Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Thank you so much for the question. We're so excited to be celebrating SSI Mobile and their amazing achievement. Congratulations to you and the community. Startup Canada now has 50 communities across Canada, but we only have one in the north, and that's in Whitehorse. Through building more start-up communities that are entrepreneur-led, with entrepreneurs like Jeff, or Sarah at Erasmus Apparel, we can begin to transfer the knowledge of these entrepreneurs on how to go global and how to use e-commerce to do it.

Finance committee  As I said, Startup Canada works with over 200,000 entrepreneurs, including in York region, and at the earliest stage our entrepreneurs are looking for access to capital and access to information. One of the biggest opportunities that the Government of Canada has is making all of the investments in innovation and infrastructure for entrepreneurs actually work for Canada.

Finance committee  Thank you so much. Thank you to the honourable members for inviting Startup Canada and Canada's entrepreneurs to the table today. Startup Canada is the national rallying brand, community, and voice for Canada's 2.3 million entrepreneurs. Since I launched it as a social entrepreneur, along with my co-founder, in 2012, Startup Canada has grown to represent more than 200,000 entrepreneurs across Canada and across 50 grassroots start-up communities that volunteer-led and entrepreneur-run from coast to coast to coast.

International Trade committee  Yes. We have 50 start-up communities across Canada and we work a lot with Mitacs. Mitacs is a cool organization that helps our companies to access talent, primarily around commercialization and R and D. I would say there would be an opportunity to connect anyone who's specializing in trade with our entrepreneurs.

International Trade committee  We do at Startup Canada, but I wouldn't say that our members do.

International Trade committee  I don't think we're dancing around. One of the biggest scares Canadians have is AI and how it's going to displace the workforce. If our businesses can't even get a website up and running, we have a huge problem as a nation. Then they have to go mobile first, so I think it's about both.

International Trade committee  These suggestions are all low-hanging fruit. All of them are low-hanging fruit. The first one is that we can connect Corporations Canada with the start-up community in order to make sure every entrepreneur knows about all of the resources that exist in the Government of Canada.

International Trade committee  What I can tell you is that we have a blockchain cluster developing in Montreal that everyone is looking at, and that's why Amazon is looking at that as one of their key destinations. It's all about networks and opening up the global market to these networks. I don't know the intricacies of blockchain, but what I do know is that it helps, through artificial intelligence, to predict and connect.

International Trade committee  They are CIO. It's really cool. Even start-ups think it's cool. They have developed this digital service organization within the Treasury Board Secretariat to look at how governments serve citizens through AI and blockchain. I think that group has the potential to transform how citizens interact with the government, starting with TBS and then, hopefully, moving outwards.

International Trade committee  We all hear about this relentless red tape reduction. It never ends. With regard to our tax policies, not just looking at less taxes for entrepreneurs but also tax incentives to invest in early-stage companies, there are so many ways that we can leverage the tax system, and best practices globally, where certain interventions with taxation actually lead to more Canadians getting involved in investing in early-stage companies so they're part of this ideas economy in really cool, new, and innovative ways.

International Trade committee  I don't know if we have the infrastructure. I would assume it's the same infrastructure that we would need to compete globally. Ever since CETA came to be—something we've rejoiced about at Startup Canada—the biggest challenge that we've faced is educating Canadian entrepreneurs about the European market and the opportunity that this agreement has.

International Trade committee  Every entrepreneur who's used our trade commissioner services says they're our best kept secret as a nation. They're super-useful at a certain stage, generally when they're a lot bigger than they need to be. It's disproportionately white guys who are leveraging those services. The feedback we're getting is that they're great for the manufacturing sector, for pharmaceuticals, for resource-based sectors, but they're not doing what they could be doing for our ideas economy, our innovation economy, and this is where the world is going.

International Trade committee  Similarly, I don't have any numbers on it, but I have some examples. I think increasing the threshold will definitely increase the competitiveness of our companies, but the entrepreneurs right now are finding ways around it. They work with some of the UPS stores and Amazon warehouses in order to go across the border and have everything shipped to the U.S.

International Trade committee  Thank you for having me. My name's Victoria Lennox. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Startup Canada. Startup Canada started in 2012 to unite Canada's entrepreneurship community. We now have over 200,000 entrepreneurs in our network, covering more than 50 start-up communities in 100 towns, cities, and villages across Canada.