Gone in a flash

Good morning. Ever wonder how your salary stacks up against others in your industry? Or other industries in similar roles? Or the same job in other cities?

After collecting nearly 1,500 submissions, this morning we’re launching The Canadian Salary Index to try to help answer all those questions. You can take a look at the data available so far on our website.

Our sample size is still relatively small, but as we collect more submissions, we’ll be able to offer more ways to explore this data — so if you haven’t already, please add your comp info and share with your network.

We’ll also be releasing more in-depth profiles on people’s careers and earnings. If you’re interested in participating in this, reply to this email and let us know (we will still keep your name completely confidential if you prefer).

Today’s reading time is 5 minutes.

Markets: Canada’s main stock index achieved a new record high yesterday, though it could have closed even higher if Barrick Mining hadn’t missed quarterly profit estimates and dropped 6.5%.

A Canadian drugmaker may have found the antidote to hot flashes. 

What happened: Vancouver biotech firm AbCellera Biologics saw its shares jump ~35% after it released encouraging clinical trial results for its hot flash treatment for menopausal women. One analyst called the trial data “practically off the chart on everything measured.” 

Catch-up: Non-hormonal menopause treatments on the market can cause a number of side effects, most prominently gastrointestinal issues. AbCellera’s monthly drug has been shown to not only be more effective than current treatments, but also carry fewer of these health risks. 

Why it matters: Menopause affects millions of Canadians who often have to make major personal and professional sacrifices to manage symptoms like hot flashes. A Deloitte study found that menopause costs Canadian women a total of $3.3 billion a year in lost income from having to reduce their hours or leave the workforce altogether due to their symptoms. 

Yes, but: As with any drug in early stages, AbCellera’s clinical trial results should be taken with a grain of salt. Many promising drug candidates for everything from Alzheimer's to obesity have ended up on the cutting room floor after expanded late-stage trials.—LA

Nvidia wants to raise US$500 billion for AI infrastructure. The chipmaker has partnered with a number of Wall Street firms, including Blackstone, Brookfield, and Goldman Sachs, to fund a massive data centre and infrastructure buildout. It’s the latest in a string of infrastructure-related deals that Nvidia has struck within the industry, a trend that has drawn scrutiny over whether these circular pacts are propping up the AI sector. (Reuters)

Fundraising is drying up for Alberta’s separatist party. A Toronto Star analysis found that donations to the separatist Republican Party of Alberta have dropped dramatically, falling from ~$190,000 in the first half of 2025 to $6,000 in the second half of the year, and just over $1,000 in Q1 of 2026. The Star also found that the party violated fundraising rules by accepting contributions from donors outside of the province. (Toronto Star)

Ottawa is rolling out a $100 million rebate program for steelmakers. Transportation Minister Steven MacKinnon announced the launch of a new one-year program that will reimburse steel manufacturers for half of their shipping and rail freight costs — an initiative that MacKinnon said was in direct response to U.S. tariffs. The feds hinted that a similar rebate program could be rolled out for the forestry industry. (CTV News)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

What they’re saying: “The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic,” wrote Mark Zuckerberg in an essay detailing his philosophy about AI development, stressing the importance of openness and individual empowerment. “Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened has not led to safe or positive outcomes.” 

Why it matters: The post coincided with the release of Meta’s new AI model, which marks its return to open-source models where weights (the code that makes an AI behave the way it does) are publicly available. Zuck is among the growing legion of AI leaders advocating for open-source systems, arguing that closed systems controlled by a few companies (like Anthropic and OpenAI, for instance) will lead to dangerous outcomes.

Unrelated, but Zuck has also found himself embroiled in a superyacht controversy — just thought we’d mention that here.

Like chips at a party, Canadian chipmakers are quickly being swallowed up. 

What happened: Last week, U.S. semiconductor giant AMD announced it was acquiring Toronto chip startup Taalas for an undisclosed sum. Taalas is an innovator because of how it handles inference, the mechanism by which AI models use their training to create outputs. 

Zoom in: AMD’s Taalas acquisition is the latest in a string of U.S. takeovers or redomicilings of Canadian chip companies. Last year, AMD also acqui-hired Untether AI’s team while Credo acquired Hyperlume. In 2023, Tenstorrent hightailed it out of Ontario for California.

Why it matters: Canada punches above its weight when it comes to creating innovative semiconductor startups but, in a tale as old as time, has had trouble keeping them around. Access to later-stage capital and growth infrastructure is simply more advanced down south. 

What they’re saying: “The goal is not to prevent acquisitions,” says Daniel Wigdor, a University of Toronto professor and CEO of AI venture firm AXL, “the right goal is narrower and more achievable… make sure that when the value gets created here, a real share of it stays here, and that the next company finds more reasons to scale in Canada than to leave.” 

Zoom out: In Wigdor’s view, this requires the government “acting like a demanding first customer rather than a grant-issuer,” which would entail capital aimed at the steps between research and scaling and funding conditions that anchor IP, senior jobs, and ownership in Canada. “None of that is exotic, and none of it requires us to out-spend the [U.S.].”—QH

🚨 672. Canadians killed in a homicide last year, down from 797 in 2024. That’s the steepest murder rate decline Canada has seen in 40 years, and marks the third successive annual decline. The drop was driven by progress in the Toronto area, which saw its murder rate fall by over 50% compared to 2024. 

Pump some fun into your morning with the mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who!