Disruptors

RBC Thought Leadership, John Stackhouse
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Disruptors, now in its 10th season, has become your front-row seat to Canada’s innovation story—200+ episodes exploring the people, ideas, and technologies reshaping Canada’s future. Each episode, hosted by John Stackhouse, SVP, Office of the CEO at Royal Bank of Canada—and former Editor-in-Chief of The Globe and Mail—cuts through the hype and focuses on what you need to know. This season, we’re leaning into urgency: the global economy is shifting, geopolitics are noisy, and Canada needs to respond. You’ll hear from founders, investors, scientists, operators, and policy leaders at the forefront. Listen for a clearer understanding of the tech and innovation shaping Canada and the world—and practical insights to help you make sense of what’s coming next.

  1. Climate-Led Investing: What’s Next

    2D AGO

    Climate-Led Investing: What’s Next

    If you’re trying to separate climate ambition from execution, this conversation is for you! John Stackhouse is joined by Clara Barby, Senior Partner at Just Climate, to pressure-test what’s scaling—and what’s getting stuck by diving into RBC’s new Climate Action 2026 report.   What you’ll hear: Why 2025 was a year of “proof and pressure” and what that means for clean tech in 2026. Climate Tech solutions that don’t require behaviour change.   The case for Canada’s ‘land transition’ as a ripe opportunity—investing in tools and inputs that help farmers and land managers decarbonize.   Why CCUS remains a complex case: carbon price, CapEx, infrastructure, and the fragmented value chain. How AI-driven power demand is changing the investment lens on electrification and grid build. Clara Barby is a Senior Partner at Just Climate (founded by Generation Investment Management). She previously led the Impact Management Project and supported the establishment of the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board)   Links: RBC Climate Action 2026 (report): www.rbc.com/cai Unearthing Value (report): http://bit.ly/4qJZ9TQ Just Climate: https://www.justclimate.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    24 min
  2. Alberta’s Next Energy Mix

    12/30/2025

    Alberta’s Next Energy Mix

    With industrial power demand rising, can small modular reactors help anchor a cleaner, always‑on system that will support the incoming AI Data Centre boom?  In this bonus episode of Disruptors, recorded live in Edmonton, host John Stackhouse speaks with Premier Danielle Smith about a practical path: SMRs alongside abated natural gas, hydro, and stronger interties—with Indigenous equity built in from day one. They dig into reliability needs, near‑term “bring‑your‑own‑power” models, how to finance nuclear in an energy‑only market, and what collaboration between provinces could unlock.  Recorded live in Edmonton, Alberta, and convened by the SMR Forum in partnership with the Canadian Association of Small Modular Reactors (CASMR).  rbc.com/en/thought-leadership/  SMR Forum: https://smr-forum.ca CASMR: https://canada-smr.ca Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    24 min
  3. Building Canada: A new generation takes charge

    12/16/2025

    Building Canada: A new generation takes charge

    Canada’s future won’t be decided in PDF strategies — it will be decided by what we actually build: trade corridors, clean power, AI datacentres, agtech and northern connectivity that can stand up in a more volatile world. In this episode of Disruptors: The Canada Project, John Stackhouse speaks with Daniel Debow, Chair of the Board at Build Canada, and Lucy Hargreaves, the organization’s CEO, about how a new builder mindset is taking shape across the country — and why sovereignty and competitiveness now depend on turning ideas into infrastructure at speed and scale. As global trade routes shift and geopolitical tensions rise, they explore how Canada can capitalize on its advantages — from Arctic gateways and critical minerals to Prairie food corridors and on-farm agtech — while giving the next generation real ways to step into nation-building, in business and in public service. www.buildcanada.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    29 min
  4. Power to Compute: How Alberta Is Powering the AI Age

    12/09/2025

    Power to Compute: How Alberta Is Powering the AI Age

    Energy planners used to talk about a “trilemma”: reliability, affordability and sustainability. As AI reshapes the global economy and data centres demand thousands of megawatts of new load, Alberta is adding a fourth leg to the stool — velocity — turning it into an energy quadlema. At the edge of Wabamun Lake west of Edmonton, the Keephills and Sundance power sites are being reimagined from coal-era workhorses into “AI-ready” power hubs. TransAlta is converting units to natural gas, opening up land for data centres and using existing transmission and cooling infrastructure to shorten the path from project to power. In this episode of Disruptors: The Canada Project, John Stackhouse speaks with Premier Danielle Smith and John Kousinioris, President & CEO of TransAlta, about how Alberta is experimenting with a new “bring your own power” model for hyperscalers — and how the recent Canada–Alberta energy MOU aims to unlock thousands of megawatts of AI computing capacity. Alberta is positioning itself as a testing ground for how countries can build domestic compute on their own grids — instead of just exporting raw energy — while navigating an energy quadlema of reliability, affordability, sustainability and speed to power. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    27 min
  5. The Trust Advantage: How OpenText is Securing Canada’s Information Layer

    12/02/2025

    The Trust Advantage: How OpenText is Securing Canada’s Information Layer

    The world is investing billions in data centres and compute. Canada’s edge isn’t bigger boxes—it’s Trust: rules enforced at home, private information secured under Canadian jurisdiction, and a clear path for enterprise data handling in the age of AI. That’s how “Canadian trust” becomes a competitive advantage. This week on Disruptors: The Canada Project, John Stackhouse takes us to Waterloo to map how policy as code, Canadian residency, and lineage + audit turn trust into a speed advantage. Guests: Tom Jenkins & Shannon Bell (OpenText), with Janice Stein (Munk School). Build it here—export it with confidence. Takeaways: OpenText's new book Enterprise Artificial Intelligence: Building Trusted AI with Secure Data: RBC Thought Leadership’s Bridging the Imagination Gap: How Canadian companies can become global leaders in AI adoption:   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    36 min
  6. Beyond the Battery: Inside Quebec’s Mine-to-Refine Transformation

    11/25/2025

    Beyond the Battery: Inside Quebec’s Mine-to-Refine Transformation

    As the world electrifies—from cars and buses to datacentres and defence—demand for battery materials is exploding. Today, China refines more than 90% of the world’s graphite into the material used in virtually all EV battery anodes—that level of concentration is a strategic vulnerability Canada, and its allies, can’t ignore. But Canada is starting to respond. The federal Major Projects Office has just referred Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Phase-2 Matawinie Mine as a “Major Project of National Interest”—a move aimed at helping Quebec and Canada shift from exporting ore to building a full mine-to-refine graphite value chain at home, and with it, an entirely new strand of economic and industrial capacity. In this episode of Disruptors: The Canada Project, host John Stackhouse takes listeners into that story. With former Quebec premier Jean Charest and Eric Desaulniers, founder & CEO of NMG, he lifts the hood on what it means for a critical-minerals project to be treated as a “major project” in Canada—and what this could mean for Canada’s role as a trusted critical-minerals supplier to its G7 allies. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    29 min
  7. Powering the North: How the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link Will Build A Stronger Canada

    11/18/2025

    Powering the North: How the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link Will Build A Stronger Canada

    Across Nunavut’s Kivalliq region, communities and mine sites still rely on imported diesel for electricity and satellite links for basic connectivity. It’s expensive, carbon-intensive, and leaves a strategically vital part of Canada dependent on infrastructure we don’t fully control. In this episode of Disruptors: The Canada Project with John Stackhouse, we travel to Nunavut to explore the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link (KHFL) — a 1,200-kilometre, Inuit-led project that would connect Manitoba’s renewable grid and Canada-based broadband backbone to five Kivalliq communities and future mining projects. Led by Nukik Corporation under 100% Inuit ownership, KHFL is designed to deliver clean power, high-speed terrestrial connectivity, and Nunavut’s first physical infrastructure link to southern Canada. Joining us are Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin, who unpack how this corridor could cut diesel use, reduce dependence on satellite networks, strengthen Arctic sovereignty, and create a new model for community-driven infrastructure in the North. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    22 min
  8. Feeding the Future: How Saskatchewan is Seeding Canada's Ag-Tech Revolution

    11/11/2025

    Feeding the Future: How Saskatchewan is Seeding Canada's Ag-Tech Revolution

    Saskatchewan, long known for feeding the world, is now leading a revolution in ag-tech. With automation, machine learning, and AI-powered quality control, the province is redefining how food moves from field to port. Agriculture is more than Canada’s heritage - it’s our future advantage.  In this episode of Disruptors: The Canada Project, John Stackhouse speaks with Kyle Folk, founder and CEO of Ground Truth Ag, whose technology automates grain grading — a process that once took hours, now done in minutes. He’s joined by Murad Al-Katib, CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients.  It’s a story about turning information into prosperity, and about how Saskatchewan’s innovators are helping Canada feed a growing world while building a more resilient, sovereign economy.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    19 min
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4.9
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About

Disruptors, now in its 10th season, has become your front-row seat to Canada’s innovation story—200+ episodes exploring the people, ideas, and technologies reshaping Canada’s future. Each episode, hosted by John Stackhouse, SVP, Office of the CEO at Royal Bank of Canada—and former Editor-in-Chief of The Globe and Mail—cuts through the hype and focuses on what you need to know. This season, we’re leaning into urgency: the global economy is shifting, geopolitics are noisy, and Canada needs to respond. You’ll hear from founders, investors, scientists, operators, and policy leaders at the forefront. Listen for a clearer understanding of the tech and innovation shaping Canada and the world—and practical insights to help you make sense of what’s coming next.

Information

  • Creator
    RBC Thought Leadership, John Stackhouse
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    217
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Disruptors

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