About

In September of 2015, former Blackberry Co-CEO Jim Balsillie speaks to a group of CEOs from Canadian technology companies during an event organized by OMERS Ventures, which was founded and led by John Ruffolo. Balsillie’s message to the group was that the federal government was setting policy which would impact technology companies, but Ottawa was not listening to Canadian tech companies. Out of this meeting, the seeds for CCI are planted.

In October, the Liberal Party of Canada wins the 2015 federal election on a platform which includes a promise to hike taxes on employee stock options, a policy which would severely harm scale-up technology companies’ ability to recruit skilled talent. This served to underscore Balsillie’s message about policy being created without consulting with domestic tech companies and acted as a galvanizing force.

CEOs begin a public and government relations campaign, penning opinion pieces and writing letters to the Minister of Finance.

In response to pressure from the tech sector, the Liberal government revised the policy to exempt most scaling technology companies from tax hikes on employee stock options. Bill Morneau, who was finance minister at the time, remarked, “I heard from many small firms and innovators that they use stock options as a legitimate form of compensation, so we decided not to put that in our budget.”

This proved to many CEOs on the sidelines of the CCI movement that linking arms and advocating with one voice can spur meaningful policy changes and was essential for updating Canada’s economic playbook for the 21st century innovation economy.

In March, Benjamin Bergen was hired as executive director and the first employee of the Council of Canadian Innovators.

Summer

‍CCI begins working with then-Immigration Minister John McCallum, consulting with scaling technology companies. The result of this work would be the Global Talent Stream, which greatly reduced visa processing times for skilled workers coming to Canada — one of CCI’s first clear policy wins for members.

Around 50 CEOs travel to Ottawa to participate in CCI's first CEO Summit, which includes meetings with key federal ministers and civil servants and exposes CEOs to in-person advocacy firsthand.

The federal government announces the Global Skills Strategy, which includes the Global Talent Stream pilot part of theTemporary Foreign Workers Program. CCI is selected as the only non-governmental referral partner to the program. Following the 2017 federal budget, CCI hosts its first pan-Canadian budget debrief for innovators.

Summer

CCI begins to expand its sectoral advocacy efforts into clean technology, health technology, cybersecurity, fintech, and digital services. CCI hosts various advocacy days in Ottawa for innovators.

Fall

CCI begins working on behalf of innovators at the provincial level, working first in Ontario to reorient provincial strategies towards supporting homegrown firms.

CCI continues to establish itself as a leading voice for prioritizing homegrown Canadian technology companies through strategic public policy, including the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations, ongoing federal government budget proposals, and the Sidewalk Labs project proposed for Toronto.

Spring

CCI hosts CyberCanada Senior Leadership Summit in Toronto, convening innovators, federal and provincial government leaders, and officials from our national security and defence agencies. In Ottawa, CCI appears before parliament calling for a national data strategy.

Fall

CCI hosts second CEO Summit in Ottawa, bringing together over 100 scale-up leaders from across Canada for over 40 meetings focused on increasing access to talent, capital and customers, and new marketplace frameworks for the 21st century economy.

CCI opens a bureau in Québec with a dedicated provincial affairs lead, a new brand – Conseil canadien des innovateurs – and the addition of Louis Têtu to the Board of Directors of CCI. When the Quèbec government tables their 2019 budget, CCI is on site in Quèbec City analyzing each measure through an innovation lens.

Spring

CCI hosts Spring Intellectual Property Symposium in Toronto, coalescing CCI's calls for a national IP strategy that helps innovators expand their freedom-to-operate to scale globally.

Fall

CCI hosts meetings in Winnipeg with the Manitoba Government, laying the seeds for CCI's future expansion into the Prairies.

At the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, CCI acted swiftly to ensure innovators and business leaders across Canada had access to essential information to keep their businesses running. In March, CCI launched the COVID-19 Slack Channel, which rapidly grew to over 2,500 members nationwide. CCI also began hosting webinar briefings with federal and provincial leaders, providing a platform for business leaders across Canada to engage in critical Q&A sessions during a time of significant economic uncertainty. These forums also allowed business leaders to share best practices and strategies with their peers.

As governments rolled out relief measures, CCI emerged as a vital voice for Canadian tech, advocating for improvements to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which proved inadequate for high-growth technology companies. This advocacy ultimately contributed to the creation of the $250 million Innovation Assistance Program, providing much-needed capital to innovative tech companies that did not qualify for other programs. CCI also urged faster release of funds from Regional Development Agencies to help companies manage the growing operational pressures they were facing.

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CCI Launches the Innovation Governance Program to train prospective board members with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively provide corporate governance oversight in scale-up Canadian technology companies.

CCI entrenches regional advocacy —galvanizing Alberta tech to sound the alarm on regulatory overreach of software engineers, and Quebec tech coming together to push back against overly onerous French language legislation. CCI is also an active voice of homegrown innovation in the Ontario general election.

CCI hosts its first Capital Summit in Toronto, bringing together leading Canadian institutional investors and a CEOs of high-growth technology companies

The Government of Canada announces significant changes to Canada’s economic immigration streams, including a digital nomad strategy and a high potential tech talent stream, in response to CCI’s ongoing advocacy. Many of the policy changes were directly mirrored in CCI’s 2022 Talent and Skills Strategy.

CCI takes a leadership role in the federal government's review of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit, pushing for policy changes that provide maximum benefit to scale-up companies.

CCI makes government procurement a national priority as a key tool for governments to support innovative technology companies.