The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is calling on governments to stop courting foreign tech firms and institute new programs to help domestic firms hire workers as the global tech talent crunch worsens. Here’s what you need to know about lobby group’s recommendations:

The people problem: Innovation-economy startups and scale-ups, flush with record amounts of investor capital, are staffing up at home, even as their U.S. counterparts remotely recruit workers here and multinational retailers, social media platforms and IT consultancies hire for new engineering offices. “Nobody’s saying that Canadian companies shouldn’t compete in the labour market, or that foreign companies should be kept out,” said Benjamin Bergen, president of the CCI. But the lobby group is urging policymakers to intervene on behalf of firms like its 140 scale-up members, or at least get out of their way.

Compete globally, faster: The CCI is calling for Ottawa to make its fast-track program for skilled foreign workers even faster by dropping application processing times from two weeks to 48 hours. The Liberal government launched the Global Talent Stream (GTS) in June 2017, following years of complaints that firms were losing top candidates to paperwork delays. But Nicolas Beique, CEO of Calgary payment-tech firm Helcim, says the application process remains “slow and tedious.” 

The CCI also wants Ottawa to create a new program to allow workers in in-demand fields to come to Canada without a job offer in hand, as is currently required of most temporary arrivals. And it’s calling for a new concierge service that would support employers who want to sponsor staff through the permanent-residency process.

A quick study: Last week, Helcim announced it raised a $16-million Series A round. Beique said much of the money will go to hiring marketing, product and software development, with a goal of expanding from 150 to 250 people by the end of next year. With “fierce competition” for senior talent, Helcim focuses on hiring young professionals out of school. Beique backed the CCI’s call for universities to lengthen co-op placements from four months to 12. The group also wants Ottawa to double the length of the interest-free delay before graduating students must start paying back the federal portion of their education loans for those who take a job with a domestic firm.

The dilemma: Policymakers courting multinationals aren’t considering how their entries or expansions in Canada will affect the domestic labour market, according to CCI. “Talent creation, not job creation, should be the priority,” said Bergen. Governments are “only making the bidding war [for talent] worse by supporting FDI to come to the country.” Those foreign firms also tend to pay workers better.

A growing chorus: In October 2021, Technation, a lobby group that includes both foreign and domestic firms, called for Ottawa to make technical training and skills “a top national priority.” The Business Council of Canada, which represents the CEOs of some of the country’s largest firms, also wants to see the GTS improved.