This is going to be a jam-packed posting with the AI experts at the Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) virtual panel, a look back at a ‘testy’ exchange between Yoshua Bengio (one of Canada’s godfathers of AI) and a former diplomat from China, an update on Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon and his latest AI push, and a missive from the BC artificial intelligence community.
A Canadian Science Policy Centre AI panel on November 11, 2025
The Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) provides an October 9, 2025 update on an upcoming virtual panel being held on Remembrance Day,
[AI-Driven Misinformation Across Sectors Addressing a Cross-Societal Challenge]
Upcoming Virtual Panel[s]: November 11 [2025]
Artificial Intelligence is transforming how information is created and trusted, offering immense benefits across sectors like healthcare, education, finance, and public discourse—yet also amplifying risks such as misinformation, deepfakes, and scams that threaten public trust. This panel brings together experts from diverse fields [emphasis mine] to examine the manifestations and impacts of AI-driven misinformation and to discuss policy, regulatory, and technical solutions [emphasis mine]. The conversation will highlight practical measures—from digital literacy and content verification to platform accountability—aimed at strengthening resilience in Canada and globally.
For more information on the panel and to register, click below.
Odd timing for this event. Moving on, I found more information on the CSPC’s webpage for this event, Note: Unfortunately, links to the moderator’s and speakers’ bios could not be copied here,
Canadian Science Policy Centre Email info@sciencepolicy.ca
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This panel brings together cross-sectoral experts to examine how AI-driven misinformation manifests in their respective domains, its consequences, and how policy, regulation, and technical interventions can help mitigate harm. The discussion will explore practical pathways for action, such as digital literacy, risk audits, content verification technologies, platform responsibility, and regulatory frameworks. Attendees will leave with a nuanced understanding of both the risks and the resilience strategies being explored in Canada and globally.
Canada Research Chair in Internet & E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa See Bio
[Panelists]
Dr. Plinio Morita
Associate Professor / Director, Ubiquitous Health Technology Lab, University of Waterloo …
Dr. Nadia Naffi
Université Laval — Associate Professor of Educational Technology and expert on building human agency against AI-augmented disinformation and deepfakes. See Bio
Dr. Jutta Treviranus
Director, Inclusive Design Research Centre, OCAD U, Expert on AI misinformation in the Education sector and schools. See Bio
Dr. Fenwick McKelvey
Concordia University — Expert in political bots, information flows, and Canadian tech governance See Bio
Michael Geist has his own blog/website featuring posts on his ares of interest and featuring his podcast, Law Bytes. Jutta Treviranus is mentioned in my October 13, 2025 posting as a participant in “Who’s afraid of AI? Arts, Sciences, and the Futures of Intelligence,” a conference (October 23 – 24, 205) and arts festival at the University of Toronto (scroll down to find it) . She’s scheduled for a session on Thursday, October 23, 2025.
China, Canada, and the AI Action summit in February 2025
Zoe Kleinman’s February 10, 2025 article for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) news online website also notes the encounter,
A former Chinese official poked fun at a major international AI safety report led by “AI Godfather” professor Yoshua Bengio and co-authored by 96 global experts – in front of him.
Fu Ying, former vice minister of foreign affairs and once China’s UK ambassador, is now an academic at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The pair were speaking at a panel discussion ahead of a two-day global AI summit starting in Paris on Monday [February 10, 2025].
The aim of the summit is to unite world leaders, tech executives, and academics to examine AI’s impact on society, governance, and the environment.
Fu Ying began by thanking Canada’s Prof Bengio for the “very, very long” document, adding that the Chinese translation stretched to around 400 pages and she hadn’t finished reading it.
She also had a dig at the title of the AI Safety Institute – of which Prof Bengio is a member.
China now has its own equivalent; but they decided to call it The AI Development and Safety Network, she said, because there are lots of institutes already but this wording emphasised the importance of collaboration.
The AI Action Summit is welcoming guests from 80 countries, with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Microsoft president Brad Smith and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai among the big names in US tech attending.
Elon Musk is not on the guest list but it is currently unknown whether he will decide to join them. [As of February 13, 2025, Mr. Musk did not attend the summit, which ended February 11, 2025.]
A key focus is regulating AI in an increasingly fractured world. The summit comes weeks after a seismic industry shift as China’s DeepSeek unveiled a powerful, low-cost AI model, challenging US dominance.
The pair’s heated exchanges were a symbol of global political jostling in the powerful AI arms race, but Fu Ying also expressed regret about the negative impact of current hostilities between the US and China on the progress of AI safety.
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She gave a carefully-crafted glimpse behind the curtain of China’s AI scene, describing an “explosive period” of innovation since the country first published its AI development plan in 2017, five years before ChatGPT became a viral sensation in the west.
She added that “when the pace [of development] is rapid, risky stuff occurs” but did not elaborate on what might have taken place.
“The Chinese move faster [than the west] but it’s full of problems,” she said.
Fu Ying argued that building AI tools on foundations which are open source, meaning everyone can see how they work and therefore contribute to improving them, was the most effective way to make sure the tech did not cause harm.
Most of the US tech giants do not share the tech which drives their products.
Open source offers humans “better opportunities to detect and solve problems”, she said, adding that “the lack of transparency among the giants makes people nervous”.
But Prof Bengio disagreed.
His view was that open source also left the tech wide open for criminals to misuse.
He did however concede that “from a safety point of view”, it was easier to spot issues with the viral Chinese AI assistant DeepSeek, which was built using open source architecture, than ChatGPT, whose code has not been shared by its creator OpenAI.
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Interesting, non? You can read more about Bengio’s views in an October 1, 2025 article by Rae Witte for Futurism.
In a Policy Forum, Yue Zhu and colleagues provide an overview of China’s emerging regulation for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and its potential contributions to global AI governance. Open-source AI systems from China are rapidly expanding worldwide, even as the country’s regulatory framework remains in flux. In general, AI governance suffers from fragmented approaches, a lack of clarity, and difficulty reconciling innovation with risk management, making global coordination especially hard in the face of rising controversy. Although no official AI law has yet been enacted, experts in China have drafted two influential proposals – the Model AI Law and the AI Law (Scholar’s Proposal) – which serve as key references for ongoing policy discussions. As the nation’s lawmakers prepare to draft a consolidated AI law, Zhu et al. note that the decisions will shape not only China’s innovation, but also global collaboration on AI safety, openness, and risk mitigation. Here, the authors discuss China’s emerging AI regulation as structured around 6 pillars, which, combined, stress exemptive laws, efficient adjudication, and experimentalist requirements, while safeguarding against extreme risks. This framework seeks to balance responsible oversight with pragmatic openness, allowing developers to innovate for the long term and collaborate across the global research community. According to Zhu et al., despite the need for greater clarity, harmonization, and simplification, China’s evolving model is poised to shape future legislation and contribute meaningfully to global AI governance by promoting both safety and innovation at a time when international cooperation on extreme risks is urgently needed.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
China’s emerging regulation toward an open future for AI by Yue Zhu, Bo He, Hongyu Fu, Naying Hu, Shaoqing Wu, Taolue Zhang, Xinyi Liu, Gang Xu, Linghan Zhang, and Hui Zhou. Science 9 Oct 2025Vol 390, Issue 6769 pp. 132-135 DOI: 10.1126/science.ady7922
This paper is behind a paywall.
No mention of Fu Ying or China’s ‘The AI Development and Safety Network’ but perhaps that’s in the paper.
Canada and its Minister of AI and Digital Innovation
Evan Solomon (born April 20, 1968)[citation needed] is a Canadian politician and broadcaster who has been the minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation since May 2025. A member of the Liberal Party, Solomon was elected as the member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto Centre in the April 2025 election.
He was the host of The Evan Solomon Show on Toronto-area talk radio station CFRB,[2] and a writer for Maclean’s magazine. He was the host of CTV’s national political news programs Power Play and Question Period.[3] In October 2022, he moved to New York City to accept a position with the Eurasia Group as publisher of GZERO Media.[4] Solomon continued with CTV News as a “special correspondent” reporting on Canadian politics and global affairs.”[4]
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Had you asked me what background one needs to be a ‘Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation’, media would not have been my first thought. That said, sometimes people can surprise you.
Solomon appears to be an enthusiast if a June 10, 2025 article by Anja Karadeglija for The Canadian Press is to be believed,
Canada’s new minister of artificial intelligence said Tuesday [June 10, 2025] he’ll put less emphasis on AI regulation and more on finding ways to harness the technology’s economic benefits [emphases mine].
In his first speech since becoming Canada’s first-ever AI minister, Evan Solomon said Canada will move away from “over-indexing on warnings and regulation” to make sure the economy benefits from AI.
His regulatory focus will be on data protection and privacy, he told the audience at an event in Ottawa Tuesday morning organized by the think tank Canada 2020.
Solomon said regulation isn’t about finding “a saddle to throw on the bucking bronco called AI innovation. That’s hard. But it is to make sure that the horse doesn’t kick people in the face. And we need to protect people’s data and their privacy.”
The previous government introduced a privacy and AI regulation bill that targeted high-impact AI systems. It did not become law before the election was called.
That bill is “not gone, but we have to re-examine in this new environment where we’re going to be on that,” Solomon said.
He said constraints on AI have not worked at the international level.
“It’s really hard. There’s lots of leakages,” he said. “The United States and China have no desire to buy into any constraint or regulation.”
That doesn’t mean regulation won’t exist, he said, but it will have to be assembled in steps.
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Solomon’s comments follow a global shift among governments to focus on AI adoption and away from AI safety and governance.
The first global summit focusing on AI safety was held in 2023 as experts warned of the technology’s dangers — including the risk that it could pose an existential threat to humanity. At a global meeting in Korea last year, countries agreed to launch a network of publicly backed safety institutes.
But the mood had shifted by the time this year’s AI Action Summit began in Paris. …
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Solomon outlined several priorities for his ministry — scaling up Canada’s AI industry, driving adoption and ensuring Canadians have trust in and sovereignty over the technology.
He said that includes supporting Canadian AI companies like Cohere, which “means using government as essentially an industrial policy to champion our champions.”
The federal government is putting together a task force to guide its next steps on artificial intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon is promising an update to the government’s AI strategy.
Solomon told the All In artificial intelligence conference in Montreal on Wednesday [September 24, 2025] that the “refreshed” strategy will be tabled later this year, “almost two years ahead of schedule.”
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“We need to update and move quickly,” he said in a keynote speech at the start of the conference.
The task force will include about 20 representatives from industry, academia and civil society. The government says it won’t reveal the membership until later this week.
Solomon said task force members are being asked to consult with their networks, suggest “bold, practical” ideas and report back to him in November [2025].
The group will look at various topics related to AI, including research, adoption, commercialization, investment, infrastructure, skills, and safety and security. The government is also planning to solicit input from the public. [emphasis mine]
Canada was the first country to launch a national AI strategy [the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy announced in 2016], which the government updated in 2022. The strategy focuses on commercialization, the development and adoption of AI standards, talent and research.
Solomon also teased a “major quantum initiative” coming in October [2025?] to ensure both quantum computing talent and intellectual property stay in the country.
Solomon called digital sovereignty “the most pressing policy and democratic issue of our time” and stressed the importance of Canada having its own “digital economy that someone else can’t decide to turn off.”
Solomon said the federal government’s recent focus on major projects extends to artificial intelligence. He compared current conversations on Canada’s AI framework to the way earlier generations spoke about a national railroad or highway.
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He said his government will address concerns about AI by focusing on privacy reform and modernizing Canada’s 25-year-old privacy law.
“We’re going to include protections for consumers who are concerned about things like deep fakes and protection for children, because that’s a big, big issue. And we’re going to set clear standards for the use of data so innovators have clarity to unlock investment,” Solomon said.
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The government is consulting with the public? Experience suggests that when all the major decisions will have been made; the public consultation comments will mined so officials can make some minor, unimportant tweaks.
Canada’s AI Task Force and parts of the Empire Club talk are revealed in a September 26, 2025 article by Alex Riehl for BetaKit,
Inovia Capital partner Patrick Pichette, Cohere chief artificial intelligence (AI) officer Joelle Pineau, and Build Canada founder Dan Debow are among 26 members of AI minister Evan Solomon’s AI Strategy Task Force trusted to help the federal government renew its AI strategy.
Solomon revealed the roster, filled with leading Canadian researchers and business figures, while speaking at the Empire Club in Toronto on Friday morning [September 26, 2025]. He teased its formation at the ALL IN conference earlier this week [September 24, 2025], saying the team would include “innovative thinkers from across the country.”
The group will have 30 days to add to a collective consultation process in areas including research, talent, commercialization, safety, education, infrastructure, and security.
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The full AI Strategy Task Force is listed below; each member will consult their network on specific themes.
Research and Talent
Gail Murphy, professor of computer science and vice-president – research and innovation, University of British Columbia and vice-chair at the Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Diane Gutiw, VP – global AI research lead, CGI Canada and co-chair of the Advisory Council on AI
Michael Bowling, professor of computer science and principal investigator – Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence Lab, University of Alberta and research fellow, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and Canada CIFAR AI chair
Arvind Gupta, professor of computer science, University of Toronto
Adoption across industry and governments
Olivier Blais, co-founder and VP of AI, Moov and co-chair of the Advisory Council on AI
Cari Covent, technology executive
Dan Debow, chair of the board, Build Canada
Commercialization of AI
Louis Têtu, executive chairman, Coveo
Michael Serbinis, founder and CEO, League and board chair of the Perimeter Institute
Adam Keating, CEO and Founder, CoLab
Scaling our champions and attracting investment
Patrick Pichette, general partner, Inovia Capital
Ajay Agrawal, professor of strategic management, University of Toronto, founder, Next Canada and founder, Creative Destruction Lab
Sonia Sennik, CEO, Creative Destruction Lab
Ben Bergen, president, Council of Canadian Innovators
Building safe AI systems and public trust in AI
Mary Wells, dean of engineering, University of Waterloo
Joelle Pineau, chief AI officer, Cohere
Taylor Owen, founding director, Center [sic] for Media, Technology and Democracy [McGill University]
Education and Skills
Natiea Vinson, CEO, First Nations Technology Council
Alex Laplante, VP – cash management technology Canada, Royal Bank of Canada and board member at Mitacs
David Naylor, professor of medicine – University of Toronto
Infrastructure
Garth Gibson, chief technology and AI officer, VDURA
Ian Rae, president and CEO, Aptum
Marc Etienne Ouimette, chair of the board, Digital Moment and member, OECD One AI Group of Experts, affiliate researcher, sovereign AI, Cambridge University Bennett School of Public Policy
Security
Shelly Bruce, distinguished fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation
James Neufeld, founder and CEO, Samdesk
Sam Ramadori, co-president and executive director, LawZero
With files from Josh Scott
If you have the time, Riehl ‘s September 26, 2025 article offers more depth than may be apparent in the excerpts I’ve chosen.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Arvind Gupta’s name. I’m glad to see he’s part of this Task Force (Research and Talent). The man was treated quite shamefully at the University of British Columbia. (For the curious, this August 18, 2015 article by Ken MacQueen for Maclean’s Magazine presents a somewhat sanitized [in my opinion] review of the situation.)
One final comment, the experts on the virtual panel and members of Solomon’s Task Force are largely from Ontario and Québec. There is minor representation from others parts of the country but it is minor.
British Columbia wants entry into the national AI discussion
Just after I finished writing up this post, I received Kris Krug’s (techartist, quasi-sage, cyberpunk anti-hero from the future) October 14, 2025 communication (received via email) regarding an initiative from the BC + AI community,
Growth vs Guardrails: BC’s Framework for Steering AI
Our open letter to Minister Solomon shares what we’ve learned building community-led AI governance and how BC can help.
Ottawa created a Minister of Artificial Intelligence and just launched a national task force to shape the country’s next AI strategy. The conversation is happening right now about who gets compute, who sets the rules, and whose future this technology will serve.
Our new feature, Growth vs Guardrails [see link to letter below for ‘guardrails’], is already making the rounds in those rooms. The message is simple: if Ottawa’s foot is on the gas, BC is the steering wheel and the brakes. We can model a clean, ethical, community-led path that keeps power with people and place.
This is the time to show up together. Not as scattered voices, but as a connected movement with purpose, vision, and political gravity.
Over the past few months, almost 100 of us have joined as the new BC + AI Ecosystem Association non-profit as Founding Members. Builders. Artists. Researchers. Investors. Educators. Policymakers. People who believe that tech should serve communities, not the other way around.
Now we’re opening the door wider. Join and you’ll be part of the core group that built this from the ground up. Your membership is declaration that British Columbia deserves to shape its own AI future with ethics, creativity, and care.
If you’ve been watching from the sidelines, this is the time to lean in. We don’t do panels. We do portals. And this is the biggest one we’ve opened yet.
See you inside,
Kris Krüg Executive Director BC + AI Ecosystem Association kk@bc-ai.ca | bc-ai.ca
Canada just spun up a 30-day sprint to shape its next AI strategy. Minister Evan Solomon assembled 26 experts (mostly industry and academia) to advise on research, adoption, commercialization, safety, skills, and infrastructure.
On paper, it’s a pivot moment. In practice, it’s already drawing fire. Too much weight on scaling, not enough on governance. Too many boardrooms, not enough frontlines. Too much Ottawa, not enough ground truth.
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This is Canada’s chance to reset the DNA of its AI ecosystem.
But only if we choose regeneration over extraction, sovereign data governance over corporate capture, and community benefit over narrow interests.
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The Problem With The Task Force
Research says: The group’s stacked with expertise. But critics flag the imbalance. Where’s healthcare? Where’s civil society beyond token representation? Where are the people who’ll feel AI’s impact first: frontline workers, artists, community organizers?
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The worry:Commercialization and scaling overshadow public trust, governance, and equitable outcomes. Again.
The numbers back this up: Only 24% of Canadians have AI training. Just 38% feel confident in their knowledge. Nearly two-thirds see potential harm. 71% would trust AI more under public regulation.
We’re building a national strategy on a foundation of low literacy and eroding trust. That’s not a recipe for sovereignty. That’s a recipe for capture.
Principles for a National AI Strategy: What BC + AI Stands For
In May 2025, thousands of international entrepreneurs, investors, media outlets, and leaders will gather at the Vancouver Convention Centre for our newest event: Web Summit Vancouver.
What is Web Summit Vancouver?
The Guardian called us “Glastonbury for geeks”, the Atlantic [magazine] “where the future goes to be born”, and Inc. “the best technology conference on the planet”.
This year, we’re excited to welcome the world’s tech community to the first Web Summit in North America. Vancouver [emphasis mine] is ready.
The tech world will gather in Vancouver
Web Summit Vancouver will take over from Collision in Toronto [emphasis mine], continuing our mission to connect the global technology ecosystem. Vancouver is one of the world’s most beautiful cities, with a flourishing tech community that connects the Americas, Asia and the Canadian West Coast.
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So they’ve rebranded ‘Collision’ in Toronto as the ‘Web Summit’ for the move to Vancouver?
A May 22, 2025 news item on DailyHive.com provides information that looks like it was regurgitated from the organizer’s news release,
Over 100 of the world’s top leaders in tech will be attending the highly anticipated Web Summit Vancouver next week, and it’s not too late to get your ticket.
Web Summit Vancouver will take place from May 27 to 30 [2025] and is known as the “Olympics of Tech.”
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Some notable speakers include:
Jay Graber – CEO, BlueSky
Brad Smith – Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
Max Lytvyn – Co-founder, Grammarly
Gary Marcus – Professor, scientist, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and AI contrarian, NYU
May Habib, Co-founder and CEO, Write [s.b. Writer]
Raquel Urtasun – Founder and CEO, Waab [s.b. Waabi]
Qasar Younis – Co-founder and CEO, Applied Intuition
Laura A. Clayton – President, Corporates, Thomson Reuters
Nicole Parlapino – Chief Marketing Officer, Tubi
Neil Patel – Founder, Neil Patel Digital
JaVale McGee – 3x NBA Champion, Olympic Gold Medallist, Grammy Nominated Producer
Peter Montopoli -Chief Tournament Officer, Canada FIFA World Cup 2026 [emphasis mine]
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The event is organized by Web Summit, which also holds large-scale technology conferences worldwide in cities like Lisbon [emphasis mine], Rio de Janeiro, and Doha. Vancouver’s event will be the first Web Summit in North America.
It’s not just global names that will be attending, as over 300 B.C. companies [emphasis mine] will be showcased, highlighting how important the tech sector is to the province’s economic and innovative growth.
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The cheapest ticket (from the https://vancouver.websummit.com/tickets/attendees/ webpage) is $835.00 CAD including tax. You will be allowed to wander around for four days. Not included are: Speaker lounge access, Fast-tracked registration, Evening receptions, Meeting spaces, Delicious catered food and drinks, or Access to all exhibition floor lounges. In short, more money = more access.
$$$ and other matters
The promise is that there will be some sort of economic benefit to the local economy. The promise is made over and over again in the June 2024 coverage of the announcement that the Web Summit was coming to Vancouver.
This June 12, 2024 article by Kenneth Chan for the Daily Hive provides what seems to be an insider’s view of the announcement,
It is now confirmed that the massive annual Collision Conference, one of the world’s largest tech conferences, will be leaving Toronto for its new home of Vancouver in 2025.
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It is deemed to be North America’s fastest-growing tech conference, with over 40,000 attendees from more than 130 countries. The conference assembles high-profile individuals from around the world, bringing together thousands of international thought leaders in tech, unicorn founders, investors, startups, and media.
“Vancouver is ready to welcome the world. We’re a young, energetic city full of opportunity,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim in a statement today.
“Nowhere is that more obvious than in our thriving tech scene, where we’re advancing leading edge technology like virtual reality and augmented reality. Vancouver is attracting highly skilled people from around the world drawn here by our lifestyle, incredible natural surroundings, and the chance to be part of something exciting.”
This follows a concerted effort by levels of government and the business and tourism community to woo event organizer Web Summit to keep the event in Canada, and choose Vancouver as the conference’s new permanent home.
The effort was led by local tourism authority Destination Vancouver, in partnership with the federal government’s Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan), the Government of British Columbia’s Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation, the City of Vancouver, and local tech industry leaders, including the Frontier Collective.
Web Summit is also behind other major tech conferences such as Web Summit Lisbon [emphasis mine], Web Summit Rio de Janeiro, Web Summit Doha, Rise Hong Kong, and MoneyConf Dublin.
The decision to move Collision Conference to Vancouver also comes as a big nod to the city’s tech industry, which has seen wildly exponential growth over the past decade to become one of BC’s largest economic sectors in terms of the number of jobs the industry supports, with many of these jobs being high paying.
“We can’t wait to gather the tech world in Vancouver and take over the city next year. Last month I flew to Vancouver to check out the city and meet Mayor Ken Sim and Destination Vancouver. I was so blown away by its beauty and tech scene. It’s the perfect place to bring the tech world,” said Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of Web Summit.
“Similar to Lisbon [emphasis mine], Vancouver and British Columbia might seem like the underdogs at first, but the energy and drive to build on an already very fast-growing technology ecosystem blew me away.”
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Destination Vancouver estimates Web Summit Vancouver will produce substantial local economic spinoffs, with nearly $57 million in direct spending and over $93 million in overall economic impact for British Columbia in its first year [emphasis miine].
Throughout its life in Toronto, starting with the inaugural Toronto conference in 2019 and the event’s post-pandemic return in 2022 and 2023, the event had a cumulative three-year local economic impact of $189 million [emphases mine].
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“We knew Vancouver was the right place for Web Summit,” said Royce Chwin, president and CEO of Destination Vancouver. “A transformational event of this calibre will continue to build our reputation as an exceptional host city and sharpen Vancouver’s global destination competitiveness.”
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Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) [emphasis mine] will host its 2025 International Convention from July 3 to 6 [2025] at the Vancouver Convention Centre and BC Place Stadium. This will be AA’s first International Convention in a decade, as the 2020 convention in Detroit was cancelled due to the pandemic. The convention is held once every five years in a new destination, and about 50,000 attendees from around the world are expected for the first convention in a decade in Vancouver.
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I will get to Lisbon later. First, I’d like to know how they derived the numbers for the economic benefits they’re claiming for Toronto and how they’ve used that information to make estimates for Vancouver and British Columbia. I’d also like to know who benefits? As for the Alcoholics Anonymous gathering, it seems like an odd addition (other than it’s another large gathering) to Chan’s article, which was titled “Collision Conference moving to Vancouver from Toronto in 2025.”
“Vancouver is ready to welcome the world,” said Mayor Ken Sim. “We’re a young, energetic city full of opportunity. Nowhere is that more obvious than in our thriving tech scene, where we’re advancing leading edge technology like virtual reality and augmented reality. Vancouver is attracting highly skilled people from around the world drawn here by our lifestyle, incredible natural surroundings, and the chance to be part of something exciting.”
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I’m not sure what the mayor knows about Vancouver technology scene given that he’s an accountant by trade and is an entrepreneur who founded Nurse Next Door (a home nursing business) and Rosemary Rock Salt (a bagel business). As far as I’m aware there’s not a single person with a science/technology degree/background on city council.
Waiting almost a week to make its own announcement Web Summit issued a June 18, 2024 news release with a few interesting additional details,
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In the last two years, Web Summit has introduced three brand new events, including Web Summit Rio in South America, which has gathered more than 60,000 attendees in its first two years, and Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East, which drew 15,000 attendees in its first year.
Web Summit’s flagship event in Lisbon is set to bring more than 70,000 attendees from 150-plus countries to Lisbon this November. In total, participation at Web Summit events has increased by 51 percent since 2022, and by the end of the year, our 2024 events will have drawn more than 160,000 attendees.
Web Summit aims to bolster this growth further as it takes over Vancouver in May 2025. With more than 11,000 tech companies, technology has become the fastest-growing sector in the province [emphases mine]. The tech sector is growing at twice the rate of the overall economy, and Vancouver ranks first in high tech job growth in North America. Home to six unicorns, including Dapper Labs, Blockstream, Trulioo, LayerZero Labs, Visier, the city also hosts major tech companies Salesforce, Apple and Amazon.
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“We are now in four continents and have every intention to bring something to Africa very soon, as we continue our ambition to connect the tech world and build meaningful and lasting communities around the world,” he [Paddy Cosgrave, founder and CEO of Web Summit] added.
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Destination Vancouver anticipates that Web Summit Vancouver will generate CA$172 million in direct spending and CA$279 million in overall economic impact for British Columbia over three years. Web Summit’s direct economic impact can be worth €200 million annually in cities such as Lisbon, where it hosts its flagship event.
Web Summit has played a critical role in bolstering the tech landscape in its host cities and countries. Since Web Summit’s arrival in Lisbon, the Portuguese startup economy has grown significantly, influencing many young startups to relocate to Lisbon and major companies such as Mercedes, Revolut, and Google to open offices there.
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Over 300 BC tech companies being showcased when there are over 11,000 in the province? It must have been an interesting (money, personal contacts) selection process.
How much are we paying for this economic windfall?
A June 19, 2024 article by Josh Scott for BetaKit.com gives readers a sense of some of what went into luring Collision/Web Summit to Vancouver, Note: Links have been removed,
BetaKit has been tracking Vancouver as a possible Collision destination for over a year since reporting on the myriad issues casting doubt on the conference’s long-term viability in Toronto. Last week, following prodding from BetaKit, Web Summit confirmed that Vancouver reached a three-year deal to host a rebranded event dubbed Web Summit Vancouver, funded by up to $14.8 million CAD combined from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments. The first Web Summit Vancouver will be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre from May 27 to 30, 2025.
“Knowing that we have this incredible tech scene that doesn’t seem to be really known in some corners of the world, this was a perfect opportunity to marry what we do in terms of building the visitor economy and Web Summit, which is truly an experience,” Destination Vancouver president and CEO Royce Chwin said during a June 14 event hosted by KPMG celebrating the successful bid.
The celebration carried into Collision’s opening night on June 17 at the Frontier Collective “Vancouver Takeover” event, which featured Web Summit head of Asia Pacific Casey Lau [emphasis mine], Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, tech leaders from across the country, including the people behind the winning bid. “Vancouver is literally taking Collision from Toronto to the West Coast,” said Ali Clarke, the event’s MC.
“The cool thing about Collision is most people outside of tech—in fact, almost everyone outside of tech—don’t have a fucking clue as to what’s going on, but they will because we have three years to wave the flag,” Sim said on stage [emphasis mine]. That flag, he said, represents that Vancouver is “open for business,” understands tech, and has a strong and growing innovation ecosystem.
Speaking on stage alongside Sim at the Vancouver Takeover, Lau said, “It’s just a fantastic city and I think that it’s a great backdrop for a conference, and what is going on in Vancouver is great for people to see.”
“We’re just really happy that we’re able to keep [the event] in Canada because it was leaving the country,” Sim told BetaKit in an interview following his remarks, pointing out that Vancouver beat other possible host cities, including international candidates like Mexico City. Sim previously told BetaKit that the priority was keeping the conference in Canada, a sentiment that Chwin echoed in his own comments to BetaKit.
In an interview with BetaKit, Lau singled out Vancouver’s growing tech ecosystem, beautiful natural landscape, proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sim’s support for the tech sector as some of the factors that brought the tech conference west.
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Last summer [2023], investigative reporting from BetaKit revealing the extent of municipal support for the original Collsion Toronto bid, as well as the ask to renew for another three years at a much higher price, kickstarted a national debate on government support of international ventures versus home-grown alternatives. This time, the supporting governments have been proactive in disclosing how much has been committed to bringing the conference to Vancouver, as well as its value proposition relative to local events like INNOVATEwest.
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The City of Vancouver is providing Web Summit Vancouver with up to $1.6 million over three years, including a $250,000 first-year cash grant via Destination Vancouver, waiving permits worth up to $355,000 annually to host events in city-owned outdoor areas, and up to $75,000 in-kind annually to offset safety and running costs incurred for providing those venues.
Through PacifiCan, the Government of Canada is providing Web Summit Vancouver with up to $6.6 million over three years. The Government of BC has also pledged $6.6 million over three years to the event.
These federal, provincial, and municipal commitments total up to $14.8 million over three years, less per year than the $6.5 million BetaKit previously reported Collision was receiving annually in Toronto and a far cry from the north of $40 million over three years that BetaKit previously reported that Collision had once sought to stay in Toronto.
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Web Summit Vancouver 2025 is expected to be much smaller than Collision 2024. While the parties involved are not yet willing to share attendance expectations, the event will need to contend with the same issues that undermined Vancouver’s original push for Collision—namely, the city’s lack of hotel space.
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Nearly six months after resigning following his controversial statements about the Israel-Hamas war on social media, Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave returned as CEO this April. Asked how Cosgrave’s behaviour and association factored into the process, Chwin indicated that the economic and socioeconomic impact of an event like Web Summit Vancouver “outweighed” the controversy associated with Cosgrave.
For his part, during a press conference today at Collision, Sim said, “I do want to thank Paddy, you, Casey, [and] your entire Web Summit team for giving us the opportunity to host Web Summit and to show the world why Vancouver is the best city on the planet.”
Asked what tangible impact he expects Web Summit Vancouver to have, Sim told BetaKit that the numbers are evolving but noted he anticipates “hundreds of millions of dollars” of investment into the local economy and more tech organizations to set up shop in the city, among other benefits.
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Casey Lau (emphasized in the article) shows up again in another article further on. As for how much this Web Summit will cost Vancouver, there’s more coming in the next section.
A June 14, 2024 article by Dan Fumano for the Vancouver Sun newspaper offers more detail about just what taxpayers will be spending and how this web summit was secured,
The two former schoolmates [emphasis mine] embraced tightly and slapped each other’s backs.
“We did it. We did it,” said Casey Lau [emphasis mine], head of Asia Pacific for Web Summit, one of the world’s top tech-conference organizers. As Lau hugged Ken Sim [emphasis mine], with whom he attended Vancouver’s Churchill Secondary School decades ago, he told the now-mayor: “I’m super-proud of the city.”
Lau and Sim were among a crowd of excited government officials and business people at an event Friday in KPMG’s downtown Vancouver office tower, toasting the week’s news: Web Summit is coming to Vancouver for three years starting in 2025, slated to bring tens of thousands of delegates and hundreds of millions in economic impact for the city.
Getting the event to the West Coast required a lot of behind-the-scenes work among different levels of government and private-sector actors — and at least $14 million of public funds.
The event, formerly known as Collision Conference and sometimes described as “the Olympics of tech,” was held in Las Vegas in past years, and then New Orleans, and most recently in Toronto from 2019 until this year’s [2024] edition, which later this month marks its final time in Canada’s most-populous city before moving west next year.
“The Toronto deal was ending,” explained Lau, who is now based in Hong Kong [emphasis mine]. “I said: ‘I know this guy in Vancouver,’” meaning Sim, “and then that’s how it started.”
It didn’t happen overnight. Sim said he has had his eye on bringing this event to his hometown since soon after being sworn into office in late 2022.
Sim, an entrepreneur before getting into politics, is a major booster of Vancouver’s tech scene. He seems to love big business conferences and international events [Note: Remember Peter Montopoli, a Web Summit Vancouver 2025 speaker from the Canada FIFA World Cup 2026 organization, which will hold some of its World Cup soccer matches in Vancouver? See this November 19, 2022 article “Who’s going to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup?” by Bob Mackin for more about Sim, attendance at meetings, and the world cup], especially those that shine a spotlight on Vancouver and boost the city’s international profile. When the news broke earlier this week about Web Summit Vancouver 2025, Sim was in London for a tech event there. [emphases mine]
London Tech Week 2024 Shape the Future Uniting global tech to drive sustainable innovation Dates: Monday, June 10, 2024 – Wednesday, June 12, 2024
London Tech Week is a global celebration of tech, uniting the most innovative thinkers and talent of tomorrow in a week-long festival. Showcasing how tech is transforming business and society, London Tech Week drives thought provoking conversations around innovation, diversity and transformation, providing a platform for the tech ecosystem to come together to drive change.
London Tech Week is where the UK’s biggest businesses, most creative innovators and smartest investors converge with global tech leaders. For over 10 years it has been a meeting place where strategies are set, policies are announced and business gets done.
Why did the mayor of Vancouver (accountant and founder of a home nursing business and bagel business) need to attend the 2024 London Tech Week and how did it or will it benefit the city and provincial economy?
According to a December 15, 2024 article by Dan Fumano for the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Mayor Ken Sim had a very high rate of absenteeism from city council meetings (2022 – 2024),
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Since being elected in October 2022, Sim has been [sic] missed 36 per cent of council votes — not attending in person or online. [emphasis mine]
That is more than double the rate of his predecessors, Kennedy Stewart and Gregor Robertson. Stewart, mayor from 2018 to 2022, was absent for 16 per cent of votes. Robertson, mayor from 2008 to 2018, missed 14 per cent between 2016 and 2018, the only part of his time in office for which figures were available.
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Where is the value for people in Vancouver? *ETA May 25, 2025: When Mayor Sim went to Quatar for a World Cup game? From Mackin’s “Who’s going to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup?,”
“Just two weeks after being sworn-in [emphasis mine], [first time ever elected to public office] Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is jetting off to Qatar to enjoy the FIFA World Cup. … Neither Toronto Mayor John Tory nor Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell are traveling to Qatar, according to their respective press secretaries.” [Both Toronto and Seattle will be hosting 2026 World Cup games.]*
Getting back to Fumano’s June 14, 2024 article, which offers greater detail about the deal (money) required to lure Web Summit to Vancouver, Note: A link has been removed,
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Long before this week’s headlines, government officials, private-sector players and lobbyists were working toward this result.
B.C.’s lobbyist registry shows that last year, Destination Vancouver enlisted the services of Thoughtbridge Management Consultants, led by Bill Tam, to help Vancouver’s work putting together a competitive bid to attract what was then known as Collision Conference.
The province contributed $200,000 to support Destination Vancouver’s bid development efforts, said a spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation.
Later, the B.C. government put up $6.6 million to secure Web Summit for three years — $3 million in cash for the organizers and $3.6 million for “in-kind contributions,” the details of which are still to be determined, the ministry spokesperson said.
The federal government also kicked in $6.6 million to support the hosting of Web Summit Vancouver, said a spokesperson for Pacific Economic Development Canada.
Brenda Bailey, B.C.’s minister of jobs, economic development and innovation, says this public investment will provide a great return for B.C.
“It’s very appropriate for people to ask that question. This is money that belongs to the public [true!], and we have to spend it very carefully,” Bailey said. “You can imagine the level of analysis that goes into making a decision like this [and yet you don’t share any details about it], to support such a thing as a splashy conference. But it’s not the splash that attracts me, it’s the investment community and opportunities that will come out of this.”
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… in April [2024], council conditionally approved a cash grant of $250,000 to the event organizers, along with up to $1.32 million in “value-in-kind offset grants” over three years, including waiving fees for operational and public safety costs, street banners and permits for Web Summit to host events on outdoor city-owned public spaces. [emphases mine]
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While Web Summit has grown over the years, the firm and its CEO, Paddy Cosgrave, have also drawn controversy and criticism. Not everyone in Torontos’ tech industry was sad to see Collision leave town. [emphasis mine] In a commentary last year in The Globe and Mail, Philippe Telio, founder of Canadian tech conference Startupfest, argued that public money would be better directed to homegrown Canadian organizations. Collision was receiving about $6.5 million a year in public funds, Telio wrote, and was asking for even more money to stay in Toronto, a request the government should reject.
Vancouver’s bid was also supported by Frontier Collective, a not-for-profit working to boost Vancouver’s high-tech sector. Frontier Collective co-founder and CEO Dan Burgar said Web Summitt will be “a game-changer” for the city.
The Lisbon connection?
The mention of Lisbon in the various articles caught my eye due to a local scandal regarding Metro Vancouver and employee travel, from a November 18, 2024 article by Catherine Urquhart for Global TV news online,
In recent days Metro Vancouver staff posted a video and photos from a trip to the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal [emphasis mine].
Metro Vancouver staffer Sue Mah boasted about Stella the robotic dog, killer yoga moves, and a reception they attended.
The trip comes just a few months after a Global News freedom of information request uncovered how Metro Vancouver spent more than $64,000 taxpayer dollars on fancy food and alcohol at a conference in Toronto.
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Travel spending continues even as Metro Vancouver residents face huge tax increases connected to the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant, estimated to be about $3 billion over budget.
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The staff member who travelled to Lisbon is with Invest Vancouver, promoted as Metro Vancouver’s regional economic development service.
The agency was launched about five years ago, even though Metro Vancouver lists its core mandate as providing regional utility services related to drinking water, liquid waste, and solid waste [emphasis mine].
“Based on what I can see, and based on what I have read, this looks like a lot of scope creep and looks like a lot of duplication,” Fontaine [New Westminster, a Metro Vancouver municipality member, councillor Daniel Fontaine] said.
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It’ s not clear what value Metro Vancouver would received from this junket, from Urquhart’s November 18, 2024 article, “Global News emailed Metro Vancouver communications staff with a number of questions. They have not provided any answers.”
A few thoughts
Something like the Web Summit in Vancouver is not an inherently bad idea. I’ve been to trade shows and international meetings and they can be very exciting … for the attendees. I spent my money on lodgings, food and, maybe, some sightseeing and souvenirs. It’s not clear to me what the economic benefit would have been for the average person living in the city.
Of course, an individual attendee is not going to light up the local economy. The hope is that businesses will be enticed into opening up offices in the locale, that entrepreneurial types will find investors and found startups, and that those who have startups will attract more investment and grow.
It’s disconcerting to see elected officials and civil servants who may or may not have any relevant expertise jumping on the hype bandwagon. Yes, the latest technology can be very exciting but you’re using money from taxpayers and that should require some thought and care.
Mayor Sim’s trip to the 2024 London Tech Week might have been good idea but it’s hard to tell when no information is offered. As for the Web Summit, we’ll be hosting a smaller event than the previous Collision in Toronto and we’re paying more for the privilege.
As for Metro Vancouver’s investment agency staff taking a trip to Web Summit Lisbon on the taxpayers’ dime? At best, it seems odd.
In the end, I hope I’m wrong and that this turns out to be a bonanza for the local economy stretching beyond the hotel and restaurant and other tourist industries.
