Buying Canadian Should Mean Growing Canadian Companies

By Daniel Perry
Director of Federal Affairs

Next week, Canadian CEOs and senior leaders from the country’s fastest-growing technology companies will be in Ottawa. And they are coming with a simple message for federal decision-makers.

Canada’s procurement policies can do more than purchase goods and services. If designed well, they can help Canadian companies scale at home, compete globally, and export Canadian ideas to the world.

The federal government has already signalled its intent. The December announcement of new Buy Canada measures, alongside the recently released Defence Industrial Strategy, reflects a growing recognition that government purchasing power is a strategic economic tool.

The opportunity now is execution.

Public procurement represents one of the largest economic levers available to government. Across all levels, public buying accounts for roughly 12 to 15 percent of GDP. Used strategically, it can act as a powerful demand-side innovation policy, giving Canadian firms the reference customers, credibility, and revenue stability they need to grow.

For scaling companies, a government contract is more than a purchase order. It is a market signal. It tells investors, partners, and international customers that a technology has been tested and trusted. That validation often determines whether a company grows into a global competitor or stalls before reaching scale.

This is why the CEOs coming to Ottawa next week see Buy Canada as a growth policy, not a protection measure.

They are building companies that already sell into global markets. What they are asking for is a stronger home market, one that helps them anchor investment, talent, and intellectual property in Canada while they expand abroad.

If procurement rules allow foreign-controlled subsidiaries to qualify as “Canadian,” much of the long-term value from public spending will continue to flow outside the country. Profits are repatriated. IP is transferred. Strategic direction is set elsewhere.

Canada risks funding the innovation of other nations, without building domestic capacity.

The Defence Industrial Strategy underscores why this matters now. As defence and security spending increases, procurement decisions will determine whether Canada builds sovereign capabilities in areas like AI, cyber, digital infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing, or continues to rely on foreign-controlled supply chains.

The strategy identifies the right tools: investment, financing, and industrial benefits. But its success will ultimately depend on one thing. Contracts need to flow to Canadian-controlled firms that are building technology, talent, and production capacity here at home.

Procurement decisions should weigh Canada’s real economic value: R&D done here, Canadian-based engineering and data teams, Canadian-owned intellectual property, and keeping sensitive contract data under Canadian control.

Equally important is who is actually running the company. Established tools such as Canadian-controlled private corporation status or a simple “mind and management” test, can help ensure that strategic decisions and long-term value creation remain anchored in Canada.

And because innovation ecosystems are built through networks, not just prime contractors, procurement should also reward firms that rely on Canadian suppliers and partners.

These kinds of criteria shift procurement away from a narrow definition of content and toward a broader goal: building Canadian industrial and innovation capacity.

Other countries are already moving in this direction. Across Europe and the United States, governments increasingly use procurement to support innovation, act as early customers for emerging technologies, and help domestic firms reach global scale. Canada has the same opportunity.

The federal government has taken important first steps. The policy direction is right. The focus now must be on implementation that prioritizes Canadian ownership, Canadian innovation, and Canadian long-term value creation.

Because in today’s economy, buying Canadian is not just about who wins a contract, it is about where the next generation of global companies is built.

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To learn more about CCI’s federal advocacy priorities, contact Daniel Perry.

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About the Council of Canadian Innovators

The Council of Canadian Innovators is a national member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy, and supporting homegrown scale-ups to drive prosperity. Established in 2015, CCI represents and works with over 180 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies. Our members are the CEOs, founders, and top senior executives behind some of Canada’s most successful ‘scale-up’ companies. All our members are job and wealth creators, investors, philanthropists, and experts in their fields of health tech, cleantech, fintech, cybersecurity, AI and digital transformation. Companies in our portfolio are market leaders in their verticals, commercialize their technologies in over 190 countries, and generate between $10M-$750M in annual recurring revenue. We advocate on their behalf for government strategies that increase their access to skilled talent, strategic capital, and new customers, as well as expanded freedom to operate for their global pursuits of scale.