Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness

Canada faces unprecedented economic challenges. Its productivity growth is stagnant. Its advanced industries are losing in global competition. And too few innovation-based companies are growing to scale. These challenges are daunting but not insurmountable. Solving them requires the right policies at all levels of government. And their development depends on actionable insights generated not from broad macroeconomic analysis, but from deep analysis of actual production systems, industry dynamics, and technologies.

The Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness, an Ottawa-based affiliate of ITIF, focuses on addressing those needs. As a separately incorporated and registered charity under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act and Income Tax Act, the Centre’s mission is to help policymakers and the public better understand the nature of the innovation economy and the types of public policies necessary to drive Canadian innovation, productivity, and global competitiveness. The Centre also informs ITIF’s broader work on shared North American innovation challenges and opportunities. (Support the Centre’s work.)

Featured Publications

Canada’s 2024 Federal Budget: The Good, the Bad, and the Maybe for Innovation, Productivity, and Competitiveness

The word “innovation” appears a total of 97 times and “productivity” 63 times in Canada’s 2024 federal budget, and many measures targeted towards innovation and productivity reflect that focus. However, some of the funds being disbursed are tangential at best to actually addressing Canada’s declining productivity and supporting Canada’s innovation ecosystem.

Canada Wants Europe’s Competition Policy? It Will Also Get Europe’s Economic Stagnation

The changes two bills are making to reduce market concentration in the Canadian economy pose grave risks to the future of the innovation that is essential to keeping Canada’s innovation economy from declining even more.

Comments to Canada’s Department of Finance Regarding Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentives

By changing the tax credit to be quasi-incremental, unifying the rates between small and large businesses, and simplifying the filing process, the government will be able to incentivize private R&D spending more effectively.

Still Buffering: Why Canada’s Online Streaming Act Isn’t a Blockbuster Hit

Instead of promoting and supporting Canadian content, the Online Streaming Act passes costs on to consumers. The government needs to modernize the way it thinks about supporting Canadian content and leverage technological innovation instead of fighting it.

Comments to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology Regarding the AI and Data Act

If the proposed the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) is implemented as is, Canada may not be able to fully realize the economic benefits that AI will bring.

More Publications

Events

April 30, 2024|Register Now

Reviving Canada’s Innovation Economy

Please join ITIF as it launches the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness, an Ottawa-based ITIF affiliate focused on tackling these issues. This event will feature an expert panel discussion on a new report from the Centre examining the how and why of Canada’s performance on key measures of productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.

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Staff

Robert D. Atkinson

President

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation