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The roughly two-hectare facility, still under construction, is hosting what could be called a carbon removal Olympics. It will pilot eight different versions of a similar technology using various machines that will suck in air, remove the carbon dioxide and send it to a central plant where it will be compressed and liquified for storage deep underground.

The winner of this initiative wouldn't get a medal on a podium. Instead, Deep Sky, the Montreal-based project developer behind it, plans to take the best versions of the direct air capture technology that prove most effective in Canada's climate and deploy them on a commercial scale all over the country.

Author: Karen K. Christensen-Dalsgaard, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, MacEwan University

Anyone browsing their supermarket’s produce section will quickly discover just how few of the products are grown in Canada. This is ironic; as most gardeners know, many imported fruits and vegetables can grow extremely well in Canada.

Canada imports around 50 per cent of vegetables and 75 per cent of fruits from abroad, much of it from the United States.

This has not traditionally caused concern since the agri-food sector has a net trade surplus. But among Canadian crops, just two — canola and wheat — dominate total earnings.

Canada’s need for imports leaves it vulnerable, but so does its need for exports.

In 2019, for instance, after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, China imposed harsh trade restrictions on Canadian canola. That year, canola exports to China fell by 70 per cent.

Today, Canada faces similar issues with 100 per cent tariffs imposed by China on canola products.

Instead of just bailing out farmers impacted by current events, governments should help those who are interested to diversify and grow crops that can be sold domestically.

The full article has a more context/details

I am once again here asking for a product, fully expecting with yet another “you probably won’t find a Canadian alternative for this”. I was surprised with the smartwatch + fitness tracker options last time, so I think this might be worthwhile too.

Does anyone know of an energy monitoring plug? Too many of these are made in China by Chinese and American companies, so I’m hoping to find alternatives here.

Ideally, I’d also like to hook it up with Home Assistant, and either via Zigbee or Matter. If it’s WiFi-only, that’s fine too, but preferably not, cause I don’t want to add more WiFi devices on my network, if possible.

The article makes a really important point:

Reble said he became aware of Uline’s support for Trump through an Etee customer.

This shows the power of contacting companies who are still using Uline. If you receive a product shipped with Uline products please contact the company and tell them that there are lower cost and more ethical alternatives to Uline.

For example here: https://bsky.app/profile/geneha.com/post/3low65f4zac2d a Canadian man was able to literally cut his costs in half by switching away from Uline.

The website https://refuseuline.com/ has a list of Canadian alternatives to Uline. Scroll down to the section labeled "WHAT ABOUT CANADA?".

According to Diabetes Canada, one in every three Canadians is either pre-diabetic or diabetic — and it’s no surprise, as Canada has become an industrial hotspot for sugar producers.

While we often don’t think about the sugar content in our sweet treats, some people must think about what they’re eating due to health challenges. One such person is CEO and Co-founder of ZoRaw Chocolate, Gigi Gill, who experiences autoimmune issues that contributed to her being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at an early age.

“I learned that by changing the foods I ate I was able to drastically reduce my health issues and put my diabetes into remission. One of the drastic changes I made was completely taking out all refined sugars, which unfortunately at the time included my biggest addiction: chocolate.”

That’s why ZoRaw Chocolates are low in sugar and high in protein — because proteins are an essential part of a balanced diet and help curb your appetite. The trick for ZoRaw was balancing the protein to make the chocolate feel indulgent and not like a protein bar.

On top of all the health benefits, ZoRaw Chocolate is made with fair trade cacao, which Gill sees as a core value of their brand. It ensures the cacao farms are paid fairly and work under ethical conditions, which is crucial for supporting sustainable farming practices.

“As the first generation in my family not born on a farm, fair trade is non-negotiable for me — trust me, not choosing fair trade cacao would probably get me disowned at family gatherings!”

ZoRaw’s community focus extends to job creation, partnering with local causes, and donating to charities like Seva Food Bank in Mississauga.

“Growing up with a single immigrant mother, I saw firsthand how the power of community can transform lives, regardless of scale … Whether it’s creating local jobs, supporting newcomers to Canada, mentorship … We aim to strengthen the community around us in every way we can.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/44213933

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/44213932

Pete Hoekstra thumbs through an imaginary document, and pauses for effect: “This is a serious proposal — pile one.” Then he raises a second document. “I can’t believe this,” he guffaws. “This is a joke.” Straight to the discard pile.

That, says President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada, is how it will go — one way or another — when newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney submits a proposal on a revamped economic and security agreement with the United States

Nearly 9 in 10 companies report changes to their supply chains, with stakeholders across North America monitoring border crossings and port traffic for signs of trade disruption. Altitude by Geotab’s Tariff Trend Tracker provides daily and weekly data on U.S.-Canada commercial freight traffic amid ongoing tariff discussions.

Altitude’s analysis of major border crossings from late 2024 to early 2025 reveals that while tariff discussions have raised concerns, actual commercial vehicle volumes show localised shifts, with minor variations rather than significant fluctuations. These changes are influenced by factors such as infrastructure projects (e.g., Blue Water Bridge construction) and toll adjustments (e.g., Ambassador Bridge).

It's not for anything important but I host a stupid discord bot trained on my friend group's server chat history. It's pretty much just a lobotomized ChatGPT but it's a lot of fun. I'm looking to move off of OpenAI's infrastructure though to something that doesn't give money to the USA but it seems like everything is American.

Basically, I'm just looking for somewhere that I can finetune and run custom models. Does anyone know of such a place?

This was a display at a local Foodbasics. Andy brand lettuce... product of the USA, and the shelves were empty, so people were buying it.

And why not? Because they see the "shop local, support local" with a maple leaf, and assume that the store has made it easier for them to shop Canadian.

ALWAYS check labels for a country of origin. PRODUCT of the USA is by far the one you need to avoid "at all cost" with MADE in the USA second.

Even American items on sale are not worth buying, because every dollar you send to the States, is a dollar they will use to kill Canada with.

I want to finally get a desk that I can sit at comfortably.

Primecables has sales often and is having one right now for standing desks

https://www.primecables.ca/c-18885-sit-stand-desk-solutions

They're somewhat Canadian, and this is what others have recommended to me. But I would think that the products are cheaply made, and the company simply imports from places with cheap manufacturing.

On Costco's website I see similar desks, more expensive but Costco has a nice return policy.

Any recommendations?

Originally posted at ShopCanadianStuff.ca/blog which has no affiliation to NorthMail.ca

I noticed NorthMail.ca which I had previously only know for being a Canadian hosted and owned free webmail provider was now listing Video Calls and an office suite as features.

Oddly enough Northmail was featured in a recent monologue joke on Late Night with Seth Meyers. You can see the joke on TikTok here or at 7:15 on this YouTube video of the show.

I tried out the video calling and it works pretty well though it is not obvious how to do it.

I made a brief guide on how to use the video calling feature in this blog post at ShopCanadianStuff.ca/blog

NorthMail.ca has many other features, a calendar, file and photo storage, dark mode and other theme customization. Language settings allow for both English and French as well as many other languages.

The paid premium version of NorthMail.ca provides 100 GB of storage (1GB for free version), no ads, and promises a faster smoother experience for $0.99/month.

If you sign up soon you can get a pretty good pick of the available email addresses so you don't have to go with something as long a [email protected] unless you want something that long.

If anyone is concerned about if Northmail.ca is actually Canadian, the owners name is listed on their website, I checked their linked in page which lists the same person as their CIRA domain registration.

To find more Canada made products and services check out ShopCanadianStuff.ca