Unlocking innovation to drive scale and growth

We believe that the following five interventions can help boost Canada’s innovation agenda:
1. Catalyze the formation of business-led “innovation marketplaces” in sectors and technologies where Canada has momentum and where market participants need new solutions.
2. Create additional pools of growth capital to ensure promising companies have sufficient capital to scale up and access to investors who can provide advice and other value-added support.
3. Modify our government procurement policy to incorporate strategic procurement and innovation as a key objective. A shift from a requirements-focused to a value-based procurement system will facilitate the government and other public-sector players becoming important first customers, to test and validate Canadian innovative solutions.
4. Review and rationalize government innovation programs, then scale up those that have proven impact. Review regulatory barriers and remove or re-tool those that would impede development of priority sectors and innovation marketplaces.
5. Expedite entry for top talent through immigration policy that helps reduce a talent shortfall for high growth companies, and invigorate the talent pool through a focused innovation talent strategy and the FutureSkills Canada program.