As wildfires raged in northern Ontario earlier this month, the effects were felt throughout the province. Those in areas close to the blazes were evacuated; as far south as Chatham, residents were advised to avoid unnecessary outdoor activities. In Toronto, besieged by a brutal heat wave, the urban heat island effect trapped pollutants in the densely packed city, resulting in the dubious honour of being named one of the cities with the worst air quality in the world.
Although authorities have become accustomed to taking action during wildfire season, the increasing intensity, duration and scope of fires mean that their impact is felt in areas that used to be impervious to forest fire fallout, and pre-existing protocols no longer suffice. While organizations and various levels of government conduct drills to help manage emergency situations, there are limits to how effective real-life practice can be if one is facing a previously unheard-of scenario. “That’s where computer modelling comes in,” says Myrna Bittner, the CEO and co-founder of RunWithIt Synthetics, which has developed an AI-driven platform (she describes it as Google Earth meets Sim City) that can help municipalities and other groups visualize how a particular crisis might play out depending on different variables.
Virtual models and algorithmic calculations have long been involved in emergency planning, but as climate change makes it harder to anticipate the parameters of wildfires and other natural disasters, old frameworks are no longer effective. “The failure is in the unimaginable,” says Bittner, who notes that conventional climate modelling has often focused on incremental shifts over time. What’s missing from that approach, she says, are “the sudden and severe and chronic and compounding disasters” that people need to understand in order to protect themselves and their communities. For RunWithIt, Bittner uses visualizations and leverages population-specific data that allows her to represent, for instance, how people navigate daily life in their community, how many homes will be permeated by smoke and how many residents will experience health complications.
Rather than foregrounding the human experience, many predictive tools focus on infrastructure destruction, buildings lost, acreage burnt. This makes it harder for people to grasp the urgency of a potential disaster — and it speaks to how virtual modelling itself needs to evolve. The world is not fixed or binary, Bittner says. “We need to be constantly revising and augmenting our understanding,” she adds, “and the modelling world needs to escape that foundation of being reliant on historical data, because the future is not like the past.”
Manzil expands banking options for Muslim Americans
Toronto-based Manzil, which specializes in financial services that adhere to the core tenets of the Islamic faith, is a unique fintech resource for a group that can struggle to access inclusive banking options. The startup, which has been providing halal mortgages to Canadians since 2020 (Sharia law prohibits transactions that earn interest, so conventional mortgages are verboten), has just launched Manzil Invest USA, an app that will allow American customers to explore different investment options without compromising their religious beliefs.
X CEO is now ex-CEO
Linda Yaccarino, who was named CEO of X (formerly Twitter) two years ago, is exiting her role at the corporation. While things have been tumultuous throughout her tenure at the contentious social-media platform, Yaccarino’s departure does come on the heels of a string of particularly egregious antisemitic posts by Grok, X’s in-house AI bot — though she did not mention Grok in her parting statement.
Union news for NextStar
Workers at the NextStar Energy plant in Windsor, Ont., Canada’s first large-scale electric vehicle (EV) battery cell manufacturing facility, have voted to ratify their first collective agreement. According to Unifor Local 444, 88 per cent of employees were in favour of the terms of the one-year deal, which includes a five per cent wage increase and improvements related to pensions, disability programs and workplace health and safety measures.
Nvidia’s chips are back on China’s table
California-based tech corporation Nvidia (which recently hit a market milestone) has been given the green light to resume selling AI chips to China. Nvidia had paused semiconductor trade with China in April due to the U.S. government’s licensing requirements on Chinese orders. According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the government’s decision is related to its negotiations with Beijing over rare earth metals — and, he says, because Nvidia’s H20 chip is just the company’s “fourth-best” model, the administration is not overly concerned about exporting it to China.
Cheelcare rolls onto the TSX
Richmond Hill, Ont.-based Cheelcare, which specializes in innovative assistive tech, completed the final steps to become a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, where it’s now listed as CHER. As of July 16, those interested in the startup’s outside-the-box mobility solutions (which include rear-view cams, multi-directional tilt capabilities and power boosts for manual wheelchairs) can buy Cheelcare shares (Cheelshares?).
By the numbers:
72 per cent: The reduction in solar heat transmission that can be achieved by adding an insert with NxLite L80 to a single-paned glass window. This proprietary heat-reflecting coating can also be applied to polycarbonate and acrylic sheets to bolster insulation and improve energy efficiency.
$6.6 billion (U.S.): The amount invested by Canada’s eight largest pension funds in ventures related to AI data centres and other digital infrastructure.
$8.77 million: How much the Quebec government has invested in ARA Robotics and Laflamme Aéro with the aim of further developing drone technology that can monitor wildfires and address other critical infrastructure needs.
Rebecca Gao writes about technology for MaRS. Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies.
