A Mandate to Innovate: CCI's Policy Blueprint for Canadian Economic Growth

Today, the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) released its latest policy report, A Mandate to Innovate – a set of innovator-informed recommendations for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mandate letters to his new cabinet. On behalf of Canada’s high-growth companies, CCI is calling on the federal government to set a bold new course for innovation and productivity that strengthens Canada’s economy and secures long-term prosperity.

To do this, Canada needs:

✅ An independent innovation agency that moves at the speed of business, staffed by experts, not bureaucrats, to help firms build, scale, and own valuable intangible assets.

✅ A national push to compete head-to-head with the United States for the world’s top talent and investment – because Canada can no longer afford to watch its brightest minds leave.

✅ A government that becomes the world’s best customer for homegrown innovators, putting Canadian-made defence, health, climate, and security solutions at the centre of public procurement.

✅ A bold strategy to supercharge our cornerstone industries – natural resources, agriculture, and energy – by embedding innovation and value creation at every stage.

👉 Read the report in full here.

Developed in close consultation with national economic experts and CEOs of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies, A Mandate to Innovate provides a practical, actionable blueprint for policymakers ready to secure prosperity for every generation.

“In the 2025 federal election, Canadians gave Prime Minister Carney a mandate to innovate, and we at CCI stand ready to help turn that mandate into meaningful action,” said CCI President Benjamin Bergen. “This report outlines what real action looks like for a government serious about sovereign prosperity and innovation-driven growth.”

National sovereignty in the 21st century depends on economic strength – and economic success is powered by innovation. A Mandate to Innovate offers targeted mandate letter recommendations to the Prime Minister, Ministers of Finance, Innovation, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Immigration, Procurement, Health, and other key portfolios.

While Canada has long excelled at generating ideas, it lags behind global peers in turning those ideas into commercial success. Commercialization creates jobs, generates wealth, and funds the public services Canadians rely on – making it the backbone of national prosperity.

“Innovation policy can’t be confined to just one department,” said CCI's Federal Director Daniel Perry. “Supporting Canadian winners requires an all-of-government effort. During the campaign, we saw Liberal Party promises that aligned with many of the policies in this report. Now, the real work begins: delivering results for the Canadian economy.”

Canada’s economic challenges have been building for years: lagging productivity, declining competitiveness, and a growing gap with global peers. Bold, coordinated action is urgently needed. To respond to the American trade war and global volatility, Canada must urgently reorient its economic approach and set the country on a more secure, prosperous, and resilient path.

“The foundation of prosperity and security is innovation,” said Laurent Carbonneau, report author and CCI's Director of Policy and Research. "The leading countries of the future will be home to companies that respond quickly to disruption by commercializing valuable new intellectual property (IP), and export their innovations widely across the world. Canada’s economic productivity has been declining in recent years. In a globalized world where people seek the best opportunities for themselves and their families, getting rich more slowly than our peers is the same as getting poorer."

This report builds on the priorities Canadian innovators outlined during the recent federal election through CCI’s What Innovators Need to Scale primer and the open letter at SecureProsperity.ca, signed by 150 CEOs – deepening the policy rationale and providing the Carney government with clear next steps to deliver on Canada’s innovation potential.

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Media Contact: 

James McLeod
jmcleod@canadianinnovators.org