Committing to coast-to-coast innovation

Committing to coast-to-coast innovation

Canada is charting a forward-thinking path; a path that fuels innovation and opens new opportunities for economic growth. And as we continue to grow, our prosperity depends on the progress of not just a couple cities, but every city and town coast-to-coast.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to travel to the east coast’s provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. During my visit, I witnessed the work of several small, but impressive tech hubs that are fostering innovation – something that the east coast is establishing a reputation for.

A recent Entrevestor report shows that there are almost 400 startups in Atlantic Canada, including the likes of Proposify and Radian6, which was acquired by Salesforce – two examples among many in a vibrant Atlantic Canadian startup community. Because of the growing movement outside of metropolitan areas, our national startup ecosystem is developing, encouraging more diverse forms of innovation and empowering people throughout the country to express their ideas through tech.

As this continues, there is a clear effort from our leaders -in business and in government- to head bold opportunities for economic growth. But there should also be efforts made by tech hubs throughout the country to continue partnering with one another and create mutually beneficial opportunities and help Canadian companies scale.

Incubators like Venn Innovation in Moncton, Planet Hatch in Fredericton, Volta Labs in Halifax and Charlottetown’s new Startup Zone are strengthening the pathway to job creation and economic prosperity in the region. And the DMZ understands that partnering with emerging startup ecosystems like these will allow entrepreneurs to have greater access to national and international markets.

This is why we’re focusing on finding ways to better support the diverse and tight-knit startup sector in regions such as the east coast to continue growing and scaling Canadian companies that think globally, but are headquartered in our cities and regions coast-to-coast. By expanding our existing national effort in creating soft landing opportunities, staff exchanges, strategic knowledge sharing and other initiatives with tech hubs and post-secondary institutions, we’re not only creating strong ties among our national ecosystems, but helping each other become active producers of technological innovation that have a social or economic impact at home and abroad.

Canada has all the ingredients to be a global leader, which includes the talent, leading post secondary institutions and an incredibly supportive community. Our way forward relies on diversifying our efforts to support future generations of innovators in all provinces and territories. When this becomes a key component on a national scale, we will continue to see made in Canada startups become the best in class.