The 2025 federal budget landed this week, and while not everyone agrees on the details, it’s already sparking deeper conversations among British Columbia’s innovation leaders about productivity, sovereignty, and the country’s economic direction.

Below is a handful of perspectives from founders, investors, and ecosystem builders who weighed in this week. We’ll continue gathering and sharing more local reactions in the days ahead, as the community digests what Budget 2025 means for B.C.’s innovation economy.

For Rory Capern, COO at Victoria-based Redbrick, the tone of Budget 2025 is clear: it’s a bet on growth. “While an $80 billion deficit is hard to celebrate on affordability grounds,” he said, “this is a thoughtful and pragmatic investment plan for Canada at a time when changing global conditions have backed us into a corner.”

Capern praised the government’s focus on productivity, trade diversification, and strategic infrastructure—especially commitments to AI and revisions to SR&ED. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had such confidence in the people in charge to pull off a difficult plan,” he said, calling this moment “a fork in the road that could lead to prosperity.”

That optimism was echoed by Leah Hanvey, director and co-owner of Tensory Technologies, who framed the budget as a challenge to the private sector. “Now is not the time to hunker down,” she said. “Ottawa is calling on Canadian companies to play offense in a choppy global market.” For Hanvey, the test will be whether these measures “unlock private-sector courage or simply widen the deficit.”

Among those most bullish is Daniel Eberhard, founder and CEO of Koho, who called Budget 2025 “the most compelling, pro-growth budget we’ve seen in 15 years.”

In a LinkedIn post, Eberhard congratulated Mark Carney, François-Philippe Champagne, and the Build Canada community for shaping a plan that puts long-term growth at the centre of national policy. “We are so back,” he wrote, summing up a mood of renewed confidence among entrepreneurs who have been calling for a clearer industrial strategy.

Few industries felt more directly addressed than the AI and digital sectors. Mike Tyler, founder and CEO of Vancouver’s adtech firm War Room, said the $1.2 billion AI commitment signals “a meaningful shift for Canadian entrepreneurs.”

“The creation of sovereign public AI infrastructure and Canadian-controlled data centres will give adtech companies like ours better access to cloud computing and faster, more privacy-aligned performance,” he said.

He also welcomed new data-mobility rights under PIPEDA as “potentially transformative” for data-driven marketing—but flagged a gap: “The budget says almost nothing about digital-advertising regulation or media transparency. If Canada wants to lead in digital, it can’t leave digital-advertising policy behind.”

Industrial-AI founders, meanwhile, see both opportunity and frustration. Vidya Kotamraju, founder of Syris, which builds AI-powered decision tools for mining and heavy industry, said, “If we’re serious about winning the global critical-minerals race, we need more than capital. We need fast-track pilots, targeted procurement, and regulatory clarity.” For her, “industrial AI isn’t just a tech story—it’s a sovereignty story.”

Noah Leduc of Foresight Canada said the budget represents a long-awaited alignment between industrial policy and climate competitiveness. “Clean growth is industrial policy,” he wrote. “The government is shifting from program design to execution, with commitments to procurement reform, SR&ED modernization, and performance-based investment.”

For Foresight, which has helped ventures raise $2.39 billion and create nearly 10,000 jobs, the budget’s priorities “confirm that our approach is working: connecting innovation to adoption and turning public investment into private-sector growth.”

While many praised the budget’s ambition, others cautioned against the practical fallout of shrinking government capacity. Tina Merry, CEO of Simply Sweet Games, noted that cutting roughly 38,000 federal jobs by 2028 could slow delivery of the very programs that fuel innovation.

“Efficiency and innovation aren’t opposites—they rely on each other,” she said. “If we thin [government departments] out too much, we risk slowing the progress we’re trying to accelerate.”

Merry argued for a more unified national framework, where incentives and tax credits work consistently across provinces. “Fragmentation makes it harder to build national momentum and easier for U.S. companies to lure away Canadian talent,” she said.

In B.C., she added, “the tech economy has outpaced the broader economy threefold over the past three years,” yet still struggles with “an early-exit mentality” and limited late-stage funding. “If we want a truly resilient innovation economy, we need policy and capital working together.”

From a financial-advisory lens, Brandon Chapman of AdvisorFlow and SaaS Wealth Insurance said B.C. stands to benefit from the budget’s focus on AI, trade diversification, and digital adoption—but warned that new scrutiny on corporate structures will demand savvier planning.

“For B.C., the path forward is less about one big ‘break-out’ budget win and more about orchestrating many smaller wins,” he said. “Tech founders, owners and advisors should treat Budget 2025 not as a passive document, but as a roadmap and a call to action.”

That call extends to intellectual property. Peter Cowan, CEO of Innovate BC, applauded Ottawa’s renewed $180 million commitment to IP initiatives, including the continuation of ElevateIP. “This will deliver meaningful benefits across B.C.’s innovation ecosystem—especially for SMEs that depend on IP protection and commercialization to compete globally,” he said.

BC Tech, the local industry association, also welcomed the budget’s updates to SR&ED, calling them “valuable changes for B.C. innovators.” Among them: increasing the 35% refundable expenditure limit from $3 million to $6 million; extending eligibility to public companies; raising the phase-out threshold from $50 million to $75 million; and reintroducing eligible capital expenditures with a temporary 100% expensing rate for manufacturing or processing buildings.

“These measures are important and valuable steps toward creating a more entrepreneur-friendly Canada,” the association said in a statement, adding that entrepreneurs and investors “have a choice of where to put their money” and that “Canada must remain globally competitive to retain and grow home-grown anchor companies.”

Still, the organization argued that further reforms are needed: expanding the flow-through share regime to include industries like cleantech and quantum, establishing a “patent-box” regime to retain IP, and exploring a Canadian equivalent to the U.S. Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) program.

“Other jurisdictions like the U.K. and Australia offer generous tax regimes that encourage founders to re-invest,” the association noted. “If Canada wants to thrive in the global economy of 2025 and beyond, it must ensure we don’t lose the value created by Canadian-founded entrepreneurs.”

Across B.C.’s innovation community, Budget 2025 is being read less as a spreadsheet and more as a signal. It’s a plan that asks business to match public ambition with private courage—to invest, build, and execute.

As Hanvey put it: “The bet should be on velocity, creativity, and new economic players—and the Vancouver tech ecosystem is ready to rise to the occasion.”