On June 29, the Canada’s Innovation Corridor Summit is taking place promote collaboration within our innovation region that is anchored by Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and Hamilton.
The Toronto-Waterloo corridor is one of the fastest-growing and densest innovation clusters in the world and was recently ranked 17th globally for startup ecosystems in the 2022 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome. Waterloo region has one of the highest density of startups outside of Silicon Valley, along with the headquarters of some of Canada’s largest technology companies and development offices for leading global brands.
Business leaders, government officials and researchers have come together at the summit to discuss the challenges and opportunities that decarbonization will bring for industry and research within the corridor.
XiaoYu Wu Professor, Faculty of Engineering >Greener Production Group
“Canada’s Innovation Corridor Summit is a great opportunity to connect with local stakeholders on the transition to a net-zero economy and share our understanding and relevant expertise to support this transition,” says XiaoYu Wu, a Waterloo professor from the Faculty of Engineering who is a featured speaker at the summit.
Many Waterloo researchers and entrepreneurs have been responding to the climate crisis with purpose-driven research and technology. Wu will be sharing research from his Greener Production Group that is actively developing sustainable technologies that use renewable resources while also studying their economic impact. The group is focused on several projects including CO2 capture and utilization and cleaner hydrogen and ammonia storage in the agriculture, energy and trade sectors.
“My presentation will feature technologies for producing, storing and distributing low-carbon hydrogen, and discuss how we can use hydrogen to speed up the transition towards a net-zero economy,” Wu says.
He stresses that investment and adoption of new innovative renewable energy and carbon reduction technologies is critical for Canada’s transition to a net-zero economy. The summit also emphasises other transformational actions including retrofitting existing infrastructure and reskilling for green jobs.
Training the next generation of talent is key in our shift to decarbonization and an important part of Wu’s work at Waterloo. On top of training grad students, he says the Greener Production Group is seeking industry collaborations and has most recently worked with the Hydrogen Business Council of Canada to devise a hydrogen economy transition plan for Ontario.
“We want to continue to work with local partners to develop technologies and train students to support the transition to a net-zero economy.”
Driven by Canada’s Innovation Corridor Business Council, the summit serves to inform and drive transformational actions that shape the corridor’s future as a world-class region measured by talent, productivity, and quality of life. The Summit is sponsored in part by the University of Waterloo.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
