TO SURVIVE OR THRIVE IN 2025

TO SURVIVE OR THRIVE IN 2025

One thing is for sure... we will see more change in 2025 than we have ever seen before.

Every December I am asked for my projections for the coming year. So before I go public with them, I wanted to share a few of my thoughts with my friends as a preview of what I see on our horizon. As usual, I welcome your comments or added insights into our next trip around the sun.

What could surprise us about 2025 may also be what makes a difference in your life to come.

In 2025 we could easily see events like...

1. Carbon tracking and optimization will become mainstream, with companies adopting AI-driven technologies to measure and reduce their carbon footprints.

2. AI will continue to advance and become the ultimate middle manager.

3. Blockchain will be used as the ultimate identity verifier.

4. Mental health could hit crisis levels.

5. Jobs will become more unconventional.

6. Artificial General Intelligence & AI Sentience may be achieved.

7. Social media may face an implosion.

8. Reality will blur with virtual experiences.

and a lot more that will rock our way of life.

In our fast-changing world being prepared can make the difference between whether you survive or thrive in 2025. Let's look at what is happening on several fronts and how it may impact your daily life.

ENVIRONMENT

The concerns around global warming and ecosystem collapse will continue to grow as the real consequences of our ill-informed choices become more evident and undeniable. Even the fact that we are already entering the world's next great extinction event will show up on people's radar. Despite the "Ostriches" who continue to live in denial, the general population around the world will become even more aware that if we want to keep Earth supporting life as we came to know it, we have to make broad changes to the way society functions in concert with our natural systems. By default, environmental solutions will become the fastest-growing sector both in terms of research and our economies.

Unfortunately, as global conflicts intensify, environmental issues and initiatives will take a back burner in public policy development but the private sector will keep its eye on the ball and continue to create innovations and initiatives that will keep us in motion towards a sustainable society.

At home, we will see changes this year. Not all will be positive but all will have impacts we will notice.

1. Canada’s EV Boom Will Slow Down

Manufacturing issues and buyer concerns over price and range have put the brakes on the EV industry’s rapid growth. General Motors cut its EV production target by 50,000 units, while Ford delayed its electric SUV production at its Oakville, Ontario, plant. The biggest blow came when mining giant Umicore postponed the construction of an EV battery facility near Kingston. Still, national EV sales remain strong; they’ve more than tripled over the last five years, with 65,000 electric and hybrid models sold in the second quarter of 2024. While the sector might be decelerating, it’s not making a full stop.

2. Ottawa Will Clean Up the Construction Industry

Our infrastructure has a pollution problem: Canada’s 17 million buildings contribute nearly 30 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. The government plans to bring this to zero by 2050, all while boosting housing supply. Launched in July, the Green Building Strategy aims to electrify existing buildings through better insulation, more heat pumps and green standards for new constructions. At best, it could inject billions into the economy, create up to 1.5 million jobs by 2030 and cut the same amount of emissions as taking 11 million cars off the roads.

3. Nuclear Will Emerge as a Sustainable Energy Option

Nuclear energy already produces about 15 percent of Canada’s electricity, and that number will grow in 2025. In June, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, a global nuclear giant, opened a 1,200-square-metre engineering hub in Kitchener, Ontario. It will begin work on AP1000 nuclear reactors, designed to produce 55 gigawatts of electricity—enough to power around 750,000 homes annually. Also in the works are eVinci micro-reactors, portable power sources that aim to provide affordable and reliable energy to remote towns and Indigenous communities. The only catch: regulators will have to figure out how to manage the toxic waste nuclear production leaves behind.

4. Fighting The Fires

The importance of controlling the rapid increase in forest fires will become a dominant challenge in Canada and around the world. Not only because of the massive damage the fires create but the accelerated greenhouse gas created by the smoke added to our atmosphere.

Here in Canada, new initiatives will start to make a difference.

A B.C. university will train North America’s first wildfire-fighting civilians, while AI hits the forest-fire front lines. Quebec’s flood zones will get a long-awaited overhaul. And, Ontario will supersize its power grid.

High-tech firefighting is coming to Western Canada. In 2025, wildfire detection company SenseNet will partner with Rogers to launch AI-powered fire detection in B.C. and Alberta. Gas sensors, smoke detection cameras and real-time data analysis—all connected through Rogers’ 5G network—will give fire departments early alerts, improving their chances of controlling fires before they get out of hand. Part of the tech is already in use at Predator Ridge near Vernon, B.C., with a full rollout planned by spring in 10 towns, including Sparwood and Willowvale in B.C., as well as Christina Lake, Grande Prairie and Jasper in Alberta.

We will see a lot more energy behind wildfire science, Indigenous fire practices, climate adaptation and emergency management, equipping them with the skills to fight wildfires as civilians.

5 Growth In Local Economic Action

Local Movements towards creating stronger and more resilient local economies and more robust local supply changes will grow this year as the world understands the failures and vulnerabilities of centralized infrastructures and public policy.

6 Boost In Innovation

The economic advantages of establishing sustainable systems in our culture will come into focus and will inspire many transformational changes in the way we currently do things. We will see a surge of creative problem-solving and innovations directed towards our biggest challenges. As the long-term health of our society becomes a priority, we will see a migration in public policy that reflects a more integrative perspective.

As we understand that nature is what provides our very life support system, people will become more aware of our environmental priorities and engage in supporting a wider variety of solutions.

ECONOMY

It looks to me like a very rough year ahead and not just because of runaway inflation. There has been a build-up of pressures on our financial system that will come to a breaking point very soon. I have been talking about the potential of a stock market collapse since last year and there are plenty of indicators that are converging, if not coming to a head in 2025. Sometimes economic disruption is the only catalyst that actually cleans house and works at improving a capital marketplace. It seems to me that we are surely heading for an upheaval that might even make 1929 look like child’s play.

THE BAD NEWS: The smart boys and girls (or not so smart, depending on your perspective) have been gaming the systems on Wall Street for some time. However, like never before, 2024 saw market makers like Citadel and many hedge funds, and even over 160 US banks, way overleveraged to the tune of billions. This is at a time when insider reports strongly suggest that hedge funds have been using the unlit dark web to manipulate stock prices out of the public eye. Not only that but there is mounting evidence that they have been shorting stocks trying to drive good companies into bankruptcies. What is worse is that they have been selling illegal synthetic shares that don’t really exist. This explains the record-breaking Failures To Deliver that showed up last year. There is in fact growing speculation that both the SEC and the DOJ may have been infiltrated by agents of these bad boys to hide, prevent, curtail or minimize the consequences for these crimes. Though thousands of complaints have been lodged some speculate that Democrat and Republican representatives have been profiting from these organizations and consequently turning a blind eye to the long list list of illegal and unethical but unfortunately common practices coming to light on Wall Street.

To facilitate their objectives the less-than-ethical hedge funds along with Citadel and other players like Vangard and Blackrock have managed to get key decision makers that they can influence appointed in crucial roles and key positions so public scrutiny and oversight have become myopic at best and toothless and worst. Compromising and corrupting regulatory authorities has been a key strategy in leaving them free to manipulate the market behind the scenes in ways that when they come to light, will ultimately result in the loss of confidence and an inability to trust our financial institutions and the “open and free market place” which we have been told could be trusted.

Unfortunately, cool heads do not always keep the lid on a crisis and the collateral damage of this massive destabilization may encourage and intensify global conflicts to the extent that they grow into the possibility of a third World War. We all hope and pray that is is not the outcome but those driven by blind greed seldom consider the net effects of their actions. So needless to say we have a lot of healing to do.

THE GOOD NEWS – It often takes a crisis to wake people up to what is not working and a crisis can eventually cause repairs to a broken system. In fact, most crises have hidden opportunities that make things better. Despite the scale of this crisis, it will hold the promise of renewal.

Rumour has it that Trump will be appointing a new SEC chairman and New DOJ administration who will be on a mission to clean up the corruption on Wall Street. It remains to be seen how fast that will happen but it seems that the hedge funds and market makers have leveraged billions of dollars in debts manipulating the market and will have convinced over 160 banks (naive enough to trust them) into holding too much inadequately secured debt. When all this hits the fan, it could result in many hedge funds and banks going under and taking the entire stock market with them. As this happens, the numerous banks that were foolish enough to fund their shenanigans may start to fail, and the resulting loss in public confidence will produce a run on all the banks to secure personal assets.

The economic implications of this would be Global and almost impossible to mitigate. The dominos will fall across all financial markets and there will be panicked attempts to preserve value in any way possible. Smart money may quickly run to physical assets, like gold and silver, to preserve a hedge against runaway inflation and the resulting economic turmoil that will follow.

As the US dollar goes into free fall, and the loss of confidence in financial institutions creates a ripple effect globally, the severe decline in the purchasing power of the US dollar will create additional panic. Central banks will seize this opportunity to implement their Central Bank Digital Currencies across the world. There will be a pushback, of course, and that may result on a run to Bitcoin and Ethereum as a medium of exchange. Some speculate that cryptos could 10x in that process.

The demands for the restructuring of a fair and open market will force a rethinking, of course, and a new zero-delay settlement stock market will emerge that will eliminate the ability for bad boys to manipulate the market without scrutiny. Unlit and unmonitored Dark Pool exchanges may become illegal and even shorting stocks may be eliminated entirely (as the South Korean stock market recently adopted) to restore faith in the public's ability to discover the true market value of their investments.

However, the adoption of these measures will take time and the healing of public confidence will take even longer. By the end of 2025, progress will be made in developing more robust, free and open capital markets, but it could take a decade or two to recover from the massive damage the current corruption has created to our financial systems and our local and global economies.

Though the short-term economic outlook is quite concerning, the challenges that will be created will also be the catalyst towards a return to a media of exchange that is backed by tangible assets and capital markets that are more transparent and fair. Ultimately in the long term, that will be good for both the local and global economies.

HEALTH

As our expanding awareness of both biological and environmental systems grows around the world we will see a renaissance in health care and our understanding of what wellness actually means.

We need to keep our eyes on new developments and their impacts on outcomes around the world as we will see breakthroughs not just in research but in the added power of AI to accelerate our understanding of a wide variety of relationships.

Here in Canada, the family doctor crisis will finally start to ease, while pharmacists take more of the centre stage in patient care. The battle over private medicine will heat up. And governments will change how we treat addiction. An increased interest in both crisper-based gene therapy at the same time as a new resurgence in food and medicine and the role of microbiome management in health care.

1. A Shift To Food As Medicine

As the trust in Big Pharma to have the greater good at heart declines, there will be a reissuance in natural health care with a greater understanding of using food as medicine which will drive a greater avoidance of processed foods and a return to eating whole foods. We will see greater attention paid to regenerative agriculture and greater demand for whole foods as a result.

2. More Attention To Our Microbiome

Clearly, almost the entire health industry has been almost oblivious to the powerful impact that the microbiome has on overall health outcomes. Now that its importance is clearly understood more research is underway to identify the optimum ways and means to manage the microbiome for disease management and optimal health.

This increase in our understanding of the power of the microbiome to both cure and prevent disease will not only find its way into integrative medicine practices but it will also create and surge in demand for pre-biotic foods in grocery stores as well as research-based probiotics in health food stores.

3. AI Impacts On Health Care

This is just the beginning of what AI can, and will, do in health care. A 2023 Swedish trial following 80,000 women demonstrated that AI imaging dramatically reduced radiologists’ workloads when diagnosing breast cancer—without reducing accuracy. Several studies have shown that colonoscopies involving AI-powered video processing, where computers use machine learning to identify polyps and other anomalies, improved the detection rate of colon cancer.

AI and robotics could one day replace doctors and nurses—that is, an intelligent robot could listen to your chest, prescribe medication or perform surgery. These things may come to pass one day but AI isn’t capable yet of handling the complex physical and mental tasks that health-care workers perform; that will evolve quickly in 2025.

We will see an AI tool that tracks more than 100 health metrics stored in digital records, like heart rate, blood pressure and lab tests. By looking at these data points and comparing them to data from previously admitted patients, it will predict which patients are most likely to deteriorate, then send alerts to doctors’ and nurses’ mobile devices. The alerts won’t indicate why the patient was flagged, but they will bring the patient to clinicians’ attention.

Right now our focus should be on understanding what AI can do, what it can’t do, and how it can be safely integrated into health care helping clinicians to do their jobs better. In 2025, we can begin building a system that starts to harness the power of AI, to give Canada’s overworked medical system some much-needed breathing room.

4. A Canadian Will Lead the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance

Jon Stokes made his name by besting the smallest enemies. In 2023, Stokes, an assistant professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University, was part of the research team behind SyntheMol, a generative AI model that can create new antibiotics to fight A. baumannii—a mega-deadly bacterium that proliferates in hospitals. He didn’t stop there: this past June, he co-founded Stoked Bio, a Hamilton-based biotech startup aimed at concocting and quickly commercializing new medicines for cancer and, especially, bacterial infections. With AI’s help, the goal is for Stokes’s pharmaceuticals to out-multiply the problematic microbes that are outsmarting our existing antibiotics.

5. Pharmacare Will Get Off the Ground

The supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and NDP is dead. Among its legacies is Bill C-64, guaranteeing universal coverage for certain contraceptive and diabetes medications to anyone who holds a prescription. Initially, Health Minister Mark Holland set a goal to have “drugs flowing” by April 1, 2025. Key details of the $1.5-billion program still need to be ironed out, however—including the negotiation of bilateral agreements with provinces and territories.

6. New Med Schools Will Open Up the Family Doctor Pipeline

Canada’s family doctor crisis is only getting worse, and the numbers are shocking. In British Columbia, 27 percent of residents don’t have a GP. In Quebec, it’s more than 30 percent. Projections show that more than a quarter of Ontarians may be without access by 2026. In part, this is because the number of med-school grads choosing family medicine has plunged. Thankfully, new med schools will start training GPs in 2025. The Toronto Metropolitan University School of Medicine, opening in Brampton, Ontario, next summer, will admit 94 students in its first year. Cape Breton University will establish Nova Scotia’s second medical school, with a focus on rural practice, taking 30 students per year. Simon Fraser University will open a family medicine–focused med school on its Surrey, B.C., campus in 2026, and York University’s forthcoming medical school in Vaughan, Ontario, with a focus on primary care, is to open in 2028. Better late than never.

7. Greater Awareness of the dangers of Forever Chemicals

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). They’re present in countless items you use every day, ranging from clothes and nonstick cookware to upholstery.

Unfortunately, EDCs are everywhere, and we’re being exposed to them constantly through what we eat, breathe and touch. Over time, that exposure can cause problems in our bodies. That’s because small but repeated exposures to PFAS can build up inside you. Eventually, they can interfere with your hormones, affecting everything from mood and sleep to blood pressure, metabolism and reproduction.

This year we will see greater demands to remove these and other harmful chemicals from all products that come into contact with human beings.

So clearly there is lots of progress and lots of change happening this year in curing disease and staying healthy.

AGRICULTURE

As the truth about the dangers and health risks of chemicals in our food supply increases. Large-scale agribusiness and companies that have been trying to control our food supply like Monsanto and Bayer, will come under greater scrutiny as they will lose law suites that focus on the damage they have done to our environment and human health.

As the nutritive decline of our soils becomes more understood and explored in both scientific and public domains there will be a growing focus on regenerative agriculture that restores the bio and nutrient diversity in our soils.

As the environmental impact of long food supply chains are understood more and more local food production initiatives will emerge including high-tech urban farms vastly reducing the impact of transportation on economic and environmental concerns.

As food prices increase and food security becomes a greater concern not only will local food production increase but there will be a domestic surge in edible landscapes and victory gardens around homes. Municipalities will start to allow or even encourage front-yard veggie gardens to replace traditional lawns.

POLITICS

As both domestic and international destabilization increases 2025 will see a great deal of political realignments around the globe with a general shift to more conservative-leaning politics. We may see many more extreme political initiatives and even public policies evolving as a result of this.

As global inflation and protectionism and other economic problems grow so to will the geo-political disruptions to the status quo. The struggles for both regional and global dominance will intensify and new conflicts will emerge as politicians start to blame externalities for many issues and in response to increased domestic political pressures. These blame games can easily escalate into armed or other serious conflicts. People will start opting for signs of hope for stability at any cost and authoritarianism may show up more on the political landscape around the world. We will see both large and small movements to the political right. We already have seen this shift across America.

The U.S. isn’t the only country set to anoint a ring-wing, ultra-populist leader in 2025. If the polls are to be believed, Pierre Poilievre will boot Justin Trudeau from the PMO when the federal election rolls around this year. He wants to make Canada great again, and he’ll do so by dismantling every policy the Liberals hold dear while attempting to supercharge the housing supply and crack down on immigration.

Of course, Poilievre isn’t Canada’s only big story of 2025. AI will continue to loom large, worming its way into health care, public education and even wildfire prevention. Canadians will fight back-to-office mandates and embrace right-to-disconnect laws. First Nations communities will become the new Bay Street power players. And amid inevitable political turmoil down south, a new Canadian nationalism may begin to grow as we realize we are not necessarily among friends.

1. Poilievre Will Kill the Capital Gains Tax

The Liberals’ least-loved policy is the change to how capital gains are taxed: under the new rules, two-thirds of any individual’s gains over $250,000 annually will be taxed, compared to the previous rate of one-half. Bay Streeters were apoplectic at the news, along with startup founders, business owners and physicians, many of whom bill provincial governments through private corporations. Poilievre voted against the hike and, in all likelihood, will kill it if he enters the PMO. In a 15-minute video about the economy, he predicted that the tax would cause businesses, jobs and family doctors to leave the country.

2. Will Trump’s Presidency create Economic Havoc or Windfalls.

Many Canadians had great hopes that the new Trump administration in the US would do a house cleaning that will bring new blood and new ideas into government institutions. A hope that improved and leaner government functionality and fewer regulations in the US would result in positive economic results both here and in the U.S. There is no doubt that Trump will be changing the relationship with several long-standing friends and allies but it is not clear whether those changes will be positive.

When Donald Trump re-won the American presidency, Canadian economists all sounded the same alarm: tariffs, tariffs, tariffs. Trump has vowed to impose levies of up to 25 percent on all imports that come into the U.S., a plan that could cost the Canadian economy billions. The Liberal government has played it cool, claiming that it’s dealt with Trump before and can do so again; one of the first things Justin Trudeau did after the Donald’s latest victory was re-form a cabinet committee devoted to Canada-U.S. relations. However, it may take more than that to mitigate the threat Trump represents to the Canadian economy and based or recent comments from Trump even to our sovereignty. He is definitely a wild card in mix for 2025 that no one can predict and it will be wise to keep a close eye on our relationship with our neighbour this year as it could become a game changer.

3. Canadians Will Be Orphaned by Political Polarization

Polarization isn’t just a problem in the States. According to a recent Angus Reid poll, half of respondents feel that the Conservatives have shifted to the right in recent years, while a similar number say the Liberals have moved to the left. Around a third identify as political orphans—moderate voters who believe the two major parties are too radical in their views and crave a more centrist solution. This problem will only get worse in the coming year: federal elections have a way of pushing parties to their natural extremes.

4. Canada Will Battle Foreign Interference

According to CSIS, Chinese officials and their proxies have (unsuccessfully) attempted to influence the last two Canadian federal elections. As a result, the feds have enlisted Quebec judge Marie-Josée Hogue to conduct a public inquiry. Her findings are expected in January of 2025, and experts hope to see a toothier enforcement plan than the Liberals’ current legislation, which has been slammed as the “bare minimum.” One theme that keeps coming up is transparency: so far, public awareness of foreign interference has been filtered through media reports and intelligence leaks. One federal lawyer has called for full transparency with appropriate safeguards, while Trudeau has argued that all party leaders should be briefed on interference.

5. Canada Will Push for Arctic Sovereignty

The Arctic is the next great geopolitical frontier: the ice is declining by 13 percent each decade, and Russia and China are stepping into the newly traversable region with enormous military and technological investments. To stake its own claim, Canada has promised to up its defence spending by $8.1 billion over the next five years. Much of that money will go due north, with a new satellite ground station, early-warning aircraft, and maritime sensors for surveillance. Canada has also teamed up with the U.S. and Finland to build a new fleet of seven polar icebreakers in Quebec, though they have a lot of catching up to do: Russia has 40 of them.

In 2023, the Trudeau Liberals announced record immigration goals of some 1.5 million new Canadians by 2026. Two years, one housing crisis and a massive backlash later, the government has done a hairpin turn on immigration, reducing its targets for new permanent residents by 21 percent. The Liberals hope that the revised numbers will help lower unemployment and ease housing affordability, though some economists predict that the rapid deceleration could slow productivity, diminish the tax base and damage Canada

ARTS

The past year has laid bare a harsh reality: Canada’s cultural institutions are facing serious economic challenges. Rents have soared, forcing local venues to relocate—including Calgary’s century-old Grand Theatre and Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre, which has hosted artists like Bob Dylan and Billie Eilish. Festivals aren’t safe, either. Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, put its flagship Toronto cinema up for sale to fund future events, and Just For Laughs, one of the world’s biggest comedy festivals, cancelled all of its 2024 shows as its Montreal parent company tried to avoid bankruptcy.

Canadian arts organizations do not have deep reserves. Most are non-profits that rely on a mix of government grants, private donations and earned revenue to stay afloat. When the pandemic struck, that revenue disappeared overnight; audiences still haven’t fully returned. Operating costs have risen by as much as 41 percent since 2019, due in part to wage hikes, while corporate sponsorships shrink and public funding flags. (Government funding to the Canada Council for the Arts decreased by $3.63 million last year, and will be reduced by $7.33 million in 2025.) Artists are struggling as well. More than 70 percent juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet. Unless we do something, 2025 will mark a turning point for Canada’s cultural scene—and not for the better.

For example two organizations: the Toronto Arts Council, which provides public funding to artists and arts organizations, and the Toronto Arts Foundation, which encourages private support for the arts are both in trouble. It’s unfortunate how precarious conditions have become while, at the same time, recognizing the energy and creativity that still pulses through the sector. But realistically, if current trends continue unchecked, we could see a wave of closures among arts organizations across Canada this coming year—theatres, festivals, galleries, the very spaces that bring communities together, offer solace and provoke thought. We’ll see talented artists leave the field for more stable jobs. The ripple effects are not just social, but also economic: the arts contribute about $60 billion to Canada’s GDP every year.

If there’s one thing that is clear about the arts, it’s that its people are nothing if not resourceful. Soulpepper in Toronto, for example, is more than a professional theatre—it now serves as a community hub that offers activities like movie nights and corporate workshops. In Calgary, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks provides dance classes to people with Parkinson’s disease. Major institutions—like the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Arts Centre and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra—all pivoted to online events during the pandemic. Now their digital offerings are a mainstay, expanding their reach well beyond their traditional audiences. These are all promising developments that require continued investment, both in money and time.

TECH

Canadians will make pioneering advances in artificial intelligence, driverless vehicles and quantum computing. And we’ll all finally get plugged into high-speed internet.

1. Jeremy Hansen Will Fly to the Moon

For the first time in history, a Canadian astronaut will venture to—or rather, near—the moon. Jeremy Hansen, a 48-year-old pilot from London, Ontario, will fly with three American astronauts on the Artemis II Mission: a NASA-led, 10-day lunar flyby. The main goal is to confirm that all the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed. The mission is considered a crucial step in establishing NASA’s long-term presence on the moon and, eventually, Mars. Hansen, a father of three, has been training intensively at NASA facilities in Houston and Cape Canaveral. He launches in September.

2. Rural Ontario Will Plug Into High-Speed Internet

By the end of 2025, the Ontario government aims to have every community connected to high-speed internet. It’s a lofty goal—a million Ontarians still don’t have high-speed connections—but the province is committing nearly $4 billion to the effort. Last summer, it announced that it had at that point finalized more than $2.4 billion for 270 high-speed projects, which will connect more than 500,000 homes. Similar efforts are underway in Alberta, B.C. and other provinces—all meaningful steps toward the federal government’s goal of connecting every Canadian to high-speed internet by 2030.

3. Starlink Direct-to-Cell Service Will Debut in Canada

Elon Musk said last August that Starlink would deploy mobile-phone internet service to Canada late in 2025. Powered by more than 250 satellites, the system will develop a fast network, free of dead zones, that will allow people to get online from anywhere, any time. The technology has proven its worth in emergencies: in October, the U.S. granted Starlink permission to provide service and emergency alerts to North Carolinians after Hurricane Helene incapacitated many of the state’s cell towers. The Starlink service will first roll out with T-Mobile in the U.S. and then with select partners worldwide. In Canada, that will be Rogers.

4. Waabi’s Driverless Trucks Will Hit the Road

A Toronto company is one of the leaders in the global race to master driverless vehicles. In 2025, Waabi, a three-year-old startup backed by Uber and AI powerhouse Nvidia, will launch its line of freight trucks in Texas. They have Level 4 Autonomy, which means they can handle complex driving situations without human intervention. The vehicles will be primarily trained in Waabi World, an AI-powered virtual simulator. Out in the real world, they’ll use built-in sensors to observe their surroundings and make driving decisions on the fly—like if ChatGPT travelled at 100 kilometres per hour.

5. The Okanagan Will Experience a Tech Boom

B.C.’s Okanagan region is better known for wineries than websites, but that will change this in 2025. Its tech sector, which includes 787 companies, has quintupled its economic impact over the past decade, generating $5 billion in revenue. Nearly half of the 32,000 tech workers in the region are under 35, concentrated in small cities like Kelowna and Penticton.

6. Ilya Sutskever Will Lead the AI Revolt

Ilya Sutskever (above), a founder of OpenAI, was instrumental in developing its signature product: ChatGPT. In 2024, the 38-year-old University of Toronto alum left the company to focus on creating safe AI, rather than the kind that could turn on its creators. Last June, he founded a new company called Safe Superintelligence, where he intends to develop super-powerful AI that’s free of bias, privacy breaches and rogue behaviour. Sutskever is well-suited for it. At OpenAI, he led the team tasked with ensuring AI stays aligned with human values, even if it surpasses human capabilities.

7. Hovercraft Will Fly Over Lake Ontario

Next winter, commuting between Toronto and Niagara will get a lot easier. The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation and a company called Hoverlink Ontario are planning daily trips that would cut the two-hour drive between Toronto and St. Catharines to a 30-minute aquatic journey. Their vessels will be the first of their kind in North America: amphibious vehicles that float above the surface on inflated air cushions, driven by air propellers. The new fleet could shake things up on land, too, drawing Toronto commuters to St. Catharines’s cheaper housing market.

8. A $2-Billion Investment Will Kickstart Canada’s AI Industry

Last April, the federal government announced a $2-billion investment in Canada’s AI industry. But much of that money will flow south since Canadians generally have to rely on American companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google to access cloud-computing resources needed for AI. In the long term, however, the government plans to bolster Canada’s domestic AI-computing capacity. That includes supporting Canadian companies that manufacture GPUs, the chips needed to power AI applications. One example is Quebec’s Hypertec Cloud Inc., which plans to deploy 100,000 GPUs in 2025.

9. Quantum Computing Will Transform Everything

The world’s top scientific minds still don’t fully understand the mysteries of quantum mechanics. But the technology is barrelling forward anyway, spawning computers with processing speeds a million times faster than traditional ones. The implications are both exciting and frightening: quantum machines may produce generation-defining advances in medicine, energy and other fields, but they’ll also allow hackers to effortlessly break the cryptographic keys protecting passwords and personal information. In Waterloo, Ontario, four leading quantum mechanics companies were granted $17 million by the feds to advance their research in this arcane but beguiling new field. They include High Q Technologies, which uses quantum technology for drug discovery; and ISARA Corporation, a cybersecurity company developing cryptography that quantum computing won’t be able to crack. Another company, Xanadu, is focused on photonic quantum computing, using massless particles of light as the basis for its ultra-fast information processing.

10. Prompt Engineer Will Be the Job of the Future

Tools like ChatGPT are only as good as their user’s prompts. In 2025, writing those cues will go from being a fringe art form to a full-time job. Every kind of organization—software companies, pharmaceutical makers, law firms, hospitals and universities—is desperate to skillfully wield the capabilities of large language models. Companies like Porter, Johnson & Johnson and Dr. Pepper are already seeking AI interlocutors and ChatGPT whisperers. They’re just the early adopters; everyone else will soon follow.

11. Concerns about the weaponization of AI and potential robotic armies transforming warfare are not unfounded. To an extent, we are seeing the early stages of tech impacts on modern warfare with drome and land bots in action in the Ukraine. But we may yet see the mobilization of robots on a large scale in conflicts around to world or even in your local law enforcement before the end of 2025. There is a lot of money and a lot at stake behind the introduction of AI into military applications. There will also undoubtedly be a multitude of ramifications not yet fully understood by the industry or by our leaders. That is a real danger that has yet to be addressed.

ANY WAY YOU LOOK AT IT WE WILL SEE MORE CHANGE IN 2025 THAN ANYONE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE.

We all hope that the best is yet to come but are well advised to be also prepared to deal with the worst. It will be how well we prepare for and adapt to these changes that will define our future.

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Good Luck in your 2024 … Blessing All

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