WeWork is partnering with the cities of Kitchener, Montreal, Ottawa, and Waterloo, and companies affiliated with their respective innovation hubs, to expand the Startup Passport program. The Startup Passport looks to offer city-based entrepreneurs a network of sites to work and meet at WeWork’s various locations.

The program, which initially launched in Toronto last summer, was available to MaRS Discovery District, the DMZ at Ryerson University, the University of Toronto Entrepreneurship, and York University. Now, the program is available to other innovation hubs in Ontario and Quebec, including Communitech, Montreal International, and Invest Ottawa.

The 23 Ottawa companies on the 2018 Growth grew their revenues an average of 450% between 2012 and 2017. Collectively they employed 1,148 full time-equivalent employees in 2017.

Here is the complete list of Ottawa’s fastest-growing companies for 2018.

1. Martello Technologies
Growth 500: 28
Growth (2012–2017): 2231%
Revenue (2017): $5–10 million
Headquarters: Ottawa, Ont.
What it does: Develops performance management software for communications systems

It’s no secret that finding an empty parking spot can sometimes be a rough ride in downtown Ottawa – but the city’s online traffic map can now let you know in real time what your prospects are like in its five parkades.

Before arriving and checking the signs at the entrances, an individual can search the map to see how many parking spaces, including accessible spots, are up for grabs in the two garages in the ByWard Market, the two in Centretown and the one in the Glebe.

Artificial intelligence is set to disrupt many industries, and the Ottawa area is poised to grab a slice of the action.

That was the message delivered Thursday to 550 attendees at Impact AI, the city's first industry conference on artificial intelligence.

"We have to put Canada on the map. AI is going to change everything," said Eli Fathi, the CEO of Ottawa-based MindBridge AI, which hosted the summit at the Woodroffe Avenue campus of Algonquin College.

Five multinational companies with an Ottawa presence are partnering with federal and provincial governments to put Ontario and Quebec on the forefront of fifth-generation network tech.

Ciena, Ericsson, Thales, IBM and CGI will spend $200 million over the next five years on research in an Ontario-Quebec corridor focused on developing 5G technology. The federal government and both provincial governments will match those funds with $67.7 million each.

An expansion of Bayview Yards, a digital business-to-business marketplace and a narrower focus on supporting specific industries are part of a new five-year plan unveiled this week by Invest Ottawa.

CEO Michael Tremblay outlined his vision Tuesday to create more “sustainable,” high-value jobs in Canada’s capital and build greater global awareness that Ottawa is “the best place to live and work.”

Unlike our fleshy human bodies, when trees break a limb, they don’t have casts put on their branches. The vital secret of plant structures lies in the cellulose – the cell walls of the organism – that form the scaffolding to rebuild what’s broken.

Ottawa startup Spiderwort believes it can take these structures found in nature and apply them to the human body with biomaterials that could regrow skin, bones and even spinal tissue – without the fear of rejection.

Digital initiatives could soon be hitting Ottawa’s streets with the goal of turning the capital into a “smart city,” according to a report going before the city’s Finance and Economic Development Committee next week.

Smart city strategies have been gaining momentum worldwide, says the report prepared by city staff, and Ottawa is well-suited to build on its existing infrastructure in developing a connected city.

BlackBerry QNX’s driverless car hit the road in suburban Ottawa yesterday.

This demonstration is said to be the first public autonomous vehicle (AV) test in Canada. The partnership with BlackBerry QNX, who opened an AV innovation centre in Ottawa last year, gave the province the facilities and technology to advance their vision of becoming a hub for developments in AV.

For most of the past 15 years — ever since Nortel began hemorrhaging jobs — the morning rush hour traffic in Kanata has largely been outbound, heading into downtown Ottawa or other parts of the region. Office buildings had floors of unused space.

That’s changed in the past few years. Both office space and talent are scarce in the Kanata tech park and, if there’s still traffic heading east, there’s an equal amount of it heading into Kanata, says Jenna Sudds, the outgoing executive director of the Kanata North Business Association.