Alberta fire crews head to B. C. to battle wildfires

Roughly 100 fire personnel from across Alberta are heading to B.C. to help that province fight a number of wildfires.

‘Driving through a little slice of hell’: B. C. residents post video driving fuel through Williams Lake wildfire

A number of fires near Williams Lake scorched more than 1,000 hectares of land and chased hundreds of residents from their homes on Friday.

Metro Vancouver firefighters gear up to help as interior wildfires rage

Vancouver firefighters are gearing up in case they get the call to help with wildfires in B.C.'s interior

‘Hard to put into words’: Team NS flag bearer excited for Canada Games

Siobhan MacDonald will carry the flag during the opening ceremonies in Winnipeg.

Thousands pack London Convention Centre for TennoCon 2017

Thousands of fans of the video game Warframe packed the London Convention Centre for the second edition of the TennoCon video game event today. TennoCon runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and is organized by London-based video game developers Digital Extremes, highlighting Warframe, their hit free-to-play cooperative third-person shooter game. “It’s our second...

Black man from Laval claims police erased his cellphone video

A black man from Laval claims police arrested him without cause and erased a video he took of the incident.

Trudeau says apology to Omar Khadr is about violation of Charter rights

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers a question during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Wednesday, April 5, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

HAMBURG – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says an apology and reported $10.5 million compensation payment to former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr was a basic matter of following Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Trudeau answered a question about the Khadr settlement on Saturday at the closing press conference following the G20 leaders’ summit in Hamburg, Germany.

On Friday, the government confirmed a payment had been made to Khadr to settle a longstanding lawsuit. Khadr’s suit claimed Canada had violated his rights and was complicit with the United States when he was detained at the U.S. base in Cuba, denied access to a lawyer and tortured.

MORE: Omar Khadr on his settlement and the government’s apology

The Supreme Court of Canada in 2010 ruled Khadr’s rights had been violated.

The apology sparked fresh public debate about Khadr, but Trudeau says the settlement is not about the details of Khadr’s case but the fact his rights were violated.

Trudeau says the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects all Canadians, “even when it is uncomfortable.”

“When the government violates any Canadian’s Charter rights, we all end up paying for it,” he said.

The post Trudeau says apology to Omar Khadr is about violation of Charter rights appeared first on Macleans.ca.

Northern Ontario First Nations saw four suicides this week, spokesman says

TORONTO – Three children and a 21-year-old man have committed suicide in a number of Indigenous communities in northern Ontario since last Friday.

Deputy Grand Chief Anna Achneepineskum of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation said that two 12-year-olds from Pikangikum, Ont., a First Nations community near the Ontario-Manitoba border, committed suicide. The girl and boy were taken to medical facilities in Winnipeg where they were pronounced dead, she said.

On Tuesday, a 15-year-old girl committed suicide in Nibinamik, Ont., north of Fort Hope. And a day later, a 21-year-old man from the Fort Severn First Nation died in a Thunder Bay medical centre.

There have now been 18 suicides, including the most recent deaths, within the Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s territory since Jan. 1 of this year, according to statistics provided by a Nishnawbe Aski Nation spokesman.

Health Canada said it’s reached out to Pikangikum, Nibinamik and Fort Severn First Nations to offer its support.

“Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families and communities that are grieving as a result of these tragedies,” Health Canada said in a statement Friday.

Local authorities are also sending in teams of support workers and clinicians to monitor communities who’ve lost members to suicide. They’ve also enlisted the help of the Canadian Rangers a military reserve unit that works in remote regions. The Rangers, alongside volunteers, provide a 24 hour watch to try to locate people in distress. But according to First Nation officials, the support they have received from provincial and federal authorities isn’t enough.

RELATED: Chief Isadore Day: ‘These children didn’t have to die’

“It’s always a very short-term solution, responding to the deaths,” said Deputy Grand Chief Anna Achneepineskum. What is required, she said, is a long-term vision to get at the root problems of the suicide crisis.

Funds for short-term relief are in short supply, Achneepineskum said. She added that promises to provide $380,000 to provide another beleaguered community in Nishnawbe Aski Nation – Wapekeka – with additional mental health workers after the suicides of two 12-year-old girls last January still haven’t materialized.

“And here we are, in July, and we still haven’t received that commitment yet,” she said.

Health Canada said Saturday in an email that close to $1 million has been spent on providing health services to Wapekeka. On top of that, the community received $380,000 last May to fund four youth mental health workers. It will receive $380,000 annually to pay for them until March of 2019.

Even short-term responses haven’t been enough. Support teams for these communities have been stretched thin, Achneepineskum said – thin enough to ask for help from as far west as Alberta following the suicide in Nibinamik last Tuesday. Last week, Fiddler said, supervisors with the Canadian Rangers told him that their units may only be kept on until next Friday, depending on how the crisis plays out.

The Canadian Rangers also told him that in Wapekeka, youth are forming patrols of their own to try to help people in crisis.

“Children should not have to do that,” he said. “They should be able to enjoy their childhood and just be kids.

Achneepineskum hopes the most recent deaths will spur the federal and provincial governments to send more aid. In the meantime, she said, she and other Nishnawbe Aski Nation officials are continuing to support their community however they can.

“Every time we lose a child, we always say – you know what? We can’t lose any more,” she said.

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Penny Oleksiak on adjusting to life as an Olympic role model

August 12, 2016: After catching her breath, Canada’s Penny Oleksiak realizes she’s won gold in the 100-m freestyle in Rio de Janeiro. (Lee Jin-man/AP/CP)

What a difference a year makes.

Last summer Penny Oleksiak was just like any other Canadian amateur athlete. Now she’s the face of Canadian swimming.

The 17-year-old Toronto native captured the hearts of Canadians with her record-setting success at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Oleksiak became the first Canadian to win four medals at a summer games, Canada’s youngest-ever Olympic champion and she was selected to carry the Canadian flag into the closing ceremony.

Her success at the Olympics kicked off a year that could best be described as a blur.

MORE: The making of Penny Oleksiak: Our best-ever Summer Olympian

Between meeting Chance the Rapper and visiting Australia, while trying to keep a normal teenage life in between six hours a day of training, Oleksiak is living life in the fast lane.

The best metric of her ascension is Instagram followers. Before Rio she had a couple thousand followers but that number is now just under 90,000. With all that attention, you might think she would be self-conscious about what she posts but that’s not the case.

“My mom actually pays attention more than I do,” Oleksiak says. “I’ll post something and she’ll be like ‘Only 14,000 likes.’”

 

Co gold medalist moms! #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/oCLSvDVApf

— Swimming Canada (@SwimmingCanada) August 12, 2016

When asked if she bothers mining through all of that online traffic, Oleksiak bluntly responds, “Of course I do. What teenager doesn’t read their mentions?”

All of the attention Oleksiak’s gained from being so dominant and yet so charmingly down to earth is why the next phase of her evolution is of heavy interest to potential sponsors.

MORE: How Penny Oleksiak inspired a Canadian swimming craze

Oleksiak recently landed a four-year partnership with the performance and lifestyle footwear brand Asics. This marking her first major deal, she was excited about partnering with a brand that has pivoted in recent years to appeal to a younger consumer. Don’t be surprised if you see a collection curated and designed by Oleksiak in the future.

I caught up with Oleksiak at the launch of her partnership with Asics to pick her brain about what the whirlwind of the last year has been like.

Sportsnet: What’s the biggest difference in your life this summer in relation to last summer?

Penny Oleksiak: The biggest difference is the opportunities I’ve gotten. I know last year people wouldn’t be like “Hey come to the Chance concert or hey let’s go to the Drake concert.” Last year I was buying shoes at the mall not modelling them for a campaign that will be put up in malls.

You’re already a fashion influencer off of your social media. How did you decide what apparel brand you wanted to align with?

I’m super excited to be a part of [Asics]. They’re emerging so quickly right now. You see everyone wearing their shoes even though is kinda subtle. I’ve seen them on Jay-Z and the OVO crew. I feel privileged to be a part of that.

What’s your thought process when deciding what to wear?

It’s really hard to find shoes that you can wear when you’re hanging out with your friends and then go to training in. Most of my work is not in the pool. I’m doing a lot of agility, strength work, cycling, yoga. I’m happy to have shoes I know I’m always going to be my best in.

How many of your friends have asked you to hook them up?

So many! They are all like “when are you going to get me some shoes?” I’ve shown my friends some of the stuff coming up and they are really excited about it.

Are there things that aren’t great about the added attention?

For sure. There are definitely times I don’t want that much attention. When I’m just hanging out with my friends it’s weird to have people come up to you and be like “hey can I get photos of you?” Once one person does it then more people come up and my friends are like “ok, can we go?”

#GOLD! Congratulations @oleksiakpenny! @TeamCanada‘s first gold at #Rio2016 & first in swimming in 24 years. Bravo!

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) August 12, 2016

How does it feel to be a role model for young girls?

It’s crazy for me because there are so many people that I still look up to. It’s weird to think that kids look up to me because I’m just trying to follow someone else and they are just trying to follow me. It’s nice to know I have that ability to empower people and change their minds but it’s weird to think kids are looking up to me.

Who do you look up to?

There are so many people I look up to. I definitely look up to all the girls that I train with every day and my parents. I’m just in a really good place in my life.

What was it like when you went back to high school?

It wasn’t too bad. There was one girl in one of my classes who was like “we need to get a selfie” on the first day. Everything was more or less the same when I went back to high school because everyone knew me from the years before.

What was your phone like after you won your first medal?

My phone in Rio actually broke a few times because it just kept getting way too many notifications and way too many messages. Before my first race I totally forgot to turn off notifications for everything. So, I got every notification on every app. It was crazy.

So winning an Olympic medal broke your phone?

Yeah it definitely did. Warning to the Winter athletes.

Has the success changed your approach to the sport?

I’m not sure my mindset is too different. I am just more confident in what I can do. Last year, going into my gold medal race I was like “ughh, I think I’m going to come like eighth. I don’t know how well I can do.” Now I have the confidence of “why can’t I win again?” So, I know I can go in there and race my fastest.

What are you most looking forward to after the season?

Concerts. Ovofest, Veld maybe. Probably Boots and Hearts with one of my friends and going to Africa with my family.

After a long season you are choosing to go across the world and do philanthropic work in Africa. Why?

I just think it’s really important to give back and WE is giving me the opportunity to go to Africa with my family. I’m just really excited to be able to go and help out there. We all should do whatever we can do.

At We Day you met one of Africa’s greatest sons, Masai Ujiri. What was that conversation like?

It was super cool. He was super chill and I really liked talking to him. He was like “if you ever want to come to a Raptors game just let me know.” I was like “I’ll come to every Raptors game.” I love the Raptors.

Félicitations à @OleksiakPenny, qui a remporté le trophée #LouMarsh – Une grande fierté pour les Canadiens. https://t.co/nrnvccnx2H

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 13, 2016

After you won the Lou Marsh award Prime Minister Trudeau tweeted you to congratulate you. What’s it like to have the PM in your mentions?

It’s so cool. I’ve met him a few times now and every time I met him he’s always like “Oh, hey Penny. How are you doing?” and I’m like this is so weird. Just because he’s such a big role model and such an important figure in Canada and around the world. So, to have him come up to me and have a conversation like we’re family friends, it’s weird.

Thank you Penny Oleksiak for being our flag bearer this evening! #ClosingCeremony #Rio2016 #TeamCanada pic.twitter.com/WgqJ3XOIMf

— CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) August 21, 2016

What concert was better? Chance or Drake?

The Drake concert was so fun because I went with my friend Kylie but we were really far back. So, I kind of want to say Chance because when I went with my friends we were literally up against the fence and Chance was right there so I want to say Chance because we were closer.

I don’t think you’ll have an issue getting closer seats this year.

I hope not. That would be awesome. (Laughs)

OVOPenny aka @typicalpen we are so proud of you!!!! Can’t wait to see you when you are back from Rio at a show!

A post shared by champagnepapi (@champagnepapi) on Aug 13, 2016 at 6:59am PDT

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Are hybrid super-ticks breeding in Canada?

Canadian or American? A black-legged tick at work

American black-legged ticks are aggressive; Canadian ticks can survive the cold. The two nationalities have begun mating, some say, and their offspring are minuscule—but highly adaptable—monsters.

“The last thing we need is black-legged ticks that really don’t die off,” says Vett Lloyd, a biology professor at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. “It turns out ticks are quite promiscuous.” While Canadians fret about an infamous species called the Lone Star tick, which drools into victims and can make them allergic to red meat, the country could face more serious tick trouble with hybrids. Hybridization is controversial, as some scientists say it doesn’t occur, but Lloyd is not alone in warning that Canadians need to beware of ticks 2.0.

Lone Star tick stories are going viral online, but “they’re certainly not run amok as of yet,” says Lloyd. “I think just because it’s quirky. Meat is something to talk about.” Named after a white dot on the backs of females, the Lone Star transmits through its saliva a type of sugar known as Alpha-Gal, which primates don’t naturally produce, and which tricks the immune system into reacting against mammalian meat. When Lone Stars bite a single victim multiple times, the person might eat red meat, and three to six hours later, enter anaphylactic shock, once the meat meets the intestines.

While doctors in Alberta and the Maritimes only report a handful of cases of Lone Star cases, Lloyd worries about an abundant hybrid species she says has turned up in New Brunswick. Its genes partly belong to the American black-legged tick, which migrates north on birds, and which often targets humans while carrying Lyme disease, life-threatening bacteria and “a whole host of other nasty things.” The tick is cross-bred with local breeds in the Maritimes, which are cold-hearty enough to survive snow. The hybrid might not grow larger than its parents, but Lloyd says it could grow in number each year. She hasn’t quantified the size of its population, but she says, “it’s viable. It’s fertile.”

RELATED: Health Canada’s new Lyme disease action plan: you act, we’ll watch

Along interstate highways in Alberta, drivers often let their dogs out to pee during road trips and end up trafficking ticks between provinces, says Janet Sperling, a PhD candidate in entomology at the University of Alberta. The result is a meeting point between B.C. wood ticks, which thrive from April to May, and Saskatchewan wood ticks, which live until July. Sperling worries that hybrids will live through both seasons, making them harder to avoid. “People are moving these ticks around with their dogs and creating these hybrids,” she says.

Lone Star Ticks (Amblyomma americanum). (Melinda Fawver)

But Neil Chilton at the University of Saskatchewan has found that wood ticks live “in sympatry” with each other, meaning they co-exist in overlapping regions but as distinct species. Chilton’s lab couldn’t be reached for this article, but Sperling says his research team speaks strongly against hybridization. “They say, ‘no, they never, never, ever, ever hybridize.’”

Sperling hopes to prove otherwise. “I have this wonderful collection of ticks,” she says, noting her freezer full of thousands of vials. She asks people to send her ticks they’ve pulled off their dogs, and she stores them to analyze their genes.

The identified hybrids don’t yet have names, but the more diversity, the more resilient they will be. “In terms of genes,” Sperling says, “these guys have a lot of variety, which gives them opportunity to use their genes for good or for evil.”

The post Are hybrid super-ticks breeding in Canada? appeared first on Macleans.ca.

Interac says e-Transfer services being restored one bank at a time

Interac said it would begin restoring its e-Transfer service at 9 p.m. ET after it was suspended Friday morning due to technical issues. 

The Interpreter: Canada’s Secret to Resisting the West’s Populist Wave

Minority voters have a large political voice, immigration is seen as positive and multicultural identities are encouraged.

What Canadians can expect during the solar eclipse on August 21

A full solar eclipse will cross the continental United States on Monday, Aug. 21. So what can Canadians expect to see in the sky?

Creating the Right Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada

The devil’s in the details for the federal government’s new intellectual property (IP) strategy, announced in its 2017 budget, but tying it to the Liberals’ ambitious innovation agenda should lead to significant improvements in an area Canada lags.

“If that tie holds and innovation is going to be the watchword for the evolution of government policy, then we should see a tendency toward stronger [IP] rights rather than the grudging ‘incrementalism,'” says Richard Owens in a phone interview. Owens, one of Canada’s foremost business lawyers, recently authored three research papers on IP for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), a public policy think tank.

IP consists of ideas, concepts, or plans for which the rights of the creator can be legally protected through patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Everything that is built—from software to cars—originates from IP.

“The strategic use of intellectual property by Canadian firms is fundamental to our government’s innovation goals for Canada,” says David Lametti, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, in remarks on an MLI panel on June 15.

It makes it sound like there’s very sound public policy when you say a ‘made-in-Canada’ solution.

— Barry Sookman, senior partner, McCarthy Tétrault

The budget announcement signals a reboot for IP in Canada, which previously had mostly relied on compliance with trade agreements for improvement. But empirical evidence suggests that that passive tack isn’t good enough if Canada wants to become a leader in innovation.

The budget development is a refreshing one for Owens and others who advocate for stronger IP rights in Canada.

“We never really thought things through from first principles,” Owens says. “We never really tried to see how we can best serve innovation in this country, through our IP laws.”

Now, the rubber meets the road, however, views differ on how much of an improvement Canada needs in terms of IP. And then there’s the quasi-societal issue of an entrenched “anti-IP” sentiment in some sectors of the public, including universities.

“It’s become a fashion to stand against IP and to stand with those who want to share things freely over the Internet,” Owens says.

Owens is pushing for a “made-for-Canada” approach as opposed to a “made-in-Canada” approach. While the difference in semantics is small, the difference in implications is profound.

Barry Sookman, senior partner at law firm McCarthy Tétrault, says “made-in-Canada” is a narrative promoted by the government to justify why Canada has laws that fall short of international norms.

“It makes it sound like there’s very sound public policy when you say a ‘made-in-Canada’ solution,” Sookman says.

“We’re trying to distinguish ourselves from a stream of thought in IP thinking which says that Canada isn’t doing that well and maybe we need some concessionary rules to better imbed Canada’s weak position,” Owens says.

“That’s not what we’re about. Canada should aspire to be the best in innovation. We are already part way there. Let’s continue.”

Lametti used “made-in-Canada” to describe the government’s approach. However, Owens believes “made-for-Canada” implies a stronger framework that gives Canadian companies the tools they need to compete internationally and offers small business a greater chance for success.

We never really thought things through from first principles.

— Richard Owens, Munk Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Owens makes the point that stronger IP laws don’t cost the government anything but rather is a non-fiscal policy lever for a government facing years of deficits. Set the right IP rules and allow the market to take over, he says.

Stronger IP laws are not limited to simply better protection for patents and copyrights, but also mean stricter enforcement of the law.

Empirical evidence shows that stronger IP laws lead to more robust economic growth. They encourage the growth of smaller firms, which are the engines for job creation. Stronger IP protections also encourage foreign investment, research and development spending, and startup financing.

Lametti said the government’s IP strategy will include an education component. Too often startups don’t give enough consideration to getting into the patent game given the time and money (legal fees) involved. But that could be a critical oversight.

In 2009, Toronto software firm Infrastructures for Information Inc. (i4i) successfully sued Microsoft for violating one of its patents and was awarded US$290 million in damages. Microsoft appealed, but two years later the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the verdict.

In 2006, BlackBerry (then RIM) had to pay US$612.5 million to a “patent troll” because it didn’t patent its work properly.

The lesson here is clear: Businesses need to protect their IP.

Not So Abstract

The abstract nature of IP makes it difficult to appreciate, but it is the currency of the knowledge-based economy, which took shape in the mid-1990s along with the Internet.

It took 35 years for charges for the use of IP to rise from nothing to about US$50 billion in 1995. In the following 20 years, charges for the use of IP rose seven-fold to US$350 billion. This rise coincided with the increase in patents—a sound proxy for innovation.

The general public has a hard time understanding the value proposition put forth by proponents of strong IP regimes: paying more in the short term to reap longer-term benefits as greater innovation and technological advances eventually lower prices.

The immediacy of the Internet makes it difficult to accept this proposition. The Internet also makes it seem like things are free. There doesn’t seem to be a cost to doing a Google search or reading news on Facebook.

But Alastair Sweeny says there is a cost when one considers the data Google, Facebook, and Microsoft collect on users and what they may do with it. “Every time you use Google search, you’re being tracked. That pays the bills,” he said in a phone interview.

Intellectual property refers to products of the mind for which legal rights are established such as through patents, copyrights, and trademarks. (Fotolia)

Sweeny, vice president of development for Kryptera, a Waterloo-based encryption technology startup, is well aware of what can happen to a company that doesn’t protect its IP by patenting its processes.

“Because we’re still non-commercial, we’re keeping everything very close to our chest, making sure the patents are appropriate and that we’d be prepared to defend them,” Sweeny said.

Patents are worthless unless a company is able to enforce them. But for a small company, it is costly and time-consuming to pursue legal action.

Canada’s judicial system needs more IP awareness. One promising idea is to set up a tribunal staffed with IP specialists, which would be better able to deal with the issues than the higher courts.

Sweeny and others want to see rapid judicial expertise applied in IP. “If you’re the Canadian government, you don’t want to throw money down the drain. If you want to support entrepreneurship, you’ve got to make sure Canadian entrepreneurs can protect their patents,” Sweeny said.

“Looking at expert tribunals or improving the expertise in judges should be a strong recommendation,” Owens said. Many of Canada’s trading partners have specialized IP courts.

Related Coverage

• Canada’s Budget 2017 Innovation Push Draws Skepticism Amid Praise
• Change in Attitude Critical for Protecting Intellectual Property

Another widely supported recommendation is to make patenting easier for small businesses. Owens suggests reducing or waving legal fees for the first patents.

Between 2004 and 2014, Canada actually saw a substantial decrease in research and development spending. Not surprisingly, this goes hand in hand with a poor ratio of total patents filed as a proportion of the population—given a “D” grade by the Conference Board of Canada in 2013.

Many sense it is time for an about-face on IP in Canada, and the government’s plan to establish a strategy can set a new direction for the country in its bid to realize its potential as a global leader in innovation.

Follow Rahul on Twitter @RV_ETBiz

No Better Time to Be an Entrepreneur

The entrepreneurship bug is spreading in Canada. It’s sorely needed for a labor force and an economy that need to adapt in the face of technological change.

The way people work is changing from a generation ago. The work-life balance is more fluid. The “sharing,” or “gig,” economy provides an alternative to how people view the way they work.

“I grew up in a world where I expected to work for the same company for 30 years,” said Tony Bailetti, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, in a phone interview. He is also director of Carleton’s Technology Innovation Management master’s program.

“With my kids, they have five or six jobs and they’re in their 40s and they don’t think twice about it. That’s the way the world goes.”

Given the pace of technological change and automation taking place, Bailetti said the development of entrepreneurial skills enables us to do what we were not able to do before. He compared it with emancipation—a term associated with sociology.

“Once you have those entrepreneurial skills, you feel liberated,” he said. Once liberated, a person is not tied to a job and then rendered obsolete because the technology has changed.

Entrepreneurial skills deal with innovation, creativity, and leadership. Entrepreneurship programs are now offered at many universities and colleges in Canada.

Shopify’s research found that 3 in 10 Canadians have started their own businesses and 53 percent believe that entrepreneurship is a possibility for them in the future. The survey also found that Canadians think entrepreneurs are vital to the economy by creating jobs, innovating, adding to national income, and creating social change.

Entrepreneurial skills involve innovation, creativity, leadership, and being able to connect the dots to solve a problem. (Fotolia)

“Our objective is to make commerce better for everyone and to create more entrepreneurs around the world,” said Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s chief operating officer, while speaking on a panel about Canada’s innovation agenda on May 15 in Ottawa.

Small business is the engine of job creation. Between 2005 and 2015, of the 1.2 million jobs created, 88 percent was attributable to small business, according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s June 2016 Key Small Business Statistics report.

It makes sense for companies to continue to get smaller, said Bailetti. It has become very easy for companies to outsource functions.

“I only have to build the things that are going to make me distinct as opposed to everything else, which I can acquire in a pretty open market,” he said.

Get Started

There’s no time like the present to start a business, especially as a tech entrepreneur.

“In 2017, the cost of failure for entrepreneurship is trending as close to zero as it’s ever been,” Finkelstein said. “Technology has completely reduced the barrier to entry of entrepreneurship in a way we’ve never seen before,” he added.

Given the advances in Internet technology, the growing presence of business incubators and accelerators, and the government’s push for innovation, the support system for entrepreneurs is getting better and better.

Once you have those entrepreneurial skills, you feel liberated.

— Tony Bailetti, Carleton University

“If we figure out how to get more entrepreneurial people, I think we are going to have a more dynamic economy,” said serial entrepreneur Daniel Debow.

Bailetti said technology that can change quickly is built on top of pre-existing building blocks that don’t change as fast. Today’s tech entrepreneurs don’t necessarily have to build everything from scratch.

The iCub robot tries to catch a ball during the Innorobo European summit in this 2013 file photo. The event is dedicated to the service robotics industry in Lyon, France. Robots and artificial intelligence threaten low-skilled manufacturing jobs but open opportunities for those capable of creating and programming them. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)

Creating companies that grow and, in turn, create jobs is a tremendous benefit to an economy. Bailetti said what distinguishes companies that do well from those that cease operations in the first few years is whether they were initially created to address a global problem.

He ascribes to the “glocalization” theory. “Invent a better mousetrap and take it global,” he said. The examples of glocalization by large well-known companies are numerous, from the big fast food chains offering different items in different regions to a washing machine manufacturer considering the type of clothing typically worn in a region.

If it wasn’t for advances in technology, we’d be living in caves and dying before we’re 25.

— Tony Bailetti, Carleton University

“We will need people with highly technical skills to program and repair the technology. We will also need people to perform tasks that may never be replicated by a machine because they require creativity, intuitive judgment, inspiration, or simply a human touch,” said Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Wilkins in a recent speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.

A McKinsey study found that about 60 percent of all occupations have at least 30 percent of activities that are technically automatable based on currently demonstrated technologies.

The consulting firm suggests that it may take at least two decades before automation reaches 50 percent of all of today’s work activities.

Such change is not unheard of in Canada’s history. Employment in the agriculture sector has been falling dramatically—from nearly half the workforce in 1881, to a quarter of it in 1941, to 2 percent of it in 2001, according to Statistics Canada.

Related Coverage

• Canadian Tech Entrepreneurs See Progress in Government’s Innovation Push
• Canada’s Budget 2017 Innovation Push Draws Skepticism Amid Praise

“If it wasn’t for advances in technology, we’d be living in caves and dying before we’re 25,” Bailetti said.

The skills needed by the workforce change over time as new technologies are adopted. Gradually, standards of living, productivity, and economic output increase.

“I think that every time there is a technology change, people who do not have entrepreneurial skills suffer the most. No question about that,” Bailetti said.

Follow Rahul on Twitter @RV_ETBiz

What happens next in B. C

Andrew Weaver says he wants to end the uncertainty over who will govern B.C. by reaching a deal with either the NDP or Liberals by Wednesday. (Chad Hipolito/CP)

So the recounts are over in the super-tight British Columbia provincial election, with no changes to the seat count: 43 Liberals, 41 NDP, 3 Green. It’s obvious that (Greens + anybody else) = viable majority in the 87-seat legislature. So now what?

Green Party leader Andrew Weaver, no fool, is speaking to both parties, trying to maximize his advantage. Liberal leader Christy Clark says she’ll advise the lieutenant-governor by Wednesday whether she intends to try to form a government. I’d be astonished if she didn’t try: she has more seats than any other party, and is said to be politically ambitious. And she’s talking like someone who plans to tough it out: “With 43 B.C. Liberal candidates elected as MLAs, and a plurality in the legislature, we have a responsibility to move forward and form a government,” she said in a media release.

But Weaver is also talking to NDP leader John Horgan. And in a statement Wednesday, he said he looks forward to working “with both other parties,” which sounds, for the time being at least, like the distinct absence of a preference between them.

Now here’s what I need you to understand: the two cases—Greens+Liberals and Greens+NDP—are not symmetrical. The next government is not a coin toss or a Schrödinger box. There is, indeed, no “next government”—there is, still today, a Liberal government in B.C. Christy Clark gets to keep governing as long as she’s able. And the other parties have a very narrow window for replacing her without another election.

This is what’s meant by people who say the incumbent head of government has the right to “test the House” (or I guess the legislature, this being provincial politics). The government dissolves the legislature, a strange thing called an election happens and then everyone comes back in and the government gets to govern some more— unless in the interim, the government resigns and lets another government have its chance.

Now, it’s almost always so obvious who’s won an election that the resignation happens on election night or in the days after. Stephen Harper could have returned from the 2015 federal election and tried to present a Throne Speech and a legislative agenda, but pretty soon the Liberals would have said, Hey now, we outnumber you 184 to 99, stop that. Even in narrower cases, the loser still loses. Paul Martin was still the incumbent prime minister on the night of the 2006 election, and his Liberals plus Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc would have outnumbered the Harper Conservatives, but that was ridiculous and Martin resigned on election night.

RELATED: Why the B.C. Green party should be wary of a coalition

It’s when things are very close that this notion of “testing the House (or legislative assembly)” starts to matter a lot. Take Quebec in 2007. Jean Charest’s Liberals lost 28 seats and wound up with 48 to 41 for Mario Dumont’s Action Démocratique. The PQ had a great big 36-seat balance of power. It would have been easy for the PQ to withhold confidence in Charest’s government and cook some deal to make Dumont the premier. Easy, but galling for the prideful PQ, so they passed, and Charest got to keep governing.

Well, surely at some point the PQ could have changed their minds and withdrawn support for Charest? Yes— but the convention, or deeply entrenched habit of things, is that opposition parties don’t have forever to get their acts together and propose an alternative government. In fact, they don’t have very long at all. They basically get one chance to propose an alternative to the incumbents and test that alternative in a confidence vote. And they don’t even get to decide when that vote happens, because it happens immediately whether they’re ready or not.

This is a little more confusing, so it helps to remember the odd events after the 2008 federal election. Stephen Harper won a plurality of the seats, again, as in 2006. Liberals plus NDP plus Bloc, together, outnumbered him, although their hand was so weak that it took almost all of those three caucuses to do so. Jack Layton tried to persuade his opponents in the other opposition parties to do something bold, fast. They shrugged him off. It wasn’t until five weeks later that they decided to co-ordinate.

But by then it was already too late to simply write to the Governor General and replace Harper with Stéphane Dion. As the Conservatives immediately started reminding everyone, the opposition parties had voted in such a way as not to defeat the government on its throne speech. So they had effectively acknowledged its legitimacy to govern.

Harper promptly asked the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, to prorogue the House rather than holding the confidence vote Dion was demanding. She obliged. Even though what he was asking was highly dubious and entirely self-serving.

From left: Layton, Dion and Duceppe after signing their agreements to co-operate in December 2008. (Adrian Wyld/CP)

 

People who never liked Harper are still mad at Jean for doing his bidding. But it is the GG’s job (or the LG’s job in a provincial capital) to do what the head of government asks. It’s called responsible government. We had a whole crisis over it in 1849. Ask your kids.

So can Clark govern forever without a worry? No. Her government can fall at any time to a confidence vote, but if it falls any time after the very first few days it governs, convention demands that the legislature be dissolved and the question be put to the voters in a new election.

That’s why the anti-Harper coalition fell apart by early 2009: its leaders knew they couldn’t defend what they were doing in an election, and the GG had already signalled she wouldn’t hand power to them without a new election.

But the best demonstration of this notion is the Ontario provincial election of 1985. The province’s eternal Progressive Conservative government, now in the hands of cheerful Frank Miller, fell to 52 seats. The Liberals under David Peterson had 48—so close. The NDP under Bob Rae had the whip hand with 25 seats. Miller prepared to govern. Naturally assumed he’d be able to govern with no problem. But the Liberals and NDP cooked a deal whereby Peterson could govern as premier and the NDP would promise not to withdraw confidence in this new government for two years.

What’s crucial to remember is that the deal was concluded immediately, before Miller could present a throne speech, and that while Miller managed to avoid holding a vote in the legislature for several days, the first vote on amendments to the throne speech was the chance Liberals and NDP needed to vote against the Conservatives. And David Peterson became premier. Miller had threatened to call an election, but decided against it.

So the window for replacing an incumbent government without an election is very short. It is probably measured in a small number of weeks, and in a single vote in the legislature.

RELATED: The next few days in B.C. politics will be strange and fun

People who don’t like the incumbent government will assume the lieutenant-governor’s job is to figure out some way to stop it. But don’t blame Judith Guichon, the LG of B.C. I’ve never met her, but I can tell you how she will order her priorities. She will take her counsel from the premier. If it isn’t clear who the premier is, she will take her counsel from the legislature. If the legislature can’t decide very soon, she will take her counsel from B.C. voters.

And she will have no patience for an extended round of futzing about, because like every modern LG and GG, she will view a new election as vastly preferable to any improvised solution she might dream up. A new election won’t hurt anyone; we have elections all the time in Canada. An Erector-Set government cooked up in Mom’s basement by an improvising viceroy might.

What does this mean for Andrew Weaver? It means that if he wants to work, over any extended period of time at all, with “both other parties,” then he will be working with a Liberal government and an NDP opposition.

If he prefers an NDP government, he needs to make that decision before next Wednesday. He and Horgan need to inform the LG that they are prepared to govern, and at the first vote on any matter in the legislature, they need to vote together against the Liberals. Guichon would take that as her cue that the election actually changed the situation, and she would invite Horgan to form a government. But that would be Horgan’s only chance, until the next election, whether that came in two months or four years.

There are no guarantees. But the strong advantage is Christy Clark’s.

 

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Canadian Tech Entrepreneurs See Progress in Government’s Innovation Push

OTTAWA—Canadian tech entrepreneurs see encouraging signs working with the government to build a more innovative economy. But more work needs to be done, including better understanding the trickle-down effects of wealth creation by today’s tech entrepreneurs.

A lively panel discussion dubbed “Canada’s Time—Building a Global Tech Hub North of 49” hosted by the Carleton Initiative for Parliamentary and Diplomatic Engagement at Shopify‘s Elgin Street Office in Ottawa on May 15 also highlighted that perceptions about entrepreneurs need to change.

Shopify is the darling of Canada’s tech scene—charting new waters beyond the wreckages of Nortel and Blackberry. Since its IPO on May 21, 2015 at a stock price of US$17, the company is now worth over $10 billion.

Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s chief operating officer, is proud that the company is achieving all they have from Ottawa.

Helping entrepreneurs is in Shopify’s DNA and Finkelstein is well positioned to speak about how Canada can compete globally in tech—a key area for economic growth going forward.

“We’re the most popular e-commerce platform for entrepreneurs and we’re doing all of that from here in Ottawa,” Finkelstein, the 2017 Canadian angel investor of the year, said.

He said there is a “switch in mentality” between the “old tech” millionaires and today’s new tech millionaires as it relates to “paying it forward.”

A successful innovative economy creates wealth—concentrated wealth. Shopify’s success has spawned over 75 millionaires. The perception that this is a bad thing fails to see the positive side effects of these “nouveau riche” paying it forward.

Shopify’s IPO on May 21, 2015. The Canadian tech darling is now worth over $10 billion after raising just over $100 million at IPO. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Finkelstein and Daniel Debow, co-founder of Helpful.com, Rypple, Workbrain, and 2015 Canadian angel investor of the year, tell the story of the old tech millionaires diversifying out of tech, whereas the new tech millionaires stay loyal to tech and become angel investors in new startups—a different brand of philanthropy.

“In Boston, you made a lot of money and you competed to get your name on a hospital, and then you were done with tech,” Debow said. “Whereas in Silicon Valley, you compete on which hot startup you invest in—which is a more productive thing.

“If you create a public policy context where their success is viewed as failure for everyone else, I don’t think that’s a positive outcome for our economy,” Debow said.

Don’t Say ‘Glamorous’

“Entrepreneurs work incredibly hard under very hard, stressful conditions and most of them don’t make it,” said Janet Bannister, Kijiji’s founder and Real Ventures general partner. “Generally it’s lonely, stressful.”

The perception that being an entrepreneur is glamorous could not be further from the truth. Entrepreneurs have to take care of all aspects of running a company—payroll, HR, housekeeping—not just writing code and making sales calls. It’s clearly not a career for everybody. It’s a case of high risk for a high reward.

That reward often comes via stock options, which were critical in allowing Shopify to get to where it is today, Finkelstein said.

In Silicon Valley, you compete on which hot startup you invest in—which is a more productive thing.

— Daniel Debow, serial entrepreneur and angel investor

Shopify was not able to offer salaries comparable with big, established companies, but showed how potential employees could earn more money with stock options, even under conservative scenarios for the company’s growth. “That type of return is a game-changer,” Finkelstein said.

“Where we can do a better job as entrepreneurs or tech community is by spending the time with government and policy makers to explain to them the ‘why’,” Finkelstein said.

He added that the government now seems more open to suggestion as opposed to being prescriptive in how it drives innovation.

Funding, Regulation, Marketing

Bannister said the government’s venture capital programs have provided much needed funding, however she expressed concerns about how some of the money is being spent.

“I see a lot of entrepreneurs who are getting these government handouts and frankly I don’t see a long term path to viability for these companies,” she said, adding that the government is not best qualified to make decisions on which companies get funding.

Tony Bailetti, director of the Technology Innovation Management Program at Carleton University, hopes government money is not getting spread too thinly. What is key is having customers and a viable business, not just an idea and a dream.

Related Coverage

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“The moment I start thinking all I need to do is to start filling out forms … and I don’t have to worry about customers, I think that is a real bad thing,” he said.

What is a good thing, though, is the effort the government is making to promote innovation domestically and Canadian entrepreneurship abroad.

Finkelstein said the onus is on the tech community to provide the government with the right sound bites.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took part in Microsoft’s CEO Summit in Redmond, Washington on May 17 to promote Canadian tech and potentially draw global talent to Canada.

He also visited fintech firm Wealthsimple in Toronto earlier in May to promote Canadian innovation. The visit marked a milestone for the two-year-old company, which reached $1 billion under management from its more than 30,000 clients.

We’re the most popular e-commerce platform for entrepreneurs and we’re doing all of that from here in Ottawa.

— Harley Finkelstein, Chief Operating Officer, Shopify

Innovation minister Navdeep Bains and finance minister Bill Morneau have also been active traveling to sell the Canadian innovation story. Finkelstein said that having these ministers put themselves out there is “hugely important.”

In the particular case for fintech firms, regulation is a critical area that government needs to address to help the sector compete globally, according to a May 15 report by the Toronto Financial Services Alliance.

“We have a lot to learn from other fintech centres such as the U.K., Australia, and Singapore, which are experimenting with such tools as regulatory sandboxes, which Canada is only just beginning to try out,” said Robert Scavone, a partner at business law firm McMillan, in a press release. Scavone is the lead author of the regulatory section of the report.

While Canada’s regulation of the big banks has contributed to a stable and safe financial system, the regulatory burden for startups is overwhelming. The concept of a “regulatory sandbox” envisions reduced regulation on startups as they scale up.

Debow believes a more innovative Canadian economy is a more competitive and dynamic one. He pointed to a significant portion of the Canadian economy—agriculture, TV and cable, banking—being protected from international competitive forces, which, at the margin, leads to less innovation.

“You’re going to see ideas that make people uncomfortable. And there’s going to be a lot more failure,” Debow said.

“Failure is a hallmark of a society that can adapt and try new things and figure out which ones win,” he added.

Historically, Canada has been good at invention. Entrepreneurs and government are making strides to ensure Canada becomes good at innovation—turning inventions into viable businesses.

Follow Rahul on Twitter @RV_ETBiz

Softwood lumber: Well, that escalated quickly

(Ben Nelms/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Shots fired:

“It has been a bad week for U.S.-Canada trade relations [US trade secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement this evening]. Last Monday, it became apparent that Canada intends to effectively cut off the last dairy products being exported from the United States. Today, in a different matter, the Department of Commerce determined a need to impose countervailing duties of roughly one billion dollars on Canadian softwood lumber exports to us. This is not our idea of a properly functioning Free Trade Agreement.”

Chrystia Freeland and Jim Carr were quick to reply:

“The Government of Canada disagrees strongly with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to impose an unfair and punitive duty. The accusations are baseless and unfounded…The Government of Canada will vigorously defend the interests of the Canadian softwood lumber industry, including through litigation.“

It started with such promise, too. When Justin Trudeau visited the White House on Feb. 13, the longstanding softwood lumber dispute with the Americans came up — and in an interesting way. I was told some time ago by a source familiar with the discussions that at some point, Donald Trump became interested in knowing how his budding relationship with Trudeau compared to Barack Obama’s. Trudeau was circumspect. I did have a good working relationship with President Obama, the prime minister said, approximately. But you know one thing he was never in a position to deliver on? Softwood lumber.

Hint, dropped. And reinforced, in a followup call ten days later. The hint seems to have been taken: some Canadians who’ve worked with both the Obama and Trump administrations on the softwood lumber dispute believes that until this week, the discussions were more substantive with the current administration than with its predecessor.

READ MORE: For a troubled Trump, Canada is easy pickings

So what happened? Two things, perhaps. First, Trump has been having a lousy time on trade, which was one of the two or three top issues that got him elected. He can’t get his nominee for chief trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, confirmed. He hasn’t been able to formally start the 90-day process toward a NAFTA renegotiation. He’s backed down on a trade fight with China, which is the fight some Trump aides entered politics to wage (if you have some time, check out this astonishing documentary by Peter Navarro, now a trade advisor to Trump).

What’s left? I’m told that at 1:46 p.m. on Monday, Fox News carried an interview with a Wisconsin dairy farmer who has hit hard times and blames Canada. The President was watching, and was greatly displeased. Coming as it did on the heels of Trump’s visit last week to the Snap-On Tools plant in Kenosha, the Fox News story egged the President on in his growing suspicion that Canada, far from being cuddly and Ivanka-friendly, is actually a marauding border-squatting trade succubus.

The relationship has come so far, so fast. Only three days after Trump’s inauguration, his informal economic advisor Stephen Schwarzman was in Calgary briefing the Trudeau cabinet on bilateral affairs. In remarks to reporters, Schwarzman was full of sunshine. “One of the important things is the unusually positive view that’s held of Canada,” he said. “Canada’s been a great partner of the United States for as long as anybody can remember.” Trump’s arrival might portend “a changed climate, maybe some modifications,” Schwarzman said. But “basically things should go well for Canada.”

READ MORE: Donald Trump flops and flubs and goes after Canada

And now? The 20 per cent tariff that seems about to hit Canadian lumber exports to the U.S. is neither unexpected, I’m told, nor out of line with earlier U.S. tactics during this interminable dispute. And Canadian officials continue to talk regularly with their U.S. counterparts at senior levels. It’s not inconceivable there could be an agreement within weeks, the Canadians believe.

But Canadian officials cannot discern any consistency in the Trump administration’s tone from day to day. If prospects of an agreement fade, the Trudeau government, finding itself in a fight, may decide to push back. I can detect no sign of a rush to get to that point.

The prime minister won’t have to spend much time wondering what business leaders think he should do. He had already scheduled a lunch meeting on Tuesday in Kitchener with the Business Council (formerly Canadian Council of Chief Executives, formerly Business Council on National Issues), the blue-chip CEO group led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley. They may be able to help him gauge next steps. Surely, even at this late hour, Trudeau still hopes the storm will blow over.

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