Big old jet airliner

Markets: Canada’s main stock index rose yesterday on strength in the materials sector. Meanwhile, shares of subprime lending firm Goeasy fell by 57%, losing $1 billion in market cap, after it reported a $178 million write-off of bad loans and suspended quarterly dividends.

AI companies are facing a legal reckoning over their chatbots' worst tendencies. 

What happened: The family of a young girl who was critically injured in the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., shooting is now suing OpenAI, claiming the company had knowledge of the shooter’s plans but deliberately chose not to alert law enforcement. 

Catch-up: After its systems flagged violent conversations between ChatGPT and the alleged Tumbler Ridge shooter, OpenAI decided not to alert Canadian law enforcement about the potential threat, despite multiple concerned employees urging senior leadership to do so as far back as June. 

Why it matters: The Tumbler Ridge case is part of a wave of recent legal action aimed at holding AI companies responsible for the tragic incidents that their chatbots either encouraged or failed to deter.

Our take: Given how slow lawmakers have been to regulate AI, it could be up to the courts to decide how the technology is governed for now.—LA

Iran saw the heaviest day of airstrikes since the war began. The U.S. and Israel continued with heavy bombing in Iran, despite President Trump indicating on Monday that the war was nearing an end. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly found indications that Iran will deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane in a push to further disrupt oil supply chains. (Reuters)

NDP MP Lori Idlout crossed the floor to join the Liberals. With the addition of the Nunavut MP, the Liberals are just two seats shy of a majority in Parliament. They’re likely to pick those up in the April 13 by-elections, even without wining a closely-fought contest in Terrebonne. (CityNews)

The U.S. consulate in Toronto was hit by gunfire. Police are still looking for the two shooters and are investigating any terrorist links to the incident, which took place in downtown Toronto early yesterday morning. The RCMP says the shooting is being treated as a national security incident. (CTV News)

📡 What else is on our radar:

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In Water Cooler, we talk to interesting Canadians and give Peak Premium subscribers the chance to ask them anything they want. Past guests include Nick Frosst, Jen Agg, and Dan Park.

🤝 Meet Daniel Stoppel. He’s the CEO of NectAir, a Canadian air taxi service that's trying to carve out a new category of travel between crowded commercial airports and hyper-expensive private jets. We chatted with Daniel about the flying taxi biz, how he thinks about the coming wave of electric vertical takeoff aircraft, and why he believes transportation is about to experience a major transformation.

What is a private "air taxi" service? How does it compare to private jet travel?

An air taxi is built on a completely different model than what most people picture — all the advantages of private aviation without the excess. Direct flights, no crowds, on your schedule. Designed for business travellers, not billionaires.

We use smaller, modern aircraft that can access more than 1,000 airports big jets and commercial planes can't reach. You show up 10 minutes before your flight at a small private terminal, walk steps to your plane, and you're airborne in minutes. No Pearson, no lines, no boarding groups.

We price per aircraft, not per seat, so a team flying to a meeting and back the same day, splitting the cost, often spends less than business class tickets plus overnight hotel costs. What starts as a time decision becomes a money decision pretty fast.

Who is your typical customer and what is the typical use case?

Someone who's tired of losing entire days to what should be a two-hour flight. The hidden cost of commercial travel isn't the ticket, it's the two hours at the airport before, the layover in between, and the hotel night that didn't need to happen.

One customer needed to get to Burlington, Vermont, for a meeting. Flying commercial, that's a multi-day ordeal. With NectAir, he left at 9 a.m. and was home for dinner. Even on a straightforward route like Toronto to Montreal, our customers save five-plus hours per round trip — the equivalent of an entire work week over the course of a year.

How do electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) fit into your plans?

eVTOLs are a big part of our long-term vision, but we're not waiting around for them. We're building everything to be aircraft-agnostic, so when eVTOL technology is certified, we can integrate it without skipping a beat. 

What changes with eVTOLs is pretty much everything about accessibility. They take off and land vertically, so you don't need a runway. A vertiport can sit on a rooftop or parking lot downtown. Add lower operating costs from electric propulsion and the economics get even more compelling. We'd expect limited commercial operations in Canada by 2028 or 2029.

How do you see eVTOLs changing transportation generally?

The sky becomes the new highway. Like any transformative technology, early adopters lead and scale follows. NectAir customers are already booking same-day flights the way people used to book Ubers. eVTOLs accelerate all of that. But the shift is already underway.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. The full Q&A is available on our website.

As a Peak Premium subscriber (thank you ​🙌), we’d like to invite you to submit questions for our upcoming Water Cooler guest, Christian Weedbrook, CEO of Canadian quantum technology company Xanadu. 

Just reply to this email with your questions and we’ll pick a few to ask Christian. We won’t be able to pass along every question, but we’ll try to get a good range.

Drama is in the air at Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport.

Driving the news: Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province intends to commandeer the City of Toronto’s stake in Billy Bishop airport in order to push through a controversial expansion plan, which includes lifting a ban on jet landings at the downtown island airport.

Catch-up: Plans to expand Billy Bishop’s runways to allow jet landings were nearly realized in 2013, but the plans were scuttled by Ottawa. The idea re-emerged earlier this year when Ford brought up the idea, citing internal polling that said 70% of Ontarians supported it. 

Why it matters: The case for the expansion is simple: it would allow Air Canada and Porter to conduct more flights, to more routes, carrying more passengers, through a major Canadian flight hub. 

Yes, but: It’s still unclear what levers of power the Ontario government will use to take control, and when it does, the expansion will face fierce pushback from the residents of Toronto Island and downtown condo-dwellers rallying against jet noise pollution.—QH

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🛸 1,052. Reported UFO sightings in Canada last year, according to the annual Canadian UFO Survey, up slightly from 2024. Over half of the sightings were of lights in the sky, while 11% of UFO spotters reported seeing spherical objects.

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