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

Canada’s economic resilience depends on its ability to build globally competitive companies that keep intellectual property, decision-making and economic value here. Resource industries remain essential to that ambition. Growing Canadian technology companies alongside them can strengthen productivity, expand exports and help the economy withstand external shocks.

Budget 2026 is an opportunity to connect federal investment, purchasing and immigration policies around that goal. Canadian firms need patient capital through later stages of growth and domestic customers that help them prove their technologies before competing internationally. Public procurement can support both by creating demand for Canadian innovation and giving investors greater confidence in growing businesses.

The same approach should guide Canada’s ambitions in artificial intelligence (AI), defence and financial technology. Investments in these areas should build Canadian capabilities and ownership, supported by reliable pathways for entrepreneurs to establish and scale their companies here.

The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is putting forward four recommendations for Budget 2026, focused on helping homegrown companies grow while retaining more of the benefits of their success in Canada:

1. Strengthen Canada’s innovation capital stack by focusing government-backed capital on Series B and later growth rounds and introducing a Canadian Qualified Small Business Stock-style tax incentive for founders and investors.
   ‍
2. Use public procurement as a strategic economic policy tool by defining “Buy Canadian” to mean economically Canadian and embedding innovation, IP ownership, and domestic economic value into procurement decisions.
   ‍
3. Build a sovereign AI, defence, and financial technology industrial base anchored in Canadian IP, infrastructure, capital, and procurement.
   ‍
4. Attract high-potential founders and enable firms to build and scale in Canada through a more competitive and reliable Entrepreneur Entry Visa process.

‍

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. Learn more at canadianinnovators.org.