The Power of the Public Purse: Fuelling Ontario’s Future

By Skaidra Puodziunas
CCI Director of Ontario Affairs

As Ontario’s Legislature prepares to reconvene for the fall session, the province has a real opportunity to lean into the ‘Buy Canada’ moment.

Ontario is grappling with a growing deficit, slowing median real incomes and lagging productivity, all without a clear economic strategy to chart a path forward. The recent release of the Financial Accountability Office’s long-term outlook has only amplified concerns about sustainability and competitiveness. Meanwhile, Ontario’s homegrown companies continue to face roadblocks in selling to their own government. This is bad, because it harms their ability to grow, and it limits the province’s ability to scale local solutions.

Our 2026 pre-budget submission outlines several concrete recommendations to strengthen Ontario’s innovation economy. Chief among them: modernizing procurement, investing in Ontario-made health technologies, and accelerating commercialization pathways for domestic innovators. Read our full submission here.

Premier Doug Ford’s government has made some steps in the right direction — like the new Health Innovation Pathway — but much more is needed to ensure Ontario companies can scale here, sell to their own government, and compete globally from a strong home base.
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Procurement Reform Must Anchor Ontario’s Industrial Strategy

Government spending is one of the most powerful tools to grow the economy, and it can be an especially potent tool for creating growth among innovative firms. For Ontario-based companies, a government purchase order is more than just revenue, it’s validation that unlocks capital investment and future sales.

So there’s no domestic industrial strategy without procurement reform.

Unfortunately, risk-averse procurement practices continue to favour large, multinational vendors that have the capacity to deploy teams of consultants to navigate bureaucracy. This squeezes out companies offering the most innovative or cost-effective solutions in the long-term. As a result, Ontario taxpayers are missing out on the benefits of world-class innovations being built right here in the province.
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The Process, Not the Product, Is the Problem

Ontario companies are building globally competitive solutions in fields like health tech, AI, clean tech, and cybersecurity. The challenge isn’t innovation—it’s outdated government processes that block or delay adoption.

Long timelines, unclear evaluation criteria, and risk-averse procurement teams are a recurring barrier for innovators. Too often, companies are told they came “close” to winning a contract, only to lose out to a foreign vendor. These outcomes don’t just waste time and money—they send a message that Ontario isn’t serious about building a domestic innovation economy.

CCI has long advocated for targeted procurement reform, including:

• Including more SMEs and domestic innovators in procurement processes
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• Reducing red tape and accelerating decision timelines
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• Introducing mechanisms to share risk between innovators and government
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• Creating set-asides or weighted evaluations to support Ontario companies

These reforms are not about giving handouts and it means really leaning into the Building Ontario Business Initiative, and creating a level playing field where Ontario companies have a fair shot at serving the public sector.
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Ontario’s Health Innovation Pathway, a step in the right direction

Since the idea was first introduced in the 2023 Ontario Budget, CCI has worked closely with the government to advance the Health Innovation Pathway. We’re encouraged by Health Minister Sylvia Jones’s announcement that Ontario will begin accepting technology proposals to improve efficiency and care in the health system.

I reached out to Armen Bakirtzian, CEO of Intellijoint Surgical, to get a sense of what this procurement program might mean for a business like this. He told me:

“Ontario's new Health Innovation Pathway is the most meaningful program to support the adoption of Ontario-made innovation I have ever seen. Patients, health providers, and local companies will all benefit from this program in meaningful ways. To ensure as many people benefit from this program as possible, I'm looking forward to the government quickly implementing it this fall and committing long-term funding in the upcoming budget to the Health Technology Accelerator Fund to ensure the pathway remains strong for years to come."

As this pathway rolls out, its success will ultimately be measured by whether it gives Canadian health tech companies a fair chance to bring their innovations to market here at home.
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No Progress Without Partnership

Ontario cannot rely solely on megaprojects, foreign branch plants, or resource extraction to drive economic growth. The province needs a value-added strategy that embeds innovation, intellectual property, and productivity across every sector. That means deepening relationships with domestic innovators who are building companies that export globally—and want to grow from an Ontario base.

As the fall session begins, we urge the Ontario government to embrace these ideas—and move with urgency to implement them.

Ontario has the talent, ambition, and capacity to lead in the global innovation economy. But to get there, government must be an active partner in fostering a strong domestic market, reducing barriers to growth, and recognizing that the most valuable export starts with a local customer.

CCI will continue to advocate for bold policies that position Ontario as the best place in the world to build, scale, and export innovation.

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À propos du Conseil des innovateurs canadiens

Le Conseil des innovateurs canadiens est une organisation nationale basée sur ses membres qui remodèle la façon dont les gouvernements à travers le Canada pensent à la politique d'innovation, et qui soutient les entreprises d'envergure nationale pour stimuler la prospérité. Fondé en 2015, le CCI représente et travaille avec plus de 150 entreprises technologiques canadiennes à la croissance la plus rapide. Nos membres sont les chefs de la direction, les fondateurs et les cadres supérieurs qui sont à l'origine de certaines des entreprises à grande échelle les plus prospères du Canada. Tous nos membres sont des créateurs d'emplois et de richesses, des investisseurs, des philanthropes et des experts dans leurs domaines de la technologie de la santé, des technologies propres, de la fintech, de la cybersécurité, de l'IA et de la transformation numérique. Les entreprises de notre portefeuille sont leaders sur leur marché vertical, commercialisent leurs technologies dans plus de 190 pays et génèrent entre 10 et 750 millions de dollars de revenus annuels récurrents. Nous plaidons en leur nom pour des stratégies gouvernementales qui augmentent leur accès aux talents qualifiés, au capital stratégique et aux nouveaux clients, ainsi qu'à une liberté d'exploitation élargie pour leurs poursuites d'échelle à l'échelle mondiale.