Innovation Mandate Letter

Dear Minister,

Canadians have given us a clear mandate: to grow our economy, strengthen our sovereignty and build a country that works for everyone. They are ready to build Canada. Now, we must deliver. 

Our path forward is ambitious – and it must be. Global instability, and the accelerating pace of technological changes are testing our resilience. But Canadians are not afraid of hard work, nor are they afraid to take risks. They believe in fairness, in unity, and in building an abundant future for all Canadians. This government must match their resolve with urgency, discipline, and ambition.

I expect all Ministers to remain focused on their core mandate. Every ministry has clear goals focused on delivering better services and driving economic growth, while doing both with the efficiency and excellence Canadians deserve. That means setting clear goals, with measurable outcomes, and being relentless in execution. 

I expect Ministers to fulfill their mandates at a pace this country has not seen in recent history. Canadians expect and deserve change. It is the responsibility of our entire government to remove any roadblocks quickly and ensure the smooth and fast implementation of our priorities.

I expect you to do this by recruiting top talent, adopting best practices from around the world, and leveraging modern tools wherever possible, including artificial intelligence. Above all we must be ruthlessly pragmatic. If our policies are not achieving the results that Canadians deserve then we must change direction to achieve our goals. Through this, we can build a more modern government that delivers better results more efficiently. 

Over the last decades Canada has fallen dangerously behind in science, technology, and innovation. Despite being home to world-class talent and research institutions, we are not creating novel startups at the pace required to compete globally. Too many of our best ideas and brightest innovators leave for other countries, and too large a portion of our economy remains dependent on resource extraction rather than knowledge industries.

This must change. Your mission as the Minister for Innovation is to transform Canada into a global leader in technological innovation, particularly in AI, quantum computing, clean technology, and advanced manufacturing. Through your work we will catalyze private investment, commercialize Canadian research, and build homegrown technology champions.

The new global economic reality is stark: countries that fail to build strong domestic innovation ecosystems will become dependent on others for critical technologies. In a time when America is enacting unjustified tariffs and threatening our sovereignty, we cannot afford to fall behind. Your work to strengthen our innovation ecosystem is not just about economic growth – it is about securing Canada's technological sovereignty and ensuring we control our own destiny in the digital age.

Your strategy will focus on three interconnected pillars: unleashing private capital into Canadian innovation, keeping Canadian intellectual property in Canada, and building world-class infrastructure for the technologies of tomorrow including through education of the next generation of Canadians. Success will be measured by the growth of homegrown technology companies, the creation of high-paying knowledge economy jobs, and Canada's leadership in strategic sectors like artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Our North Star is Canada's productivity growth. For the last several decades productivity growth has been stagnant at 1% or less. This weakness has led to stagnating wages and living standards. But this also means there are huge opportunities for catch-up growth. Our goal will be to reach 2% annual productivity growth by 2028 (a level not seen consistently since the 1960s). Every policy you implement should be evaluated against this central goal: Will it meaningfully increase Canadian productivity? Success means more patents filed in Canada, more commercialization of Canadian research, increased adoption of advanced technologies, and ultimately, higher wages for Canadian workers.

Your tasks:

• Drive increased business investment and innovation
  
  • Extend immediate expensing for manufacturing equipment, clean energy technology, and zero-emission vehicles with a target of supporting nearly $90 billion in private investment over the next five years
  • Increase the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Tax Incentive Program claimable amount to $6 million for Canadian companies, supporting $11 billion in private R&D over the next five years
  • Establish a Canada Patent Box to reward builders who locate or keep intellectual property in Canada, with the goal of reversing the flow of Canadian IP to the US and increasing the number of patents filed in Canada to 175 per one million people by 2028
  • Introduce flow-through shares for Canadian startups to help them raise money faster, particularly in AI, quantum computing, biotech, and advanced manufacturing, with a target of unlocking an incremental $4 billion in new early-stage investment by 2027
• Build the infrastructure for the AI economy
  
  • Invest in nation-building energy infrastructure to make Canada the best place to build data centers, with the goal of more than tripling our data center capacity 3 thousand MW (3 GW) by 2028
  • Partner with the private sector to build the next generation of data centers, ensuring secure technological sovereignty and targeting 5,000 new high-skilled jobs in this sector by 2028
  • Establish a dedicated Office of Digital Transformation to identify, implement, and scale technology solutions across government, with a mandate to reduce government service delivery times by 50% by 2027
  • Create an AI deployment tax credit to help small and medium-sized businesses adopt AI solutions, with a target of supporting AI implementation in 50,000 Canadian SMEs by 2027, creating measurable productivity gains of at least 10% in participating businesses.
• Enhance Canada's research capacity
  
  • Create the Canadian Sovereignty and Resilience Research Fund to attract world-class researchers to Canadian institutions, bringing at least 1000 leading researchers to Canada by 2028
  • Establish BOREALIS (Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Science) to ensure Canadian innovation in AI, quantum computing, and cybersecurity, with a goal of developing 10 breakthrough national security technologies by 2028
  • Complete the modernization of Canada's science and research systems through a capstone organization that drives mission-oriented research and expanding successful programs at Canada’s AI institutes (Mila, Vector, Amii) with a target of doubling the commercialization rate of Canadian research by 2028
• Secure Canada's technological sovereignty
  
  • Champion Canadian-made technology through government procurement, with a target of increasing Canadian tech procurement by 20% by 2027
  • Secure Canada's advantage in strategic industries like biomanufacturing, quantum computing, and ag-tech, with the goal of creating three new globally competitive Canadian companies (defined by revenues >$100m CAD) in each sector by 2028
  • Measure growth by tracking economic impacts of AI in real-time to help Canadians seize new opportunities, targeting 100,000 new AI-related jobs by 2028

Make the Black Entrepreneurship Program permanent to support Black-owned businesses, with a target of creating 5,000 new Black-owned businesses by 2028

We all know that our country could be so much more than it is. We have the land, the talent, the know-how, and the energy to be the most prosperous nation on earth. And our people have a spirit that could take them anywhere they want to go.

Now let’s build it.

Signed,

Prime Minister

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Note: Italicized figures are added by Build Canada

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