, has developed an artificial intelligence model capable of analyzing the emotional cues in voices, making it possible to better understand situations of psychological distress.

The model is designed to automatically analyze voice conversations in order to improve support for vulnerable people.

Tests have shown that this approach has potential for supporting mental health interventions.

More broadly, this research opens the door to new forms of human-machine interactions that are more sensitive to emotions, in contexts ranging from remote psychological support to other services where consideration of an individual's emotional state is critical.

 "This research shows the importance of incorporating emotional cues extracted from voice signal into  of artificial intelligence systems, going beyond the words that are spoken,” Bouachir said.

“It paves the way for more emotionally sensitive human-machine interactions, with applications ranging from mental health to other digital services where people's emotional state really matters.”

Bouachir had his publication accepted for the prestigious International Conference on Learning Representations  (ICLR) – the first appearance for a research team from Université TÉLUQ at ICLR.

The article is authored by professors Alaa Nfissi and Bouachir, both members of the Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence for Suicide Prevention at Université TÉLUQ, in collaboration with professor Nizar Bouguila (Concordia University) and professor Brian Mishara (Université du Québec à Montréal).

As one of the first international conferences on AI and among the top worldwide in all disciplines in terms of scientific impact, ICLR is known for its rigorous evaluation process and extremely low acceptance rate. 

The next ICLR will be held in April 2026 in Brazil, bringing together the world's leading players in artificial intelligence. Université TÉLUQ

R$