The Short Report: December 18, 2024

GOVERNMENT FUNDING

Ottawa moving forward with measures to increase pension fund investment in Canadian companies

The Government of Canada, with its 2024 Fall Economic Statement, is moving forward with a suite of measures to facilitate increased pension fund investment in Canadian entities. “By creating a more attractive investment for pension funds, we can grow our economy and boost productivity, while strengthening the robust requirement incomes for Canadians,” the government said. The new measures include:

• Removing the current rule limiting investments in Canadian entities by pension funds to no more than 30 percent. This will make it easier for Canadian pension funds to make significant investments in Canadian entities, Finance Canada said. During the development of regulatory amendments, the federal government will consult with provinces on the treatment of provincially regulated pension plans.
• Crowding in private venture capital by launching a fourth round of the Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative (VCCI) with $1 billion in funding in 2025-2026, on a cash basis. To leverage more private venture capital, this round will include more “enticing” terms for pension funds and other institutional investors. Under the VCCI, the federal government provides one dollar for every three dollars raised by select indirect fund managers, up to a cap.
• Bolstering mid-cap companies’ access to capital by providing up to an aggregate of $1 billion, on a cash basis, to invest in mid-cap growth companies. The government’s investment will be structured to be concessional and equal to 25 percent of net new private investments, in order to crowd in additional private capital into the growth equity market.
• Securing Canada’s AI advantage by unlocking up to $45 billion in aggregate loan and equity investments for AI data centre projects. To access these loans or project equity, Canadian pension funds must invest at a ratio of 2:1 of their own capital, via debt or equity, and become significant shareholders in an AI data centre project. Seven pension funds have expressed interest in working with the government on detailed project parameters.
• Helping airports attract the investment needed to improve, by engaging with airports and pension funds on ways to further incentivize investment and development on airport lands. This includes exploring potential changes to airport authority ground leases.
• Exploring lowering the 90 percent threshold that currently limits municipally owned utility corporations from attracting more than 10 percent private sector ownership. Lowering this threshold for Canadian pension funds would allow them to acquire a higher ownership share in these entities. For example, municipally owned electricity utilities would be able to access more capital to meet future demand and expand electricity production and distribution grids.

Canadian pension funds have more than $3 trillion in assets, which are invested both in Canada and abroad. “Canada needs to fight harder than ever for capital, including facilitating and supporting the investment of capital here at home,” former finance minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement, prior to her resignation from federal cabinet on December 16.

But Mark Wiseman, a senior business executive and advisor and former president and chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), said the government’s measures carry great risks for Canada’s economic future.

Especially for funds like the CPPIB, it is essential to diversify investments outside the country, as the nightmare scenario is that overexposure to an underperforming Canadian economy sees poor investment returns at the same time as higher unemployment and low wage growth, leaving both diminished inflows and flaccid asset returns to pay fixed pension obligations for Canadians, Wiseman wrote in an op-ed in The Globe and Mail.

Canadian funds are already heavily invested in Canada, he argued. On average, the so-called “Maple Eight” of Canada’s largest pension funds have 18 per cent of their portfolios invested in Canada, as compared with the approximately three per cent of global capital markets that Canada represents, he said.

While it is true that Canada faces economic stagnation and lagging productivity, the solution lies not in politically driven mandates but in more effective policy measures to actually address the underlying causes of economic malaise, Wiseman said.

“Reducing interprovincial trade barriers, liberalizing foreign investment restrictions, and simplifying pathways to skills development could more directly address the country’s economic issues, without compromising its pension system and our social security.” Finance Canada

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Federal government announces long-awaited overall of SR&ED tax credit program

The Government of Canada, with its 2024 Fall Economic Statement, announced the long-awaited overhaul of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit program. The government proposes to invest $1.9 billion over the next six years into the SR&ED program and make significant reforms, including:

• Increase the expenditure limit on which the enhanced 35-percent rate for tax credits can be earned, from $3 million to $4.5 million. As a result, qualifying Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs) would be able to claim up to $1.575 million per year of the enhanced, fully refundable tax credit.
• Increase from $10 million and $50 million, to $15 million and $75 million, respectively, the taxable capital phase-out thresholds for determining the expenditure limit. 
• Extend eligibility for the enhanced 35-percent refundable tax credit to eligible Canadian public corporations on up to $4.5 million of qualifying SR&ED expenditures annually. Previously, public corporations could only claim 15-percent, non-refundable tax credits.
• Restore the eligibility of capital expenditures for both the deduction against income and investment tax credit components of the SR&ED program. The rules would be generally the same as those that existed prior to 2014 and would apply to property acquired on or after the date of the 2024 Fall Economic Statement and, in the case of lease costs, to amounts that first become payable on or after the date of the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The federal government distributes about $4 billion in SR&ED tax credits annually. The cost of the new reforms will be approximately $1.9 billion over the next year years, Ottawa said.

The 2024 Fall Economic Statement will deliver a total of $26 billion in tax incentives for new businesses, according to the government.

Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) said the expanded tax credit eligibility is welcome, but the reforms to the SR&ED program don’t go far enough.

“We had hoped to see the federal government take meaningful steps to stop subsidizing the R&D of foreign multinationals that contribute much less to the Canadian economy than homegrown companies, and we had hoped that the government would bring more transparency to SR&ED,” Bergen said in a statement.

In the CCI’s recommendations for SR&ED reform, released in February, the organization advocated for the program to incentivize domestic intellectual property creation through a patent-box regime. A patent box regime would give tax breaks to profits generated from domestic IP.

The federal government launched consultations in January on creating a patent box regime; the consultation closed on April 15, 2024.

CCI also called on the government to ensure the SR&ED program doesn’t help fund R&D projects where the IP ends up owned by foreign companies.

SR&ED reform needs to be one component of a larger strategic shift where Canada is more intentional about Canada’s national prosperity, and the use of industrial policy to ensure that we have leading innovative firms in high-value roles within the global economy, Bergen said. Finance Canada

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Innovation- and investment-related highlights of the federal government’s Fall Economic Statement

Ottawa announced its intention to introduce the Small Business Innovation and Procurement Act, to obligate federal government departments and agencies to procure a minimum of 20 percent of goods and services from small and medium-sized Canadian businesses.

The existing Innovation Solutions Canada (ISC) program requires federal government departments to spend one per cent of their budgets procuring solutions from Canadian small businesses. However, in practice, less than one-third of this spending has been realized.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada has cut ISC’s budget by $28.2 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year and by $70 million annually from 2025-26 onwards.

Laurent Carbonneau, director of policy and research at the Council of Canadian Innovators (CC), welcomed the new  small business and innovation procurement targets in the Fall Economic Statement, pointing out that CCI's research clearly concluded that successfully changing Canada’s cumbersome procurement processes requires both carrots and sticks.

“A government that can’t buy well can’t govern well. The current state of federal procurement means both that Canadians aren’t getting the quality of public services they deserve, and we’re leaving an enormously powerful tool for economic growth to gather dust.," he said in an email to Research Money.

Hard targets backed up by real support in building expertise and changing culture is the right overall approach, Carbonneau said. "We’re looking forward to keeping up the momentum on this important policy change that has the potential to make a real difference for Canadians and for Canadian innovators.”

Other innovation- and investment-related highlights of the Government of Canada’s Fall Economic Statement include:

• The government proposes more trade measures against China, including tariffs on solar products and critical minerals in early 2025 – with further levies to be applied to semiconductors, permanent magnets and natural graphite in 2026.
• For provincial and territorial Crown corporations to have access to the Clean Electricity investment tax credit, provincial or territorial governments will need to publicly commit to publish an energy roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and request that the benefits are passed down to ratepayers.
• The 10-percent EV Supply Chain Investment Tax Credit will be available to Canadian taxable corporations that have invested in eligible property, and have invested at least $100 million in property in each of the three EV supply chain activities (cathode active material manufacturing, EV battery manufacturing, EV assembly) eligible for the Clean Technology Manufacturing (CTM) investment tax credit. Draft legislation will be issued for consultation.
• Ottawa launched its long-awaited Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program and the Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation, as well as the opening of its loan guarantee application portal to receive applications from interested Indigenous groups. Budget 2024 announced that the government will provide up to $5 billion in Indigenous loan guarantees.
• The government committed to accelerating digital adoption for small businesses by providing financing and expertise to help SMEs adopt digital technologies, with a priority focus on AI.
• The government will modify the Canada carbon rebate for small businesses to ensure that smaller businesses are receiving more support, by creating a new base payment allowing those businesses that have between one and 20 employees to qualify for a payment equivalent to having 20 employees.

The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) said the Trudeau government’s 2023 Fall Economic Statement pledged to expand the Clean Technology Investment Tax Credits for biomass heat and electricity generation projects – to encourage millions in investments in capital upgrades and manufacturing jobs in Canada.

“More than a year later, we’re still waiting and it's putting the ability of our sector to compete globally for strategic investment at risk,” FPAC president and CEO Derek Nighbor said in a statement. Finance Canada

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Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) announced more than over $1 billion in additional federal investments to ensure that as New Brunswick’s electricity demands grow substantially over the coming years, Canada meets demand with clean electricity that is both reliable and affordable. NB Power estimates the following investments could help power up to 140,000 homes.

• Up to $1 billion in federal support for up to 670 megawatts of Indigenous-led wind projects through the Canada Infrastructure Bank Clean Power priority sector and Indigenous Equity Initiative as well as NRCan’s Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways (SREP) program.
• $25 million from SREP for the 25-megawatt Neweg Energy wind project, a partnership with the New Brunswick Mi’kmaq First Nations.
• $500,000 to the North Shore Mi'kmaq Tribal Council to provide seven Mi’kmaq Nations in New Brunswick with resources and technical support and enable direct participation in clean energy opportunities.
• A commitment from Canada to work with New Brunswick and NB Power to support the conversion of the Belledune Generating Station from coal-fired power to biomass.
• $1.6 million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) to further investigate the conversion of the Belledune station through engineering and planning studies; this is in addition to a previously announced $2 million from ACOA to evaluate different biomass fuel options.
• $25 million to NB Power for predevelopment work for up to 600 megawatts in new small modular reactor capacity at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generation Station through NRCan’s Electricity Predevelopment Program.
• $1.3 million to NB Power for predevelopment work on the modified Atlantic Loop electricity transmission line between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia through NRCan’s Electricity Predevelopment program.

The Government of Canada and the Government of New Brunswick also have reached a common understanding on the forthcoming federal Clean Electricity Regulations that will provide the flexibilities needed to enable New Brunswick’s electricity system to grow and decarbonize while ensuring it will be affordable, reliable and non-emitting. NRCan

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) announced federal investments totalling over $152 million for nine clean electricity projects in Alberta through the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program. The funding includes $25 million each for five solar or wind projects. These solar, wind energy and grid infrastructure upgrade projects will support the delivery of reliable, affordable and clean electricity in Alberta, and are expected to displace approximately 760,000 tonnes of harmful carbon emissions per year, once commissioned, and generate enough electricity to power upward of 170,000 homes. That’s more homes than in all of Red Deer, Lethbridge, Airdrie and Fort McMurray combined. NRCan

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) announced a co-investment with the United States in Vancouver-headquartered mining company Fireweed Metals Corp. Fireweed will receive up to $12.9 million from NRCan for its North Canol Infrastructure Improvement Project, pending final due diligence, for pre-development activities by the company such as design, studies and collection of baseline data, as well as engagement and consultations with First Nations. These pre-development activities will focus on improvements of approximately 250 kilometres of road,  upgrades to an existing electricity transmission line between Faro and Ross River, and the construction of a new transmission line from Ross River to the Macmillan Pass site. This infrastructure will be key to the development of Fireweed’s critical minerals projects in eastern Yukon. MacMillan Pass is a district-scale collection of high-grade zinc deposits that also contains the world’s largest known accumulation of germanium and gallium. Canada’s funds will be joined by a US$15.8-million co-investment from the U.S. to advance test work, feasibility studies and other preconstruction activities at Fireweed’s Mactung tungsten mine project, which is expected to benefit from the Canadian-supported infrastructure improvements. Canada is providing this conditional funding to Fireweed through the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund’s pre-construction stream, a key program under the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy. The co-investment from the U.S. is provided by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Defense Production Act Purchases Office. NRCan

The Government of Alberta announced a $20-million investment, through the Alberta Petrochemicals Incentive Program, in Rocky Mountain Clean Fuels’ synthetic diesel facility. This grant will support a synthetic diesel plant in Wheatland County near Carseland, east of Calgary, that uses natural gas and natural gas liquids as feedstock to produce synthetic diesel, naphtha and wax. Naphtha is a petroleum fraction that can be used for gasoline blend stock and diluent. The plant will make a small volume of high-value Fischer Tropsch paraffin wax used for lubricants, hot melt adhesives, paints and coatings. Rocky Mountain Clean Fuels recently opened its $173-million facility, with production starting at the end of November. The facility is already producing about 220 barrels per day (bpd) of synthetic diesel, naphtha and wax, and is expected to produce 500 bpd at full capacity. Future expansions may include: increasing daily fuel output; integrating hydrogen production; incorporating carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies; and adding renewable feedstock to further enhance sustainability. Govt. of Alberta

Provincially owned BC Hydro awarded 30-year electricity purchase agreements to nine new wind energy projects. The projects are expected to generate 5,000 gigawatt hours per year of electricity, which could power 500,000 new homes and boost BC Hydro’s current electricity supply by eight per cent. The nine projects, which each must have a minimum 25-percent equity ownership held by First Nations, will require $5 billion to $6 billion of private capital spending. To ensure the projects are completed as efficiently as possible, the B.C. government intends to exempt these wind projects and all future wind projects in the province from environmental assessment, while ensuring First Nations interests and environmental mitigations are protected and maintained. In contrast, the Alberta government, with its “agriculture first” approach to renewable energy development, has implemented new regulations restricting wind and solar projects. Govt. of B.C.

The Government of Québec invested $18 million in Burnaby, B.C.-headquartered Nano One, including $15 million in loans and $3 million in grants, for its pilot plant in Candiac south of Montreal to produce battery-active materials. In addition to electric car batteries, the portable lithium-iron-phosphate battery technology could power equipment in soldiers' survival kits. Of the $18 million, $15 million will be used to finance the facility and $3 million will be used to develop Nano One’s technology to reduce greenhouse gases. In total, the project amounts to $63.4 million. Nano One’s Candiac plant uses technology developed by Hydro-Québec's Research Institute. In September, the Pentagon in the U.S. invested $18 million in Nano One. Le journal de Montréal

Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) announced a federal investment of $10 million for 18 applied research projects that explore specific, impactful ways to help Canada meet its housing and infrastructure needs. From building a national housing data platform, to studying the impacts of transit investments on low-income and racialized communities, to combatting youth homelessness, these projects aim to generate innovative, practical solutions to the housing and infrastructure challenges faced by Canadian communities. For example:

• Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., is advancing studies of 3D concrete printing technology to build more durable housing and infrastructure by conducting large-scale proof-of-concept tests.
• 5468796 Architecture in Winnipeg is aiming to identify and leverage under-utilized land and building assets of non-government organizations to support new affordable housing development.
• Vancouver -based advisory firm Light House Sustainability is studying the feasibility of relocating homes to Northern regions, directly tackling the housing crisis in underserved areas by making more homes available for communities.
• In Quebec City, the Vivre en Ville project is developing a decision-support tool for municipalities to assess the potential of urban redevelopment, including analysis of the opportunity costs of under-utilization of parking lots, to increase housing supply while containing urban sprawl. HICC

Public Safety Canada announced funding up to $10 million over five years, through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, to establish of a Cyber Attribution Data Centre (CADC) at the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity (CIC) at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). With the ultimate goal of identifying malicious cyber actors, the CADC will gather data from a variety of sources and use the latest cyber attribution intelligence analytics. The CADC will also train and equip the next generation of artificial intelligence cyber security specialists. The CIC, based at UNB in Fredericton, is a comprehensive multidisciplinary training, research and development, and entrepreneurial unit that draws on the expertise of researchers in the social sciences, business, computer science, engineering, law and science. Since its establishment in 2017, the CIC has filed patents; organized annual international conference series on privacy, security and trust; developed startups; and continued to provide crucial cyber security information to Canadian stakeholders. Public Safety Canada

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) announced $9.9 million over three years to support approximately 30 projects through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDC) Funding Program. Funded organizations will implement innovative projects within their own communities to increase the awareness of SDGs and accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda. This round of funding adds to the nearly $22 million previously allocated for 131 projects across Canada. This year’s postsecondary recipients are Conrad Grebel University College, Fanshawe College, Université de Sherbrooke, and the University of Calgary. ESDC

The Government of Quebec is investing nearly $2.3 million and the Government of Canada $1.08 million to support the launch of and operations at the Centre d’innovation du Cégep de Sept-Îles. The new Centre d’innovation will house three research units dedicated to researching and developing innovations in key sectors for the Côte-Nord economy, including railway transportation and maintenance, industrial maintenance and intelligent energy. The centre’s equipment and laboratories will make it possible, among other things, to consolidate the projects of three research units affiliated with the Cégep de Sept‑Îles: the Institut technologique de maintenance industrielle; the Centre de recherche et d’innovation en intelligence énergétique; and the Industrial Research Chair in Railway Operations and Maintenance. The Centre d’entrepreneuriat et de valorisation des innovations has a mandate from the Cégep de Sept-Îles to implement and coordinate the Centre d’innovation’s activities. Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced nearly $3 million, through the Quebec Fisheries Fund (QFF), for three projects in the Gaspé Peninsula. The Government of Canada is contributing just over $2 million to these projects, while the Government of Quebec is contributing $885,745. A large portion of this funding will go to ACPG Innovation, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Association des Capitaines Propriétaires de la Gaspésie. The contribution will enable fleets in Quebec's maritime regions to acquire innovative equipment and adapt their boats for the redfish fishery. Funding will also be allocated to Atkins et Frères Inc. to help the company market a new product, fish sausage, and Lelièvre, Lelièvre et Lemoignan Ltd. to improve its lobster tanks. Launched in 2019, the QFF supports innovation-driven projects in the areas of commercial fisheries, aquaculture, seafood harvesting and processing, and science partnerships. Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) announced $2.4 million, through the Codes Acceleration Fund, for the Government of Prince Edward Island to adopt higher performance tiers of the 2020 national model energy codes of Canada. This funding will provide building officials and building industry professionals with the tools and training required to ensure compliance with provincial building codes as the province adopts increasingly energy-efficient performance tiers. The federal government is committed to supporting the adoption of more ambitious building codes to meet Canada’s goal of a net-zero emissions and climate-resilient buildings sector by 2050. NRCan

The Department of National Defence announced seven Canadian companies selected for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) competitive challenges. These firms will be joining NATO DIANA’s 2025 cohort of innovators. Challenges focused on several innovation areas in security and defence, including data and information security, critical infrastructure and logistics, and human health and performance. The seven companies are:

• Quantropi in Ottawa (data and information security).
• SDQ Solutions Canada, location not provided (data and information security).
• Synaptrain Technologies Inc. in Calgary (data and information security).
• TACTIQL in Ottawa (data and information security).
• Reaction Dynamics in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. (critical infrastructure and logistics).
• Flosonics Medical in Sudbury, Ont. (human health and performance).
• Qidni Labs Inc. in Kitchener, Ont. (human health and performance).

The NATO DIANA North American Regional Office officially opened in Halifax, N.S. in October 2024. National Defence 

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) announced the mentee and mentor pairing for the Saskatchewan Next Gen Agriculture Mentorship Program Cohort Six. This 18-month experience creates leadership development opportunities for mentees and allows them to increase their involvement in decisions affecting the agriculture industry. Mentees gain skills and knowledge in the areas of governance, agriculture advocacy, policy development, public speaking, strategic planning, consensus building, media management, verbal and written communications and financial management. This year’s mentees and mentors are:

• Morgan Lehmann, paired with Scott Wright.
• Emmersen Close, with Gordon Roger.
• Casey Bradford, with Breeanne Kelln.
• Emma Syroteuk, with Adrienne Hanson.
• Karter Kattler, with Kris Babbings.
• Hannah Eckstein, with Kara Annand.
• Raeanne Pettifer, with Jean Clavelle.
• Paige Freitag, with John and Deanne Chuiko.

The Next Gen Agriculture Mentorship Program is funded by the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership, a five-year (2023-2028), $3.5-billion investment by federal‐provincial and territorial governments to strengthen competitiveness, innovation and resiliency of the agriculture, agri‐food and agri‐based products sector. AAFC

RESEARCH, TECH NEWS & COLLABORATION

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) released its World University Rankings: Sustainability 2025 report. Featuring 1,740 universities from around the world, the rankings seek to measure postsecondary institutions’ capacity to tackle environmental, social and governance-related challenges. The University of Toronto is the top-ranked university in the world for the second year in a row. Other Canadian institutions making the top 100 include University of British Columbia (tied for #5), McGill University (tied for #15), Western University (tied for #30), University of Alberta (#58), University of Waterloo (#60), Université de Montréal (#65), University of Ottawa (#90), McMaster University (tied for #93), Queen’s University (tied for #93), and University of Calgary (#100). QS

Toronto-based AGE-WELL, hosted by the University Health Network, announced $2.4 million for nine research projects through its 2024 AgeTech Advance: Healthy Aging Research Program (HARP). The funding is aimed at advancing the development and application of technology-enabled solutions that support healthy aging. The projects involve 47 investigators from 21 universities and research centres across five Canadian provinces. AGE-WELL’s funding is matched by contributions from 18 partners spanning multiple sectors including academic, industry and community organizations. HARP, which is made possible by funding through the federal Strategic Science Fund, supports mature, innovative projects that can produce results within 18 months. All nine projects are led or co-led by early-career researchers within five years of their first academic appointment. A key component of these research projects is actively engaging older adults and caregivers to make sure solutions align with real-world needs and priorities. AGE-WELL

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne announced a commitment from LinkedIn to voluntarily pause its practice of using the personal information of Canadian members to train its generative artificial intelligence models, while working with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) to resolve the OPC’s outstanding questions. Following numerous media reports indicating that LinkedIn had started training AI models using the data of individual members without having first notified individuals of the practice, the Commissioner reached out to LinkedIn to request information about the company’s training practices as well as how it obtains consent from its members. While LinkedIn indicated that it believed that it had implemented its AI model in a privacy protective manner, the company agreed to pause its data-gathering practice to engage in discussions with the OPC to ensure that LinkedIn’s practices are compliant with Canada’s federal private sector privacy law. OPC

TikTok Canada has appealed the federal government’s order to shut down its Canadian offices. In a filing in Federal Court, Tik Tok said Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s order in November was “unreasonable,” “driven by improper purposes,” and procedurally unfair. The court filing said TikTok Canada tried to communicate with Champagne about his concerns and offered promises to address them but got no response before the minister used his power under the Investment Canada Act to order Tik Tok’s offices closed. TikTok Canada is asking for a judicial review of Champagne’s order. The social network itself isn’t facing a ban here as it is in the U.S., where TikTok is fighting a separate court battle. TikTok Canada’s filing said that if its offices close, it will lay off hundreds of people and potentially cancel more than 250,000 ad deals, and Canadian creators will be harmed. TikTok’s parent company is China-based ByteDance, founded by Chinese internet entrepreneur Zhang Yiming. TikTok

Sean Fraser, minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, announced the new Canadian Infrastructure Council, an expert advisory body that will deliver the country’s first-ever National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA). The NIA will support Canada’s long-term infrastructure planning and decision-making by compiling data and evidence and conducting the research and analysis needed to make informed investments that will serve Canadians well into the future. The focus will be on the core infrastructure that communities need to support housing development over the long term – including water and wastewater, public transit, active transportation and waste management – as well as the impact of population growth and climate change on this infrastructure. In support of this work, the Canadian Infrastructure Council – comprised of 11 experts in relevant infrastructure sectors across the country – will engage key partners and stakeholders from industry, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous governments to seek their knowledge and expertise and ensure that the NIA is useful for communities across Canada. WaterCanada

Imperial Oil Ltd., the Canadian oilsands unit of Exxon Mobil Corp., is calling for more government funding for the Pathways Alliance group of oilsands companies’ planned $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage network. The federal government is currently offering a 50-percent tax credit and the Alberta government has proposed support of 12 per cent for the roll out of the project. Pathways Alliance wants to capture carbon dioxide at multiple oilsands facilities and transport the CO₂ via a new pipeline to the Cold Lake region for storage underground. The total current government support of 62 percent isn’t sufficient, Imperial Oil chief executive Brad Corson said on an investor call. “We are still in discussions with the government about the required fiscal support that would be necessary,” he said. “We said we need 75 percent.” Pathways is also seeking an additional contract with the government to guarantee the per-tonne price of the CO₂ that’s stored underground. Imperial Oil’s profit in 2023 was nearly $4.9 billion in 2023 with revenue of $50.7 billion. Financial Post

Entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary’s company O’Leary Ventures announced it signed a letter of intent to purchase land near Grande Prairie, Alta. from the Municipal District of Greenview, in the Greenview Industrial Gateway, for a proposed AI data centre industrial park. O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful on TV shows Shark Tank and Dragons’ Den, touts Alberta as the best place to build data centres. The announcement came days after the province released its new strategy to attract $100 billion of investment into data centres over the next five years. O’Leary’s proposal, called Wonder Valley, would see the company develop off-grid natural gas and geothermal power generation infrastructure to provide electricity to offer to AI hyperscalers looking for places to operate data centres. Once fully built out over a five- to 10-year period, the area in northwest Alberta could eventually offer 7.5 gigawatts of energy to its tenants. The area has available land and water, access to fibre-optic networks, and proximity to ample supplies of natural gas that can create electricity, O’Leary said. The first phase would be 1.4 gigawatts, costing about US$2 billion, while the entire development could top $70 billion if fully built out, the company said. Calgary Herald

AI pioneer and Nobel-prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Physics, said research is urgently needed on how to prevent AI-powered digital beings more intelligent than humans from wanting to take control. Such beings “are no longer science fiction” and if they are created by companies “motivated by short-term profits,” human safety will not be the top priority, he warned. AI will enable society to create highly intelligent and knowledgeable AI assistants who will increase productivity in almost all industries, Hinton said. “If the benefits of the increased productivity can be shared equally it will be a wonderful advance for all humanity.” Unfortunately, AI is already being used by authoritarian governments for massive surveillance and by cyber criminals for phishing attacks, he noted. In the near future AI may be used to create terrible new viruses and horrendous lethal weapons that decide by themselves who to kill or maim. “All of these short-term risks require urgent and forceful attention from governments and international organizations.” Hinton also delivered his Nobel Prize lecture at Stockholm University. He has pledged $350,000 of  his Nobel winnings towards Water First Education and Training, a Creemore, Ont. charity focused on supporting Indigenous communities' access to safe and clean drinking water. Nobel Foundation

Academia must be involved in developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) to yield best, safest results, editors at the journal Nature wrote in an editorial. As AI companies pursue AGI, they must collaborate with academic researchers to ensure the best and safest results, they argue. AGI refers to an AI system capable of human-level reasoning, generalization, planning and autonomy. The editors discuss the developmental trajectory of AI and point to several examples of how teams at postsecondary institutions, including at the Université de Montréal, are exploring critical questions that are pertinent to AGI. Estimates of when AGI might arrive range from a few years to a decade or longer. But more huge advances in AI will certainly happen, and many of them will probably come from industry, considering the scale of investment, Nature’s editors wrote. “To ensure that these advances are beneficial, the research from technology companies needs to be verified using the best current understanding of what constitutes human intelligence, according to neuroscience, cognitive science, social science and other relevant fields. This publicly funded research needs to have a key role in AGI’s development.” Nature

Air Canada has bought and started using canola-based jet fuel produced at Parkland Corp.’s Burnaby, B.C. refinery – Canada’s first batch of the low-carbon fuel. Using existing infrastructure, Parkland’s refinery successfully produced approximately 101,000 litres of low-carbon aviation fuel by using non-food grade canola and tallow as core feedstocks. With appropriate certification across the full supply chain, low-carbon aviation fuel (LCAF) could be classified as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Air Canada said it is the airline’s first commercial purchase of Canadian-produced, low-carbon aviation fuel. “Air Canada is actively pursuing efforts to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions and LCAF and SAF are a critical component of our multifaceted approach to reducing our impact on the environment and promoting environmental sustainability in our operations,” said Michael Rousseau, president and CEO of Air Canada. “We encourage all levels of government to support the development of a competitive low-carbon aviation fuel or SAF industry and production market in Canada with balanced, supporting policies.” Low-carbon aviation fuel has lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than conventional jet fuel and can be used in existing aircraft without modification. Parkland

Innovation in Canada’s food manufacturing sub-sector declined over the last three years, according to a report by Statistics Canada. StatsCan’s survey on innovation in the food processing industry sampled 3,660 businesses with at least $1 million in revenue. The survey found that nearly three in five businesses (58.2 percent) in the food manufacturing sub-sector spent on average up to five percent of their total expenditures on innovation activities, such as product, process, organizational and/or marketing innovation, in the last three fiscal years (2021, 2022 and 2023). Slightly more than two in three food manufacturing businesses (67.7 percent) introduced at least one innovation from 2021 to 2023, down from 72.1 percent from 2016 to 2018. The proportion of innovating businesses declined across all four types of innovation. However, process innovation declined the most, with fewer than two in five businesses (38.5 percent) reporting introducing it in 2021 to 2023 compared with nearly half (48.4 percent) in 2016 to 2018. StatsCan’s survey found that from 2021 to 2023, the likelihood of businesses introducing at least one innovation generally increased with their food production sales. Nearly three in five businesses (59.2 per cent) with less than $1 million in food production sales in 2023 introduced at least one innovation from 2021 to 2023. Meanwhile, over three in four businesses (76.5 percent) with more than $100 million in sales introduced at least one innovation over the same period. Food in Canada

Rio Tinto, with joint head offices in London, England and Melbourne, Australia, launched a research and development program to extract gallium from its Quebec alumina refinery. Gallium is a critical mineral and is already present in the bauxite processed in Rio Tinto’s alumina refinery in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, the only such refinery in Canada. The research could lead to Rio Tinto building a demonstration plant in Saguenay for extraction technology that can produce 3.5 tonnes of gallium annually. The Government of Quebec has committed up to $7 million for this demonstration phase, the company said. Eventually, a commercial-scale plant that could produce up to 40 tonnes of gallium, or five percent to 10 percent of the world’s current gallium supply. Primary gallium is used in key sectors, including the manufacture of integrated circuits, which are of vital importance in many new technologies such as high-performance radar, smartphones, electric cars and laptops. Rio Tinto

Toronto-based Cyclic Materials, which focuses on recycling rare earth elements, announced it signed a multi-year agreement to supply Swiss mining giant Glencore with copper recovered from electronic scrap. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed. Glencore plans to refine the copper in Canada at its Horne Smelter and Canadian Copper Refinery into copper cathode that can be reutilized in new end-products. Copper is used in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, MRI machines, data centre servers and other applications. Cyclic Materials CEO Ahmad Ghahreman said his company plans to open new factories in the U.S. and Europe, in addition to its Kingston, Ont., factories. BusinessWire

VC, PRIVATE INVESTMENT & ACQUISITIONS

Canadian-founded Quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum Inc., now headquartered in Palo Alto, California but with its quantum engineering centre in Burnaby, B.C., announced it completed sales of US$175 million in gross proceeds of its common stock. The company said it expects to end the fiscal 2024 quarter with at least $160 million in cash. The funds from the sale were used, and will continue to be used, for working capital and capital expenditures in support of D-Wave’s ongoing technical development efforts and business operations, the company said. During the third quarter of 2024, D-Wave’s operating expenses were $21.7 million and its net loss was nearly $23 million, up nine percent and 41 percent respectively compared with the same quarter last year. D-Wave  is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers and the only company building both annealing quantum computers and gate-model quantum computers. D-Wave

Vancouver-based digital health care company WELL Health has rebranded its subsidiary WELL Provider Solutions Group to WELLSTAR Technologies Corp., which has raised $50.4 million in an equity funding round supported by Mawer Investment Management, Edgepoint Wealth Management, and PenderFund Capital Management, alongside WELL Health and WELLSTAR management. WELLSTAR also announced it has acquired two health care technology companies – which weren’t identified – for $17.9 million in cash and $3.9 million in WELLSTAR shares. WELL Health is preparing to split into two entities: one providing care and the other selling services to health providers. WELL STAR, which will sell services to health providers, is to be spun off by the end of 2025. WELL Health

Montreal-based online data security firm Flare raised US$30 million in a Series B funding round led by Base10 Partners with participation from Inovia Capital, White Star Capital, and Fonds de solidarité FTQ. Flare said it expects to increase investments in expansion into the European Union and further accelerate growth in North America and Europe more broadly. Flare focuses on leveraging the latest advances in generative AI and advanced data science techniques to extract insights out of one of the most sophisticated cybercrime data sets. The company has rolled out a tool that detects leaked login information and proactively resets passwords before bad actors can use them. Flare

Calgary-based Fluid Biomed Inc. raised US$27 million in Series A equity financing in a round co-led by Amplitude Ventures and an undisclosed major strategic partner. New participants in the investment syndicate include IAG Capital Partners and LifeArc Ventures, as well as returning investors, ShangBay Capital and METIS Innovative. Fluid Biomed is a clinical stage medical device company developing lifesaving products for patients suffering from vascular disease and those with brain aneurisms. Neurosurgeons John Wong, co-founder and CEO of Fluid, and Alim Mitha, Fluid’s co-founder, president and chief technology officer, developed the company’s bioabsorbable ReSolve™ stent as researchers at the University of Calgary, and Fluid announced its first human clinical trials in June 2023. Fluid plans to use the funding to further validate its ReSolve™ stent and its proprietary delivery system in expanded patient studies. Private Capital Journal

Publicly funded Alberta Enterprise Corporation (AEC) launched its fourth early-stage angel co-investment fund, Accelerate Fund IV, with a $15-million anchor investment. Building on the success of the Accelerate Fund program started in 2012, Accelerate Fund IV will provide Alberta technology entrepreneurs focused in life sciences, digital transformation and artificial intelligence and other emerging opportunities with a continued source of startup capital. Accelerate Fund IV will be managed by Vancouver-based Yaletown Partners, the same investment team that oversaw Fund II and Fund III. As an anchor investor in the Accelerate Fund since 2012, AEC has supported investment in 46 Alberta-based technology companies, including SamDesk, StellarAlgo, DrugBank, PayShepherd, Userful, Virtual Gurus, and Helcim. AEC

Vancouver-based Spexi Geospatial raised US$11.5 million in a Series A all equity funding round with lead investor Blockchange Ventures. Other participants included Moonshots Capital, Protocol Labs, and web3 entrepreneur Tom Trowbridge. Spexi is building a scalable global network of drone pilots to capture and deliver frequently updated, data-rich, fully standardized Earth imagery to both the public and private sectors – all with near-zero emissions. The data collected by Spexi is immediately accessible to clients, providing 900 times the detail of traditional satellite imagery at a fraction of the cost, the company said. Earlier this year, Spexi was awarded a $1-million contract from the federal government to capture Earth imagery in order to improve emergency preparedness and responses to wildfires.  Spexi

Toronto-based startup Cyder, which helps credit unions launch loyalty rewards programs, raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. The round included investments from MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, Desjardins, Aperture Group, and investor and Dragons’ Den star Arlene Dickinson along with multiple other angel investors. The funding will be used to launch Cyder’s new platform, called Cyder Rewards, which allows credit unions to redeem and issue rewards to members, onboard local businesses as loyalty partners, and integrate donation options for local charities and causes. FinSMEs

Hamilton-based Akroo Inc. announced an agreement to be acquired by London, Ont.-based Paystone Inc. in an all-cash shares purchase valued at approximately $21 million. The purchase includes nearly $3 million of debt owed to the Business Development Bank of Canada, which will be repaid by Paystone upon the closing of the transaction. Akroo is a gift card, loyalty marketing, payments and point-of-sale technology consolidator and services provider. Paystone is a marketing, payment and point-of-sale solutions company. The deal requires approval by Akroo’s shareholders, the TSX Venture Exchange, a final order by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and other conditions. Akroo Inc.

Toronto-based Cookin was acquired in an all-stock transaction by New York-based CookUnity, which offers a 100-percent, chef-made meal delivery platform. The acquisition price wasn’t disclosed. Cookin has a platform for chefs to organize, market and scale their food businesses. CookUnity empowers chefs by managing logistics, packaging and delivery, allowing chefs to focus on their craft and build commercially successful food businesses. With the integration of Cookin's 1,500 creators operating across 40 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces, CookUnity said it is empowering even more chefs to build thriving businesses and expand their reach. BusinessWire

Calgary-based learning company Absorb Software acquired Toronto-based mentorship platform Together Software. The acquisition price wasn’t disclosed. The two companies plan to integrate Together’s mentorship software into Absorb’s broader learning management system (LMS) and product ecosystem. Together will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Absorb but will continue to operate as a standalone solution. All 35 of Together’s employees are staying on and Absorb plans to invest in Together to expand its team. Founded in 2003, Absorb sells LMS software to businesses, governments, health care providers, educators and non-profit organizations that helps organizations train, retain and manage both employees and external stakeholders virtually. Absorb

Canada needs a sharper focus on productive economic policies to stop it from falling ever further behind the U.S., Victor Dodig, CEO of CIBC, told Bloomberg. Internal trade barriers in Canada cost the economy more than $430 billion in annual GDP and need to be dismantled, he said. Also, there’s plenty of capital in Canada but how it’s allocated needs to change, Dodig said. That means making it easier and more attractive for investors to back emerging ventures in Canada, instead of taking their cash piles elsewhere. Dodig’s idea is to create and expand tax structures – such as flow-through shares that raise equity in Canada’s mining industry – that encourage riskier bets on new health care, technology, artificial intelligence and defense companies. The federal government also needs to clean up legislation and regulations to make them simple to understand and use, he said. Bloomberg

Global climate funds raised US$47 billion in assets under management in 2024, a 20-percent increase over last year, according to a report by market intelligence firm Sightline Climate Inc. Much of the uptick was driven by financial heavyweights like Brookfield Corp. and TPG Inc. raising a second, third or even fourth climate-targeted fund. While the money added climbed, the number of investors who participated in a climate deal shrank by 18 percent and the deployment of capital slowed. Funds have roughly US$86 billion in dry powder, a sign investors are backing away from riskier bets in favor of proven technologies and companies. This year saw a nine percent year-on-year decline in the number of new, climate-focused VCs as limited partners have been less willing to bet on investors without proven track records. Bloomberg News

 REPORTS & POLICIES

 Better data needed to measure effectiveness of equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives in post-secondary research system: Council of Canadian Academies report

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives have led to positive changes at post-secondary research institutions across Canada but a paucity of data limits a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of certain measures and conceals potential inequities, according to an expert panel report by the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA).

Filling these evidence gaps is crucial to building a sustained EDI culture that supports faculty members, staff and students and the pursuit of inclusive excellence, the panel said.

“Many measures advancing EDI in the research system are also relatively new, which limits the evidence on their effectiveness,” their report said. This challenge is amplified by the difficulty of attributing effectiveness to a single measure, as many intersect and depend on broader institutional and policy contexts.

“EDI work is critical to the future of science, scholarship and education,” said chair of the expert panel Wendy Rodgers, president and vice-chancellor at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.

“While more data are needed to better evaluate specific initiatives, as a panel, we found many promising approaches,” she said in a statement.

The panel determined that measures to advance EDI are more likely to succeed and remain resilient to evolving pressures if they rely on broad institutional support, including committed leadership, strong organizational structures, transparent reporting and dedicated resources.

Successful EDI measures are mutually reinforcing and consider the complex and overlapping ways people experience exclusion.

Despite steady progress, some promising programs have ended – limiting the ability to evaluate their long-term effectiveness, the report noted.

The independent assessment by CCA was requested and sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Highlights of the peer-reviewed report, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Post-Secondary Research System, include:

• Measures accompanied by accountability, transparency and enforcement mechanisms produce meaningful changes in post‑secondary research institutions.
• Leadership and organizational structures play a key role in building equitable, diverse and inclusive post‑secondary institutions.
• EDI capacity-building grants and recognition and accreditation initiatives help institutions move beyond diversity and cultivate inclusion.
• Changes to some existing admission and recruitment processes can support people belonging to underrepresented groups.
• Transparent and flexible compensation systems benefit faculty members from underrepresented groups.
• Resistance to EDI measures and to Indigenization and decolonization remain significant obstacles to effecting meaningful change.
• Additional research is needed to determine what measures are beneficial to people who self‑identify with multiple underrepresented identities.

The panel found that, in recent years, organizations committed to advancing the principles of EDI have intensified both individual- and institution-level efforts, establishing measures that support faculty members, staff and students (such as scholarships, targeted hiring practices and equitable pay structures), cultivate equitable, diverse and inclusive institutions (such as inclusive leadership, climate and organizational structures), and advance EDI in the research process.

However limited qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate EDI measures were particularly acute when it came to assessing the effectiveness and beneficial impacts of measures for students and faculty members belonging to certain groups (such as people with disabilities, people in the LGBTQ2S+ communities and neurodivergent people) and those subjected to discrimination based on multiple intersecting identities.

A lack of disaggregated data on race and disability can conceal inequities and reduce the effectiveness of EDI measures, the report noted.

There is limited evidence on measures beneficial to people who self-identify with multiple groups that are underrepresented and experiencing marginalization, suggesting a need for further research guided by intersectionality of identities. “This limitation translates into a lack of evidence on the best and most promising implementation practices.”

Some research funding programs, such as the Canada Research Chairs Program and Horizon Europe, impose equity targets with respect to underrepresented groups as a condition of getting access to public funding.

These programs may require that institutions review their employment systems, regularly monitor progress, collect and report data on faculty members, staff and students, promote ongoing awareness and training for the entire institution, and integrate EDI into research and teaching.

Institutions that do not meet these requirements may see their funding reduced or discontinued, the report noted.

In Canada, equity targets introduced as a result of a legal challenge brought by women academics have helped institutions identify systemic problems and informed organization-wide strategies related to hiring, promotions and administrative support that are more transparent and streamlined, the report said.

The report pointed out that institutional structures with broader mandates (such as office of student services) and specialized mandates (such as equal employment offices and office of Indigenous initiatives) are necessary to provide EDI-focused services. “Cooperation and coordination among various structures allow institutions to move beyond piecemeal solutions and create an inclusive climate.”

The federal government implemented two pilot initiatives: the Dimensions recognition program and EDI Institutional Capacity-Building Grant.

However, “with both programs ending despite positive institutional feedback, the government has limited opportunities to support equity and inclusion efforts across the post-secondary research ecosystem,” the report said.

Inclusive admissions procedures, bridge and preparatory programs, and financial aid can increase the enrollment, retention and graduation rates of students from underrepresented groups, according to the report.

Also, the diversity of faculty members plays an important role in improving the educational outcomes of students from underrepresented groups and cultivates a more inclusive research and learning environment.

The report pointed out that transparent compensation policies are central to addressing pay inequities. Some post-secondary institutions have collected pay data and instituted pay transparency programs to redress inequities among faculty members.

Resistance to EDI takes various forms and manifests itself at different levels, according to the report.

Actors in the post-secondary research ecosystem can use concepts such as academic freedom, research excellence, the merit principle, freedom of speech and culture in their day-to-day work, pedagogy, curricula and policies to resist change directly or indirectly, the report said.

At the individual level, resistance to EDI can manifest itself through internalized biases and prejudices that creep into the evaluations of people from underrepresented groups in different contexts (such as applications for funding, teaching evaluations and promotions).

The expert panel noted that although there have been many positive changes and successful initiatives, barriers to participation and inclusion persist, stifling the flourishing of Canada’s diverse talent.

“There is also concern that in increasingly turbulent and polarized times the progress that has already been achieved could be lost. These issues speak to the need for the actors of Canada’s post-secondary research ecosystem to ensure the resilience of EDI measures.”

Enhancing institutional and government accountability for implementing EDI measures is necessary to achieve progress on EDI, the report said. “In the panel’s view, there is an urgent need for a structured and consistent approach to identifying and addressing gaps in current initiatives.”

An EDI framework rooted in the Employment Equity Act (EEA), which only recognizes four broad groups (women, people with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, and visible minorities), limits federal funding agencies in the impacts they can have through available programming, according to the report.

Redefining and disaggregating these four groups within the existing legislation will align the provisions of the EEA with the human rights framework and extend EDI actions to people facing discrimination on various grounds, the report said.

In addition, a new approach to research excellence is needed, one which results in a sea change from a focus on hyper-competition to collaboration and recognizes diverse forms of excellence, the report said. This will move post-secondary institutions away from researching on communities to researching with communities, leading to broader and more profound impacts for all actors in the ecosystem.

Similar to government actors, post-secondary institutions should be required to demonstrate actions and impacts, not just policies and plans, the report said. Sustained data tracking and sharing of best practices across institutions regarding various measures will allow for a more comprehensive analysis.

“Without these efforts, promising EDI measures could be discarded simply because they have not yet been proven effective,” the report said.

For EDI measures to bring about lasting and meaningful changes, they need to remain resilient to criticism, ideological pressure and changing political contexts, according to the report.

“The rolling back of EDI programs and positions due to political pressure has happened in several U.S. states, and Canada is not immune to similar influences.”

Earlier in December, the University of Michigan – historically one of the country’s staunchest supporters of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts – indicated at a board of regents meeting it is reconsidering its diversity, equity and inclusion programs ahead of president-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January, according to a news report by Inside Higher Ed.

“I’ve been told pretty bluntly that Congress and this administration will use whatever tools they can to have us yield to what they want us to do – and DEI is one of those things they think needs to be eliminated from higher ed,” Chris Kolb, the university’s vice president for government relations, told the board. That includes “cutting off finances to make that happen, and we need to be aware of that as an institution.”

Just hours before the regents convened, officials announced that the University Michigan will no longer require diversity statements as part of faculty hiring, promotion and tenure decisions.

The CCA’s expert panel suggested the following actions to help solidify the achieved progress in Canada on EDI and ensure the continuation of the EDI work despite persistent obstacles and challenges:

• Embedding EDI offices, positions and responsibilities in the institutional structure.
• Fostering broad engagement and support for EDI initiatives among students and staff.
• Acknowledging the interconnectedness of equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Implementing not just measures that increase diversity, but those that also explicitly seek equity and inclusion.
• Developing metrics and accountabilities attached to specific measures and holding actors accountable for complying with these metrics.

Panel chair Rogers, in a forward to the report said: “In recent years, some debate around EDI has been particularly spirited, sometimes mean-spirited, and sometimes antithetical to the purposes of universities and to the pursuit of dignity for all persons.”

Continuing to privilege access to post-secondary education, research and knowledge, as well as limiting its reach and impact, impoverishes the post-secondary sector, Rogers said. “In turn, it impoverishes the people(s) and communities that depend on it for intellectual growth, and social, economic, and environmental sustainability.” Canadian Council of Academies

See also: “Chill” on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives creeps into U.S. higher education system – a harbinger for Canada?

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Major changes needed to federal research funding system to make it more equitable for smaller institutions: Standing Committee on Science and Research

Canada’s largest research universities receive the lion’s share of federal research funding and this needs to change, according to a report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research.

Each year the federal government spends around $4.5 billion to support research at post-secondary institutions across the country, the report said.

This funding includes research grants for researchers, scholarships for students, research support funds for institutions. and programs to improve research infrastructure.

Most of this funding is awarded through competitions run by the three federal granting agencies: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as well as by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Nearly 80 percent of this of federal funding goes to 15 universities representing 52 percent of Canadian researchers and 59 percent of graduate students.

Meanwhile, colleges receive only 2.9 percent of the total funding awarded by the three granting agencies.

Colleges & Institutes Canada has long advocated for more equity in how federal research funding is awarded and distributed.

Witnesses before the Committee raised issues such as the capacity of small and medium-sized institutions and colleges to conduct research, the ability of students to study in their home region, accessibility of higher education, and the impact on research in French.

The Committee looked at the allocation criteria of the granting agencies’ funding programs, and noted that some programs are not open to colleges or smaller institutions.

Several funding programs allocate funding based on the amounts that institutions previously received, putting smaller institutions at a disadvantage, the Committee’s report said.

Although witnesses expressed support for the peer review process, some witnesses spoke about possible unconscious bias in favour of larger universities and about traditional evaluation criteria that disadvantage smaller institutions and colleges because they poorly reflect their reality.

The Committee also heard evidence about how difficult it is for small and medium-sized institutions to provide administrative support for research and to fund the necessary infrastructure.

Based on the evidence, the Committee made 13 recommendations to ensure that the research funding system most effectively capitalizes on the potential of all post-secondary institutions in Canada. The Committee recommended that the Government of Canada:

• implement the recommendations of the report from the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System (the “Bouchard report”) and ensure the composition of the future advisory council on science and industry is representative of the entire research ecosystem
• review the funding criteria used by the three federal granting agencies and the Canada Foundation for Innovation and stop using criteria based on past grant amounts awarded, to avoid penalizing small and medium-sized post-secondary institutions.
• review the system for allocating Canada Graduate Scholarship quotas to post-secondary institutions to take into account the number of graduate students enrolled in each institution’s research programs.
• maintain peer review as the foundation for allocating research funding awarded by the federal granting agencies.
• through the granting agencies, look at the composition of review committees evaluating funding applications and improve unconscious bias training in order to avoid penalizing post-secondary institutions based on their size or region.
• through the granting agencies, review the funding application merit review criteria, in line with the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, to take better account of the diversity of researchers and types of research.
• through the granting agencies, experiment with new approaches to allocating some of its funding, such as anonymizing funding applications or randomly distributing part of the funding.
• review and simplify the funding application processes for the programs of the three granting agencies and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
• review how the Research Support Fund operates so as to better support small and medium-sized post-secondary institutions and colleges in covering the indirect costs of research.
• amend the rules governing the granting agencies to encourage collaboration between post-secondary institutions, particularly between colleges, CEGEPs college centres for the transfer of technology in the domain of innovative social practices, Technology Access Centres (TACs), polytechnics and universities, in current and future research funding programs.
• increase the share of research funding allocated to colleges, institutes, CEGEPs, CCTTs, TACs and polytechnics through the College and Community Innovation Program and other programs of the granting agencies. The federal government should adapt the current funding programs open to these institutions in order to better reflect their unique features and contributions and to facilitate the transfer of research and innovation they produce to the benefit of society, and it should give greater consideration to these aspects when developing future programs.
• through the funding agencies, ensure that funding applications submitted in French are treated equitably, and that support measures are provided for research and scientific publication in French.
• through the funding agencies, take necessary measures to estimate the number of francophone researchers outside of Quebec and recognize francophone researchers and students as a minority group for research funding purposes. Standing Committee on Science and Research

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Universities’ research income and colleges’ sponsored research show increases, as does research spending by hospitals and R&D spending by corporations and federal departments

Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities reported combined research income of $9.6 billion in Fiscal 2023 – up from six percent compared with Fiscal 2022, according to an annual report by Research Infosource Inc.

Research income expanded at 35 universities and declined at 15 others.

University of Toronto again led the national university ranking and the Medical tier with $1.43 billion of research income in Fiscal 2023, up 6.9 percent.

University of Waterloo topped the Comprehensive universities tier ($224.3 million, up 14.3 percent, 13^th overall) and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières led the Undergraduate tier ($35.3 million, down 2.5 percent, 31^st overall).

Top-placed universities by research income growth in Fiscal 2023 were: McMaster University (Medical tier, up 26 percent), University of Regina (Comprehensive tier, up 56 percent) and Saint Mary's University (Undergraduate tier, up 34.4 percent).
Canada’s Top 40 Research Hospitals reported combined research spending of $3.47 billion in Fiscal 2023, a gain of 8.4 percent over Fiscal 2022.

Research spending increased at 30 health organizations and declined at 10 others.

The top three leaders on the Top 40 list were: University Health Network with outlays of $539 million, up 13.6 percent from Fiscal 2022.

Hospital for Sick Children ranked in second spot ($307.4 million, up 4.5 percent), followed by McGill University Health Centre in third ($258.2 million, up 11.5 percent).

The three health organizations posting the greatest research spending growth by organization size in Fiscal 2023 were: Nova Scotia Health Authority (large, up 63 percent), St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (medium, up 30.8 percent) and Bruyère Health (small, up 26.8 percent).
Canada’s Top 50 Research Colleges reported a total of $354.6 million of sponsored research income in Fiscal 2023, a gain of 6.1 percent over Fiscal 2022.

Research income increased at 27 colleges and declined at 23 others.

Niagara College headed the list once again with $40.5 million of research income, up 26.5 percent, followed by Lambton College ($21million, up 30.6 percent), and in third place the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology ($17.5 million, up 46.7 percent).

The top three colleges that posted the greatest research income growth by college size in Fiscal 2023 were: Humber Polytechnic (large, up 139.8 percent), Langara College (medium, up 143.1 percent) and Cégep de Lévis (small, up 138.9 percent).
Canada’s Top 100 Corporate R&D Spenders posted $15.6 billion in combined research and development spending in Fiscal 2023 – an increase of 12.4 percent over Fiscal 2022.

R&D spending increased at 69 companies and declined at 31 others.

The leading corporate R&D spender was once again Shopify Inc., investing $2.33 billion in R&D, up 19.4 percent, followed by Magna International Inc. ($1.16 billion, up 37.8 percent) and Open Text Corporation ($918.6 million, up 60.3 percent).

The top three R&D spending growth leaders overall were: Satellos Bioscience Inc. (240.8 percent), Nano One Materials Corp. (157.3 percent) and BriaCell Therapeutics Corp. (98.3 percent).
Canada's Top 15 Federal Government R&D Performers reported a total of $2.2 billion of intramural R&D spending in Fiscal 2023, a gain of 3.2 percent over Fiscal 2022.

The leading federal government R&D performer was the National Research Council of Canada, devoting $771 million to research in Fiscal 2023.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was the next leading federal performer, spending $364 million.

National Defence and Natural Resources Canada rounded out the top three, each reporting $231 million of research spending.

Research spending expanded fastest over Fiscal 2022 at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (up 55.6 percent) and at Public Health Agency of Canada (up 55.6 percent), followed by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (up 25.7 percent). Research Infosource Inc.

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Federal government sets new target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions – weaker than other G7 nations’ goals

The federal government set a new target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, aiming to reduce emissions by 45 percent to 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2035.

The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act established a commitment to set five-year national emissions reduction targets 10 years in advance, to achieve net-zero emissions in Canada by 2050. The 2035 target is the next step in achieving this goal.

The new 2035 target builds on Canada’s existing 2030 target, which aims to reduce emissions by 40 percent to 45 percent below 2005 levels.

The 2035 target was informed by the best available science, Indigenous knowledge, international climate change commitments, consultations with provinces and territories and expert advice, Ottawa said.

In 2015, Canada’s emissions were projected to increase nine percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, but the country is now successfully bending the curve on emissions, the government said.

Before the end of this year, the government said it will publish regulations that will ensure significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, affordable electricity for Canadian households and businesses, and a reliable grid as the country’s electricity needs’ grow.

Canada is poised to continue this progress by attracting up to $25 billion every year to reduce emissions, spark innovation and expand access to sustainable options, the government said.

Over the last 10 years, more than $71 billion in foreign direct investment has been invested across 177 clean projects in Canada, creating an estimated 28,000 jobs, according to Ottawa.

Canada’s total clean technology market was also estimated at $34 billion in 2021, with approximately $9.1 billion in exports and $14.7 billion in imports.

In the near term, the government will seek feedback on how to help companies take advantage of the economic opportunities that come with building a clean economy.

This will include engaging with a broad range of partners and stakeholders to examine the role technologies that permanently remove carbon dioxide can play in this transition. 

Canada has been using its 2005 greenhouse gas levels – which totaled 761 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – as a benchmark over the last decade since signing on to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Government data shows emissions have dropped about seven per cent from 2005 to 2022.

In setting the new emissions-reduction target, the federal government ignored recommendations from its own Net Zero Advisory Board (NZAB) recommending a 50 percent to 55 percent goal and climate campaigners calling for an 80-percent emissions reduction.

The NZAB also recommended that the government develop a carbon budget, or a total of intended future emissions, to guide emissions-reduction efforts. The government also ignored this advice.

The NZAB, which the government consulted on the new target, said in a statement that “the lower range of the government’s target risks Canada’s ability to stay on track for net-zero emissions.”

“Our modelling and analysis showed that targets below 50 percent will put Canada behind on its legislated objective of net-zero emissions by mid-century,” the nine-member NZAB said.

The advisory board warned that “postponing action means requiring even deeper decarbonisation efforts in the future, which could bring higher risks and costs.”

“We need a national effort to reach, and ideally surpass, a 50-percent reduction by 2035 while ensuring climate policies are affordable for Canadians,” the NZAB said.

The NZAB compared Canada’s 2035 target unfavourably with other similarly wealthy nations like the U.K., which recently set a target to cut emissions by 81 percent between 1990 and 2035 “following the recommendation of its climate advisory group, the Climate Change Committee.” The board noted that the European Union is expected to choose a 2035 target in a similar range and Japan has recently proposed a 60-percent reduction target, in order to stay on a pathway to net-zero emissions.

NZAB member Catherine Abreu, who is director of the International Climate Politics Hub, noted that Canada’s target envisions at most a one percent-per-year decrease in emissions between 2030 and 2035, a pace of reduction she called “frankly pathetic” when the U.S., U.K. and EU cut their emissions three percent, five percent and eight percent respectively in 2023.

She said Canada’s “incredibly disappointing” target will damage the country’s global credibility as it “sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the targets that other G7 nations are putting forward.”

 “It’s painful to see a government that has spent most of the last decade working hard to revolutionize Canadian climate policy put out a target that projects those policies will fail to do what they’re designed to,” Abreau said in a statement.

Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had “chosen to cave” to “belligerent climate deniers.”

She pointed to “oil and gas backed-disinformation campaigns and efforts to roll back progress.” “It has been alarming to see, with some rare exceptions, our politicians engage in a race to the bottom – at a moment when we most need leadership to confront the billionaires profiting from burning our world down,” Brouillette said. Environment and Climate Change Canada, Climate Change News

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Other jurisdictions deploying much more wind and solar energy into their electricity grids than Alberta and Canada: Pembina Institute report

Electricity grids around the world are reaching high levels of wind and solar energy integration, showing how Canadian provinces can accelerate their deployment of these lowest-cost sources of power, according to a report by the Pembina Institute.

The report, I’ll Have What They’re Having: Lessons learned from six jurisdictions leading in wind and solar deployment, explores jurisdictions with varying climate and electricity grid needs to better understand how to maximize renewable energy integration as provincial grids across Canada undergo modernization.

The report found that high levels of wind and solar on electricity grids – four times higher than in Alberta – have been achieved in both hot and cold climates, across various sizes of grids and with no increase in power outages or link to higher electricity prices.

Pembina’s report provides insight into the benefits of integrating high levels of renewable energy on grids, highlighting the value of prioritizing grid flexibility using interconnections and innovation.

The report shows it is possible for grids to operate reliably and affordably with high levels of renewables, the Calgary-based clean energy think tank said.

The report also indicates that Canada is falling behind and risks missing out on the opportunity to be a world leader in renewable electricity.

“In this new and emerging ‘Age of Electricity,’ Canada must accelerate its deployment of low-cost wind and solar, to meet accelerating demand growth in an affordable and reliable manner. Sunny and windy Alberta is especially well positioned, but risks falling behind,” Will Noel, analyst at the Pembina Institute, said in a statement.

Highlights of the report’s findings include:

• Rooftop solar can play a significant role in reducing electricity sector emissions while minimizing transmission infrastructure costs. In South Australia, rooftop solar panels have met nearly 20 percent of the state’s demand so far in 2024.  
• Wind and solar energy are complementary in the course of a day and between seasons. In all the studied jurisdictions, wind energy is more prominent at night and in winters, while solar resources are more important during the day and in summers. 
• Only four percent of Alberta’s total generating capacity is covered by energy storage, transmission interties and demand-response compared with 11 percent in Texas and 46 percent in Denmark. “Alberta needs to make improvements toward a more flexible and resilient grid,” the report said. Pembina Institute

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Ontario colleges slash spending by $752 million due to drop in international student enrolment as fallout continues across Canada’s college sector

Ontario colleges have cut their spending by $752 million so far this fiscal year as the sector grapples with a rapid drop in international enrolment, according to a report by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO).

FAO’s data provides insight on the impact federal immigration policy changes are having on college spending through the first half of the fiscal year. Unlike universities, colleges are included on the government’s books.

The FAO report found that unaudited spending in the post-secondary sector overall is down $425 million, or 6.9 percent, compared with last year. It was the only sector that experienced a decline.

The decline in post-secondary spending primarily reflects lower operating expenditures at the province’s 24 publicly funded colleges, the report said. (While operating costs were lower for colleges, spending may have increased elsewhere in the sector.)

Colleges Ontario said its sector has reached a critical tipping point and is facing unprecedented financial strain.

Ontario’s universities have said revenue will decrease by about a billion dollars in 2024 and 2025 combined. The impact on colleges is expected to be even larger.

Pari Johnston, president of Colleges and Institutes Canada, told CBC that college applications have declined by 54 percent, which has concerning implications for program viability.

“There aren’t always enough Canadian students to fill a program, particularly those higher-cost programs in the trades [and] health care,” she said.

The University of Windsor is addressing a $30-million deficit with a variety of actions, including layoffs and a comprehensive evaluation of positions and salaries, according to a report by CTV News.

UWindsor has frozen salaries for non-union staff members, eliminated some vacant positions, and laid off eight employees.

Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. is cutting $20 million to balance next year’s budget, citing declining international enrolment, according to a report by Business in Vancouver.

Measures include eliminating up to 75 vacant positions, a one-percent reduction in non-salary expenses, and additional “metric-based and other targeted non-compensation reductions.”

Moncton Flight College has suspended operations at its Fredericton, N.B. campus for 2025, according to CBC News. The Fredericton location had been focused on international students.

Up to 40 staff members will be impacted by the suspension, with most of these employees being offered other positions.

Langara College in Vancouver is considering a major restructuring in response to decreases in international enrolment, The Tyee reported.

The reorganization would see Langara’s nearly 40 academic departments operate under five centres of excellence. A separate school of foundational studies would offer associate’s degrees in science, arts, and interdisciplinary studies. The Globe and Mail

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Canada needs a new $100-million scale-up facility to serve food ingredient manufacturers, Protein Industries Canada says

Canada needs a scale-up facility costing up to $100 million to serve Canadian food ingredient manufacturers on a contract basis as they transition from proof-of-concept to commercial production, according to a report by Protein Industries Canada.

In general, two to three years are typically required for companies to establish commercial processing facilities. “There is a need for pre-commercial production scale equipment in a contract facility,” says the report by the Regina-based, federally funded global innovation cluster.

Ideally, the new facility – estimated to cost $75 million to $100 million – would be established as a collaboration between the federal, provincial and municipal governments and the Canadian plant ingredient industry, the report says.

Government funding would be required to cover most of the construction of the facility and purchase of equipment, according to the report. Funding also would be raised from the industry, as well as equipment suppliers, who may contribute through the donation of equipment and/or reduced pricing.

The report notes that there is some existing infrastructure for mini-pilot and limited pilot-scale dry and wet processing, as well as solvent extraction in Canada.

Interviews with nine members of Protein Industries Canada’s network, representing companies of various sizes and stages of ingredient development, indicated these organizations offer good support.

However, the clients also pointed out there are limitations for running scale-up projects due to limited scale equipment, short process run intervals (eight- to 12-hour days, for example), and not having a team/facility dedicated to only plant protein processing.

Protein Industries Canada said it frequently receives requests from companies to use scale-up facilities in the United States and Europe.

“Many of these projects are at the crucial stage of scale-up whereby the commercial manufacture of these ingredients requires detailed pilot-scale optimization for viability,” the report notes.

Protein Industries Canada said it could consider working with one or more of the current development organizations to establish a separate scale-up entity within their facility.

Otherwise, the establishment of a new scale-up facility should aim to complement and work collaboratively with the existing R&D service providers, the innovation cluster said.

The envisioned greenfield scale-up facility would be a protein and carbohydrate pre-commercialization plant focused on growing the Canadian ingredient industry. The facility would offer pilot and toll processing scale services specializing in proteins, starches and fibre, as well as pressing/crushing and solvent extraction.

The new facility would consist of a dry processing pilot plant, dry processing tolling line, wet processing pilot plant and wet processing tolling line, solvent extraction plant, raw material warehouse and receiving dock, finished goods warehouse and shipping dock, three R&D labs, two analytical labs, and an administration area.

The facility would offer ancillary services including analytical labs, quality control/regulatory approval support, logistics and warehousing for staging the weekly project activity.

Also, the facility’s organization would be industry-focused and work with small and medium-sized companies involved in commercializing their ingredients.

Large companies are also anticipated to use the facility for new technologies that they do not have in their pilot plant, for new materials, or to scale new processes or ingredients without interrupting commercial production.

In order to support the Canadian infrastructure to enhance expertise in protein and co-products, the facility would collaborate with Canadian universities and colleges, as well as government research centres, to provide training and workshops.

The facility’s technical staff would also participate directly with educational institutes in the development of highly qualified personnel, critical to addressing the skills and talents needs of the Canadian industry.

It is anticipated the overall business of the facility would operate as a not-for-profit organization that may be aided with annual funding from the federal and provincial governments to cover any shortfalls in its annual operating finances.

Due to the intermittent nature of development and pre-commercialization activities, there may not be sufficient demand from Canadian companies to utilize all pilot and toll processing areas in the new facility on a consistent basis, the report says.

Although preference should be given to Canadian companies, business from clients outside of Canada will be needed to maintain the services of the facility.

The offering of the facility’s services to non-Canadian companies will be a tool for attracting new plant ingredient companies to invest in constructing new commercial processing plants in Canada and utilize Canadian commodities, according to the report.

“A major advantage of [this facility] will be increased speed to market for Canadian ingredient manufacturers and allowing small and medium-sized companies to commercialize their ingredients without investing in infrastructure.” Protein Industries Canada

THE GRAPEVINE – News about people, institutions and communities

Dr. Michelle Tseng, PhD, assistant professor of zoology, and law professor Dr. Stephan Wood each were awarded a $1-million Wall Fellowship, the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) flagship awards from the newly established Peter Wall Legacy Awards program. Tseng’s award will support her research on butterflies and biodiversity in B.C. Wood’s project, Respect for All Relations, explores how Indigenous and settler laws can work together to promote healthier relationships between humans and nature, and between settler and Indigenous societies. The Wall Fellowships, valued at $1 million each, are funded through the $100-million endowment established by Vancouver entrepreneur and long-time friend of UBC, Dr. Peter Wall. These awards represent an annual investment of approximately $4 million in UBC research in perpetuity, making them among the most significant internal research award at any university in North America. This year’s awards also include 19 graduate student awards and a total of eight faculty research awards for individual and team projects. The awards support faculty members at all stages of their careers, as well as master’s and doctoral students. UBC

CIFAR named Nicolas Papernot and Catherine Régis as the co-directors of the Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI) research program, responsible for chairing the CAISI Research Council and providing scientific leadership to the CAISI research program. Papernot is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, an assistant professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science and the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, and a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. His research focuses on the privacy and security of machine learning systems. Régis is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila – Québec’s AI Institute, a Canada Research Chair, a full professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Montréal and the director of social innovation and international policy at IVADO. Her research focuses on global AI governance, AI regulation in healthcare and human rights approaches in AI. CIFAR

University of Ottawa physics professor Paul Corkum was awarded the American Physical Society’s 2025 APS Medal for Exceptional Achieving in Research, which comes with a $50,000 prize. This prestigious award recognizes groundbreaking contributions that significantly advance the understanding of the physical universe. The citation accompanying the award highlights Corkum’s synthesis of plasma physics, strong-field spectroscopy and electron scattering concepts to create a new field of strong-field physics, which spans atomic to solid-state physics. Corkum is also co-director of the Max Planck-University of Ottawa Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics. The centre links two of the world’s foremost research teams in the field of photonics and is only the third Max Planck Centre in North America. uOttawa

Dr. Shaun Boe was named dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University, for a five-year term starting April 1, 2025. Currently the associate dean (research) in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Boe has spent 15 years as a professor in kinesiology, physiotherapy, rehabilitation and neuroscience, leading research focused on developing and testing interventions to improve how clinicians treat patients with brain injuries. In his role as associate dean, Boe led several strategic initiatives that drove significant growth across the Faculty of Health, including doubling research revenue and adding eight research chairs. Boe also serves as academic lead and head of Pulse, part of a health innovation network in Nova Scotia that trains students in health-related faculties to develop skills related to innovation and entrepreneurship, and to generate novel ideas to challenging problems. Boe succeeds Jayne Garland, who was named dean in 2016 and was reappointed to a second term in 2021. Western University

Protein Industries Canada, a federally funded global innovation cluster in Regina, announced Robert Hunter as its new CEO, following a national search. Hunter assumes the CEO position on January 15, 2025 and will be based in Toronto. He will replace Frank Hart who has been interim CEO since August 2024. Hunter brings more than 20 years of experience in the agriculture food sector, holding positions with Maple Leaf Foods, the Canola Council of Canada, and CropLife International. During his time at CropLife International, he was based in Washington D.C. and Brussels where he focused on advancing innovation in agriculture and driving sustainable food systems forward. Since 2018, Protein Industries Canada and industry members have invested more than $630 million into the Canadian ecosystem, leading to the development of more than 550 intellectual property assets and an expected $15 billion in GDP contribution. Protein Industries Canada

The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) announced  Paul Wynnyk as its new registrar and CEO, effective April 1, 2025. Wynnyk brings a wealth of experience serving the public, spanning four decades in the Canadian Armed Forces and with the Government of Alberta. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, was commissioned into the Canadian Military Engineers in 1986, and currently serves as the acting deputy minister of Executive Council for the Government of Alberta. Wynnyk will succeed current CEO Jay Nagendran, who is retiring. APEGA

Nicolas Brunet, president of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec-based electric bus and truck manufacturer Lion Electric Co., resigned as the cash-poor company make a last-ditch attempt to stay afloat. Brunet stepped down from the post he’d held for little more than a year, according to a company filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated December 1. Lion’s lenders, which include National Bank of Canada, gave the company temporary help to get through to December 16, suspending for a second time the covenants on a credit line. The maturity on a separate loan was pushed back to the same date. The extensions were granted to buy time for Lion Electric to find new investors or a buyer. On December 17, Lion said it will file for creditor protection after defaulting on its debt. EnergyNow.ca

McKinley Winters was appointed by Dan Vandal, minister of Northern Affairs, as chair of the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board and Mavis Cli-Michaud was appointed as a board member for a three-year term. Winters is an Inuk from Hopedale, Nunatsiavut, who has dedicated his career to supporting the health and wellbeing of his community. From 2016 to 2020, he worked as a team leader with the Nunatsiavut Government’s Department of Health and Social Development, where he managed food security programs like NNC’s Nutrition Education Initiatives and the Harvesters Support Grant. Cli-Michaud is a member of the Liidlii Kue First Nation, N.W.T.,  with over 30 years of experience in senior management within government. Through her work she focused on communications, finance and human resource management, as well as socio-economic planning. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Andrew Ferguson to take over from Linda Khan as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a move seen as a blow to major technology firms. The nomination is a big promotion for Ferguson, a former law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former advisor to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Ferguson was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as one of the FTC’s Republican commissioners in July 2023 and was confirmed by the full Senate in March. In a statement posted to X, Ferguson said the FTC will focus on ending Big Tech’s “vendetta against competition” and ensure that America is the “world’s technological leader.” Quartz

The Rideau Hall Foundation and Universities Canada announced the winners of $6.2 million in program funding through the 2025 Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (QES) program. This funding will support international collaborative projects are based at 22 Canadian universities and colleges and that focus on adaptation, response and resilience to climate change. These projects will provide opportunities for Canadian students to engage in international study, research or internships, while also offering support for incoming international students. Established in 2012, this scholarship has been awarded to more than 2,600 scholars from Canada and around the world. With this new round of funding, the QES program has now provided support for 134 international projects in over 80 countries. Universities Canada

The University of Ottawa announced a multi-year partnership with Shoppers Drug Mart that will increase access to health care and bring new learning and research opportunities to campus. The partners will open a new pharmacy clinic – the Shoppers Pharmacy Care Clinic – adjacent to the Student Health and Wellness Centre on uOttawa’s main campus in February 2025. Shoppers Drug Mart has also donated over $2 million toward the expansion of the Student Health and Wellness Centre The two partners have agreed to engage in collaborative research on the health outcomes associated with an integrated primary care model that includes pharmacists. Additionally, the partnership includes clinical placement bursaries for students of the Faculty of Heath Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine, funding to support the construction of a mini-pharmacy simulation lab, and support for social enterprise projects. uOttawa

Algoma University (AlgomaU) inaugurated two research facilities on its Sault Ste Marie Campus: The Containment Level 2 (CL2) Laboratory and the renovated Animal Care Facility. The CL2 Laboratory, designed to global biosafety standards, allows researchers and students to work with microorganisms, tissue cultures and in other sensitive research areas. The renovated Animal Care Facility provides a space for responsible research using small animals (rodents) and aquatic models. Together, the two facilities comprise 2,400 square feet of research space. AlgomaU

Psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in “magic” mushrooms, has the potential to be the most dramatic treatment breakthrough in mental health for decades, said Dr. Peter Silverstone, professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. The potential is so encouraging that Silverstone launched his own Edmonton company in 2021, now called Zylorion Health, to produce psilocybin for use in medical clinics. A study published in Nature in July showed that the effects of psilocybin can last for weeks after taking it, offering new hope for those suffering from severe treatment-resistant depression and trauma-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs like LSD, psilocybin and MDMA is looking more promising every day, Silverstone said. Over the past two decades there has been a renaissance in the appreciation of psychedelic drugs for treating mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and addictions. In 2022, Silverstone released his own contribution to the field, The Promise of Psychedelics, which made the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. In 2022, Alberta became the first Canadian jurisdiction to regulate the use of psychedelic drugs. The drugs are still illegal in Canada, but doctors and researchers can seek approval from Health Canada to use them in clinical trials or in therapy. Earlier this year, Alberta Blue Cross became the first insurance company in Canada to include psychedelic-assisted therapies in its coverage. Despite Silverstone’s enthusiasm for psychedelics’ potential, he is quick to stress that casual or recreational use without carefully guided therapy can turn out badly. University of Alberta

A student-led multidisciplinary research team from the University of Calgary (UCalgary) was named the top undergraduate team in the Safety and Security category at the 2024 iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) Grand Jamboree in Paris. Team ErythrO₂’s plan is to synthesize a worm hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC) via a lab-grown yeast system, producing the non-toxic properties of worm hemoglobin, without the need to harvest real earthworms. A global lack of blood donors has researchers looking to a HBOC as a long-lasting, universal substitute for easily spoiled, type-specific human blood. For various reasons, mammalian HBOCs can turn toxic once inside a recipient. Worm HBOC, on the other hand, has been shown as a promising, non-toxic substitute, and Lumbricus terrestris erythrocruorin (as the worm HBOC is known) could solve the world’s blood shortage if produced in enough quantity. While further research and testing lies ahead, ErythrO₂’s experiments have shown the potential of their yeast carrier solution. That was enough to impress the judges in Paris, where 438 teams from more than 45 countries gathered, including some of the most celebrated institutions in the world. As well as a coveted gold medal, UCalgary’s undergraduate iGEM team won the Safety and Security Special Award, making the team the world’s best in a critical area for both medicine and biotechnology. UCalgary

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