About

CCI began as an idea in the fall of 2015, when a small group of Canadian CEOs gathered at the Drake Hotel in Toronto for a dinner hosted by John Ruffolo, then the founder and CEO of OMERS Ventures.

That night, former BlackBerry Chairman and co-CEO Jim Balsillie delivered a simple message: governments were making decisions that would shape the future of Canadian innovation companies, but the leaders building those companies had too little voice in Ottawa.

The conversation struck a nerve. In the months that followed, CEOs began organizing around a shared concern: Canada needed a stronger, more coordinated voice for its scale-up companies. That need became even clearer after the 2015 federal election, when proposed changes to employee stock option taxation raised alarm across the innovation economy.

CEOs wrote letters, published op-eds, and engaged policymakers. They made the case that Canada’s most ambitious homegrown companies needed to be at the table when decisions were being made about their future. By the time those CEOs prepared to take that message to Ottawa, the Council of Canadian Innovators was already beginning to take root.

After sustained advocacy from technology leaders, the federal government steps back from plans to broadly increase taxes on employee stock options used by growing companies.

Asked by reporters why the government changed course, then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau said, “I heard from many small firms and innovators that they use stock options as a legitimate form of compensation for their employees… so we decided not to put that in the budget.”

For founders, it is early proof that a coordinated voice from Canada’s innovation economy can shape public policy. In March, Benjamin Bergen is hired as CCI’s first employee — and in the months following, Dana O’Born and Patrick Searle join the founding team — and the mission begins to build Canada’s business council for the 21st century economy.

Increasing access to global talent for Canadian firms becomes the first national campaign for CCI, and we begin working with then-Immigration Minister John McCallum and federal officials on talent policy reform. For high-growth technology companies, access to specialized talent is becoming one of the most important barriers to scale. Our work helps bring that concern into federal policy discussions, laying the groundwork for what would become the Global Talent Stream.

We host the first Canada’s CEO Summit in Ottawa, bringing approximately 50 CEOs to Canada’s capital to meet with ministers, parliamentarians, senior officials, and policy leaders.

The Summit establishes a model that would become one of CCI’s defining activities: bringing Canada’s most ambitious company builders directly into the rooms where decisions are made.

The federal government launches the Global Skills Strategy and the Global Talent Stream, creating a faster pathway for high-growth companies to access specialized global talent.

CCI becomes the first non-government referral partner for Category A of the Global Talent Stream, establishing the Council as a credible voice on growth, talent, and competitiveness policy.

In our first pre-budget submission, we advance a clear scale-up agenda focused on three barriers facing Canadian technology companies: access to talent, access to capital, and access to customers. The submission calls for faster talent pathways, growth capital that reaches scaling companies, a more strategic approach to government procurement, and the creation of a National Intellectual Property Strategy so Canadian firms can better own, commercialize, and scale their ideas from Canada.

That spring, we host our first national federal budget debrief for innovators. The event becomes an annual tradition, bringing Canada’s innovation and business community together after each federal budget to understand what it means for the 21st-century economy.

We expand our policy work beyond talent to include clean technology, health technology, cybersecurity, financial technology, and digital services.

Regular advocacy days in Ottawa become a core part of our work, bringing CEOs directly into conversations with ministers, parliamentarians, senior officials, and policy leaders.

During the NAFTA renegotiations, we advocate for homegrown technology companies and urge Canadian negotiators to protect the interests of scaling firms in a trade agreement increasingly shaped by data, intellectual property, procurement, and talent.

We raise concerns about Canada’s preparedness for a data-driven economy, warning that trade rules, procurement policy, and digital regulation would increasingly determine whether Canadian companies could scale from Canada or be outmatched by larger foreign competitors.

In our Budget 2018 submission, we call for a stronger scale-up agenda focused on shrinking the high-skilled labour gap, improving access to capital for market-proven technologies, modernizing procurement and co-development with government, updating digital policy infrastructure, creating a CEO advisory council, and keeping Canada competitive for high-skilled talent.

The submission also calls for a National Data Strategy, making data governance, ownership, access, and commercialization a central part of CCI’s policy agenda.

We host the CyberCanada Senior Leadership Summit in Toronto, bringing together innovators, policymakers, defence officials, and national security leaders for a national conversation on cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, and Canada’s economic competitiveness.

We appear before Parliament to call for a national data strategy, arguing that Canada needs a modern policy framework for the data-driven economy and the companies competing within it.

We submit a detailed proposal for Canada’s National Digital and Data Strategy. The submission argues that data will be one of the principal capital inputs of the 21st-century economy, and that Canada needs clear rules around data access, ownership, authenticity, security, privacy, standards, and the value created from derivative data.

Canada’s CEO Summit returns to Ottawa, bringing more than 100 scale-up leaders to the capital. The gathering reinforces one of CCI’s core beliefs: Canada’s fastest-growing companies should not be spectators in economic policy. They should be in the rooms where those decisions are made.

We expand into Québec, opening a provincial bureau and launching the Conseil canadien des innovateurs brand.

In our 2019 federal budget priorities, we call on Ottawa to help Canadian innovators scale by improving access to talent, capital, customers, and freedom to operate. The submission urges the federal government to make the Global Skills Strategy permanent, modernize procurement, improve access to growth capital, support intellectual property creation, and build a national data strategy for the data-driven economy.

That winter, we release proposals to modernize the SR&ED tax credit, arguing that Canada’s most important innovation incentive needs to better support commercialization, continuous improvement, intangible assets, and the creation of intellectual property that delivers long-term value to Canada.

We host our Intellectual Property Symposium, helping establish intellectual property and intangible assets as a defining policy priority for Canada’s innovation economy.

Open Banking becomes a formal advocacy file. In our submission, we argue that Open Banking can increase consumer choice, strengthen competition in financial services, create new opportunities for Canadian fintech companies, and give consumers more control over their financial data.

We become a vocal critic of the Sidewalk Labs project on behalf of Canadian firms. In our submission to Waterfront Toronto, we raise concerns about data governance, foreign control of smart city infrastructure, open data, intellectual property, competition, supplier agreements, and whether Canadian scale-ups would be able to benefit from the economic value created by the project.

The Sidewalk Labs debate becomes an early example of CCI’s broader argument about the data-driven economy: Canada cannot allow foreign multinationals to define the systems, own the data, and capture the value while Canadian companies are left on the sidelines.

We begin building relationships with policymakers and innovators in Manitoba, laying the groundwork for future Prairie expansion.

The federal government makes the Global Talent Stream permanent, securing one of CCI’s earliest and most important policy priorities.

During the 2019 federal election, we release an open letter signed by more than 110 technology CEOs calling on all parties to show their innovation strategies. The letter argues that Canada does not have a start-up problem, but a scale-up problem, and calls for economic strategies that improve access to skilled talent, strategic capital, new customers, and a national data strategy.

We conduct our first Great Canadian CEO Survey, using direct input from 84 CEOs to show what scaling companies need from government. CEOs identify access to talent, growth capital, and modernized procurement as top priorities, while raising concerns about Canada’s understanding of the 21st-century innovation economy, the need for a national data strategy, and the growing competition for talent from foreign multinationals.

As COVID-19 spreads across Canada, we launch a national Slack community for innovators.

The network quickly grows to more than 2,500 participants, creating a real-time forum for founders, CEOs, executives, policymakers, and public officials to share information during a period of extraordinary uncertainty.

We host regular briefings with ministers, senior officials, and industry leaders, creating direct channels between governments and business leaders as public health restrictions reshape the economy.

We push for improvements to federal support programs, especially the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, warning that many innovative companies are falling through the cracks because traditional relief measures do not reflect how high-growth, R&D-intensive firms operate.

We publish member survey data demonstrating gaps in pandemic support programs and use the findings to inform public policy discussions.

In response to concerns raised by CCI that the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy was not working for innovative firms, the federal government announces the Innovation Assistance Program. Delivered by the Regional Development Agencies, the program provides targeted support to innovative companies that were unable to access other relief measures, helping many high-growth firms preserve skilled teams and continue investing through the crisis.

We release A Plan for Economic Recovery & Reorientation, calling for Canada’s post-pandemic recovery to be built around a national prosperity strategy. The report argues that recovery cannot simply mean returning to the pre-pandemic economy. Canada needs a new policy toolkit for an economy shaped by intellectual property, data, strategic procurement, clean technology, cybersecurity, health innovation, talent, and domestic scale-up growth.

We call on governments to make market-proven Canadian companies central to the rebuilding effort, improve supply chain resilience through strategic domestic procurement, expand Canada’s IP capacity, create national data strategies for strategic sectors, increase access to capital for high-growth firms, reverse the tech talent brain drain, and fast-track national standards in healthcare and cybersecurity.

In October, more than 100 Canadian technology leaders sign an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for a renewed nation-building agenda for the 21st-century economy.

The letter makes the case that Canada’s next generation of prosperity will depend on building the digital and policy infrastructure needed for Canadian companies to own, commercialize, and scale the ideas, data, and intellectual property that will define the future economy.

We expand our provincial advocacy efforts across the country, opening bureaus in British Columbia, the Prairies, and Ontario.We deepen our work on intellectual property, commercialization, procurement reform, data governance, cyber readiness, open banking, talent, and access to growth capital.

In our 2021 federal budget submission, we argue that Canada’s recovery must do more than recoup the losses of the pandemic. It calls for a strategic economic renewal built around high-growth Canadian companies, stronger ownership of intellectual property and data assets, modern procurement, sectoral data stewardship models, digital standards, talent policy, competitive tax treatment, open banking, and more R&D investment in strategic sectors such as clean technology.

Our work increasingly focuses on how governments can help Canadian firms scale and compete globally in an economy shaped by intangible assets.

During the 2021 federal election, we launch Planning Canada’s Future, an open letter signed by more than 200 CEOs calling for a serious national conversation about economic growth, productivity, innovation, and long-term prosperity.

The campaign argues that Canada needs a plan for the 21st-century economy, with policies that help homegrown companies scale, commercialize Canadian ideas, compete globally, and generate the public and private wealth the country depends on.

That fall, we launch the Innovation Governance Program. Designed to train current and future directors of high-growth Canadian companies, the program helps address a critical gap in Canada’s scale-up ecosystem: board capacity. It quickly becomes one of CCI’s flagship member offerings, giving executives, investors, and aspiring directors a deeper understanding of governance for companies competing in global markets.

We amp up our efforts in a sustained campaign for reform of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit program. The campaign argues that SR&ED must be modernized for the 21st-century economy by recognizing intellectual property, data, commercialization, continuous improvement, and the realities of scaling technology companies.

In Québec, innovators mobilize around language legislation, Bill 96, and its adverse effect on high-growth companies operating in a global market. Thirty-seven local CEOs sign CCI’s Future Quebec open letter to the Premier calling for a pause to the implementation of the legislation.

In Ontario, we become an active voice during the provincial election, making the case for policies that help homegrown companies scale, commercialize, sell to government, and compete globally.

We appear before the House of Commons Finance Committee during pre-budget consultations, telling parliamentarians that Canada’s fastest-growing companies are facing two urgent challenges: a post-pandemic talent crisis and an innovation system that does not do enough to turn research, development, and commercialization into Canadian economic value.

We warn that domestic scale-ups are competing in a global labour market, with many companies planning to grow their workforces by 20 percent in a single year. We also call for SR&ED reform, arguing that the program needs a stronger intellectual property focus and should not reward publicly supported R&D if the resulting IP leaves Canada.

We release a Talent and Skills Strategy that proposes new immigration pathways, a Digital Nomad Strategy, a High Potential Tech Visa, and other measures designed to improve Canada’s competitiveness in the global race for skilled workers.

We release Modernizing SR&ED to Support Canada’s Scale-Up Companies, a major policy brief calling on the federal government to broaden eligible expenditures to include the preparation and examination of intangible assets, explicitly cover commercialization and continuous improvement, improve CRA expertise around data-intensive and advanced technology companies, modernize expenditure thresholds, develop new evaluation metrics, and simplify the application process.

In Alberta, innovators push back against proposals to regulate software engineers, warning that outdated professional rules could create new barriers for technology companies competing for talent. More than 100 Alberta CEOs sign onto the Freedom To Innovate open letter to newly elected Premier Danielle Smith.

We become increasingly active on privacy legislation, artificial intelligence policy, and Bill C-27, arguing that Canada’s approach to data and AI must protect citizens while giving Canadian companies the freedom to operate, commercialize, and compete in the global digital economy.

In the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and growing pressures on innovators to access the capital they need to scale, we host our first Capital Markets Summit, bringing together institutional investors and high-growth Canadian companies to discuss late-stage financing, scale-up capital, and the financing gap facing Canada’s most ambitious firms.

In our 2023 pre-budget submission, we call on the federal government to develop a procurement strategy for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, modernize SR&ED and other tax structures, address talent shortages, strengthen IP and data commercialization frameworks, apply an economic spillover lens to foreign direct investment, and support domestic cybersecurity commercialization.

We submit recommendations to the federal Competition Act review, arguing that Canada’s competition framework must be updated for the data-driven economy. The submission calls for stronger tools to address anti-competitive conduct by dominant firms, better recognition of network effects and data-driven market power, private tribunal access for abuse of dominance cases, action on wage fixing and no-poach agreements, and clearer rules for modern technology markets.

CCI launches Mooseworks, a dedicated innovation and economic policy newsletter, offering deeper analysis and research into the issues affecting Canada’s fastest-growing companies.

The federal government announces several talent initiatives that mirror recommendations contained in CCI’s Talent and Skills Strategy, including a Digital Nomad Strategy and new measures designed to attract skilled technology workers to Canada.

We host our first Innovation Governance Summit, bringing together the iGP community of alumni for a full day of skill-building, networking, and discussion about the governance challenges facing high-growth Canadian companies.

We release recommendations regarding artificial intelligence governance and propose the creation of a Parliamentary Technology and Science Officer to strengthen Parliament’s capacity to understand complex technology policy issues.

We participate in federal discussions around Canada’s voluntary code of conduct for advanced AI systems, bringing the perspective of Canadian innovators into early conversations about AI governance, commercialization, and responsible adoption.

We host the first Canada’s CEO Summit since the pandemic, bringing more than 130 CEOs to Ottawa. The Summit reinforces CCI’s role as the national business council for Canada’s fastest-growing and most ambitious companies, giving CEOs direct access to federal decision-makers and creating a forum for leaders to shape the policies and economic strategies needed to scale from Canada.

We launch the Innovator Network of Canada, known as Inc., a grassroots network of local chapters where innovators can come together to shape economic strategies for their regions.

We open a bureau in Atlantic Canada, deepening CCI’s national presence and expanding our advocacy work across the region.

In our 2024 federal pre-budget submission, we call for a stronger economic growth agenda built around productivity, prosperity, and domestic technology capacity. The submission urges Ottawa to develop an AI commercialization and intellectual property strategy, strengthen IP and data commercialization frameworks, implement consumer-driven banking, convene a federal-provincial-territorial innovation summit, develop a national semiconductor strategy, modernize procurement, reform SR&ED, champion an Atlantic Investment Incentive pilot, deepen capital pools, and strengthen cyber and clean technology capacity.

That spring, we release Buying Ideas: Procuring Public Sector Innovation in Canada, an in-depth report on how to fix government procurement and make public sector purchasing a stronger tool for innovation, commercialization, and domestic scale-up growth.

When the federal government proposes increasing the capital gains inclusion rate in Budget 2024, we launch Prosperity For Every Generation, a major national advocacy effort opposing the changes. CCI was the only Canadian business council that argued vehemently that the proposal would reduce investment, discourage entrepreneurship, and weaken Canada’s ability to build globally competitive companies from here.

More than 2,500 Canadians sign the Prosperity For Every Generation open letter.

The campaign mobilizes founders, investors, employees, and business leaders from across Canada in one of the largest public advocacy efforts in CCI’s history.

At its core, the campaign makes a simple argument: Canada cannot tax its way to prosperity by making it harder to take risks, invest in innovation, and build homegrown companies that can compete globally.

CCI hosts national town halls on productivity and prosperity, leveraging the Innovator Network of Canada, and hosts virtual discussions with leaders in industry, academia and finance.

The capital gains debate becomes one of the defining economic policy discussions in Canada’s innovation sector, putting entrepreneurship, risk capital, productivity, and long-term prosperity at the centre of the national conversation.

In the fall, we release Building Winners: Strategic Procurement in the Age of Innovation, a major policy report arguing that procurement should be treated as a strategic economic tool to help Canadian companies scale, commercialize, and compete in the 21st-century economy.

Together, Buying Ideas and Building Winners make procurement modernization one of CCI’s defining policy campaigns of the year.

We continue sustained advocacy on SR&ED reform, open banking, AI commercialization, intellectual property strategy, cybersecurity, clean technology, semiconductors, and access to capital.

Increasingly, we frame innovation policy through the lenses of productivity, prosperity, and economic sovereignty, arguing that Canada’s future depends on whether more homegrown companies can scale, commercialize, and compete globally.

Canada’s CEO Summit comes to Montréal, bringing together 150 CEOs from across the country.

In St. John’s, the Prosperity and Productivity Summit extends the national conversation about innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth into Atlantic Canada.

We announce the Canadian SHIELD Institute, a new 21st-century policy institute focused on economic sovereignty, national security, defence innovation, and industrial strategy. The Institute is created as an independent organization, separate from CCI, to advance deeper policy work on the strategic questions shaping Canada’s long-term prosperity and resilience.

Ahead of the federal election, we release What Canadian Innovators Need to Scale, a policy primer for party leaders focused on economic security and lasting prosperity. The document sets out a clear agenda for the next federal government: tax competitiveness, national security, IP ownership, incentive reform, AI leadership, deep tech, governance reform, strategic trade, and procurement power.

During the federal election, more than 150 technology leaders sign Secure Prosperity, a CCI-led open letter calling for a national conversation about economic sovereignty, productivity, and long-term prosperity.

Following the election of Prime Minister Mark Carney, we publish A Mandate to Innovate, outlining recommendations and draft mandate letters for key federal ministries. The report turns CCI’s election priorities into a governing agenda, calling on the new federal government to put innovation, productivity, procurement, talent, capital, intellectual property, AI, and economic sovereignty at the centre of its mandate.

That spring, we launch Cannector, a new executive and board search service built for Canada’s innovation economy. The service helps Canadian scale-ups find the senior leaders and directors they need to grow, govern, and compete globally, extending CCI’s work beyond advocacy into practical support for the leadership capacity of homegrown companies.

The federal government abandons the proposed increase to the capital gains inclusion rate.

For CCI and its members, the reversal marks one of the most significant policy victories in the Council’s history. After more than a year of sustained advocacy, the decision affirms the case innovators had been making since Budget 2024: Canada cannot build long-term prosperity by weakening investment, discouraging risk-taking, and making it harder to scale globally competitive companies from here.

Federal reforms to SR&ED advance following years of advocacy by CCI and its members. We continue to push for a modernized program that better supports commercialization, intellectual property, productivity, and the growth of market-proven Canadian companies.

In partnership with The Icebreaker, we conduct the first-ever mapping of Canada’s dual-use innovation ecosystem, identifying the companies, capabilities, and policy barriers shaping Canada’s ability to connect domestic technology with defence, security, and allied procurement opportunities.

We celebrate CCI’s 10th anniversary at Canada’s CEO Summit in Toronto. The milestone marks a decade of advocacy spanning talent, capital, intellectual property, taxation, procurement, governance, and competitiveness. It also reinforces CCI’s role as Canada’s business council for the 21st-century economy, built by and for the leaders of the country’s fastest-growing and most ambitious companies.

The Canada Defence Procurement Readiness Program launches in the fall, giving Canadian companies practical tools, knowledge, and networks to compete in federal defence and security procurement. The program builds on CCI’s dual-use work and responds to a changing national security environment where defence, cybersecurity, procurement, and industrial strategy are increasingly connected.

We launch Building at Scale, a policy report on innovation and Canada’s housing crisis. The report argues that solving Canada’s housing challenge will require more than targets and funding. It will require new approaches to construction, procurement, permitting, productivity, and the adoption of Canadian-built technologies that can help communities build faster and more effectively.

We submit recommendations to the federal AI Task Force, drawing on the experience of Canadian innovators working in artificial intelligence, data, cloud, compute, and commercialization. The submission argues that Canada’s AI strategy must help domestic companies scale, build sovereign compute capacity, strengthen marketplace frameworks, and ensure Canadian firms can capture more of the economic value created by AI.

Signa Strategies launches as a separate venture and partnership providing dedicated, individualized support to Canadian innovators. Where CCI continues to lead collective advocacy for Canada’s innovation economy, Signa gives Canadian-headquartered companies tailored support to navigate government, shape public conversations, and advance company-specific strategies.

Benjamin Bergen concludes a decade leading CCI and transitions to the Board of Directors. Patrick Searle becomes CEO, and Dana O’Born is named Chief Strategy Officer. CCI’s leadership team expands as Gabriella Boulos is named Vice President, Programming, and Laurent Carbonneau is named Vice President, Policy and Advocacy. The leadership transition marks the beginning of CCI’s next chapter: building on ten years of advocacy while sharpening our focus on prosperity, productivity, sovereignty, and the business conditions homegrown companies need to scale from Canada.

We launch Care at Scale, a policy report on public buying, data, and better health care for Canadians.

The report argues that Canada can improve health care delivery by using public buying power more effectively, strengthening health data infrastructure, and creating clearer pathways for Canadian health technology companies to move from pilots to system-wide adoption.

As the year begins, we frame innovation policy through a sharper national lens: Canada needs to use the tools of government to build domestic capacity, strengthen economic sovereignty, and help more Canadian companies scale in an economy shaped by data, intellectual property, AI, defence, and strategic procurement.

We publish Buying What We Build, arguing that governments should use procurement strategically to create customers for Canadian companies, retain IP and data under Canadian stewardship, and strengthen domestic economic capacity.

We host a Buy Canadian Hill Day in Ottawa, welcoming CEOs from across Canada to participate in meetings with government leaders about new Buy Canada initiatives.

In our 2026 federal pre-budget submission, we call on Ottawa to move from fragmented innovation policy to a more deliberate strategy for helping Canadian-headquartered firms scale. The recommendations focus on using public procurement as a strategic economic policy tool, building a sovereign AI and defence industrial base, strengthening Canada’s innovation capital stack for later-stage growth, and creating a more competitive and reliable Start-Up Visa Program.

We release Building with Atlantic Innovation, our Atlantic policy playbook. The playbook sets out how Atlantic Canada can use its innovation strengths at home and around the world, connecting regional economic development with national priorities around procurement, productivity, export growth, and homegrown company scale.

We host the first Atlantic Innovators Hill Day in Ottawa to discuss the Atlantic Playbook’s recommendations with decision-makers across the capital.

The Innovation Governance Program marks its 15th cohort since 2021, and the second cohort of the Canada Defence Procurement Readiness Program is completed.

We become one of the most prominent voices responding to the federal AI Strategy, advocating for sovereign AI infrastructure, commercialization, procurement reform, talent development, access to capital, and a policy approach that helps Canadian companies capture more of the value created by AI.

Over the summer and into the fall, we will continue advancing the priorities of Canada’s fastest-growing companies across productivity, prosperity, economic sovereignty, procurement, defence, artificial intelligence, intellectual property, and scale-up growth.

That work will continue through events and advocacy across the country, including Canada’s CEO Summit, taking place October 7–8 in Vancouver.

As CCI enters its second decade, we remain focused on the business conditions homegrown companies need to scale from Canada, compete globally, and drive long-term prosperity.