Calgary has been on a run the last few years. CBRE ranked it as the fastest-growing tech talent market in North America for two years running, with 61% job growth since 2021. Calgary Economic Development (CED) set a record in international trade deals last year and supported over $1 billion in investment.

Those are the kind of numbers a mayor would like to be on stage highlighting. 

At the CED's annual Report to Community this week, however, Jeromy Farkas, Calgary's mayor, had to spend part of his time at the podium asking the 1,500 people in the room to push back against Alberta separatism in their own networks. 

Why? He pointed to Quebec: after the 1976 election of a separatist government, corporate headquarters moved from Montreal to Toronto, and interest rates on provincial debt stayed higher for years. The costs didn’t wait for the referendum or the results.

It didn't matter if they achieved their stated goal. (Separatists 0, Canada 2 for those keeping score.) 

A vocal minority can change the calculation for anyone deciding where to put a team, sign a vendor contract, or plan a long-term infrastructure investment. Understandably, people making big bets like that don’t like uncertainty. 

"Capital is fluid and in a volatile global environment, it will choose stability, predictability and certainty," says Brad Parry, president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development. "If we choose the same path, the same unpredictable path, that capital and that talent, it's going to go somewhere else."

My colleague Jennifer Friesen was in the room. Her article, The thing Calgary doesn't want to talk about is the thing Calgary needs to talk about, is worth a read.

Some light reading for when you're trying to plan something and the world keeps updating its terms.

University of Saskatchewan positions itself as a quantum innovation hub Jennifer Kervin wrote this week about the University of Saskatchewan's acquisition of Canada's first university-owned, full-stack quantum computer, part of a "quantum corridor" connecting Saskatoon and Calgary. The $2.3M investment is backed by Prairies Economic Development Canada. 

The acquisition model that protects innovation instead of destroying it CMG CEO Pramod Jain contributed an article about why conventional M&A integration destroys what acquirers paid to buy, and the federation structure his company is building instead. 

Remote work study finds many workers skip lunch breaks Remote workers report a 15% rise in anxiety and a 12% rise in stress since switching to full-time home working. Researchers have confirmed that the word "break" in "lunch break" was not decorative. Go eat something.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I have a strong opinion on separatism. 

It's a bad idea for Alberta, and the people pushing it have done very little to demonstrate they've thought through how it would actually work. 

The good news is that most Albertans agree. They're far more interested in building a stronger relationship with the rest of the country than blowing it up.

What's true at the scale of keeping a country together is also true inside your organization. People don't like uncertainty. Not just bankers and executives, but everyone. 

If you're implementing AI, going through a reorg, or making any significant change, it's worth taking the time to explain what you're doing and why. People who understand where you're heading are a lot more likely to come with you.

The separatists are taking the opposite approach and, as Mayor Farkas asked, don't be a separatist.

— David