📋 Tender Overview
The Honourable Mary Ng Canadas Minister of Small Business Export Promotion and International Trade and the Honourable Ravi Kahlon British Columbias Minister of Jobs Economic Recovery and Innovation are today announcing a partnership to accelerate the development and testing of integrated markets for clean technologies in Canada using British Columbia as a test bed. Integrated marketswhere buyers come together to flex their purchasing power and provide important sales opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprise SME innovatorscan be a winning formula for boosting Canadian clean technology and exporting it to a global customer base.British Columbias CleanBC plan and Canadas strengthened climate plan show how the Government of British Columbia and the Government of Canada have shared interests in innovation and climate action includingsupporting greater domestic adoption of clean technologiesencouraging clean growth and job creationintegrating innovation into new and existing productsbetter aligning research to the needs of domestic industriesextracting increased value from public investmentspositioning Canadian SMEs for business growth and export success and achieving our 2030 to 2050 greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.Integrated marketplaces for clean technology will be an important tool in helping to meet these objectives and position innovative SMEs for growth and scale-up in British Columbia Canada and beyond.The clean technology sector is a major economic contributor to British Columbias economy. The gross domestic product GDP generated by the clean technology sector in British Columbia grew from 3.1 billion in 2014 to 4.4 billion in 2019 or 44. Clean technology companies also employ a large number of workers from communities across Canada. In 2019 over 41000 workers were employed in the clean technology sector in British Columbia. With the support of the governments of Canada and British Columbia growth in this sector will be further accelerated.BackgroundFor many clean technology companies early sales to domestic customers will make or break their success. Domestic sales are evidence of product acceptance and efficacy for international customers and domestic reference sales give Canadian clean technology companies the edge they need to stand out against international competitors. Relationships with and sales to domestic customers are also critical to helping innovative companies improve their nextgeneration product to address new and emerging business requirements. However Canadas market can be small. It is therefore critical that Canadian clean technology companies and innovators can find ways to integrate into the procurement and supply chains of larger firms and organizations including governments. Similarly companies looking for clean technology solutions may not know where to go to find innovators. Bringing the solutions providers and the buyers together in integrated markets can help both the clean technology producers and the adopters while helping Canadians work toward important climate targets.Collectively integrated marketplace networks will provide a structured approach to implementing clean technology solutions and facilitating procurement across a larger integrated marketplace more than any single technology purchaser could provide on its own thereby offering opportunities to help grow companies more quickly. These networks may also help to identify new products product improvements and innovations that procuring entities are either immediately seeking or wishing to procure in the near future. Because the procurement of clean technologies faces unique barriers for both buyers and sellers our two governments are committed to exploring opportunities and joint funding partnerships to advance an integrated marketplace approach in British Columbia. Through this approach Canadian purchasers will become part of a broad consolidated procurement network composed of a range of private public and not-for-profit entities and collaborate to assess adopt purchase and innovate Canadian technologies and solutions. Such a network could also help promote adopted technologies to other industry purchasers and offer feedback so solutions providers can better adapt solutions to the markets needs. Clean technology solutions providers can then take the successes of their Canadian sales as a critical reference when they sell their products internationally.Planned activities and outcomesTogether and without prejudice to existing programs or services Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada ISED and the British Columbia Ministry of Jobs Economic Recovery and Innovation JERI aim to jointly identify opportunities to collaborate on and advance integrated marketplaces for clean technology that will providebenefits to both clean technology solutions providers and adoptersopportunities for learning and product improvementreplicability potential across Canadathe ability to expand to other sectorsthe ability to leverage private sector investment andthe potential for export opportunities. In further support of this effort the Government of Canada is committed to sharing the learnings and best practices from all projects undertaken under this collaboration with all interested provinces and territories with a view to maximizing the overall impact for both companies and governments across Canada.The Government of Canada also commits to connect any companies participating in activities undertaken through this collaboration with the entire suite of federal clean technology support such as the Trade Commissioner Service and the Clean Growth Hub in order to maximize impact and help position companies for further growth and international success.
