CCI is pleased to share our latest report on the impacts of COVID-19 on Canada’s innovation economy. Our report, titled “A Plan for Economic Recovery and Reorientation – How Canada Achieves Post-Pandemic Prosperity”, outlines the steps Canadian governments must take to develop a national prosperity strategy for the post-COVID economy. 

This plan addresses the needs of high-growth businesses headquartered here in Canada and identifies strategic policy priorities that must be considered and acted upon in any post-pandemic recovery plan. Based on the feedback we’ve received from over 4,000 Canadian business leaders since the beginning of the pandemic, the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is recommending that Canadian governments:

1. Introduce clear standards and guidelines for a safe return to workplaces
2. Utilize market-proven Canadian companies as a central part of the rebuilding of the economy and revisit the analytical framework for FDI
3. Improve the government's supply chain resiliency through strategic domestic procurement, especially in healthcare & clean-energy sectors
4. Increase Canada's IP capacity to help capture the benefits of COVID-19 related R&D
5. Create national data strategies for Canada's most strategic sectors
6. Increase access to capital for Canada's fastest-growing firms
7. Reverse tech talent brain drain in this rare labour market opportunity
8. Fast track the adoption of national standards and regulations for healthcare and cybersecurity

Since September 2015, CCI has advanced strategies focused on accelerating the growth of Canada's fastest-growing companies and updating Canada's digital policy toolkit for the 21st Century economy. CCI advocates for strategies that increase access to talent, capital and customers, and works with domestic innovators to expand their Freedom-to-Operate globally. Since the beginning of COVID-19, CCI has worked closely with Canadian governments to co-develop stimulus programs targeting high-growth companies in the innovation sector, and has advocated a series of positions on behalf of the ecosystem, including most recently for the extension of the IRAP Innovation Assistance Program (IAP) until December 2020. 

Media Inquiries: psearle@canadianinnovators.org