When Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, took the main stage Tuesday evening as the Elevate Festival kicked off in Toronto, she used her opening night headlining slot to plug the $20 billion she had announced earlier that day to boost rental housing construction across the country, part of the federal government’s bid to stem the rising cost of living. 

The topic would have been out of place at past tech conferences, so often dominated by buzz over the latest innovations capturing investors’ imaginations—be it crypto, the metaverse or AI—and politicians promoting policies tailored for the country’s innovators.