Maclean's January 2023

Canada has a demographics problem. By 2030, nearly a quarter of the population will have aged out of the workforce. We have a relatively low birth rate and a ballooning population of older people with complex medical needs. Our tax base is shrinking, while our public costs are rising. None of this is news. Back in 2017, the Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders spelled out what he described as a “crisis of underpopulation” in his book Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough. It was obvious to him back then that Canada’s sparse population was holding the country back, slowing down innovation and driving talent to denser cities in other countries where there’s more economic opportunity. Now, at the start of 2023, we’re seeing the crisis in…

Emerging Alzheimer’s treatment research is giving new hope to people living with Alzheimer’s, their caregivers, and health-care providers. This is especially promising given that over the years, many pharmaceutical companies have tried and failed to find an effective treatment for this progressive brain-atrophying disease, which affects approximately 570,000 Canadians and costs our economy and health-care system over $10.4 billion annually. A breakthrough could change how we treat the disease and change millions of lives. Promising new research “Over the years, there have been several attempts by pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate that experimental treatments designed to remove amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques from the brains of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have an effect on slowing cognitive and functional decline,” says Dr. Luc Boulay, Director of Medical Affairs and Neuroscience at Eli…

IN A WORLD OF AMY CONEY BARRETTS and Brett Kavanaughs, Michelle O’Bonsawin was intent on keeping a low profile. Then in September, O’Bonsawin, a 48-year-old mother of two, was appointed the first Indigenous judge to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada in its nearly 150-year history—and with that came backlash. Critics picked apart O’Bonsawin’s credentials, which include a past stint at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, plus a recent Ph.D. thesis (now embargoed) with a focus on Indigenous law. O’Bonsawin’s lived experience as an Abenaki member of Quebec’s Odanak First Nation has never been more relevant to Canada’s highest court, which will field two landmark cases pertaining to Indigenous self-governance in the coming months. (One of them, centred on Bill C-92, will determine whether it violates provincial jurisdiction…

THERE’S MUCH TO LOVE about remote work. You can accomplish a lot from the comfort of your own kitchen table, zip out for appointments as needed and be available to care for small children. The commute is definitely shorter. And yet, as freeing as all that flexibility may be, it comes at a price. There’s a reason these last couple of years have given rise to worker movements like “the Great Resignation.” In the absence of water coolers, face-to-face meetings and semi-regular pizza lunches, employers are now forced to work harder to maintain a sense of cultural cohesion. These days, one of the biggest business liabilities is isolation. We already know that loneliness is associated with a whole host of health problems—sleep issues, heart disease, depression, even premature death. It’s…

WHEN NAILA MOLOO delivered a TEDx Talk on climate-saving tech last February, the inventions she name-checked were her own. The first was a wee, flexible solar panel; the second, a bioplastic made from duckweed, an aquatic plant. Moloo also discussed the butterfly effect, which posits that the faintest flap of the tiny creature’s wings could cause a tornado halfway around the world. It’s a fitting metaphor for Moloo herself, who, at 16, is already making waves as an environmental innovator. Her body of work—which, along with the plastic and the solar panel, includes two fantasy novels—recently earned her a spot on the Women’s Executive Network’s list of Canada’s Most Powerful Women and, last April, a Woman of the Year honour from the DMZ, a business incubator at Toronto Metropolitan University.…

THESE DAYS, COMPANIES WON’T BE ABLE to entice their employees back to the in-person grind with any old cubicle set-up—new offices will have to dazzle. One such design statement is the Stack, a brand-new 37-storey tower in the heart of Vancouver’s business district. Upon its completion at the tail end of 2022, it will become the tallest commercial building in the city. Vancouver’s Department of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability demands that any proposals for buildings surpassing 400 feet must demonstrate design merit. (The Stack tops out at 530.) In other words, if a building is going to take up a ton of space in the downtown skyline, it better be pretty. “The Stack had to earn the extra height,” says James Cheng, architect at Vancouver’s James K.M. Cheng Architects,…