The feds announced some Canadian tech sweeteners Friday, including a fourth VCCI indirect investment fund, changes to the SR&ED tax credit program, and a bunch of new incentives for pension funds to invest domestically.
Madison McLauchlan has all the details on the announcement, including what those acronyms mean.
The timing of the announcement stands out: one business day before the Fall Economic Statement and two before the House of Commons breaks for the holidays. Like with its AI compute commitments before Budget 2024, this government likes to pre-announce its announcements, but the shortened timeframe seems silly. Multiple observers I spoke with openly wondered what shoe might drop on Monday that separating the tech commitments seemed like sound messaging strategy, but we won’t have to wait long to find out (update: Chrystia Freeland resigned today as Finance Minister).
More frustrating is the Fall Economic Statement’s proximity to the holidays. While winter technically doesn’t begin until December 21, this year’s statement comes weeks later than any since 2016, and even beats out the Economic and Fiscal Updates in the election years of 2019 and 2021.
As a former liberal arts major, I deeply know the virtue of submitting a paper late than never. But the homework, when late, should be complete.
Friday’s SR&ED announcement contained no mention of a patent-box regime to incentivize domestic intellectual property creation, although that might come Monday. What’s less likely to come Monday is legislation for a consumer-driven banking framework, despite public consultations ending in September and a commitment in last year’s statement that open banking would go live in 2025.
With a federal election guaranteed by Oct. 20 of next year, and the omnipresent threat of one to resume when Parliament returns Jan. 27, it’s unlikely we’ll see much movement on these files, along with Bill C-27 and its AIDA provision, or the Canada Innovation Corporation, which the feds delayed until after the election. It also means that the Liberals’ eventual election platform will likely include the commitment to execute several previously made election commitments.
This federal government’s inability to deliver a cohesive innovation strategy on time and to spec is one of BetaKit’s biggest Canadian tech stories of the year, which we’ll begin to roll out starting Monday. It’s not too late to get your take (or perhaps a 2025 prediction) in under the wire, so email me now.
Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief
FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
Can a law firm challenge the model of startup support? MT>Ventures was founded by partner Aliya Ramji, based on insights she gained in-house at Figure 1. She believes a new legal approach (and billing model) can be pivotal to a startup’s success. Read about the law firm that thinks like a venture fund.
A number of Canadians have risen through the ranks at Uber. From the Winnipeg-born Director of Engineering in Silicon Valley to the VP of Mobility and Business Operations, who still works from Toronto, the rideshare giant has looked north to fill its global leadership positions. Meet the Canadians shaping Uber’s global vision.
TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK
Feds announce VCCI renewal, SR&ED and pension fund changes ahead of Fall Economic Statement
The Government of Canada has announced a fourth, $1-billion CAD round of funding for the Venture Capital Catalyst Initiatives among a slew of other initiatives and updates ahead of its delayed Fall Economic Statement.
The feds plan to make it more attractive for Canadian pension funds to invest domestically with two matching programs: $1 billion for mid-cap growth companies and up to $45 billion to develop AI data centres. The government also announced updates to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program, expanding both the eligibility requirements and tax incentives.
“Canada needs to fight harder than ever for capital, including facilitating and supporting the investment of Canadian capital here at home,” Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.
Geoffrey Hinton decries tech companies chasing “short-term profits” in Nobel Prize acceptance speech
Following an introduction of orchestral Wagner, University of Toronto professor Geoffrey Hinton crossed the stage of the Stockholm Concert Hall and, with a firm handshake and a bow, officially accepted a Nobel Prize in Physics from the King of Sweden for his contributions to the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
The British-Canadian citizen is the fourth person from a Canadian institution to win the prestigious science award in the past decade, and will see his name go down in history with the likes of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg.
The award ceremony was followed by an elaborate banquet, where Hinton used his time on stage to deliver a brief but urgent warning on the future of humanity and AI, and decried technology companies motivated by short-term profits.
TikTok challenges feds’ shutdown order, calls national security review process “procedurally unfair”
TikTok has filed a challenge to the federal government’s Nov. 6 order to wind up its Canadian operations, saying the decision was “driven by improper purposes” and alleging that federal representatives failed to substantially engage with the company during the national security review process.
In its filing, TikTok calls the order “unreasonable,” “grossly disproportionate,” and that the company was owed a “heightened duty of procedural fairness.”
The federal government has been taking on big tech companies on many different fronts recently. This past week, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada announced that social media platform LinkedIn agreed to voluntarily pause using the personal information of Canadian members to train its generative artificial intelligence models.
“Personal information, even when it is publicly accessible, is subject to privacy laws and must be adequately protected,” the commissioner said in a statement.
Alberta Enterprise Corporation launches Accelerate Fund IV with $15 million to back early-stage tech startups
Alberta Enterprise Corporation has launched its fourth early-stage, Alberta-focused angel co-investment fund with a $15-million CAD anchor commitment.
The launch marks the first close of Accelerate Fund IV, which aims to raise a total of $25 million from institutional investors, family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and other strategic players to back pre-seed and seed-stage Alberta technology startups.
“As we managed Fund II and Fund III, we discovered life sciences, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence are areas where Alberta has standout strengths in technology innovation,” Accelerate Fund II, III, and IV investment manager Arden Tse of Yaletown said in a statement.
The Canadian Space Mining Corporation thinks it can put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2029
At the end of November, Toronto-based space tech startup CSMC signed a memorandum of understanding and licensing term sheet with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to explore commercializing the technology behind the Canadian-made SLOWPOKE-2 nuclear reactor.
The ultimate goal? Provide the power for people working and doing research on the moon.
“We put together a plan for Canada to put a reactor on the moon, well ahead of any international competitors,” CSMC CEO Dan Sax told BetaKit in an interview. “That drew us, very early on, to the SLOWPOKE, which was right in line with the power scales needed by NASA and the international community.”
Holiday Reading: Who’s after CEO Tom Oliver?
Just in time for the holidays, Shelley Grandy’s mystery novel “Devious Web” is available in digital or paperback formats.
As he considers a US $250 million acquisition offer for his data analytics company, Pellucid, CEO Tom Oliver becomes the target of a nefarious plot. A suspenseful journey through Toronto, Caledon, Georgian Bay, and the US, Devious Web follows the twists and turns of M&A, disappearing company funds, and CEO safety.
If you enjoyed “Suits” and “Succession,” this book is for you.
Treat yourself or gift it to your team. Order your copy today.
Weekly Canadian Deals & Dollars
SF – Canadian-founded D-Wave raises $175M USD in stock sale
VAN – Spexi secures $16.2M CAD Series A for drone image network
CGY – Absorb to acquire Together for undisclosed amount
LON – Paystone to acquire Ackroo for $21M CAD
TOR – FinTech startup Cyder secures $1.5M CAD pre-seed round
TOR – Cookin acquired by CookUnity in all-stock transaction
MTL – Flare raises $42.5M CAD Series B for cybersecurity software
The BetaKit Quiz
This week: Google’s quantum leap, Hinton’s Nobel Prize, and Medicago’s second shot
Think you’re on top of Canadian tech and innovation news? Time to prove it. Introducing The BetaKit Quiz, a new weekly challenge dropping every Friday.
Feature image courtesy Flickr.
The post Liberals’ Fall Economic Statement contains more promises to Canadian tech first appeared on BetaKit.