With Manitoba’s Legislature Back, It’s Time to Turn Innovation Into Economic Growth

By Jess Sinclair
CCI Director of Prairie Affairs

Today, Manitoba policymakers headed back to Winnipeg for the fall 2026 Legislative session. All signs indicate healthcare and affordability measures will be key priorities, but the province has an opportunity to think beyond the immediate pressures facing government and focus on what will help Manitoba’s economy grow over the long term.

For Manitoba’s technology and innovation companies, that means creating an environment where more homegrown ideas can become successful businesses, and where those businesses can find the customers, talent and infrastructure they need to scale.

Here are a few ideas to get them started.

Start with Manitoba’s ideas.

Manitoba has strong universities, researchers and entrepreneurs developing new technologies. But great ideas do not automatically become great companies.

The province should develop a provincial intellectual property framework that helps researchers and businesses understand how to protect, own and commercialize the ideas being developed here. That could include bringing together universities, patent experts, research organizations and industry to identify practical ways to move more promising ideas from the lab into the marketplace.

The goal is simple: more Manitoba ideas to create value anchored here at home.

Then, make government a customer.

For a growing technology company, winning a government contract can be far more valuable than another grant or tax credit. A contract creates a customer, demonstrates that a product works and can help a company win business elsewhere.

Manitoba is already reviewing its procurement processes. The next step is to make sure that review leads to more opportunities for Canadian companies — particularly when those companies can deliver better services for Manitobans.

Health care is an important place to start. Manitoba could create a simpler pathway for innovative companies that have proven solutions to health-care challenges to work with government and Manitoba Shared Health.

Talent matters too.

Manitoba’s technology companies need skilled people to grow. Government programs that support training and employment should be connected more closely to the companies that are actually hiring.

That means looking at how existing programs can help local firms recruit and retain the talent they need to scale. Major projects, including investments around the Port of Churchill, could also create opportunities for Manitoba workers and companies to build new and innovative skills and capabilities.

Finally, Manitoba needs to prepare for the AI economy.

AI is changing how businesses operate, and access to data and computing capacity will increasingly shape which companies can compete.

Manitoba has an opportunity to get ahead of that shift by updating its approach to health data, data sovereignty and data centres. This should include modernizing the province’s health information legislation and developing a data centre strategy that creates economic opportunities for Manitoba companies while improving access to compute capacity.

These priorities are connected. Protecting intellectual property helps companies build value. Procurement gives them customers. Skills programs help them grow. And strong data and computing policies give them the infrastructure to compete.

As the legislature reopens, Manitoba has an opportunity to put those pieces together — and build an economy where more homegrown companies can scale, compete globally and create lasting prosperity at home.

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Jess Sinclair is the Director of Prairie Affairs at the Council of Canadian Innovators – Canada’s business council for domestic scale-up innovation companies. She leads CCI's Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba work, including advocacy and ecosystem capacity-building.

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