Where we started

Shift the Odds began far from policy tables and conference rooms. It started in borrowed spaces, on shared Wi-Fi, with people trying to get a foothold in a changing economy.

What began as an informal collaboration between small community groups in BC and Ontario has grown into a cross-provincial mission focused on how AI is changing work and services across Canada. At the beginning, our purpose was simple but urgent: help low-income communities build digital capacity so they could both catch up and build more secure careers in a rapidly changing digital economy.

Who we heard from

People reached us through community groups, college programs, and word of mouth. Their stories were different, but they had something in common: they were all running up against online systems that now sit between them and work, income, education, or basic safety. For example:

• Women building small businesses who were juggling bookings, payments, and government forms online, and losing time or income every time something didn’t work as expected.
• Students and young workers trying to break into tech through online programs and platforms without the money, connections, or map to get there.
• Seniors and youth who had been scammed or hacked and wanted to be safer and more confident online.

We listened and worked alongside community partners rather than dropping in with canned training. We met people where they were: answering one-to-one questions, co-creating workshops, and using community spaces as hubs for practical digital learning. Together, we focused on concrete skills: adjusting online safety settings, spotting scams, asking better questions, and practising with tools people could return to on their own.

The questions that kept coming up

Over time, we noticed a deeper worry taking root beneath the how-to questions about skills and tools. People began asking:

• What will AI mean for our job security?
• Who controls our data, and what are they doing with it?
• How is AI shaping our democracy, our rights, our freedoms?
• Where is this technology being hosted, and do we, as Canadians, have any real say?
  

These are legitimate concerns. Taking them seriously means responding with urgency and clarity.

Where we’re headed

As AI and digital systems evolve, they are reshaping our shared story: who gets to prosper, who gets to make decisions, and what kind of Canada we are becoming.

We are at a defining moment, and we are working to meet it. We are working toward a future where everyday people help shape the systems that shape their lives. Today, that means paying close attention to how these systems show up in daily life: monitoring how AI is used in work and services, making those impacts understandable through dialogues, public conversations, and plain-language resources, and supporting digital pathways for learners and newcomers. We want you to be part of it.