Look West: How Scale-Up Leaders Can Lean in to Grow B.C.’s Economy

By Kiersten Enemark
CCI's Director of B.C. Affairs

In November, CEOs and executives from some of British Columbia’s fastest-growing companies gathered in Victoria to advocate for strengthening the province’s innovation economy. Our meetings were taking place just after the government published the province’s 10-year economic plan, “Look West”. In meetings with Premier David Eby and senior ministers, we talked about the need for strategies that drive growth through government procurement, accelerate technology adoption through supply chains and reinforce the importance of sovereign digital infrastructure.
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A Strong Presence in Victoria

Ravi Khalon, Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth provided opening remarks at a caucus lunch hosted by CCI for more than 50 government officials, fostering direct dialogue between innovators and policymakers.

During the lunch, leaders engaged with Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Labour, on accelerating approval to bring in international talent—an essential component to help B.C. firms compete and for the province to capture lost tax revenues.
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Meeting Premier David Eby: Advancing the Look West Vision

A key highlight was our meeting with Premier David Eby to discuss his government’s new economic plan, Look West.. We stressed the importance of adopting a value-add strategy of embedding domestic technology into major project supply chains. We also stressed the importance of championing B.C.-based innovators in Ottawa to ensure national policies reflect the province’s strengths and priorities.
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Strengthening Canada’s Digital Sovereignty

Later in the day, CCI met with  Rick Glumac, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies, underscoring the importance of procurement, especially in health tech. We also talked about expanding sovereign digital infrastructure in B.C. As the regulatory landscape for data security and privacy tightens, domestic firms need clarity and confidence that their data is protected within Canada’s borders.

Attracting Canadian-owned data centres to B.C. is one of the most strategic economic opportunities available. Not only would it keep sensitive data in domestic hands, it would also create high-value jobs and generate significant revenue—resources that could otherwise migrate to Alberta if B.C. does not seize the moment.
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Modernizing Procurement to Grow B.C. Scale-Ups

Our discussions with Citizens’ Services Minister Diana Gibson highlighted another essential priority: procurement reform. Today, innovative companies often struggle to sell to their own government—a barrier that slows growth and limits the public sector’s ability to modernize. Too often procurement excludes local innovators, creates delays and is overtly cautious in  adopting new innovations.

Minister Gibson’s energy and clarity of vision were evident. By opening procurement pathways to local innovators, B.C. can accelerate public sector transformation while giving scale-ups the early customers they need to validate, refine, and export their technologies globally. Improving procurement is one of the fastest and highest-impact levers available to grow a strong B.C. innovation economy.
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Moving Forward Together

B.C. is at a pivotal moment. Look West provides a blueprint for building a high-value, homegrown innovation ecosystem—but realizing that vision will require close collaboration between industry and government. We thank Minister Eby and the provincial government for engaging in conversations to find ways to further strengthen the economy.

CCI and our member companies left Victoria energized by the province’s commitment and encouraged by the openness of its leaders. We look forward to continuing this work—advocating in Ottawa, engaging with policymakers across the province, and championing the innovators who are building the next generation of B.C.’s economic success.

If you’re interested in connecting with Kiersten about innovation and policy in British Columbia, you can reach her at kenemark@canadianinnovators.org
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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.