Hard Numbers: Boomers go bust, Canada aims for the moon, China chips away at Western tech dominance, TikTok smuggler fees revealed
65: The boomers had a good run. For 65 years, they were the largest population cohort in Canada, but new census data says they’ve been eclipsed for the first time by millenials. Increased immigration has helped swell the ranks of those born from 1981 onward. But don't get too comfortable, millennials – Stats Canada expects Gen Z to knock you off your perch as soon as 2038.
7: An unmanned lunar lander is aiming to become the first commercial craft to touch down on the moon this week, and Canada is part of it – literally. Odysseus, as the lander is called, was made by a Houston-based company, but it includes seven systems and key components developed by the Ontario-based Canadensys Aerospace Corporation. Odysseus will make its attempt as early as Thursday evening Eastern Time.
14: Local companies’ share of the Chinese market for microchip-manufacturing equipment hit 14% last year. That’s up a full 10 points since 2020, in a sign that Beijing has found ways to ramp up domestic production in response to a US-led move to ban exports of advanced chipmaking tech to China. Experts say that Chinese chip foundries still aren’t able to produce chips as thin as those made by South Korean or Taiwanese rivals but that Xi Jinping is aiming to close that ground fast.
2,000: How much will a smuggler charge to spirit you illegally from Canada across the US border? A reporter from the Times Union paper in Albany New York responded to one of thousands of TikTok posts that subtly offer this service and was quoted a fee of $2,000. A pregnant Mexican woman who reportedly paid $2,500 for the same route was recently found dead in an upstate New York river.