Sign in

Matt Parreira

@mattparreira.bsky.social
20K followers 206 following 898 posts

Growth · Partnerships · Public Good 🍁 I help organizations build the relationships and capacity they can't afford to wing. Founder, Growthway · growthway.ca

PostsRepliesMedia
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
A KPMG survey of Canadians attending / working at hugher ed found 75% of students use AI for schoolwork, & <50% of educators think students are getting enough guidance on responsible use. Let's notice the gap between adoption and instruction, it's the actual policy problem, not the technology.
kpmg.com
Majority of students use AI, but educators sound alarm
New KPMG Canada survey finds widespread student AI adoption is outpacing AI readiness.
040
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The question most parents are actually asking about AI isn't "how do I catch my kid." It's: "Am I equipped to have a useful conversation with them about it?" That's a much more solvable problem — and a much more productive place for a school to start.
040
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Our planning systems, like most of government, were built over decades. When they break, they get fixed slowly. Government is always behind. The wealthy have learned to exploit that lag: find a new opportunity, mine it fast, before regulation catches up.
urbanismontario.substack.com
Ontario’s Data Centre Boom Is Exposing a Planning System That Wasn’t Built for AI
Municipalities are being forced to regulate twenty-first-century infrastructure using yesterday’s industrial planning tools.
183
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
The question most parents are actually asking about AI isn't "how do I catch my kid." It's: "Am I equipped to have a useful conversation with them about it?" That's a much more solvable problem — and a much more productive place for a school to start.
031
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
The schools that build AI literacy now will look prescient in five years. Not because AI will "change everything" but because building a community that talks honestly about technology is a leadership habit that compounds. It's arriving faster than smartphones and social media.
040
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
New Brunswick MLA Bill Oliver used an LLM to write his legislature speech. No disclosure. No edits. Not even a read-through. Students get failed for less. The standard shouldn't drop once you're elected. Use AI sure... But show you actually care about the words you speak.
143
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Wrapping up Startupfest with Piñata Pitch — always a good reminder of the next generation of Canadian builders. Thanks to everyone who stopped to talk this week. If your business needs extra capacity: VFC's Fall Internship cohort is open for hiring requests through Aug 28. Reach out.
020
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Day two of Startupfest in Montreal. The pattern in every founder conversation: big ambitions, not enough hands to execute. VFC exists for exactly that gap — wage-subsidized interns and free student project teams for growing Canadian businesses. Happy to chat if that's you.
021
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
In Montreal for Startupfest this week. Excited to connect with founders building Canada's next generation of companies. If your business needs extra hands to grow, VFC can help: wage-subsidized interns, free student project teams, no cost to get started. Say hi if you're here.
010
Reposted by Matt Parreira
Growthway @growthway.ca · 16/06/2026
The summer tech slide is coming. When Canadian schools empty out for the summer, students are not going to stop using Al. They are going to get better at it. That means September will not be a reset. It will be a reveal.
011
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
"More money won't help underpaid teachers," he says, in front of his actual fucking rocket
4399
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Jeff Bezos calls for for $0 federal income taxes on the bottom half of earners. He cited a nurse in Queens making $75K, paying shouldn't be $12K in taxes. Whenever a billionaire suddenly starts having very public, populist style messaging in the media, you know something bad is about to happen
2113
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Doug Ford just made it illegal to FOI his office. Retroactively. Active court cases seeking Greenbelt records? Dead. Public consultation? Skipped. Late-night vote? Yep. Ontario's privacy commissioner said his own justification wasn't factual. He is protecting himself. #onpoli
cbc.ca
Ontario's budget bill passes, along with changes to FOI laws, ticket resale price caps | CBC News
The Ford government’s omnibus budget bill, along with changes to freedom of information laws, passed its final vote at Queen’s Park on Thursday. Bill 97 skipped committee sessions and instead was disc...
272
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
"Young people who can’t find work aren’t looking hard enough,” Premier Ford said Tuesday, less than a week after Stats Canada reported Ontario shed 26,000 jobs in August — the most of any province The solution is stronger mentorship pipelines and partnerships between local employers and grads.
thestar.com
Look harder, Doug Ford tells unemployed young people seeking work
Ford's remarks come less than a week after StatsCan reported that Ontario shed 26,000 jobs in August — the most of any province.
220
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
When they say we can't afford to fix healthcare, the reality is we can't afford not to. Mandating 1:4 nurse ratios and funding integrated primary care teams will bring nurses back and completely relieve our ERs. The math works. Let's make it happen. 🏥📈 #OnPoli #Healthcare
youtu.be
2 Ways to Fix Health Care NOW
YouTube video by Marit Stiles
1105
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Blind nationalism in a nutshell: the larger the flag you carry and invariably wrap yourself in, the more oblivious you are to the drop. Patriotism is loving your country, nationalism is hating everyone else's A statue has appeared in London that appears to bear the signature of Banksy.
0188
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
​1 in 4 Canadians are skipping meals or cutting their portions to feed their families. Meanwhile the energy sector is sitting on $90 billion in windfall profits. @avilewis.ca is right to call this out, these companies can afford to contribute more to the system. That's the reality.
091
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
They've switched from exporting liquor to whine. A $143 million loss for US bourbon makers. Gen Z is already drinking less, Millennials are upset, the industry may never return to Canada the same way. That's okay, Bearface Triple Oak or BRBN by Okanagan Spirits hit the mark perfectly. 🍁🥃
fastcompany.com
Trump’s Canada trade war hits Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam with a devastating $143 million loss
After provinces removed U.S. spirits from store shelves during a tariff clash with the Trump administration, whiskey exports plunged nearly 70 percent.
280
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Hopefully this clears it up for anyone still not understanding what the US is after. They are not looking to trade - they want to take absolutely everything and bleed us dry. They want us in the dirt begging for scraps. You cannot negotiate with someone who is looking to rob you.
cbc.ca
Trump offers immediate tariff relief to Canadian aluminum and steel companies that commit to U.S. expansion | CBC News
The Trump administration is now offering Canadian and Mexican aluminum and steel companies immediate tariff relief if they commit to moving production to the United States in the future.
194
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
The Canadian youth job market is a total mess right now. Employment hit 53.6%, the lowest since 1998. In this "low-fire, low-hire" economy, students are sending 450+ applications just to be ignored. We're setting Gen Z up for long-term failure if this major issue isn't fixed. 📉🇨🇦
theglobeandmail.com
Youth facing ‘perfect storm’ in job hunt this summer, economists say
Unemployment is up, openings are down and Gen Z is in a heated competition for positions
164
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Canada has more entrepreneurial ambition than the US. We just convert less of it into actual businesses. @cfib.bsky.social's new report calls it an "entrepreneurial drought." It's structural. And the succession gap is the part nobody's solving fast enough. 🇨🇦
bnnbloomberg.ca
Canada is losing businesses faster than it can create new ones: CFIB says
The Canadian economy is losing businesses faster than it can create new ones, and it is time for governments to act to reverse this trend, says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
050
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Full support. We should always stay friends with the U.S. but we cannot depend solely on them and need to strengthen our own military capabilities and relationships with the EU and others. The idea of Canada creating an in-house defense sector is a huge plus and should not be discounted.
080
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
The Artemis II crew had a painfully awkward, dead-silent call with Trump where he rambled about Wayne Gretzky and saving NASA. Then they get on the horn with Carney and they're laughing their asses off about maple syrup vs. Nutella. The vibe difference is insane. 🚀
1120
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Poilievre didn't mind floor-crossers when Liberals like Emerson, Khan, Comuzzi, and Alleslev joined the CPC. He even voted against a 2012 bill forcing floor-crossers into by-elections. Now that MPs are fleeing his caucus, he's changed his tune. The hypocrisy is strong with this one.
cbc.ca
'Throw them out' of Parliament: Poilievre in favour of recall petition for floor-crossers | CBC News
After losing another of his MPs to the Liberals, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he personally supports recall petitions — a way for constituents to remove a representative if they garner en...
1219
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Personally, if they told us that there will be a larger deficit this year because they are spending more on science, education, tourism, and healthcare, I’d be happy. I think that would send a more positive message instead of defunding them because they want to balance the budget.
youtu.be
Ottawa proposing to cut billions in funding from science to tourism and foreign aid
YouTube video by Global News
030
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
The question I ask every nonprofit I work with: 'If your biggest funder disappeared tomorrow, what would you cut first?' The answer tells you almost everything about whether the org has a strategy or just a budget.
053
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
The promise of open data in government: transparent, accountable, useful. The reality: PDFs, broken links, and data that's three years out of date. The gap between civic tech idealism and municipal reality is still very wide.
061
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Three things that usually indicate a nonprofit is in trouble: 1. The ED can't delegate anything 2. The board only shows up for the AGM 3. The strategic plan hasn't been looked at since it was written One of these is fixable. All three is a crisis.
050
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
If your theory of change fits on a slide but falls apart in a real conversation with someone in your community — that's the version that matters.
031
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
“Gridlock is costing our economy billions of dollars every year and robbing Ontario drivers of valuable time and quality of life,” Ontario Transportation Minister said. Working from home would save us a lot of "valuable time and quality of life." It would also ease gridlock significantly.
ctvnews.ca
Ontario may allow more drivers to use HOV lanes
The Ford government is eyeing changes to the Highway Traffic Act that would allow single-occupant vehicles to use High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes during off-peak hours, CTV News Toronto has learned...
031
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Every university has an AI strategy now. Most of them are PDFs. There's a gap between having a strategy document and actually changing how you teach, hire, or support students. The PDF is not the strategy.
030
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
The most underfunded role in any nonprofit: The executive director. Not their salary. Their capacity to actually lead. Most are so deep in operations they haven't thought strategically in months.
261
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Civic tech keeps building platforms for communities that never asked for them. Then wondering why adoption is low. Turns out people don't want better apps. They want their actual problems solved.
093
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Grant dependency is a symptom. The disease is building programs around what funders want to fund instead of what your community needs. Most orgs know this. Very few have the runway to fix it.
060
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
The best grant writers I know spend more time on strategy than writing. Because a well-written application for the wrong program is still a waste of everyone's time.
050
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Higher ed is spending millions on innovation labs and AI strategies. Meanwhile students are using AI to finish assignments they don't care about for credentials that may not matter. We're optimizing the wrong thing.
051
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
The chronic underfunding of BC’s salmon monitoring is a damn shame, you can't manage what you don't measure. Treating ecological data as a disposable line item is a systemic failure, but one we can fix by bridging policy and science to build a hell of a better model. 🐟
theglobeandmail.com
‘Chronic underfunding’ of B.C. salmon monitoring program could allow population declines to go unnoticed, study warns
Reductions in the number of counts mean there is insufficient data to assess the health of 46% of salmon stocks
020
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Gilded age completely dillusional... the world can’t keep going like this. CEO wage goes up, lowly employees got laid off. Business as usual, I'm sure we'll all receive higher quality service from Google /s techcrunch.com/2026/03/07/g...
techcrunch.com
Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package | TechCrunch
Most of it is tied to performance, including new stock incentives linked to Waymo and Wing, its drone delivery venture.
294
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Unpopular opinion: A lot of nonprofit boards don't actually provide strategic value. They provide cover. There's a difference and most EDs know it but won't say it out loud.
021
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Everyone is building AI tools for nonprofits now. Most of them are solving the wrong problem. The bottleneck isn't efficiency. It's that the org doesn't know what it's trying to do. No tool fixes that.
081
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
The non-profit sector talks a lot about sustainability. Most orgs still build their entire budget around one or two grants they have to re-win every year. That's not a funding problem. It's a strategy problem dressed up as a funding problem. Most funders now prioritize getting off funding cycles
080
Reposted by Matt Parreira
Geoffrey P Johnston😎🇨🇦🇺🇦 @geoffypjohnston.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Prime Minister Carney should call the American ambassador into his office & tell him, in no uncertain terms, that U.S. interference in domestic Canadian affairs will NOT be tolerated.
03510
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
They're going to force people over 14 to upload ID to access it. Adults are going to upload sensitive personal information to services with questionable-at-best data security practices. They're doing this instead putting the onus on tech giants to make their products safer and less addictive.
theglobeandmail.com
Federal officials draft plans to ban social media for children under 14
Ottawa looking at proposals to include the measure in the forthcoming online harms bill, sources say
132
Reposted by Matt Parreira
Geoffrey P Johnston😎🇨🇦🇺🇦 @geoffypjohnston.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Carney’s trade mission to China is already paying off: ‘Chinese importer bought one Panamax cargo of about 60,000 metric tons of Canadian canola shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing last week…’ www.ctvnews.ca/business/art...
ctvnews.ca
Chinese importer buys first Canadian canola cargo in months after Carney visit, Reuters sources say
A Chinese importer bought one Panamax cargo of about 60,000 metric tons of Canadian canola shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing last week, two traders with direct knowl...
03112
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
tldr; The Philippines has become the first country to integrate its entire national budget into a platform called the Digital Bayanihan Chain. This system records every stage of budget process, creating a tamper-resistant digital ledger to enhance transparency, accountability, and reduce misuse.
yugatech.com
Philippines Becomes First Country to Put Entire National Budget on Blockchain
The Philippine government has begun using blockchain technology to monitor the full lifecycle of its national budget, marking what officials...
170
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
"We need nothing from Canada" - America So thats what we will give you, and another thing, stop thinking about us.
0153
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Imagine walking into a grocery store where the goal is feeding people, not buying Galen another yacht. ​Public grocery stores work, and they’d save Canadians 30-45%. We need to stop letting these corporate parasites bleed us dry. Food costs up 30%. Grocer profits up 120%. They are robbing us.
policyalternatives.ca
How public grocery stores could work in Canada - CCPA
Chances are you spent some of your holiday gatherings talking about the price of food. Costs to consumers have increased by almost 30 per cent since 2020, while mega-grocers doubled their profit margi...
416866
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Calgary, January 29-31: The Conservative Party is hosting the "Greatest Hits of Culture Wars" tour. ​On the docket: * ​Scrapping DEI * Re-opening the abortion debate * ​Restricting MAID referrals ​We need a plan for 2026, not a retreat to 1950. 📉🏠 ​#CdnPoli #AbortionRights #DEI #MAID #CPC2026
cbc.ca
Conservatives to debate policies including abortion, DEI and MAID at Calgary convention | CBC News
Conservative Party members are pressing their leader to adopt a number of controversial policy positions at their upcoming convention including private health care, scrapping Diversity Equity and Incl...
4167
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
While I tend to agree with this sentiment, show us where those taxes are going first because more taxes improperly allocated does no good.
1214
Matt Parreira @mattparreira.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Very important to have a mix of who we are and where we are going.
061