Toronto festival drew over 1,000 HR leaders for two days of candid talk on AI governance, hiring and rebuilding workplace trust
HRFest Canada 2026 drew more than 1,000 HR leaders, chief people officers and practitioners to Rebel in Toronto on Nov. 10 and 11, 2026, for two days of debate on AI, leadership and trust.
Programming ran across five stages, including the separate-pass HR Leaders Forum.
AI governance takes centre stage
Vince Molinaro, founder and chief executive officer of Leadership Contract in Toronto, warned that adoption is outpacing ownership. He said that chief human resources officers (CHROs) should hand no decisions to AI “because it absolves your accountability.”
Kalifa Oliver, executive advisor and senior director of technology at Lowe’s Companies in Atlanta, described halting, at a previous employer, a broad ChatGPT rollout as costs mounted.
“We were about to kill our budget,” she said. “Your deliverable when it comes to data is not the dashboard, it is the decision.”
Hiring when both sides use AI
That same tension surfaced in recruitment sessions. Sabrin Lila, director of talent acquisition at Hydro One in Ontario, said that candidates now use AI to tailor résumés while employers use it to screen them.
The result, she said, is a return to basics in interviews, as recruiters try to determine “who’s this real person in front of us?”
Alexandra Tillo, senior talent marketing strategist at Indeed, argued that skills-based hiring and leaner job ads offer a way through. “We’re not looking for that perfect unicorn of a person,” she said.
Trust and transparency through change
Beyond technology, speakers returned repeatedly to trust. Siobhan Calderbank, vice-president of belonging at Element Fleet Management, said silence erodes that trust fastest. “They’re going to make up a story, and their story is always worse than whatever the truth is,” she said.
Margot Perlmutter, chief people officer at Cannex Financial, said honesty extends to recruitment, telling candidates plainly what her flat firm cannot offer. “There really is no ladder,” she said.
Sponsors, booths and a break from the agenda
The exhibition floor was just as busy. SAP SuccessFactors served as headline partner, Indeed as Platinum Sponsor, and ADP Canada hosted the VIP lunch and a coffee barista station. GoodLife Fitness was wellness sponsor, while Normandin Beaudry ran the Content Lounge.
Between sessions, attendees booked on-site massages, raced on an F1 simulator and met in the VIP lounge.
Many already have next year in mind. “It would be great to return and come back and hear what’s changed in a year,” Lila said.
