The new space race is turning into a David versus Goliath battle in Ontario.

What happened: The Government of Ontario issued a request for proposals for a company to provide high-speed internet to rural areas using satellites. Two companies were pre-qualified to submit: SpaceX and New Brunswick-based rural internet provider Xplore.

Like a pair of bickering roommates, Canada and the U.S. are arguing over shelf space… continental shelf space, that is.

Driving the news: The U.S. filed claims to a portion of the Arctic seafloor that Canada has also laid claim to. The two countries have agreed to work together to settle the dispute by following the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea — a process that will take several years. 

What do Canada’s public sector and Inter Miami’s fan base have in common? 

Both got much bigger in 2023. 

Canada is a land of innovation. Look no further than the pizza dip roller or ketchup chips! Unfortunately, innovation funding continues to be a serious challenge.  

What happened: The Canada Innovation Corp. (CIC) — a new innovation funding body that was supposed to launch this year and receive $2.6 billion over four years to invest in businesses looking to innovate — will now be delayed by as much as three years.

Ontario's Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade, Vic Fedeli sits down with us to chat industrial policy, EV battery plants, and how to attract business development. 

The EU is once again leading the charge on regulating tech, this time with a new set of rules for AI businesses. 

What happened: The European Union has reached a deal to establish the world’s most comprehensive AI legislation to date, including strict regulations for AI model developers and restrictions on the use of AI in biometric surveillance. 

Not to alarm you, but for some reason, the federal agency managing our seafood has the power to snoop at your phone. Allow us to explain. 

What happened: The Parliamentary Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics is launching an investigation into the government’s use of spyware technology that can extract sensitive personal data from smartphones, computers, and tablets. 

If you’re like us, when you studied math in school, you were constantly thinking ‘wow, this is hard.’ Unfortunately, for kids today, it seems that learning math has gotten even harder.  

Driving the news: Canadian math scores continued a long fall from grace, per the latest results from the OECD’s standardized math test. Between 2003 and 2022, overall scores declined by 35 points, with only 12% of students categorized as “high math achievers.”

Move over, dairy tariff quotas… there’s a new Canada-U.S. trade disagreement in town. 

What happened: The feds introduced legislation that would introduce the Digital Services Tax (DST), which would levy a 3% tax on tech companies with annual revenues of over ~$1.1 billion and Canadian digital services revenues of $20 million (i.e. Amazon, Google).

In this week’s episode of Alberta vs. Feds, Danielle Smith makes what could be her most controversial announcement yet… 

What happened: Smith is invoking the Alberta Sovereignty Act to push back against federal clean electricity rules. The act is not yet final, but the idea is that it allows the province to refuse to follow federal laws that are deemed as a violation of Alberta’s jurisdictional rights.