CCI’s 2026 Federal Pre-Budget Recommendations for the Federal Government

By: Daniel Perry
CCI Director of Federal Affairs

Canada’s economy is operating in a global environment where economic policy, industrial strategy, and national security are increasingly intertwined. Leading economies are using public policy to shape markets, secure control over critical technologies, and build domestic capacity in sectors that will define long-term growth. Canada cannot afford to remain fragmented or reactive. At the same time, Canada’s approach to foreign direct investment remains too often focused on volume rather than outcomes, with too little attention paid to whether investment is helping retain intellectual property, build domestic capacity, and anchor long-term economic value in Canada.

For Canadian-headquartered scale-ups, the challenge is clear: how to grow and compete globally while retaining intellectual property, data, and economic value at home. Too often, firms face barriers in access to customers, capital, and talent, while public policy continues to reinforce foreign-controlled systems instead of building domestic strength. Canada has supported early-stage innovation for years, but has not consistently translated that strength into domestic ownership and value capture.

CCI’s 2026 federal pre-budget submission sets out a practical path forward. On behalf of more than 175 of Canada’s fastest-growing companies, CCI is calling on the federal government to use Budget 2026 to strengthen domestic capacity, support scaling firms, and ensure that public investments translate into long-term economic value for Canada.
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Key Recommendations

1. Use public procurement as a strategic economic policy tool

Public procurement remains one of the most underused tools available to government. CCI is calling on Ottawa to define “Buy Canadian” in a way that reflects real economic value, not just surface-level presence. That means embedding innovation, intellectual property ownership, and domestic economic impact into procurement decisions, and using government purchasing power to help Canadian firms secure early customers and validate their technologies. CCI also recommends positioning the federal government as an anchor customer for Canadian innovators, helping crowd in private capital and strengthen firms’ ability to compete globally.

2. Build a sovereign AI and defence industrial base

Canada has major strengths in AI research, but it continues to lag in commercialization, adoption, and strategic control. CCI is urging the federal government to build a sovereign industrial base rooted in Canadian firms, with stronger domestic compute capacity, better access to high-quality sectoral data, and procurement rules that keep value in Canada. In defence, that means ensuring procurements include IP access provisions and Canadian operational control so the country is not left dependent on foreign-controlled software and systems.

3. Strengthen Canada’s innovation capital stack

Canada’s capital challenges become more acute as firms reach later stages of growth. Too many high-potential companies are forced to rely on foreign investors as they scale, increasing the risk of relocation, acquisition, and the loss of Canadian decision-making and IP. CCI recommends focusing government-backed capital on Series B and later rounds, where domestic financing gaps are most pronounced. The submission also calls for a Canadian Qualified Small Business Stock-style tax incentive to encourage patient capital and support long-term investment in Canadian scale-ups.

4. Attract high-potential founders through a more competitive Start-Up Visa Program

Canada needs a more reliable and competitive approach to founder attraction. Lengthy and unpredictable processing under the current Start-Up Visa Program has made Canada less attractive to the entrepreneurs who can build globally competitive firms here. CCI recommends a renewed model that offers temporary residency first, with a pathway to permanent residence tied to clear business performance thresholds such as job creation, turnover, and IP retention. The submission also calls for stronger private-sector involvement in evaluating applicants and for the program to align more directly with Canada’s economic priorities.

Innovation underpins Canada’s ability to build stronger firms, create better jobs, and retain long-term economic value in an increasingly competitive global economy. Budget 2026 is an opportunity to move beyond fragmented measures and use the full range of public policy tools available to help Canadian companies scale on Canadian terms.

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CCI’s 2026 Federal Pre-Budget Submission can be viewed here. To learn more about CCI’s work in Ottawa, contact Daniel Perry at Daniel.Perry@CanadianInnovators.org.

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 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.