In an open letter, the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) called on the Canadian federal party leaders to come up with effective economic strategies and policies this election in order to promote the growth of innovative domestic organizations in the country by increasing their access to strategic capital, skilled talent, and new customers in domestic and international markets.
CCI is a national business association with a membership of more than 100 chief executive officers from leading tech companies in Canada.
“Canada doesn’t have a start-up problem, it has a scale-up problem, and therefore it has a wealth creation problem. When less than one per cent of Canadian firms ever scale beyond 500 employees, it’s clear Canada needs an updated economic strategy that enables domestic innovators to rapidly scale globally in the 21st-century economy. Without such a plan, Canada’s national prosperity is at risk,” said Benjamin Bergen, executive director of CCI, in a press release.
Signed by more than 110 tech chief executive officers from across Canada, the open letter was written to highlight the lagging productivity of Canada, the risk that the country’s future economic prosperity faces, and the need for the government to address these challenges. The association of CEOs also expressed an interest to work with all the parties during the election to retool the economic toolkit of the government for Canada’s current economy so that the aforementioned challenges could be addressed.
“We’re writing because Canada’s productivity is lagging and our future economic prosperity is at risk. We want to work with all parties in this election to address this challenge. Last year, our companies employed more than 35,000 Canadians in high-quality jobs. We exported to over 190 countries and generated over $6B for the Canadian economy. We want to continue to contribute and grow our businesses. From Canada. To the benefit of all Canadians. You can help by developing economic policies that advance innovative Canadian companies including increasing their access to skilled talent, growth capital, and new customers,” the letter reads.
In addition, the members of the CCI also called on the Canadian federal party leaders to outline how they plan to manage the digital economy and come up with a national data strategy or policy for addressing the impacts of the data-driven economy.
“Canadian innovators have long called on the federal government to develop a national strategy that recognizes data as the most valuable asset in today’s economy and develops legislative and regulatory frameworks that allow Canadian businesses to grow and scale in the global data-driven economy,” says Bergen.
