Canada has never lacked talent, ideas, or ambition. We know how to start companies. We know how to do world-class research. We know how to build products people want.

Our challenge has been turning those strengths into businesses that grow here, compete globally, and create lasting economic value for Canadians. This isn’t a secret, and those of us who have tried to build great companies here and struggled—and then were forced to look elsewhere for capital and customers—are living proof.

But I’m confident this is our time. The world wants to partner with Canada, Canadians are trusted, and our builders are ready to seize the moment. Prime Minister Mark Carney has set an ambitious goal: to mobilize $1-trillion in investment in this country over five years and build a stronger, more productive, more resilient economy. That more resilient economy, and its long-term sustainability, will depend not only on the major projects we build but also on the Canadian firms we help grow, the technologies we are able to commercialize, and the entrepreneurs who find it easy to stay and scale here.

Make it easier to build

Anyone who has built a technology company knows that a good idea, ambition, and a healthy ego are not enough. It also takes access to the right capital, the right team, and the right tools in order to actually get something off the ground and then grow.  It also takes a willingness to take risks—not just for entrepreneurs, but also for investors who, in Canada, have been far too risk-averse far too often.

I’ve built, grown, and advised tech firms, some of which have reached multi-billion dollar valuations. And I’ve learned the hard way how challenging it is to get investors to take risks, just as it is for employees to take equity in companies with no guarantees of finding customers that will prove out a business case.

That experience shapes how I look at the measures introduced over the past year.

The Productivity Super-Deduction federal tax incentive expanded accelerated expensing for productivity-enhancing assets, including patents, data network infrastructure, and computers. Then, at the first Canadian Investment Summit this past September, the government proposed going further with a Productivity Mega Deduction, which would cover two-thirds of investment capital. That’s a significant change in the incentives facing Canadian businesses. It makes it easier for companies to invest, modernize, and become more productive here at home.

This is an important part of the broader ambition that Carney has set for Canada: to make this country one of the world’s most attractive places to invest, innovate, and build.

For entrepreneurs, that call to make Canada the choice destination for business has to come with policy direction and regulatory changes that enable entrepreneurs to decide with confidence whether to buy new equipment, invest in research, hire more people, or commit to their next stage of growth. 

And that action will send a clear message: if you want to build and grow a business in Canada, we want to make that easier.

Keep more capital working in Canada

But making it easier to invest is only part of the equation. Companies also need access to capital when they’re ready to grow.

This is where Canada often falls short. We can help entrepreneurs get started, but when those businesses need substantial growth financing, they can find themselves looking beyond our borders.

I’ve seen how important a growth round can be. For the firms I was a part of, those growth rounds determined whether we hired our next hundred employees here, expanded into international markets, or moved key parts of its business somewhere else. We did all of those things, but regrettably, not in Canada.

I’m glad that we’re now working as a government, alongside many organizations like the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association and the Canadian Council of Innovators and others, to change that.

The Canada Strong Fund, with a $25-billion commitment over three years, represents an important step in thinking differently about how Canada invests in its future. The budget also allocated $1-billion over three years to the Venture and Growth Capital Catalyst Initiative, targeting a stage of growth where Canadian companies have too often struggled to find the financing they need.

I am a strong believer that public investment cannot and should not replace the venture capital fund, private equity funds, pension funds, or the family offices that invest in growth. Nor should it try to, because the rigour that those sources of funds deploy in assessing and supporting deals are hugely valuable to founders and to the teams they build—because they demand a lot—and they make companies better.

But public money can help mobilize capital, attract private investment, and give promising Canadian businesses a better chance of scaling here. In particular, it should incentivize Canadian capital and investors to invest in Canadian entrepreneurs and ensure that more of the value they create stays here.

Become the customer

Since getting elected, I’ve spoken with countless entrepreneurs across the country. And most share a similar complaint: Canadian firms have a harder time selling into Canada and to governments here at home than they do elsewhere. That has to change.

As the country’s largest purchaser, the federal government has the ability to help innovative home-grown companies demonstrate what their products can do. 

In my own constituency, there are tons of innovative businesses with great products that wish they could sell to governments. Innovative Solutions Canada offers a foundation to build on, but the next step is to make that approach more ambitious and more consistent.

We should reserve a meaningful share of procurement for first-of-their-kind Canadian products. We should use multi-year contracts where appropriate, and we should enable those responsible for procurement in government the confidence to support promising solutions while managing risk responsibly—and within guidelines that are above reproach. It’s about making sure that competitive Canadian innovators have a meaningful opportunity to prove themselves without compromising on quality. A first sale to government can establish credibility, help attract investment, and open doors to other governments and international customers, and yes, generate revenue.

If we want Canadian firms to compete globally, we should be willing to help them demonstrate their value at home.

Make sure Canadians benefit from what we invent

Canada invests in world-class research. Our universities, laboratories, and entrepreneurs generate ideas with enormous commercial potential. We’ve just made massive investments into the new Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs to help nurture the great ideas and the great thinkers of the world here at home.

What we now must do is make sure that we are turning those ideas into Canadian businesses and ensuring that intellectual property remains Canadian and in Canada.

That is why renewed intellectual property supports matter, including ElevateIP, the Patent Collective Program, and the National Research Council’s IP Assist Program. The prospect of IP-backed lending is also worth advancing.

Intellectual property, for an innovative company, is central to its competitive advantage, its ability to raise capital, and its long-term value. We should continue to make it easier for companies to protect what they create, finance their next stage of growth, and build on their intellectual property in Canada.

We also need the people who know how to scale a business. Building a company from 50 staff to 500 requires a different set of skills and experience from getting it off the ground. Attracting experienced executives, engineers, and operators is part of building a stronger Canadian innovation economy, and so ensuring our immigration systems and processes make it easy for those employees to come and settle in Canada will be critical.

Build one Canadian market

Even with better incentives and more capital, Canadian firms still face barriers that make growth harder than it needs to be.

Provincial rules fragment our domestic market, and regulatory approvals take too long. Companies trying to expand across Canada can find themselves navigating different requirements before they even begin selling internationally.

We should be making it easier for businesses to grow from one province to the next.

Regulatory sandboxes can help promising products reach the market while appropriate safeguards remain in place. Mutual recognition of standards can reduce unnecessary duplication. Continued progress on internal trade can give Canadian companies access to a larger home market—and our government continues to focus on helping to address this. 

These changes may not attract the same attention as a major investment announcement, but removing friction can be just as important as finding capital.

A company should be able to prove its model in Canada and then scale it across the country. 

Where to from here? 

What should encourage us all is the shift in Canada’s mindset.

For years, we have asked why Canadian companies struggle to scale. Now we’re talking about what they need—stronger investment incentives, more growth capital, better access to customers, greater support for intellectual property, and fewer barriers to expansion.

Together, these measures point toward a more serious approach to building Canadian businesses.

But the test of policies will be what they deliver—whether firms invest, whether they are able to get new customers, whether they hire, and whether they can grow from promising startups into globally competitive businesses.

Our focus needs to be asking several key questions: 

Does it help a Canadian company take its next step? Does it make it easier to build here? Does it increase the likelihood that the next great global company will be Canadian?

As someone who knows the struggle Canadian founders have faced, I want the next generation of Canadian founders to look at this country and see more than a place to get started. I want them to see a place where they can raise the capital, find the customers, hire the talent, and build the global company we need them to build. 

That is how we make real the ambition that Carney has set for Canada—by building an economy in which Canadian firms can grow, compete, and create lasting value here at home.

This country has the talent. We have the ideas. And we’re making progress on the conditions businesses need to succeed.

Now we have to follow through.

Because the goal isn’t simply to start more Canadian firms. It’s to build more Canadian companies that last, grow, compete, and lead the world.

And that is what the world wants from Canada—and what Canadians expect us to enable, now more than ever. 

Taleeb Noormohamed is the Liberal MP for Vancouver Granville, B.C., and currently serves as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation.

The Hill Times