BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Little penguins are the world’s smallest species of penguin, standing about the height of a ruler, found only in southern Australia and New Zealand. Every night on Phillip Island in Victoria, tens of thousands of them come in from the sea and return to the same burrows they left…
Toronto is working with Canadian company Clariti to try to speed up its building permit approval process with AI. The news: On Thursday, the City of Toronto launched a new building permit application pre-check service, which uses AI to help flag potential issues in a user’s application before it’s submitted. Vancouver-based startup Clariti is providing…
Quantum computing firm Xanadu announced on Friday that it is opening an advanced photonics research, development, and manufacturing hub in Toronto with financial support from the Government of Canada. Toronto-based Xanadu has inked a definitive agreement for the feds to loan it $195 million CAD in funding—half of the up to $390 million the company…
Burnaby, BC-based medical technology company Kardium will receive up to $31.25 million from the Government of Canada to bolster its manufacturing capabilities in the province. “The Government of Canada’s investment is an important step in our continued growth.” Kevin Chaplin,Kardium The funding was one of two new commitments announced Thursday by Innovation, Science, and Economic…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s a specific kind of health advice that asks a lot of you: meal prep, supplements with confusing ingredient lists, routines that cost more than they should. Blueberries aren’t that. They can be inexpensive, they need almost no preparation, and the research keeps giving you more reasons to eat…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In March, mental health clinician Michala Williams met a 38-year-old woman sobbing in the front seat of her car in a McDonald’s parking lot. The woman had called 911. She had children ranging from age two to 22, a fiancé recently jailed, health issues she was managing alone, and…
Regulated prediction markets in Canada shouldn’t be able to offer sports or entertainment contracts as securities, according to a statement issued by the nation’s securities regulators. The news: The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) published a joint notice on Thursday saying that contracts relating to sports and entertainment events…
Canada has convinced 64 international academics, mostly from the United States, to bring their work to Canadian universities through its new talent-attraction program. The news: Industry minister Mélanie Joly announced the first round of academics coming to Canada as part of the $1.7-billion Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative on Thursday. The program will give these…
Brampton-based MDA Space wants to help other Canadian space and defence technology companies scale their solutions with a new venture funding program. The news: The new strategic program is focused on identifying and investing in domestic small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are developing promising space and defence technologies. Through MDA Space LaunchPad Ventures, the…
Sometimes, you get what you asked for. Honouring the podcasting ways of old, we put out a call for your burning questions on Canadian tech and tech from a Canadian perspective to produce a summer mailbag episode. Boy howdy did you deliver. “My god. Every time I ask you people for questions, I instantly regret…
