This essay from CCI’s CEO was originally featured in the CCI Newsletter and shared with subscribers on July 1, 2026. To receive our monthly briefing on the scale-ups shaping Canada’s future, the policies that matter, and insights you won’t find anywhere else—subscribe here.

Later this month, some of the world’s largest investors will come to Toronto for Prime Minister Carney’s Canada Investment Summit.

The government will make the case for Canada’s major nation-building projects: the mines, ports, energy corridors and infrastructure that can get more of our resources to global markets. That is an important pitch.

But as we ask the world to invest in what Canada has, we should also be asking investors to back what Canadians are building.

Canada is already home to companies figuring out what the world needs next: technologies to fight wildfires, make mines more productive, improve health care, develop life-changing pharmaceuticals, protect critical infrastructure, strengthen our defence capabilities and help businesses work better.

When those companies grow and compete globally from Canada, the benefits come home too. Great companies create good jobs, develop the next generation of business leaders, buy from other Canadian firms, build intellectual property and expertise, and generate tax revenue. Their employees become investors and founders themselves. And as they scale, more of the wealth and decision-making that comes with their success stays anchored in Canada.

That is why building great companies is nation building.

I’ve been talking recently about the need for a two-legged Canadian economic strategy.

One leg is getting our resources to global markets. We need the best possible trade relationship with the United States while building the infrastructure that gives Canadian energy, minerals and other resources access to customers around the world.

The other is getting our companies to global markets. That means making sure ambitious Canadian businesses have access to the three things they need to scale: customers, capital and talent.

The investment summit is an opportunity to advance both.

Global investors should see the projects that can unlock Canada’s natural advantages. But Canadian companies should be part of that investment pitch too. If we believe some of the world’s most important problems are being solved by companies built here, we should be equally ambitious about attracting the capital that helps them grow from here.

That’s why CCI is partnering with the CVCA on the Canadian Global Growth Forum just ahead of the Prime Minister’s summit. A few days later, we’re also bringing business leaders together with The Conference Board of Canada and Osler for a post-Investment Summit discussion about what was heard and what should come next.

Resources are an advantage we inherited. Great companies are an advantage we build.

The companies are already here. Now we need to put wind at their backs, with the customers, capital and talent they need to scale globally from Canada.

That’s a nation-building project worth getting the whole country behind — and exactly the work we’re focused on at the Council of Canadian Innovators.

Onwards,
Patrick

Patrick Searle is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a national member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy, and supporting homegrown scale-ups to drive prosperity. If you are interested in learning more about the Council or joining our cause, get in touch.

INNOVATION UPDATES

Ontario's Data Centre Playbook: Ontario has released a proposed framework for selecting data-centre investments according to economic, energy, security and community benefits. Projects would pay the full cost of their electricity, and the framework will support the province’s forthcoming AI industrial strategy

Saskatchewan's Data Centre Framework: In August, Saskatchewan established principles emphasizing Canadian ownership and data sovereignty, local employment, Indigenous participation and self-supplied electricity. The province reported more than 30 development applications in its queue.

Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund: Ottawa has announced a new fund which will support projects that respond to pressing skilled labour shortages across Canada’s priority sectors, including housing, clean electricity and defence.

Churchill Falls: In a new iPolitics opinion piece, CCI's Karen Moores examines how the Churchill Falls agreement can support more than clean-power generation.

Buy Canadian: In the Vancouver Sun opinion piece, CCI's Kiersten Enemark calls on the province to turn its Buy Canadian directive into a formal procurement policy.

Wildfire Innovation Fund: In a second piece published in the Vancouver Sun, CCI's Kiersten Enemark argues the province must modernize its approach to wildfire management by leveraging domestic innovation rather than sticking to legacy procurement.

Quantum Defence Innovation Secure Hub: A University of Calgary-led consortium will receive $20.3 million to establish a secure hub focused on quantum sensing, communications, algorithms and hardware assurance. Its purpose is to move Canadian research toward deployable defence capabilities.

Nova Scotia tick-control commercialization: Research Nova Scotia committed $1.2 million to develop and commercialize repellents and control technologies through Acadia University’s new Canadian Tick Research and Innovation Centre.

For more of our perspectives on Canada's innovation ecosystem, visit the updates page on our website.

THE BIG READ

This month, we released The Scale-Up Gap: From Value Creation to Value Retention, a national study examining why Canadian founders sell their companies to foreign buyers and the conditions that shape scaling outcomes.

The report identifies barriers related to capital, customers, talent, infrastructure and fragmented support. It also outlines practical steps to strengthen domestic scaling pathways and help more companies grow, remain Canadian and create long-term economic value at home. Read the full report here.

SCALE-UPS TO WATCH

In August, we welcomed some incredible new members to the council.
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OCEAN SONICS, co-founded and led by CEO Mark Wood, is a Truro Heights, N.S.-based underwater acoustic technology firm that helps organizations listen to, measure, and better understand our oceans. Its suite of smart digital hydrophones and acoustic solutions allows researchers, industry professionals, and environmental organizations to capture high-quality data to monitor marine environments and inform critical decision-making.

BORDERPASS, led by co-founders and co-CEOs Sally Daub and Josh Green, is a Toronto-based legal technology platform that helps individuals, businesses, and educational institutions manage immigration and global mobility more efficiently and affordably. By combining generative AI and automation with guidance from licensed lawyers, its platform streamlines immigration applications, ongoing compliance, and pathways from study to work and settlement.

TWINSHORE, led by President and CEO G. Mark Collett, is an industrial services group based in St. John's, NL serving offshore energy, marine construction, defence, and industrial markets across Canada and internationally. Through its operations, the company brings together decades of experience delivering complex and safety-critical industrial services.

Last month, CCI members marked another strong month with new investments, partnerships, product launches and international growth:

• HELCIM raised $53 million in Canadian-led financing to accelerate the growth of its payments platform for small businesses.
• XANADU receives $195 Million investment from Government of Canada to build the Quantum Supply Chain
• CRYPTO4A achieved FIPS 140-3 Level 3 validation for QASM™, the cryptographic module at the core of its next-generation quantum-safe HSM
• ROSS VIDEO powers new upgraded New York Stock Exchange production facility
• POINTCLICKCARE partnered with Ode and Anthropic to integrate artificial intelligence into its platform and reduce the administrative burden on care teams.
• ABCELLERA launched a US$200-million equity offering following strong clinical trial results for its experimental menopause treatment.
• PHARMALA BIOTECH received a US patent covering novel enantioselective processes
• ALAYACARE partnered with St. Joseph’s organizations to connect hospital and home-care systems and support safer, more coordinated patient transitions.
• ELECTROVAYA launched a seven-megawatt battery energy storage system designed for artificial intelligence data centres and other mission-critical facilities.
• PLURILOCK was selected as one of the awardees under NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement VI government-wide acquisition contract.
• SOLINK has won Global Tech Awards in Business Intelligence and Operational Technology

COUNTDOWN TO CANADA'S CEO SUMMIT

We’re officially less than five weeks away from Canada’s CEO Summit in Vancouver. We’ll be gathering at a consequential moment for Canadian business, and we’ve assembled a strong group of business leaders to share how they’re navigating this period of geopolitical and economic change, and the lessons they’re learning along the way.

Speakers so far confirmed include:

• Jack Newton, Founder & CEO of Clio — one of Canada’s most successful global software companies.
• Renée Touzin, President & CEO of GIRO — leading a Montreal software company serving major transit systems around the world.
• Jan Kestle, Founder & President of Environics Analytics — one of Canada’s pioneers in data and analytics.
• Andrew Lockhead, Co-Founder & CEO of Stay22 — scaling a Montreal travel-tech company globally.
• Nic Beique, Founder & CEO of Helcim — building a Canadian challenger in North American payments.
• Derek Ting, Co-Founder & CEO of TextNow — who has built a major alternative to the traditional wireless model.
• Scott Beatty, CEO of MarineLabs — building ocean intelligence technology from Victoria.
• Megan Leslie, Co-Founder & CEO of NanoTess — commercializing Canadian biotech from Calgary.
• Stéphane Garneau, President & CEO of Micrologic — helping build Canadian sovereign cloud infrastructure.
• Mike Cook, Co-Founder & CEO of IDENTOS — building digital trust infrastructure for healthcare and government.
• Steve Follett, Founder & CEO of Enaimco — building subsea technology from St. John’s for global offshore markets.

We’ll also be joined by CCI's co-founders Jim Balsillie and John Ruffolo, as well as Scotiabank's Derek Holt, British High Commissioner Rob Tinline, and EDC’s Guillermo Freire. Over two days of CEO-to-CEO discussions, economic briefings and private dinners, Canada’s most ambitious CEOs will exchange ideas, compare strategies and build relationships that can help them lead, grow and compete in the years ahead.

The 2026 edition of Canada’s CEO Summit is presented by Roynat Capital Scotiabank, with Gowling WLG and Export Development Canada (EDC) as Executive Sponsors. Supporting Sponsors include National Bank, CPA Ontario, Capital Canada Limited, PwC and the UK Government.

DISPATCHES

Canada needs a tax system that makes it more attractive to build, invest and grow here.

CCI has been making that case since 2024, when proposed changes to the capital gains inclusion rate sparked our Prosperity for Every Generation campaign and a broader push to improve the incentives for founders, employees and investors who take risks on Canadian companies. Since then, more than 2,500 Canadians have joined the campaign, and CCI has consistently pointed to the U.S. Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) exemption as a model Canada should learn from.

In a new perspective piece on the CCI website, CCI Director of Federal Affairs Daniel Perry builds on that work and makes the case for a Canadian version of QSBS in this fall's Budget 2026. A stronger, more competitive capital gains incentive would help attract investment, reward entrepreneurship and give founders and early employees more reason to build and stay in Canada. Read the full article here.

Have a great month!

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About the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI)

The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is Canada’s business council for the 21st century economy. We are a collective of over 175 of Canada’s fastest-growing and most ambitious companies, and the founders, CEOs, and executives behind them, working together to improve the business conditions that help more homegrown companies scale, compete globally, and drive long-term prosperity.