Opinion: Canada needs to start building out the leisure industry as AI takes hold
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Tobi Lütke, the founder of Ottawa-based Shopify Inc., has a new mantra for his workforce: 'AI first.'
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In a recent memo, the CEO urged staff to seek artificial intelligence solutions before requesting additional resources or new hires, a directive that's rippling through Canada's tech sector. Lütke has emphasized that AI is not about cutting jobs, but about reimagining work.
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For many, the message is clear: AI is reshaping the workplace, and for the worse. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, released in January, paints a stark picture. By 2030, AI and automation are expected to displace 92 million jobs globally, from coders to customer service reps.
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In Canada, where tech and manufacturing employ more than 1.5 million people, the impact could be profound. Micha Kaufman, chief executive of freelancing platform Fiverr International Ltd., didn't mince words in a recent e-mail to his employees that he shared on X: 'AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it's coming for my job too.'
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But in this upheaval lies an unexpected opportunity, one that's already transforming industries and redefining how we live.
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The fear of an AI-driven dystopia — mass layoffs, strained social safety nets — dominates headlines. Yet history suggests economies adapt to technological shocks.
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For example, the Industrial Revolution displaced weavers, but birthed factory jobs. The internet killed travel agencies, but spawned digital marketing. E-commerce displaced a million retail jobs between 2000 and 2020, only to replace them with distribution centre and parcel delivery jobs.
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As AI automates routine tasks, it's not just threatening jobs; it's unlocking a leisure revolution. From pickleball courts to brand-new sports leagues reimagining the audience experience, the global leisure sector is poised for a boom, and Canadian businesses must capitalize on it.
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CTV News
29 minutes ago
- CTV News
Five things to know about Canada's counter-tariffs on the U.S.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) OTTAWA — After U.S. President Donald Trump boosted steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 per cent, some industry groups and the Official Opposition have called on the federal government to retaliate in kind. Here's a look at the counter-tariffs Canada has imposed so far. 1. What do the counter-tariffs cover? The Canadian government has imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods three times since Trump's trade war began, aimed at what it says are imports worth $95.4 billion worth. On March 4 — after the U.S. imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods, along with 10 per cent on energy products — then-prime minister Justin Trudeau announced the first raft of counter-tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. goods. Those 25 per cent tariffs target things like orange juice, motorcycles, clothing and shoes, coffee, cosmetics and alcohol. On March 12, the U.S. added a 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminum products, which was stacked on top of existing levies on Canadian goods. Canada's response a day later was 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on another $29.8 billion of U.S. goods, including steel and aluminum, tools, computers and sport equipment. On April 9, in response to another round of U.S. tariffs — this time targeting the Canadian auto industry — the federal government imposed 25 per cent duties on 'non-CUSMA compliant vehicles' from the U.S. and 25 per cent tariffs on the content of CUSMA-compliant vehicles from the U.S. The government says this covers $35.6 billion in auto imports from the United States. 2. What are the exemptions? On April 15, in the midst of the federal election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the government was exempting some products from tariffs for six months to help Canadian businesses adapt. The tariff holiday covers specific categories: goods used in Canadian manufacturing, processing and food and beverage packaging, as well as imports used to support public health, health care, public safety and national security objectives. And when it comes to vehicle tariffs, the government said 'companies that produce autos in Canada have been granted remission to ensure the ongoing viability of their Canadian operations,' but that it is 'contingent on them maintaining production levels in Canada and on following through with planned investments.' 3. Does this mean all counter-tariffs have been dropped? On Wednesday, Opposition House leader Andrew Scheer said the government 'secretly dropped those tariffs to zero during the campaign.' This line has been repeated often by the Conservatives since the release of a report by Oxford Economics on May 13, which said Canada paused counter-tariffs for six months 'on nearly all U.S. goods imports.' The report said it estimated the exemptions would cover about 97 per cent of the tariffs. The government said that's not true. A spokesperson for Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said the exemptions apply to 30 per cent of the $60 billion worth of goods that are subject to tariffs — a figure that doesn't include the auto tariffs. William Pellerin, a partner in international trade at McMillan LLP, said the exemption is not nearly as broad as what's been reported. 'I think that report caused a lot of consternation within the trading community and the legal community. It is absolutely, certainly not zero impact on our clients,' he said, noting many of them are paying millions of dollars in duties already. 4. Where does all this leave Canadian businesses? Pellerin said there's a lot of confusion out there about what's covered by the exemptions. The Canada Border Services Agency has issued a customs notice explaining how to interpret the exemptions, 'but in many circumstances it's simply not obvious at all,' Pellerin said. As an example, he said he has clients who have been told by the CBSA that imported agricultural equipment is not exempt. 'We actually think that that's legally incorrect, that they've poorly interpreted the order-in-council,' he said. That's the kind of thing his firm is trying to sort out while it waits and hopes for a long-term resolution. 'Whatever actions need to be taken to get back to a tariff-free world (are) absolutely necessary,' he said. 5. How much tariff revenue has the government collected and where is it going? Conservative MPs have been asking this question in the House of Commons all week. On Tuesday, Conservative MP Dan Albas charged that 'Liberals promised $20 billion in elbows-up U.S. tariffs, but later dropped them with no regard to affected Canadian workers or fiscal impacts.' Prime Minister Carney responded to say that tariffs are still in effect and $1.7 billion has been collected so far. The federal government's latest fiscal monitor showed Canada collected an extra $617 million in import duties in March, as compared to the year before. Figures for April and May have not yet been published. During the election campaign, the Liberals and the Conservatives both estimated Canada would collect $20 billion in tariff revenue this fiscal year. In its election platform, the Liberal party pledged that 'every dollar raised from these tariffs will support Canadian workers and businesses affected by the trade war.' Officials at the Finance Department said in a statement that the money is going into the consolidated revenue fund and being used 'to support those hardest hit by this economic disruption.' The statement said that is happening through programs like employment insurance work-sharing, deferral of corporate income tax payments and GST/HST remittances, or by offering liquidity support through Export Development Canada, Farm Credit Canada, Business Development Canada and the Large Enterprise Tariff Loan Facility. — With files from Craig Lord This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2025. Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
National Observer
an hour ago
- National Observer
Canada's competition watchdog publishes final greenwashing guidelines
Businesses can make environmental claims — only if they aren't false or misleading and have been properly substantiated, according to new Canadian anti-greenwashing guidelines. The guidelines released Thursday by Canada's Competition Bureau are intended to help companies comply with anti-greenwashing laws introduced last June. Businesses making environmental claims will require an assessment, not only of the literal wording of the claim, but also of the general impression created by the advertisement as a whole, including the words, images and layout, the bureau said. The new rules elicited both praise and swift backlash. 'The bureau's guidance is important, but it is really just one piece of the puzzle, and it is not determinative,' said Keldon Bester, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, an Ottawa-based think tank focused on economic competition issues. After the amended legislation came into force last summer, corporate Canada clamoured for clarity on how it would apply, so this guidance should answer some of their questions, but the real test will be the cases the bureau decides to pursue and how they fare in front of competition tribunals, Bester said. But it is encouraging to see the bureau 'matching the spirit of the law,' he said. INSERT ALBERTA ENVIRONMENT AND PARKS MINISTER REBECCA SCHULZ STATEMENT Canada's competition watchdog published finalized guidance to help corporate Canada navigate the new greenwashing rules that came into force last summer 'The new guidelines appear to get to the heart of the matter,' Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said in an emailed statement to Canada's National Observer. "'Greenwashing' is just another form of untruthful advertising. We need enforceable 'truth in advertising' laws and these guidelines move in that direction,' May said. The bureau's guidance explained that if a Canadian business claimed in its marketing that it was on its way to net-zero emissions by 2050 and 'had good intentions about reducing greenhouse gases' — but made the claim before making a clear, evidence-backed plan to reach net-zero — that would be inadequate. Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist for Greenpeace Canada called this the 'Pathways clause,' in reference to the Pathways Alliance's ad campaign. In 2023, the bureau launched an investigation into the oilsands lobby group's campaign, 'Let's clear the air,' after Greenpeace Canada filed a complaint alleging net-zero claims in the ads were false or misleading. After the new greenwashing laws came into force last summer, Pathways Alliance removed all of the content related to its 'Let's clear the air' campaign from its website, social media and other public communications. The Competition Bureau dropped the investigation a few months later, in December 2024, according to a letter Greenpeace Canada shared with Canada's National Observer. 'Given that the representations that were the subject of this inquiry are no longer publicly available, as well as the Commissioner's discretion with respect to the assignment of limited resources, the Commissioner has decided to discontinue the inquiry at this time,' reads the letter to Greenpeace Canada. 'You don't have to read very far between the lines … to see that Pathways was going to lose that case, which is probably why they took all those ads down so quickly,' Stewart said. 'I think the Competition Bureau essentially said, 'OK, we're going to give you a mulligan on this one. We're not going to go after you because you took all the ads down … and we're now putting it in black and white, clarifying the rules around what constitutes greenwashing on net-zero claims, so don't do it again',' he said. 'You'll notice Pathways no longer talk about being on the path to net-zero.' The Pathways Alliance did not respond to a request for comment on the new guidelines. Alexandre Boulerice, NDP critic for environment and climate change, said deceptive marketing practices, particularly greenwashing, are a major problem because it misleads consumers and 'hurts public trust in a genuine green transition.' The new rules could be a step in the right direction, but consumers must know that they can report deceptive or false advertising and file a complaint, Boulerice said in an emailed statement to Canada's National Observer. 'Additionally, the Bureau requires the resources and capacity to carry out all those inquiries,' Boulerice said. Boulerice said the next few months will tell whether the federal government is serious about this issue. The Conservative Party and Bloc Québécois did not respond to a request for comment. Although the legislation and guidelines could both be stronger, 'the new guidelines should quiet the trumped-up backlash from parts of corporate Canada,' said Emilia Belliveau, Environmental Defence's energy transition program manager, in a Thursday press release.
National Observer
an hour ago
- National Observer
Warming waters revive port plans in Churchill By Christopher Pollon Analysis Business June 6th 2025 #68 of 68 articles from the Special Report: Business Solutions Share this article Shane Hutchins, general manager of Churchill port, is working to upgrade Canada's aging deepwater Arctic facility. 'It's going to need a lot of love,' he says. (Photo by Drew Hamilton for Canada's National Observer)
Listen to article Approaching Churchill's port by train, the twin grain towers appear from kilometers away across the tundra. It's 25 below in April, and Hudson Bay is trapped under a layer of ice as deep as three meters. This tourist town of 850 people and its increasingly strategic port is asleep — waiting for a spring ice breakup that is still months away. For nearly a century, the port at Churchill has languished as a great western hope, repeatedly dashed — the terminus of North America's rail system at sub-Arctic tidewater — where politics and geography have conspired to make this place more a dead end than the apex of a great trade corridor. But Churchill's fortunes are changing. The under-used seaport and its flood-prone rail line have been transformed from a white elephant into a nation-building project — spurred by a new urgency to seek alternative markets in the wake of a US-imposed global trade war. This year alone, the federal government has pledged $175 million to upgrade the port and the 1,300-km Hudson Bay Railway to communities like Gillam, Thompson and The Pas on or connected to the rail line. Canada's only deep-water Arctic port in Churchill has been sidelined for years. That's changing as a US trade war looms. In April, US and European diplomats visited Manitoba — a province now on their radar due to its strategic position at the centre of the continent and its rail links across a vast hinterland rich in grains, critical minerals and other resources exported to the world via Arctic waters that could be nearly ice-free in the summer by the 2050s. As the sea ice retreats from Hudson Bay and the wider Arctic due to climate change, the historic Northwest Passage could increasingly be open for business. If Churchill is to become the centerpiece of a third marine trade corridor for Canada, what are the opportunities, and what stands in the way? Old port, new mission Shane Hutchins, the port's general manager, drives his pickup truck through the aging facility, pausing occasionally to point to the sights out his window — the hulking concrete grain towers, a dilapidated 1920s-era power house. 'This place is close to 100 years old,' he said. 'It's going to need a lot of love.' Now 58, Hutchins worked there from 1998 to 2012 during the so-called 'great experiment' when the Jean Chrétien government sold the port and rail line to US rail operator OmniTRAX. Critics later accused the Denver-based firm of mismanaging the port and railway despite public funding and subsidies — allegations OmniTRAX has denied. (See sidebar below: Bitter Memories) Arctic Gateway co-chairman and Churchill mayor Mike Spence, an Indigenous businessman and power broker, recalled the lobbying effort to bring the port and railway under local control. 'I went to the government, and I said, 'Bullshit. If anybody is going to have ownership, it's going to be the region," he said. "It's going to be the communities that rely on that rail line, because we have a vested interest.'' Hutchins — who also owns Churchill's only taxi company — left the port to serve a single term as town councillor and spent much of that time criticizing OmniTRAX's Canadian representative in Winnipeg. Hutchins was hired back in 2023 after the port and its rail line were acquired by Winnipeg-based Arctic Gateway Group (AGG) a few years earlier. This spring the port's 28 workers will replace the decaying wharf face with fresh wood, and buy a second tugboat. He plans to hire another 25-30 skilled tradespeople, including mechanical fixers, carpenters, and stevedores who move cargo between rail cars and ships. Local people will be hired whenever possible, he said, including from Indigenous communities living along the rail line. Some of those new hires will work in a new building to store zinc concentrates from a mine in northern Manitoba, Hutchins said, adding there are plans to double shipments this year after a successful season moving the metals from Churchill to Antwerp, Belgium. A letter of intent has also been signed this year between AGG and Saskatchewan's Genesis Fertilizers to launch phosphate and fertilizer imports and exports through Churchill's port. In Alberta — where resentment over a lack of tidewater access for oil and gas has intensified in recent months — a group of Calgary-based energy and pipeline executives have proposed a ' multi-use energy corridor ' from Alberta to Churchill, including an LNG Plant and export terminal on Hudson Bay. The twin grain annexes that dominate the port are connected to conveyor belts that lead to the water — a reminder that the port's original role exporting grains and pulses could be revived. 'We have moved 700,000 tonnes of grain a season in the past,' Hutchins said. 'It's still achievable.' Climate change enabler What makes expanding the port such a hot topic is that an ice-free Northwest Passage is no longer the 300-year-old dream of explorers — it's happening now. Ice-free conditions that can support shipping have expanded one day a year since the 1980s, said Feiyue Wang, an expert on the dynamics of Hudson Bay ice. The current four-month shipping season, from July through October, can now be stretched for as long as six months, due to climate change, said Wang, Professor & Canada Research Chair at the University of Manitoba's Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS) in Winnipeg. 'Hudson Bay is on a trajectory to be ice-free year-round,' he said. '[Sea ice] has been the limitation to this third seaway, and why Churchill has never reached its potential.' Exports from Churchill involve bulk carriers sailing up the centre of Hudson Bay and eastward through Hudson Strait. From there 'it's a straight boulevard to Europe' — faster than from the port of Montreal, he said. Other experts point to the uncertainty created by US President Donald Trump's public desire to restore US control of the Panama Canal as an additional boon to Churchill. To be sure, insurance — not ice or geopolitics – is the biggest barrier to extending the Churchill shipping season, Wang said, accusing insurers of being 'stuck in the 1980s.' Beyond October, rates rise dramatically for vessels because insurers rely on ice condition data that is decades old. A key part of Wang's work at the University of Manitoba is to document and communicate the changing ice conditions to the insurance industry — particularly for routes where waters are increasingly navigable, but ice is present throughout much of the year. Challenges around insuring Arctic shipping remain a wicked problem, said a 2024 study by the Environmental Law Review. Lead author Pia Rebelo wrote that insurers need to calculate the premiums for both hull and machinery, and protection and indemnity, in an extreme environment that is completely unpredictable due to climate change. Given those challenges and the lack of existing data, she wrote, "the practical viability of Arctic shipping remains doubtful." To date, "insurers have paid out more in ship damage that has occurred in the Arctic than they have collected in premiums." Praying for another boom Climate change is a double-edged sword for Churchill. It is opening the gateway to ice-free shipping, but also melting the permafrost under parts of the Hudson Bay railway – the critical infrastructure that connects the port to the world. In 2017, huge spring snowfalls followed by extended, unseasonably warm weather caused flooding that washed out large sections of the track. OmniTRAX declared force majeure and the rail line was inoperable for more than two years, cutting off the rail lifeline to many northern communities with no road access. If there is an Achilles' heel to the gateway, it's the final stretch from Gillam where the railway line makes an abrupt northward turn to Churchill. It runs through a bog ecosystem that needs massive amounts of ballast — rock and gravel — to shore up and raise the track above the water line. This last stretch is also built over permafrost — which is becoming more unstable due to unpredictable warm temperatures. For Rhoda deMeulles, owner of the Churchill Home Building Centre, a key supplier of building materials from the south to contractors in town and the far north, the debacle that followed the 2017 washout was a near-death experience. She supplies contractors with building supplies that must first be trucked from Winnipeg to Thompson, then carried by rail to Churchill and all points north — up the Hudson Bay coast to places like Arviat and Whale Cove, into Nunavut and Rankin Inlet. When the railway line shut down, she almost went bankrupt. 'We suddenly were sending all our building materials to Montreal, putting it in [containers] and sailing it all the way around,' said deMeulles, who worked at the store for 24 years and then owned it for the last 30. Other staples had to be flown in from Thompson to Churchill – where a 2800m paved runway built by Americans in the late 1940s continues to serve as a critical asset for the Canadian sub-Arctic. 'I was paying $2.77 a pound. It killed us," she said. "We didn't think we were going to make it. That rail line is our life." Then came COVID, she sighed. 'I'm hoping and praying [the port] will boom again; that's what we need.' Technology to the rescue? 'Ports are the easy bit,' said Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia, and author of multiple books on the Arctic. 'Roads and rail-lines to and from Arctic ports are hard, especially now because of melting permafrost and shorter seasons for ice roads,' he said. An April report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a think tank, questioned the rationale of developing northern corridors. It argued roads and seasonal ports in the Canadian North are "incredibly expensive to build and maintain, and their use case is limited." Chris Avery, CEO of Arctic Gateway Group – a unit of the OneNorth partnership of 41 Manitoba First Nation and bayline communities which assumed ownership and operation of the port and railway in 2018 – insisted the current route has a future. 'Churchill will never replace the Ports of Vancouver or Montreal,' said Avery. 'The big selling proposition of the Port is that it provides western resources with direct, efficient access to markets in Europe, Africa and South America,' Avery told Canada's National Observer. 'To have a port in the north that helps us assert our sovereignty, connected by rail to the rest of Canada, makes a lot of sense.' Past problems with flooding and permafrost were made worse by a lack of maintenance, but that's no longer the case. 'We've used half a million tons of ballast rock along the railway. We've replaced about 300,000 railway ties,' he said. 'We manage the bridges, and we manage the culverts.' Arctic Gateway uses ground-penetrating radar mounted on locomotives to collect GPS-tracked data on the permafrost. It then employs artificial intelligence to analyze the data and identify potential trouble spots on the rail line. 'We have drones flying overhead — not just in the northern parts of the line — looking at the geometry, taking video of the tracks, ensuring levelness of the track, and also looking at all the lands surrounding the track,' Avery said. May 'erosion' event suspends traffic Weeks after Canada's National Observer visited, Arctic Gateway announced that 'embankment erosion' on the Hudson Bay Railway just outside of Gillam had caused a suspension of service. And although it was just early May, 'extreme wildfire conditions' had already suspended train service on a spur line north of The Pas. The erosion is a reminder of the vulnerabilities of the Hudson Bay railway's upper sections – the weakest links in the entire gateway chain – the stability of which could impact the future of the entire trade corridor. That's why there's a plan to establish a second port on the Nelson River not far to the south of Churchill – which does not navigate permafrost to the same degree, but is hindered by massive flows of river-borne sediment. Feiyue Wang and Barry Prentice, a professor and transportation and supply chain expert at the University of Manitoba's Transport Institute, have both recently suggested that the stretch of rail between Gillam and Churchill needs to be rebuilt on rockier ground to avoid permafrost. 'They built the [upper] rail line essentially through a frozen peat bog, and it's been a problem for 100 years,' said Prentice, who remains a champion of Churchill as a resource gateway, with a major caveat: 'What that whole system needs is billions of dollars in investment, not millions, because you've got to do much more than just fix the railway.' June 6th 2025 Christopher Pollon Keep reading Canada's future lies in the Arctic — and with Europe By Jaden Braves Opinion March 27th 2025 Americans keep an eye on Arctic port revival in Churchill By Christopher Pollon Analysis Business April 26th 2025 Canada spends $1.5 billion to boost Arctic sovereignty and empower Inuit communities By Sonal Gupta News Urban Indigenous Communities in Ottawa March 12th 2025 Share this article Share on Bluesky Share on LinkedIn Comments
