News That Matters To You

By Mark Lowey
Ontario is betting big on nuclear power expansion, aiming to power its economy with small modular reactors and new large-scale reactors. The initiative aims to build a reliable, clean energy supply while boosting Ontario's and Canada's supply chain and creating jobs, says Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce. Critics question nuclear's cost compared with renewable energy sources.

By Mark Lowey
Canada's healthcare costs are outpacing economic growth, necessitating an urgent system overhaul, according to the Council of Canadian Innovators. Experts like Andrew Bond advocate for prioritizing domestic innovation and data utilization to improve patient outcomes and drive economic returns, emphasizing healthcare as a critical industrial strategy.

By Mark Lowey
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) spent $490 million in federal funding to upgrade biocontainment facilities and support research infrastructure in the biomanufacturing and life sciences sector. The investment helped Canada's institutions prepare for pandemics and other health emergencies, and significantly boosted research capacity, talent development and infrastructure at 14 institutions, says Mohamad Nasser-Eddine at CFI.

By Mark Lowey
The Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN) allocated $86 million of $100 million in federal funding to accelerate 66 clean technology projects in Canada's oil and gas sector, says. Glen McCrimmon, CRIN's director of operations. CRIN-supported projects have advanced technologies deployed in operational environments, enabling companies to better measure and reduce emissions, shrink environmental footprint and improve regulatory compliance, he says.

By Mark Lowey
Canada's fragmented health technology procurement hamstrings innovation and inflates health care costs, says a new Council for Canadian Innovators report co-authored by Laurent Carbonneau and Claire Wilson. A national strategic procurement market for digital health and strategic 'Buy Canadian' policies could improve patient outcome, unlock innovation, increase productivity, and boost domestic growth, according to their report.

By Mark Lowey
Canada needs to invest more in early-stage technology startups to boost productivity and ensure the country’s long-term prosperity, investors and entrepreneurs said during a National Angel Capital Organization online roundtable. The country needs to treat investment as a "team sport," work together as an ecosystem, take more risks on early-stage startups, and get better at commercializing university R&D, they said.;

By Mark Lowey
Canada’s top startup ecosystems have lost $66 billion in value since 2019, due to structural funding gaps at the earliest stages of the startup pipeline that hobble companies' growth and subsequent investment, according to a new report by Startup Genome and the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO). Canada needs to build an "end-to-end" capital pipeline to fuel the next wave of economic growth, says NACO CEO Claudio Rojas.

By Mark Lowey
The federal government's $92-million investment in adMare Bioinnovations' spurred the creation of 39 Canadian life sciences companies, says adMare CEO Gordon McCauley. These companies have generated $2.5 billion in risk capital and 1,000 jobs, addressing a critical gap in early-stage funding for the life sciences and keeping more value from Canadian research within the country, he says.

By Mark Lowey
Investing small amounts of capital in many startups outperforms concentrated investments in a few firms and is a better use of public funding, says a new study by Kyle Briggs. Briggs, a biophysicist and entrepreneur in residence at the University of Ottawa, says his study shows Canada's risk intolerance in investment creates a negative feedback loop, resulting in missed valuable opportunities. Canada needs to rethink its approach to risk, he argues.