The Daily Chase: WestJet strike averted for now

Here are five things you need to know this morning.

WestJet back at the table with maintenance engineers: A day after proactively cancelling dozens of flights ahead of potential job action, WestJet is back at the negotiating table with the union that represents their maintenance engineers, trying to hammer out a deal. The Calgary-based airline and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association said in a short statement Thursday that they have resumed talks. In the statement, WestJet said the two sides are “jointly agreeing to return to the bargaining table to continue work towards finding a resolution.” The union, for its part, has rescinded its strike notice. The airline had earlier this week asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to intervene in the dispute.

Sobeys hits pause on automated warehouse with Ocado: Shares in British warehousing firm Ocado are selling off today after Canadian grocery owner Empire Company announced it has halted the planned launch of an automated warehouse in Vancouver that was set to open next year and be operated by the U.K. firm. Ocado, which partners with grocery chains to construct and operate largely automated warehousing facilities has been beset by delays and financial losses, causing its shares to lose 60 per cent of their value. Ocado says Sobeys has delayed the launch of the Vancouver facility that was set to open next year indefinitely, although it can be fired up again in future if so desired. “Alongside this pause to the planned go-live in Vancouver, Ocado and Sobeys have agreed to end terms related to mutual exclusivity,” Ocado said in a press release. The company’s shares slumped as much as 16 per cent at one point in London trading. Sobeys owner Empire, meanwhile, posted quarterly results on Thursday; numbers that showed profit declining and missing expectations. Sales were flat and slightly ahead of expectations. The company hiked its dividend by nine per cent to 20 cents per share, up from 18.25 previously.

RBC says Canada is lagging in AI — and it’s costing us all: Canada’s economy is suffering in part because of slow adoption of AI technology by businesses. That’s one of the main takeaways of a new report from RBC that says generative AI has the potential to boost Canada’s economic output by $180 billion per year within the next decade. A large part of that will be to tackle Canada’s longstanding productivity gap that sees Canada produce far less GDP per hour worked than the U.S. Despite the transformational potential of AI in all facets of business and life, the RBC report says almost three quarters of Canadian businesses haven’t even contemplated putting it to work in their operations. That’s despite being a leader in AI research. “Unfortunately, Canada has simply been better at generating ideas and developing models than putting them to work,” the report said.