Speakers at the NACO 2025 Summit in Ottawa this week were virtually unanimous in their calls for the new government to revolutionize the country’s innovation economy.

The two-day conference hosted by NACO Canada, the National Angel Capital Organization, kicked off the day after the new Liberal government was elected, and against the backdrop of the country feeling threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.

While speakers often varied in their assessments of the current situation, there was a broad consensus that the confluence of a crisis and a new government form the perfect opportunity to bring in meaningful reforms.

“Trump gave us a gift,” said Joe Canavan, Principal at Canavan Capital. “We are now in a crisis and crises offer opportunities for radical change.”

Canavan said Canada has lost ground since the twenty-teens when innovation was a focus and the economy was “on fire” with some even talking of Silicon North.

“And then we decided to blow it up,” he said, citing higher personal taxes as a factor that made investing in startups less appealing. “Risk and reward got out of whack.”  

He added that foreign venture capital left Canada, and, “Once it’s gone, it doesn’t easily come back.”

Nonetheless, Canavan said Canada could attain Innovation Nation 2034 status if government introduces focused, national, top-down policies to drive entrepreneurship. Mentioning Singapore as a model, he said the government should reduce the regulatory burden on business, offer tax rates competitive with those in the U.S.; and commit to keeping top research talent in Canada.

“Let people who want to bet, to take a risk, do it. And let people who want to make money do it,” he said. “Let animal spirits rise.”

Need to Highlight Urgency

Claudio Rojas, NACO CEO, agreed Canada is in crisis and said the country needs to behave as if it’s at war.

“We need to frontline this urgency,” he said. “If you’re a builder, it’s an exciting time because there’s an opportunity for change, and opportunity to shape what’s next.”

Rojas said the fact the new Liberal government is another minority makes him fear that politics might get in the way of making the necessary policy changes to foster growth. He stressed the value of a national entrepreneurship tax credit.

Economic policy has tended to focus on housing and energy whereas it needs to focus on developing dynamic companies with international reach, said Neil Desai, the Chair of St. John’s-based Solace Power.

He also took issue with a Canadian growth strategy that “puts the incubators, universities and accelerators at the centre of the ecosystem. Everywhere else I go in the world, it’s the companies that are at the centre.”

Senia Rapisarda, Managing Director of HarbourVest, said Canada has finally realized the need to diversify its economy.

“There will be pain but this is an opportunity for Canada to lead.”

She warned that 90 percent of the funding for Canadian companies at the growth stage comes from the U.S., and universities and pension plans in Canada see venture capital as too risky to invest in.

Several speakers emphasized that not every company can or should be a unicorn. Companies of all sizes are valuable because they create learning, jobs and, when they exit, new money for re-investment.

Other problems that need tackling include issues around business narrative and story. Rapisarda said this includes the widespread assumption in society that business and investing is “about rich people getting richer.”

Redefine National Identity

Daniel Debow, an angel investor and serial entrepreneur, said Canadians must redefine national identity.

He said Canadian self-definitions include not being American, and being a caring and diverse society. But Canada is also a nation of builders.

“It’s as Canadian as maple syrup to build a company,” said the man who sold one company to Salesforce, another to Shopify, and co-founded Creative Destruction Lab and Build Canada.

Debow said he sees opportunity in the present situation and that many great companies have been started during downturns because downturns tend to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Government can help by buying Canadian.

Procurement was also an issue identified by Benjamin Bergen, the President of the Council of Canadian Innovators, as an area where government can help innovation-driven companies. He said procurement accounts for 15 percent of the government’s budget, and “strategic procurement” could boost the revenues of growing companies.

He added that he believes the environment for business is improving because “the language has changed” and 85 percent of Canadians voted for parties espousing economic strength. And the country needs change, he said, because the economic environment has been extremely challenging.

Said Bergen: “Now is the time for us to communicate to the political class that we have to reverse this trend to thrive in the 21st Century.”