Recall issued for 38,000 GM vehicles in Canada over software safety glitch
Transport Canada has issued a recall for 38,000 General Motors (GM) vehicles for safety risks related to a software glitch, the agency reported in a notice on Wednesday.
Homelessness is a growing issue in Canada, experts say, and to tackle the problem, many organizations and government agencies are adopting new technology.
One of the "tools in the tool belt" is artificial intelligence (AI), which can sort data using algorithms to predict the future.
In some cases, this technology can help municipalities better understand who is at risk of being chronically homeless,
Another algorithm can use thousands of data entry points to predict which communities in Canada will see a larger homeless population and the factors leading up to how people became unhoused.
"Theoretically, with AI, you could target preventative measures for individuals," said Tim Richter, president of the Canadian Alliance to Ending Homelessness (CAEH). "AI might help a city planner, for example, in figuring out what kind of housing you need for who and what rent in neighbourhoods (could help) prevent homelessness."
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Craig Cooper, the director of housing stability services at the City of London, Ont., witnessed a doubling of people accessing the municipality's shelter system.
"We are seeing almost three times as many people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in our community than we have at any other given time," he told CTVNews.ca in an interview.
London is located in southwest Ontario, a couple of hours from the U.S. border, and hosts a number of post-secondary schools. Cooper said the city is on track to be one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the country, which is putting extra pressure on its housing and rental supply.
"We're seeing a lot more seniors come through our doors, a lot more families 鈥 a lot more newcomers to Canada, including asylum seekers," Cooper said. "In every direction, we are seeing folks that are experiencing homelessness."
People wait in front of La Halte du Coin shelter ,Friday, Oct.13, 2023 in Longueuil, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Like many cities in Canada, London's social security programs are "underfunded, under-resourced, and over-demand," Cooper said. This forces organizations to have a housing priority list, which determines who needs assistance first.
In order to come up with such a list, London deployed an AI algorithm in 2021.
"It's a tool that we use that actually predicts somebody's chance of becoming chronically homeless," Cooper explained.
The AI was provided with a by-name list, which is a voluntary list used at city-run shelters and outreach supports, to estimate how at risk a person is of becoming chronically homeless based on their circumstances.
The model is proving to be helpful for experts working to get a better understanding of the situation, but Cooper said it is not going to solve the problem.
"Even if somebody shows that they're going to be 100 per cent chronically homeless, we have nowhere to put them 鈥 we have no housing stock," he said.
Data from 2018 , a Statistics Canada report published June 2023 reads.
It is estimated that within a year 235,000 people across the country experience one type of homelessness, the report notes.
Because AI can only predict outcomes, it falls to governments and organizations to use the knowledge it offers to prevent homelessness from becoming worse.
In Calgary, Alina Turner, the CEO of HelpSeeker, a technology company working to address social problems, told CTVNews.ca they were noticing a lack of urgency from officials.
Robert Osmond and his dog pose for a picture on Wednesday, October 11, 2023. They are currently living in a tent that has been set up across from the Confederation Building in St. John's, to bring attention to the lack of affordable housing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly
As the pandemic was unfolding in 2021, her team of technology and AI experts deployed an algorithm that was able to predict where and by how much homelessness would increase post-COVID.
Using data from 60 different municipalities across Canada, the team gathered publicly available information on shelter usage, hidden homelessness estimates, inflation trends, unemployment numbers and other factors like housing and rental stock.
By coming up with different scenarios, the AI was able to predict which cities would likely see an increase in homelessness under these compounding factors.
Some of the predictions included how the and Greater Toronto Area would see an increase in homelessness at a faster rate than other urban centres. It also predicted that cities in as well as of homelessness.
After analyzing the calculations, Turner and her team went to governments across the country to "sound the alarm."
"You can sound the alarm bells, but if nobody's listening, or are not empowered to do something about it, for whatever reason, that's kind of where the AI can die on the vine," she said.
Despite the advances AI has made, there are still some shortcomings with the technology in addressing the issue of homelessness in Canada, Richter from CAEH emphasized.
"I think it would be fair to say that if we have good data, and if we have a clear understanding of the causes, then AI could be a tool to help prevent homelessness," Richter told CTVNews.ca in an interview.
Understanding how many people are homeless in Canada is extremely difficult, Richter added. Some people who do not have a home may couch surf or could be wary of seeking government programs, which could lead to them not being counted by AI algorithms, or in general.
Joshua Bell pictured at his tent in Edmonton on Thursday October 19, 2023. Bell has been homeless in Edmonton for two years now. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson.
Many municipalities in Canada use a by-name list at shelters, which are sometimes forced to turn people away due to overcrowding. Other cities use a point-in-time count, which counts the number of unhoused people on a given day, providing only a snapshot of the issue.
Ultimately, Richter said AI is not a "silver bullet" solution.
"It can help us solve a problem as a tool, but it is not in itself a solution," he said.
Transport Canada has issued a recall for 38,000 General Motors (GM) vehicles for safety risks related to a software glitch, the agency reported in a notice on Wednesday.
About 10 senior Hezbollah commanders were killed along with Ibrahim Aqil, leader of the movement's Radwan special forces unit who was attacked in an Israeli air strike in Beirut on Friday, Israel's military spokesperson said.
An 11-year-old boy died Monday after subway surfing in New York City. He's the fourth person to die from subway surfing in the city this year.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service's performance ahead of a July assassination attempt on former U.S. president Donald Trump, according to a new report that lays out a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof.
An Ontario man says he鈥檚 still waiting for a vehicle he purchased on Kijiji to be delivered to his home. But after more than a month, he says he鈥檚 losing hope that the car will arrive and believes that he is a victim of a scam.
An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.
Israel鈥檚 military has struck the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon鈥檚 capital, in a dramatic escalation in a year-long period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.