TO DRILL DOWN into that vision, Warren Tomlin, EY Canada Managing Partner, Technology, Media & Entertainment, and Telecommunications, Steven Maynard, EY Canada Managing Partner, Government and Public Sector, and Janice Horne, Federal Account Leader, Partner, Markets, Government and Public Sector, connected with three leaders helping shape the future of this environment and empowering Canadian organizations to make the most of tech’s undeniable turning point in the nation-building agenda.
The Honourable Evan Solomon is Canada’s first-ever Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation. He’s also forged a dynamic, 10-year career as an entrepreneur, launching and leading a venture that bridged tech and media to connect with Canadians.
Benjamin Bergen was president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) for nearly a decade and at the time of our interview, before becoming CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) at the start of 2026. With CVAC, Bergen is helping architect a $750 million early-growth-stage envelope of funding announced in the 2025 budget.
Susan Bishop leads EY’s National Business Tax Incentives Practice. She has served on multiple advisory committees tied to the federal government’s scientific research and experimental development (SR&ED) tax incentives program.
WARREN TOMLIN When we talk about building a national AI ecosystem, what does that really mean? What does that look like in practice, over time?
EVAN SOLOMON It’s really about building a national innovation fabric and connecting social ingenuity with technical ingenuity. That means connecting the incredible research happening at Mila, Amii and Vector to companies in Calgary, Halifax and Saskatoon. The goal isn’t just to have global centres of excellence. It’s to make sure every region can participate in the digital economy. Nation-building means the next great AI or cleantech company can start anywhere, not just in Toronto or Montréal or Vancouver.
BENJAMIN BERGEN Companies are the engine of the economy. They’re where innovation happens and where, ultimately wealth is created. And while Canada has had a really good understanding of invention and going out and creating ideas, we’ve struggled at commercialization and turning those ideas into products and services that can be sold here and globally. The role of government in this space is to build the winning conditions for firms to be successful and to make sure that it puts domestic firms at the centre of what makes Canada successful.
SUSAN BISHOP Two of the major hurdles facing Canadian companies are access to capital and access to markets. It is not enough to incentivize technology companies to develop technologies, but corporate Canada and the government must be incentivized to use and integrate these technologies, so that they may iterate and grow in Canada. This ability to scale will then also allow companies to prove their technology and generate revenue, reducing the risk for investees, enabling much-needed capital.
STEVEN MAYNARD So many announcements over the last few months address those building blocks. That said: where is Canada’s edge?
ES Canada’s edge is where deep science meets public purpose — in AI, quantum, health innovation and cleantech. Those are areas where we’re already global leaders in research and where we can translate that into real economic strength. Our approach is simple: build globally competitive companies that can export our expertise, but ensure the critical infrastructure, from health data to compute power, stays under Canadian control. That’s how we balance global opportunity with domestic effect.
If we want our companies to scale, we need three things: compute, capital and confidence. Compute, because innovation today runs on infrastructure. Capital, because scaling is where many Canadian firms stumble. And confidence, meaning we need to be the first customers of our own innovation. Through initiatives like the $300-million AI Compute Access Fund, $200-million Regional AI Initiative and AI-focused investments in our Global Innovation Clusters, we’re closing those gaps. But we can’t stop there, we need to keep talent flowing and make sure every region has access to the same opportunities.
This is not a government-only project, it’s a whole-of-nation effort. Startups, research institutions, Indigenous communities, large industry, civil society — they all have a role. The Global Innovation Clusters are a perfect example of what works: they connect regions, sectors and ideas.
JANICE HORNE At EY, we’ve often cited the need for collaboration between public and private sectors as the key to progress. Whether solving for Canada’s lack of housing or building up the entrepreneurial ecosystem — collaboration is big. What other factors do we need in place to take Canadian tech to the next level?
BB We have a lot of organizations and structures in this country that allow us to do amazing basic research, but then all of the actual ideas flow south of the border or overseas. Next, is that IP being commercialized: can we turn every dollar of research into ten dollars in sales?
The other challenge is about 50% of every SR&ED dollar goes to foreign multinationals that are Canadian in name only, meaning that we are subsidizing large foreign firms to the tune of billions of dollars a year. And if you ask the question, “Is that generating IP?” Yes, it is. But is it IP that gets retained here in Canada? The answer is no. We’re not the US and we sometimes confuse ourselves in thinking that we are because we’re so close to them.
SB We also need to spark more investment in research and development (R&D). Canadian companies are currently investing less in R&D than in the past. The Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program, designed to encourage R&D in Canada, has been crucial to Canada’s growth to date, but changing technological trends and globalization means the program must change. SR&ED requires enhancement to stimulate greater activity. This should be a key short-term priority for the government. Personally, I would love to see the government increase both the SR&ED tax credit rates and refundability to remain globally competitive. Canada was once an attractive location for R&D activities. We can get back there with the right incentives in place.
ES We have worldclass researchers and startups, but we're still catching up on adoption and on governments moving hand in hand with industry on that. Canadian firms need to know that their government is supporting them and helping to connect one another. We also need the infrastructure — the compute, the energy, the secure data systems — that let those companies scale here at home.
WT We’ve certainly seen government catalyze momentum through the kinds of initiatives launched over the last 12 months. What other legislative moves will be important here?
BB One of those conditions, for instance, is whether government money or policy is leading to the creation of intellectual property. For example, Denmark is continuing to have record growth in the EU because of smart decisions that they have made for the last 20 years. They said, ‘We want to be world leaders in bio pharma. We want to be world leaders in it because we know it will make our citizens healthier. We know these products can be strategically sold across the world.’ That’s the kind of strategic thinking that you need with government and industry working collaboratively.
SB I think clarity comes into play here as well. Industry-specific guidance is essential. The CRA’s guidance on eligibility doesn’t align well with current areas of R&D, including AI, machine learning and cross-border projects. The government is talking a lot about red tape reduction, too and I couldn’t agree more. Tech innovators need that shift to happen quickly. The SR&ED application process is time consuming and CRA reviews can be very lengthy. Bold ideas for simplification of both have been proposed and some successfully implemented in other countries, including a simplified method of claiming labour costs and a binding preapproval process. We need to effect change promptly in Canada.
