Welcome to this week’s Sunday Briefing. In this issue, find out how the Our Place Society’s new facility for women will help Victoria locals experiencing homelessness and poverty, what Certn will do with a $30 million influx of funding, and find out which local execs signed open letter from Canadian tech leaders calling for an end to the purge of diversity and inclusion programs.

Now on to today’s briefing. It’s 872 words: a three-minute read.

-Emily, [email protected]

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$3 million funding opportunity for carbon dioxide removal

The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) launched a new Call for Innovation last week, targeted at early-stage carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions. With $3 million in non-dilutive investment available, CICE is looking for hard-tech CDR products that reduce greenhouse gases and unlock economic growth and job creation.

“At CICE, we back bold ideas that turn the global carbon challenge into economic opportunity,” said Sarah Goodman, president and CEO of CICE. “As a nation of problem-solvers, Canada has the talent and the technology to take a leadership position in the growing global carbon removal industry.

“We’ve already invested $15 million in 18 groundbreaking carbon management projects worth $78 million. This call is about accelerating that momentum by advancing the next wave of carbon removal solutions that will shape industries and create jobs.”

The Call for Innovation is Canada’s first funding opportunity for carbon dioxide removal innovation and was announced at the Carbon Removal Day 2025 in Ottawa. The program is open to Canadian climate tech companies developing CDR solutions in Canada, with priority given to those in British Columbia.

Eligible technologies include (but are not limited to) direct air capture and storage, mineralization, ocean alkalinity enhancement, and biomass carbon removal and storage. Companies should demonstrate the potential to scale their innovations while hitting emissions reduction goals and showing economic growth.

Applications are now open and will be accepted until April 30, 2025.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🤝 We’re all in this together: Last week on the Chamber Chats podcast, Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Williams was joined by Julian Daly, CEO of the Our Place Society. Our Place is a Victoria-based nonprofit supporting people experiencing homelessness and poverty. The pair discussed the opening of a local facility exclusively for women.

🌎 We are the world: Canadian tech leaders penned an open letter on diversity and inclusion in the sector, writing that the country’s tech industry has earned recognition as a leader “not by shutting people out, but by welcoming talent from every background.” Victoria execs who have signed the letter include Jeff Ward, CEO of Animikii Indigenous Technology and Linda Biggs, CEO of Joni.

👀 I’ll be watching you: Certn, a local startup providing online background checks, raised $30 million from BDC Capital’s Growth Venture Fund. The funding will go towards expansion of its AI-powered verification.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Senior game modes software engineer at Electronic Arts

• Systems analyst III — team lead, device management at District of Saanich

• Azure cloud engineer at EY

Hiring in Victoria? Reply to this email and let us know!

📅 Upcoming events

March 4-6 | Rising Economy Conference

Now in its fifth year, the Rising Economy conference is a highly anticipated “business conference for business insiders.” Rising Economy features a curated selection of in-person and online events designed to guide businesses and other organizations to meet the challenges and pursue the opportunities of the 21st century. With an A-list of exciting keynote speakers and panelists, Rising Economy explores topics critical to Greater Victoria, British Columbia, and the world around us.

March 7 | Know Your Faults — Earthquake Hazards of the Cascadia Subduction Zone

Vancouver Island owes much of its physical beauty to its location along a major plate boundary, the Cascadia subduction zone. Unfortunately, this comes at a price: the ever-present threat posed by earthquakes and secondary hazards like tsunamis, landslides, and liquefaction. This lecture will introduce what we know about the Cascadia megathrust fault, responsible for great earthquakes (up to magnitude 9) every few hundred years, but also deep earthquakes in the subducting Juan de Fuca plate and shallow earthquakes in the overriding North American crust, which though smaller in magnitude are both more frequent and potentially very damaging locally.

March 11-13 | 27th Annual Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit

The summit, hosted at the Victoria Conference Centre, is fully in person and will welcome up to 1,000 professionals involved in public sector transformation, security, and privacy. This year’s event will highlight strategies for public sector transformation in the new world of artificial intelligence. This summit brings together visionaries, experts, and innovators to explore the intricate intersection of advanced artificial intelligence with critical privacy and security imperatives.

Have an upcoming event? Reply to let us know.

🙋 I need a…

We at Victoria Tech Journal know you, our community, pretty well. Are you searching for someone in your field to have coffee with, a hiring hookup, a lead on local investors, or suggestion for a great Victoria tech tool? Whatever you’re hunting for, let us know. We’ll post it in this section and make it happen.

This week:

• Someone is looking for a part-time marketing and communications consultant with a strong B2B marketing background

• Someone is looking to connect with local VCs and investors who might value having a CX operations expert in their network.

Email your requests to [email protected].

Have something or someone we should know about?

Reply or email [email protected] so we can work together to spotlight the lesser-known stories of Victoria's tech ecosystem.