Canadian airlines: an industry in crisis
COVID-19 has tremendously affected the airline industry in Canada. As the COVID-19 crisis took shape airlines around the globe suffered and at one point were brought to a halt. For Air Canada this could not have come at a worse time, as it was experiencing at the same time a major crisis due to the […]
Time for Canada to up our innovation game
The good news is Canada moved up in the Bloomberg 2021 Innovation Index. The bad news is we moved from 22nd to 21st—barely overtaking Slovenia. Proof that complacency breeds mediocrity. The question is: what are we going to do to really up our innovation game? More of the same will not get Canada into the […]
Fight to save proposed Line 5 shutdown needs Team Canada approach, provinces say
Three provincial energy ministers are urging the federal government to intervene in a legal dispute between the state of Michigan and Enbridge Inc. and “keep all options on the table” to avoid the threatened shutdown of the Line 5 pipeline. The representatives for Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan told a parliamentary committee Tuesday there would be […]
Pre-budget pitches, virtual ‘Hill days’ push February lobbying
The promise of the first federal budget in more than two years, planned legislation to address online hate, and pandemic-related health concerns drove the lobbying efforts in February of some of the busiest groups as Parliament returned for its first sitting of 2021. Last month, lobbyists filed 3,223 communication reports in the federal registry, a […]
Ethical AI can unlock social and economic opportunity for Canada
Imagine that you are about to begin an important university exam. You sit down in front of your computer, already stressed because all learning and evaluations are now online due to COVID-19. Moments before the exam is about to begin, the university’s proctoring software, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to confirm each person’s identity, […]
The robot revolution is changing jobs and businesses in Canada
In 2017, I returned to Canada from Sweden, where I had spent a year working on automation in mining. Shortly after my return, The New York Times published a piece called, “The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine,” about Sweden’s embrace of automation while limiting human costs. Although Swedes are apparently optimistic about their […]
Canada’s critical mineral wealth a gem for domestic advanced manufacturing, say experts and stakeholders
Canada has a vast array of critical minerals waiting to be tapped into to supply an increasingly important global demand that’s currently dominated by China, experts say, but an open question is how Canada plans to meet that demand. The Canadian government and industry can follow a similar path and be a natural resource export […]
Time for Canada to catch up on technological transformation
Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman once quipped that “productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.” He was referring to the fact that the wages of workers are intrinsically linked to productivity and that a country’s standard of living depends almost entirely on its ability to increase output per worker. Other […]
Canada has a running start in the technology leadership race
As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, Canadians are now depending more than ever on reliable connectivity to stay in touch, work, and conduct business. The pandemic has presented new challenges which increasingly require digital solutions, and have brought to the fore pre-existing discussions on the vital role of emerging technologies. The potential benefits […]
Rogers-Shaw merger potentially a bad sign for 5G rollout in Canada, experts and advocates say
The recently announced $26-billion merger between two telecom giants is likely a bad sign for 5G rollout in Canada, experts say, because of already relatively low spending from Rogers on the needed infrastructure for the new technology and the uncertain position it puts Shaw in with the upcoming spectrum auction essential to offering the speeds […]
