What the British Columbia Spring Legislative Session Meant for Innovators

By Abu Kamat
CCI Director of Strategic Initiatives

On May 21, the B.C. Legislature wrapped up its session and will not reconvene until after the general election on October 19.

This is an interesting moment in B.C. politics: Nearly 20 MLAs are retiring, and parties are now shifting their focus to full-time campaigning. There has also been speculation about a merger between B.C. United and the B.C. Conservative parties, but this seems unlikely due to significant ideological differences and electoral challenges.

Currently, the incumbent NDP government remains strong in polling and is shaping the pre-election landscape.

Innovation Update

In the past few months, the NDP government has not been particularly active on the innovation front. We've seen some preliminary movement on a provincial intellectual property strategy, and discussions about activating the provincial life sciences and biomanufacturing strategy.

The 2024 budget included significant investments in health care, and we hope that some of this funding will support technology procurement for healthtech companies.

While the policy agenda has been sparse, we have had positive engagements with Future Skills Minister Lisa Beare about talent concerns, and we maintain a good relationship with Jobs, Economic Development, and Innovation Minister Brenda Bailey.

Looking Ahead

In the coming months, our key question for all parties will be: What is your plan to drive better innovation outcomes and help B.C. innovators scale-up globally?

During an election period, CCI engages with all parties to ensure they're well-briefed on the issues most important to B.C.'s fastest-growing companies, including access to talent, capital, and customers.

To learn more about CCI's work in British Columbia, get in touch with Abu Kamat at akamat@canadianinnovators.org.

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About the Council of Canadian Innovators

The Council of Canadian Innovators is a national member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy, and supporting homegrown scale-ups to drive prosperity. Established in 2015, CCI represents and works with over 150 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies. Our members are the CEOs, founders, and top senior executives behind some of Canada’s most successful ‘scale-up’ companies. All our members are job and wealth creators, investors, philanthropists, and experts in their fields of healthtech, cleantech, fintech, cybersecurity, AI and digital transformation. Companies in our portfolio are market leaders in their verticals, commercialize their technologies in over 190 countries, and generate between $10M-$750M in annual recurring revenue. We advocate on their behalf for government strategies that increase their access to skilled talent, strategic capital, and new customers, as well as expanded freedom to operate for their global pursuits of scale.