After a seemingly endless run-up to the writ, Canada’s snap federal election is almost over, with election day just two weeks away.
As expected, special interest groups are attempting to steer the election agenda with public asks, and Canadian tech is no different in making its requests known.
Reporter Josh Scott has two such stories for you. First, a CVCA white paper asking for follow-through on past VCCI and SR&ED commitments, alongside a federal tax credit and other capital gains tweaks to incentivize investment. Second, a CCI open letter signed by 150 Canadian tech leaders asking the major parties to deliver a plan (any plan!) to protect our economic sovereignty. You can find both stories below.
After reading them, you may be struck by how familiar these requests are. CVCA CEO Kim Furlong acknowledged that SR&ED reform is something “we’ve been talking about for the last 20 years,” before telling Josh she was hopeful the parties might adopt her recommendations. What is asked for is not always promised, and promises are not always kept.
Journalist and pundit Paul Wells blames a decade of our democratic institutions progressively “forgetting how to make decisions.” He’s wary of those who believe this problem goes away the day after the election.
I don’t disagree, but I will note that even the most well-intentioned political promises come with caveats, because execution is harder than decision making. Take Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his promise to end provincial procurement from US companies after ripping up the $100-million Starlink contract. Alex Riehl did some digging into the implementation and found caveats large enough to drive a company through. You can find that story below as well.
Struggling to keep up with all the promises? I suggest the CBC’s election tracker, which features the policy platforms of all major parties across a wide variety of issues.
Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief
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TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK
BetaKit to launch “Most Ambitious” issue on June 23, 2025
Go for gold. Elbows up. Tech for Good.
As Canada reconsiders its place in the world, BetaKit will launch a new annual issue designed to spotlight the big swings being taken across the Canadian tech and innovation landscape.
The issue will profile individuals, companies, and organized efforts identified by BetaKit’s editorial team through its deep sector knowledge across the country. BetaKit’s Most Ambitious will be released first as a print issue, which will be available exclusively at Toronto Tech Week events in June, before its digital issue launch on BetaKit.com.
CVCA calls for temporary capital gains reduction, national investment tax credit in pitch to federal parties
With a federal election weeks away, The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) published a white paper this week pushing federal policy recommendations aimed at incentivizing domestic investment.
Among its five recommendations, the document calls on Canada’s next federal government to temporarily slash the capital gains tax inclusion rate for investments in Canadian startups and scaleups, and double the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption limit.
The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) published its own election season open letter signed by 150 Canadian tech leaders. The signatories are calling on the parties to share how they plan to build “a more sovereign, more resilient, and more prosperous Canada” at the upcoming federal election debates.
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke tells employees to prove AI can’t do the job before asking for resources
Using AI is now “a baseline expectation” at Shopify, CEO Tobi Lütke told employees in an internal memo he publicly shared this week.
As part of the new employee policy, Lütke said prototyping should be “dominated” by AI exploration, and that AI usage will be a component on performance and peer review questionnaires. Teams will also have to demonstrate that AI can’t help them before asking for more resources or staff.
Ontario takes bite out of Premier Doug Ford’s promised US procurement ban
Last month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that all US-based companies were banned from taking part in provincial procurement as part of retaliatory measures against US tariffs.
New details shared by the province now show that’s not entirely true.
Google Cloud Startups leader sees opportunity for startups building AI agents amid pressure to move quickly
Google Cloud Startups managing director Darren Mowry is excited by the opportunity that exists in AI right now, but said this also comes with a lot of responsibility.
In an interview with BetaKit, Mowry argued that there is so much opportunity in AI that “doing the right thing in the right order” has become a key challenge for Google Cloud and other companies, one that has forced the cloud services giant to be selective and prioritize where it invests.
Shopify, Lightspeed lead Canadian tech stock surge after US pauses universal tariffs
Canadian tech stocks, including Shopify and Lightspeed, rallied this week after the US announced it would pause universal tariffs and reduce them to 10 percent for most countries except China.
Local tech hubs see leadership changes
Sheldon McCormick, formerly of Uber Canada and proptech startup Properly, has been tapped to serve as the new permanent CEO of Waterloo Region tech hub Communitech. The leadership change comes after a round of layoffs as the organization looks to refocus from an ambitious national agenda to its roots as a local effort.
Meanwhile, Patrick White, the managing director of Ottawa-based startup accelerator L-Spark, is leaving the tech hub he co-founded after 12 years at the helm to join video surveillance software company Solink as director of corporate programs.
FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
Ontario’s pandemic investment of $50-million in digital learning created an exciting opportunity for EdTech startups in the province. But founders like serial entrepreneur Sathish Bala found that disrupting education can still be emotional, political, and plagued by red tape.
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Weekly Canadian Deals and Dollars 🇨🇦
- CAN – Federal innovation hub Scale AI launches $30M fund
- VAN – Corinex raises $42M to continue European expansion
- VAN – CO280 strikes 12-year carbon removal deal with Microsoft
- TOR – Tailscale raises $230M Series C after “surprising” growth
- TOR – WonderFi reveals it spent $3.6M following CEO kidnapping
- TOR – Wealthsimple acquihires wealth platform for couples
- TOR – Kepler is selling on-orbit computing services to Axiom Space
- OTT – Blumind raises $20M Series A to commercialize new AI chip
- MTL – Puzzle Medical closes $43M round co-led by Frank Baylis
- MTL – Glowtify secures $825K pre-seed round
- MTL – QueerTech reveals first cohort of 2SLGBTQIA+ accelerator
The BetaKit Podcast — Inside Eric Migicovsky’s crazy journey to relaunch Pebble
“At the end of the day, I really wanted a Pebble. It didn’t exist. No one was building anything remotely like it. So I, without really knowing what I was doing, decided to go and make it.”
Almost 10 years after Pebble’s demise, Eric Migicovsky is back building smartwatches. The Canadian behind some of the largest Kickstarter projects of all time explains why he’s relaunching the device he originally made for himself, the incredible luck that has allowed him to do so, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Take The BetaKit Quiz – This week: Wealthsimple’s acquihire, Shopify’s AI policy, and Nintendo’s Switch 2 confusion
Think you’re on top of Canadian tech and innovation news? Time to prove it. Test your knowledge of Canadian tech news with The BetaKit Quiz for April 11, 2025.
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