OTTAWA — The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is launching a for-profit government-relations business to help Canadian tech companies navigate Ottawa’s halls of power in anticipation of major innovation and procurement policy changes.

The council has lobbied governments on behalf of the Canadian tech ecosystem as a not-for-profit organization since 2015. The new firm, called Signa Strategies, will operate as a separate for-profit business, though it will be mainly staffed by CCI employees. 

The group’s executive leadership team began operating the new business in stealth mode several months ago, and let CCI members know about it at an event for CEOs in September. It plans to officially launch the entity on Wednesday, and will offer federal and provincial lobbying services.

CCI took the step in part because Ottawa appears to have entered a new, more intensive era of engagement with the tech industry, said Dana O’Born, the council’s vice-president of strategy and advocacy, and managing partner at Signa. Compared to a year ago, the government is consulting more CEOs and business leaders on major economic initiatives, and seems more interested in the idea of sovereign technology, she said. 

“The tech sector is super excited about that. CEOs are pumped, and they want to be at the table,” said O’Born. “They’ve been asking for this moment for a very long time.”

Of no less interest to businesses, Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised a Buy Canadian strategy that would see domestic firms benefit most from government procurement, and a defence industrial strategy to build up companies whose products serve both civilian and military applications. He’s also promised to spend big on innovative new homebuilding technology and significantly update the government’s artificial intelligence strategy.

Firms are keen to offer their input to make sure those programs benefit local tech and innovation, and to ensure they have a shot at those government contracts when they become available, O’Born said. 

It’s unusual for a business advocacy group like CCI to launch into for-profit lobbying, but O’Born said it felt like a natural step, given the kinds of in-depth and specific questions tech businesses and startups have about dealing with the federal and provincial governments. Over the last year or so, some members asked to be referred to existing government relations firms, but O’Born said CCI staff have built-in knowledge of the technology and innovation sectors, and a pre-existing relationship with many firms in the space. “It was kind of like a light bulb moment,” she said. “We know these companies, they trust us, we understand their businesses.”

“We’ve done our best at CCI to help the companies along as much as possible, but there also is the reality that CCI was not designed to do a lot of really in-depth, unique work for our members,” she said. 

Signa has signed a partnership agreement with CCI; under it, the new firm’s profits will fund CCI events and other projects. CCI’s advocacy, however, will still be directed by its membership, O’Born said. Signa will also share any policy intelligence it gleans with CCI’s members.

Ottawa provided a timely example last week when it launched a new military procurement agency to streamline purchases and put more of the money in the hands of Canadian enterprises. CCI followed up by offering a five-part course to Canadian firms on how to capitalize on those opportunities. Signa hopes to offer more bespoke advice that is unique to specific businesses, rather than high-level instruction. 

For tech firms and startups, trying to lobby the government can feel like going on a long string of first dates, but over and over again with the same people, said Iain Paterson, the former CEO of Cycura, a cybersecurity startup that was acquired by Well Health Technologies in 2020. “There was very little traction, and I think this is a common story,” said Paterson, now the chief information security officer at Well. 

Though many of the conversations went well, Paterson added, they were often surface-level, and rarely resulted in change. Sometimes it was because of a “chasm” in understanding about the technology on offer.

CCI’s efforts on that front have helped, he said, and there’s optimism in the business community about the new Liberal government’s willingness to learn about the tech ecosystem. The next challenge, he said, is turning that awareness into policy change—or better yet, sales for individual companies: “I think that’s still where we have traction problems.” 

O’Born said Signa is in talks with roughly 20 companies already. It doesn’t plan to restrict its business to CCI members, but will be selective about the clients it takes on, she said, adding: “If it’s not Canadian-headquartered, it’s not business for us.”