In Uncertain Times, Procurement is the Most Powerful Economic Tool for B.C. Policymakers

As B.C.’s Legislature prepares to reconvene for the fall session, the political and economic landscape remains unsettled. 

Apart from untangling delays in building major projects and infrastructure, the province enters the session without a clear economic strategy to address its growing deficit. Compounding this is the ongoing job action involving more than 15,000 public sector workers, now in its sixth week. The lack of a cohesive response from government has raised concerns about long-term planning and fiscal management. 

Opposition parties are struggling to find strategic direction amid continued leadership upheaval, with a rookie BC Green Party leader, a new OneBC Party, and leadership questions around BC Conservative Leader John Rustad.

Against this backdrop, B.C. risks entering the fall session politically fragmented and economically adrift. While government has spoken broadly of industrial strategies to spur economic grown and attract federal investment, there is still no clear economic roadmap beyond building major projects and resource sector development. 

Procurement Reform is Essential to Industrial Strategy 

The government has talked optimistically about efforts to capture federal defence spending, and an intention to update BC’s Life Sciences Strategy, but the most effective way to move the needle economically is through procurement reform.

Any CEO will tell you that the most valuable thing to propel their company’s growth is a purchase order, and government procurement acts as an important validator to help them win further contracts.

Risk-averse procurement processes are shutting out B.C. innovators. Long process delays, and unpredictable outcomes make it difficult for domestic companies to participate. BC companies have innovative products and services that can help government operate more efficiently. But instead, too many technology purchases go to large multinationals whose only real competitive advantage is their ability to navigate cumbersome bureaucratic processes.

CCI has long advocated for the creation of a B.C. Tech Procurement Task Force to modernize procurement. I talked about the value of this when I presented pre-budget recommendations to the Committee on Finance and Government Services earlier this year. 

Key priorities include: 

• Including more SMEs and domestic innovators 

• Reducing red tape and delays 

• Building mechanism for sharing risk  

• Introducing mechanisms like set-asides for local companies 

I reached out to Kelvin Ng, Director of Business Operations at Global Relay, a Vancouver company and a CCI member. Ng told me: 

“Because of government process, Global Relay spent more than $2.5 million in recent years pursuing procurement opportunities with the B.C. and Federal governments—only to be told we were close, but the contract would either be delayed or awarded to a U.S. provider.” 

B.C.’s innovation isn’t the problem—the process is.

With the Ministry of Citizens’ Services undergoing reorganization, and CCI engaged in active dialogue with government, we are cautiously optimistic that change is on the horizon.

Collaboration Is Key 

B.C. must move beyond job creation through traditional levers like foreign direct investment (FDI), project builds and resource extraction. It’s time to adopt a value-add strategy to embed innovation, IP generation, and intangible assets into all aspects of B.C.’s economy. The best way to do that is by building a stronger relationship directly with domestic innovators and celebrating homegrown B.C. companies  that are competing globally. 

As Kelvin Ng puts it, “The province needs to invest in relationships with leaders in the tech sector. We know and respect that, traditionally, government knows and champion leaders in the resource sector yet the tech sector offers potential to bring much greater return on investment in benefit of the people of BC. We're ready to collaborate and work with the province."  

As the fall session begins, CCI will continue working with the province to strengthen relationships, advocate for procurement reform, and support the development of industrial policies that place innovation at their core. 

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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 150 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.