François-Philippe Champagne will unveil the Carney government’s second budget tomorrow—a budget the finance minister has signalled will be for “entrepreneurs” and “innovators.” But what does that mean?
The news: Entitled “Masters of our Destiny,” the federal budget’s cover shows energy grids powering Canada. Chatter around Parliament Hill suggests that imagery is reflected in funding commitments that are broadly expected to follow through on sweeping infrastructure spending that was outlined last year. “Broadly” is a key word; some innovation policy advocates have indicated to BetaKit that, compared to previous budgets, they have a less clear sense of which asks have been met. “Everything’s a priority, so nothing’s a priority,” one insider told BetaKit.
The most-anticipated measures, at least among the tech community, are significant spending on the space industry (one source suggested a figure in the hundreds of millions), as well as much-requested tax incentives that advocates argue will spur innovation and domestic spending. Canada’s finance minister teased that entrepreneurs will be very happy with what they see on Thursday, but neglected to share specifics of how those policies or commitments will take shape.
From the source: Sean Mullin, a senior fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy who recently served as a special advisor to the prime minister on economic affairs, told BetaKit that he’s expecting to see continued funding of initiatives that support sovereignty and national resilience, especially those articulated in last week’s National Security Strategy.
“The strategy outlined areas of strategic importance for the country, including emerging technologies, defence, energy, and economic resilience,” Mullin said.
Final thought: Mullin will join the BetaKit team in tomorrow’s budget lockup, where our reporters will parse through hundreds of pages of documents and grill government officials on the details; we’ll have an executive summary targeted for Canadian tech at the top of our site with all the need-to-know details, with follow-up files as well. What are you expecting, or hoping, to see? Tell us. Once we learn what a budget for entrepreneurs looks like, you’ll be the first to know.
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US votes no on data centres
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On the move
This week’s hires, fires, and exec shakeups:
- General Fusion founder and chief science officer Michel Laberge is stepping back from his role at the Richmond, BC-based fusion power company.
- Shopify employees report the company cut staff this quarter as its stock fell on a narrow Q3 revenue miss.
- Two Canadian startups teamed up to launch PRJOBS, a job board helping prospective permanent residents find roles that fit Canada’s new immigration rules.
- BDC tapped former Frank & Oak CTO Raff Paquin and Connect&GO founder Dominic Gagnon to lead its two new AI-focused programs.
- Telesat plans to hire hundreds more employees in Ottawa to address growing demand, according to the OBJ.
- Cloud software giant Genesys opened a new office in downtown Toronto.
- AI research startup Transformer Lab added young theoretical physicist Ethan Thompson as its lead research scientist in quantum.
- There is “no broad evidence” that AI has led to substantial decreases in hiring, according to a new StatCan study.
- Graphic design platform Canva laid off more than 1,200 people, or 22 percent of its staff, as it wrestles with slowing growth.
- Writing for BetaKit, Toast founder and CEO April Hicke argues that Alberta’s new bill to bar DEI in hiring will hurt innovation.
How does Québec’s tech ecosystem measure up?
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Download the Québec Tech Report 2026 to explore the findings and discover what it will take to help more Québec tech companies scale.
#1. As public distaste grows, what is OpenAI planning to start renaming its data centres?
Your score:
Quiz answer: a) AI compute campuses. Axios reported that OpenAI prepared a PR blitz to quell nationwide, bipartisan backlash to data centres, posing them as “AI compute campuses” that can economically transform host communities.
Quiz answer: a) AI compute campuses. Axios reported that OpenAI prepared a PR blitz to quell nationwide, bipartisan backlash to data centres, posing them as “AI compute campuses” that can economically transform host communities.
Contributors: Alex Riehl (Ottawa staff writer), Trevor Nichols (web editor), Sarah Rieger (managing editor), Douglas Soltys (editor-in-chief).