The CCI Newsletter: October 2024

This edition of The CCI Newsletter was originally shared with CCI’s subscriber community on October 1, 2024. 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.

Last week, down a cobblestone street in Montréal’s vieux-port, I had the pleasure of hosting over 150 of Canada’s most influential innovators and business leaders at the 2024 edition of Canada’s CEO Summit, an event curated by the Council of Canadian Innovators.

What began with rooftop cocktails at Hôtel William Gray and private dinners scattered across the city soon gave way to a Thursday filled with CEO-led discussions, quiet dealmaking on the sidelines, and an investors-and-innovators dinner at the storied Le Salon Richmond. But this was no ordinary conference—this was a statement about the enduring ambition and resilience of Canada’s innovation sector at a time when economic uncertainty is shaking markets.

We spent a lot of time talking about how unlocking global opportunities starts at home. Our success isn’t just about breaking into international markets—it's about building the relationships here that make those global leaps possible. I saw it firsthand as CEOs connected and shared their strategies and rolodexes, proving that when we come together, we strengthen each other.

Despite the challenges our homegrown companies are facing as they scale globally, one thing was clear: Our leaders are embracing the moment, not with fear but with a fierce drive to steer and adapt their teams and companies to succeed.

We also can’t ignore that the rules of engagement have changed, and global superpowers are no longer playing by the same playbook as Canada. Intellectual property, data, and technology are the new currency of global competitiveness, and Canadian policies must evolve to match this new reality. It was a candid, recurring message: we need bold, forward-thinking policy to unleash the full potential of our innovators. The status quo won’t suffice. This sort of CEO feedback is what powers CCI's advocacy engine and our government engagement campaigns across the federation.

Finally, if the Summit proved one thing, it’s that nothing beats being in the same room. The conversations, the connections, the spontaneous moments of inspiration—especially from the CEOs on stage who showed courage, vulnerability, and bold conviction as they shared stories and advice with our delegates—these moments of Summit 2024 will echo long past this week.

None of this would be possible without our incredible members and dedicated partners. And of course, a special thanks to the CCI team—small in size but unmatched in their dedication—for executing this extraordinary event while advancing our initiatives year-round. I’m already looking ahead to the 5th edition of the CEO Summit, set for September 24 & 25, 2025 in Toronto, which will also mark CCI’s 10th anniversary.

This month, CCI is hosting engagements across the country for our members and leaders in the ecosystem, including in Vancouver, Calgary, and Waterloo. I’d also like to highlight our first-ever Productivity + Prosperity Summit in St. John’s, NL, on October 30. Passes are now on sale, and I encourage any Canadian business leader interested in expanding into the Atlantic region to attend and connect with the innovators shaping Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy. I hope to see you there.

Keep growing,

Benjamin Bergen

Benjamin Bergen is the President 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.

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INNOVATION UPDATES

Bills in limbo: With the NDP backing away from a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals, any vote in the House of Commons could topple the government and trigger an election. We're tracking a number of important bills, including C-27 (data, privacy and AI regulation), C-63 (online harms), C-26 (cybersecurity and telecommunications), and C-72, (the Connected Care for Canadians Act). More on what the fall parliamentary holds in store for innovators in Nick Schiavo's dispatch at the bottom of this newsletter.

Building Winners: CCI's Year of Procurement marches onward! Earlier this month we published our most in-depth study of the economic value of government procurement in driving innovation outcomes. You can read the full report and watch our launch event here.

New Innovation Minister in Québec:  On September 3, Québec's Innovation, Economy and Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced his departure from politics. Minister Christine Fréchette, who previously served as Minister of Immigration, has been appointed as his replacement.

New Deputy Minister in Ontario: Sarah Harrison is the new Deputy Minister at Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement (MPBSDP), which is a critical ministry for CCI's policy priorities. Harrison now oversees key divisions including ServiceOntario; Supply Ontario; GovTechON (the IT community across the Ontario Government which extends to Ontario's Cyber Security Centre of Excellence); and Consumer Protection Ontario.

OSC seeks applications for Investor Advisory Panel: The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is inviting applications for membership on its independent Investor Advisory Panel, an advisory committee to the OSC that provides the primary retail investor perspective on policy, rule-making and other regulatory initiatives. More information can be found here.

B.C. election gets underway: As the British Columbia election campaign formally gets underway, CCI published our 2024 B.C. Election Briefing containing our platform recommendations for all parties on behalf of local innovators. You can also read our opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun, calling attention to the straightforward ways the next government can help homegrown companies as they scale-up globally.

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THE BIG READ

By any measure, Dan Breznitz is one of Canada's leading innovation experts. He wrote "Innovation in Real Places" which studied the strategies and policies that governments can drive innovation and growth in the economy. He spent more than a year inside the Department of Finance as a visiting economist, which ultimately resulted in the promising but ill-fated Canadian innovation Corporation.

Earlier this month, Breznitz published a major essay in The Globe and Mail, looking at Canada's long-term productivity woes, our under-investment in technology and innovation, and the way that Canada's citizens are bearing the brunt of our poor economic performance.

It is a sober and thoroughly researched examination of the issues, and the stakes.

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THE BIG DEAL

Usually in a fundraising round, it's the capital raise that's the big number. Toronto-based Loop secured $6.4 million in seed extension funding recently, but that coincided with a much bigger announcement.

Since pivoting the business to focus on international payments, Loop has processed over $1 billion in payments and grown its customer base by more than 125 percent in the last year.

As CEO Cato Pastoll told the audience at Canada's CEO Summit in Montréal last week, Loop is now in a stronger position than it was heading into the pandemic, making this a great story of resilience and meeting the moment. Read the full report on BetaKit.

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SCALE-UPS TO WATCH

In September we were thrilled to add a number of new members to the Council of Canadian Innovators:

• Redbrick Technologies, led by CEO Tobyn Sowden, is a British Columbia company that builds and acquires software companies that help digital entrepreneurs thrive.
  
  
• Samdesk, led by CEO James Neufeld, an Alberta company that is a global leader in real-time crisis detection and monitoring, using artificial intelligence to provide rapid alerts and awareness to detect real world threats.
  
  
• Novari Health, led by CEO John Sinclair, an Ontario company that specializes in software solutions that improve access to care while streamlining healthcare processes.
  
  
• Able Innovations, led by CEO Jayiesh Singh, is a Toronto-based medical device company focused on developing advanced robotics to ease patient transfers, enhance patient care, and improve quality of life for healthcare professionals and patients.

This month, CCI President Benjamin Bergen sat down with Embark President & CEO Andrew Lo to discuss innovative education savings, challenges facing Canadian families, and the evolving financial landscape. Read the interview here.

CCI Member Caitlin MacGregor, President and CEO of Plum has been named to the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women North America class of 2024. The award recognizes recipients for their remarkable business achievements and drive for tackling today’s most pressing challenges.

Last week, The Globe and Mail's ranking of Canada’s top growing companies of 2024 came out. Read the full list here.

And lastly, ApplyBoard secured $100-Million CAD credit facility to fuel global expansion.

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DISPATCHES

After a busy summer of government consultations and political pre-electioneering, the next four months in Ottawa are shaping up to be critical for Canada’s innovators. The political dynamics in Parliament are anything but stable right now, and now that the Liberal government has lost the reliable support of the NDP, an election could be triggered by any major vote in the House of Commons.

In this month's dispatch from one of our regional bureaus across Canada, CCI's Director of Federal Affairs, Nick Schiavo, talks about major policy items on the move, and the fate of key government bills when Parliament may be dissolved at any time. We're hoping to see movement on the Scientific Research & Experimental Development tax credit reform, and we're tracking legislation to enact aspects of the capital gains tax hike.

And the clock is ticking for the federal government to show that they can make policy for innovators. The leaders of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies can’t afford legislative delays and half-measures. With an election potentially looming, the window for action is closing fast. CCI will continue to press for meaningful policy changes that support the growth of Canada’s innovation sector, but we need swift action from Parliament.

Happy reading!