Canada doesn’t have an innovation problem. It has a follow-through problem.
The country’s productivity gap isn’t exactly news to those in the entrepreneur space. In 2023, the Competition Bureau of Canada published a study showing a “consistent and clear” decline in competitive intensity between 2000 and 2020.
But this week, the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) set its sights directly on Ottawa’s new leadership with an urgent message: economic growth starts with innovation, and the government needs to get serious about backing Canadian companies.
In a new report titled A Mandate to Innovate, CCI outlines a detailed blueprint for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet, calling for a coordinated national strategy that puts high-growth firms at the centre of Canada’s economic playbook.
Released May 6, 2025, the report lays out what it calls “innovator-informed” recommendations for multiple federal portfolios — and not just the usual suspects like Finance and Innovation, but also Defence, Immigration, Procurement, and Health. The goal is to hardwire innovation into the federal government’s decision-making process, across departments.
“In the 2025 federal election, Canadians gave Prime Minister Carney a mandate to innovate, and we at CCI stand ready to help turn that mandate into meaningful action,” says Benjamin Bergen, President of CCI. “This report outlines what real action looks like for a government serious about sovereign prosperity and innovation-driven growth.”
From scattered policies to coordinated delivery
While innovation policy has historically lived in a silo, CCI is arguing for something more ambitious. Instead, it’s pushing for a whole-of-government strategy to turn Canadian ideas into global success stories. That includes everything from better commercialization and procurement policy to immigration reform and IP strategy.
Key recommendations include:
- Creating an independent innovation agency that works at the pace of business, not bureaucracy.
- Aggressively competing with the United States for global talent and investment, working to slow down the “brain drain” that costs Canada big dollars.
- Making the federal government Canada’s best customer by prioritizing Canadian-made solutions in procurement,
- Modernizing resource industries like agriculture and energy by embedding innovation at every stage.
“Innovation policy can’t be confined to just one department,” says Daniel Perry, CCI’s federal director. “Supporting Canadian winners requires an all-of-government effort. During the campaign, we saw Liberal Party promises that aligned with many of the policies in this report. Now, the real work begins: delivering results for the Canadian economy.”
That all-of-government approach is especially timely as Canada faces mounting economic pressures — from lagging productivity to geopolitical shocks (*cough* trade war *cough*) that are forcing governments around the world to rethink how they grow and defend their economies.
The missing link? Commercialization
Canadian entrepreneurs have long been told they’re great at research and development, but less so at turning those breakthroughs into globally competitive products and services. CCI’s report tackles that commercialization gap head-on.
“The foundation of prosperity and security is innovation,” says Laurent Carbonneau, CCI’s director of policy and research and the report’s lead author. “The leading countries of the future will be home to companies that respond quickly to disruption by commercializing valuable new intellectual property (IP), and export their innovations widely across the world.”
Carbonneau doesn’t shy away from the blunt economic realities facing Canadian firms.
“Canada’s economic productivity has been declining in recent years,” he says. “In a globalized world where people seek the best opportunities for themselves and their families, getting rich more slowly than our peers is the same as getting poorer.”
That message is aimed squarely at decision-makers in Ottawa who now have a clear mandate (and increasingly fewer excuses) to act.
What this means for Canadian business leaders
For founders, executives, and others involved in scaling Canadian companies, A Mandate to Innovate outlines a series of federal policy recommendations that could influence how businesses operate over the next four years. The report suggests that decisions around procurement, investment, and innovation policy made in Ottawa have tangible effects on business activity across the country.
If adopted, the recommendations could impact hiring, exporting, investment strategies, and the commercialization of Canadian intellectual property. The report also encourages business leaders to engage more directly in policy discussions, particularly in areas that affect the conditions for growth and competitiveness.
CCI’s message is that innovation isn’t optional. It’s the foundation for economic sovereignty, and it’s time Canada treated it that way.
