This essay from CCI’s CEO was originally featured in the CCI Newsletter and shared with subscribers on October 1, 2026. To receive our monthly briefing on the scale-ups shaping Canada’s future, the policies that matter, and insights you won’t find anywhere else—subscribe here.

This time next week, more than 160 Canadian business leaders from across the country will be together in downtown Vancouver for a sold-out Canada’s CEO Summit. They’ll already have spent Wednesday evening across ten private dinners around the city getting to know each other better, and by Thursday morning we’ll be into a full day of conversations about the economy, capital, trade, AI, data, geopolitics and what it takes to keep building ambitious Canadian companies.

By Thursday evening, investors from across the region will join us for the closing reception, before the Summit wraps and CEOs head back through YVR to their headquarters — unless they stay in Vancouver for the long weekend, in which case our Field Notes has a few suggestions on things they should do.

Once a year, CCI asks some of the country’s most ambitious CEOs to clear their calendars and spend roughly 30 hours together. That is a mighty ask for some of the busiest entrepreneurs running some of Canada's fastest-growing companies, but after hosting this gathering every year since 2023, we’ve learned there is real value in stepping outside your own company for a day and spending time with people who have already faced some version of what's ahead.

We'll cover questions like: Where do you go next — the Middle East, Asia, Europe — and how much do you really understand about the customers, business culture and local customs before you get there? In the U.S., how do you keep building a serious book of business through a trade war? Which standards should your company be helping to shape before somebody else writes them for you? In an age of agentic AI, where should machines take over and where does human judgment become more valuable? How much of your technology stack do you need to own or control, and what does sovereignty mean when your cloud, data and critical infrastructure may sit somewhere else?

Those questions are harder when trade, national security, AI, data and industrial policy are all moving at the same time. CCI’s role is to help CEOs understand what is changing around them, learn from people who have already dealt with similar decisions, and make sure governments understand what those choices look like from inside ambitious Canadian companies trying to grow.

For me, the learning from one another is the special part. Sometimes the most useful advice still comes from another CEO saying, “We tried that. Here’s what happened.” CCI is a network of people who genuinely want to help one another, and over the years we’ve watched conversations at the Summit turn into new relationships, partnerships, investors and customers.

For about 30 hours, people who may otherwise only see each other in passing have the time to compare notes properly, ask better questions and learn from people who may be a few chapters ahead.

Then everyone heads home and gets back to building.

I can’t wait to see what people bring into the room next week, and what they take home with them when it’s over. You can follow along on CCI's LinkedIn page next week for updates from the CEO Summit.

And a big thank you to the partners making this year's gathering possible: Roynat Capital Scotiabank, EDC, Gowling WLG, National Bank, PwC, Capital Canada Limited, CPA Ontario, the UK Government, Deloitte and Maverix Private Equity.

Onwards to Vancouver,
Patrick

Patrick Searle is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a national member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy and supporting homegrown scale-ups to drive prosperity. If you are interested in learning more about the Council or joining our cause, get in touch.

INNOVATION UPDATES

Canada’s Responsible Data Centre Development Framework: Ottawa released a framework for responsible data centre development. CCI welcomed its focus on domestic procurement and long-term economic value, calling for open platforms, Canadian ownership or partnerships, and enforceable commitments to give homegrown companies priority access to computing capacity.

Digital Transformation Canada: CCI sees the new federal organization as an opportunity to make government a stronger customer for Canadian technology. CCI will be watching closely to see whether its mandate translates into contracts for homegrown companies and better public services for Canadians.

Productivity Mega Deduction: The new measure will lower Canada’s marginal effective tax rate on new business investment from roughly 13 per cent to 6.4 per cent. CCI stressed that making projects investable must be paired with incentives for investment in Canadian scale-ups, including a Canadian version of the U.S. Qualified Small Business Stock exemption.

EU–Canada Innovation Alliance: CCI is working with the European DIGITAL SME Alliance and Digital Governance Council to turn the new European Union–Canada alliance into commercial opportunities for homegrown technology companies. The collaboration focuses on stronger business connections, greater market access and shared standards to help companies scale across the Atlantic and strengthen technological resilience.

For more of our perspectives on Canada's innovation ecosystem, visit the updates page on our website.

THE BIG READ

With a snap election underway in British Columbia this month, CCI moved quickly to get our innovators’ ideas in front of the parties writing their platforms.

On the day the election was called, CCI released What B.C.’s Innovators Need to Scale, a policy blueprint outlining five actions the next provincial government can take to help homegrown technology companies grow and remain headquartered in British Columbia.

Developed with input from technology leaders across the province, the recommendations focus on innovation procurement, tax incentives, opportunities tied to major projects, talent attraction and wildfire resilience. Each offers a practical way to strengthen B.C.’s economy and keep more of the value created by its companies here at home.

SCALE-UPS TO WATCH

In September, we welcomed two new members to the Council.

TUHK, led by CEO Andre Edelbrock, is a Toronto-based payments technology company that connects banks, merchants and other payment partners through real-time shared data. Its collaboration infrastructure helps prevent false disputes from becoming costly chargebacks by connecting the necessary parties when a cardholder first raises an issue, protecting merchant revenue and improving issuer efficiency.

HYPERTEC GROUP, led by CEO Simon Ahdoot, is a Ville St. Laurent, Quebec-based technology company delivering computing, cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure solutions. With more than 40 years of experience, it serves organizations in over 80 countries across healthcare, financial services, government, manufacturing and research, while supporting the development of sovereign computing infrastructure and sustainable data centres.

Throughout the past month, CCI members secured new investments, forged partnerships, launched products and expanded their international reach. Here are some highlights:

• ARTIFICIAL AGENCY partnered with Owlchemy Labs to develop artificial intelligence-powered video game characters.
• BUZZ HPC partnered with ProCogia to combine Canadian computing infrastructure with applied artificial intelligence services for businesses in Canada, the United States and Europe.
• EVERTZ became a founding technology partner in Calian’s Northstar Defence Lab at Area X.O, supporting demonstrations of Canadian technologies and their potential deployment with the Canadian Armed Forces.
• GEOTAB was named one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators.
• KOHO CEO Daniel Eberhard was named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2026, recognizing young leaders in Canadian business.
• NUENERGY.AI launched Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index to independently assess Canadian control, safety and accountability across artificial intelligence systems and digital infrastructure.
• SENSENET acquired N5 Sensors’ wildfire technology business, adding specialized sensors, customers and expertise to expand its United States presence.
• TAILSCALE doubled its business customer base to 40,000 since November 2025 as demand for secure networking grew alongside artificial intelligence adoption.
• XANADU CEO Christian Weedbrook outlined the company’s ambition to build a quantum computing data centre in Toronto by 2030 and its potential benefits for Canada in an interview with Be Giant.

CCI IN THE NEWS

Recent coverage featuring CCI and our members’ perspectives on Canada’s innovation economy:

"We’re figuring out the capabilities the world needs that we can sell, and the companies we can get behind and support."

– Patrick Searle, Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Canadian Innovators, quoted alongside member leaders Sally Daub of BorderPass and Clive Kinross of Propel Holdings in The Globe and Mail's article "How to grow a great idea: Twenty three of Canada’s Top Growing Companies on closing the innovation gap"

"For scaling companies, uncertainty itself has become a tariff."

– CCI Director of Federal Affairs Daniel Perry, in his BetaKit opinion piece titled "Canada must build an economy to withstand, not weather, the trade war"

"Oftentimes in these moments, government engagement tactics are about communicating their position as opposed to actually listening to market realities. So, really, that’s the concern for us as a group trying to build those relations with the Canadian government at this moment."

– CCI Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy Skaidra Puodžiūnas, quoted in The Hill Times’ article "EU ‘not a substitute’ for U.S. procurement, say industry sources eyeing Trump’s ban on Canadian goods"

"The clear message that was delivered is that Canada is open for bigger assets."

– CCI Vice-Chair John Ruffolo, quoted in BetaKit’s article "'Canada is back’: tech makes its pitch to global investors at CVCA growth forum"

"We must end our dependence on large foreign suppliers for everything related to IT and digital technologies. It's time to prioritize support for local businesses, particularly by eliminating the lowest bidder rule and giving more space to innovation in public procurement."

– CCI Director of Quebec Affairs Jean-François Harvey, in his Policy Options op-ed titled "'Masters in our own house’: Quebec must invest in its businesses to stimulate innovation"

DISPATCHES

Quebecers head to the polls on Monday. Whoever forms the next government will inherit one of the world’s strongest AI research ecosystems — and a harder question about how Quebec captures more of the economic value it creates.

CCI’s Director of Quebec Affairs Jean-François Harvey argues that one of the most immediate tools is already in the government’s hands: procurement. When the public sector becomes a reference customer for a Quebec AI company, it can help that company scale, sell internationally and keep more of its technology, skilled jobs and growth at home.

With the election days away, Harvey makes the case that Quebec’s next phase of AI policy should focus less on awareness and more on the conditions companies need to grow: capacity, capital, ownership and customers.

Click here to read his full article: Turning Quebec’s AI Research Strength Into Economic Power.

Happy reading!

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