Publisher: University of Waterloo
AutoCate, a newly-launched membership-based platform geared toward women, aims to reduce fraud and discrimination in the auto repair industry.
The platform, created by Stefanie Bruinsma, a mechanic and engineering grad from the University of Waterloo, connects people in need of car repairs or advice with trusted experts and educators.
Publisher: University of Waterloo
As more high potential startups grow out of university research, it’s critical to understand how government, industry and academia can align to accelerate commercialization.
A panel discussion at the Canadian Science Policy Conference was held last month, with industry experts in the Canadian startup ecosystem. Panellists included Bettina Hamelin, president and CEO of Ontario Genomics, Farnoud Kazemzadeh, co-founder and VP Engineering at Vital Bio, Maura Campbell, president and CEO of Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO), and Akash Vaswani, general partner at Velocity Fund, where they explored how to increase the likelihood for Canadian startups to succeed in order to boost Canada’s industrial productivity.
Panel moderator Adrien Côté, executive director at Velocity, said that year-over-year, Canada is becoming less competitive amongst global indices related to productivity according to multiple studies.
Publisher: University of Waterloo
Autonomous airline Ribbit has signed a $1.3 million contract with Transport Canada to start testing its commercial cargo aircraft to deliver goods to northern Canada, starting in 2024.
“Ribbit ultimately exists to help improve access to transportation,” said Jeremy Wang, co-founder and COO. “Our dream would be a future where anybody can receive goods quickly and reliably no matter where they are located.”
Publisher: Canadian Underwriter
An increase in slip-and-fall claims has put pressure on insurance premiums for snowplow operators, which has left some contractors struggling to remain in business.
Dave Fraser, owner of DHF Contracting in Oshawa, Ont., says his business, which employs up to 25 people, was a hair’s breadth away from closing down in November when his insurer said it would no longer underwrite the snowplow portion of his business, which accounts for 70% of the contractor’s revenue.
Publisher: Thompson’s World Insurance News
The introduction of edibles to the legal cannabis market this fall is expected to expand the sector significantly — leading to more risk exposure and more interest from insurers.
Publisher: Buzzfeed News
Before the spring of 2011, Clifford Anderson’s home in Pinaymootang First Nation, Manitoba, was surrounded by greenery. The yard had towering elm trees reaching as high as 40 feet that he and his wife Terry had planted when their sons, Stephan, 34, and Evan, 27, were kids. Theirs was the sort of garden that would make any property feel like home and the Andersons worked hard to maintain it.
Seven years later the house that the Andersons had called home since the 1980s stands abandoned and uninhabitable. The Andersons’ lives were uprooted that spring when one of the worst floods in the province’s history forced the family to evacuate.
Edith Grosman revisits Poprad, Slovakia, the town from which she was sent to Nazi deathcamp Auschwitz.