In order to help Canada's high-growth firms scale, changes to immigration policy are necessary to enable the effective attraction of top management talent.

1. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Potential Reforms to Canada’s
Business Immigration System
Dan Herman, PhD
Executive Director & Co-Founder
July 2016

2. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Federal Immigration Policy Reform in Support of Scaling Up
Context:
• Recent research highlights primacy of senior talent gap as primary barrier to
scaling amongst technology and manufacturing firms (Source: Lazaridis
Institute; DEEP Centre);
• Engagement with industry stakeholders indicates significant challenges wrt
visa processing of incoming foreign staff;
• Inability to engage and land foreign staff and impediment to domestic job
growth;
• Aggressive/streamlined process necessary given competitive dynamic facing
Canadian tech firms.

3. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Federal Immigration Policy Reform in Support of Scaling Up
Context (cont’d):
• Areas of need are not solely technical nor is the need defined by want of
entrepreneurs and/or investors (Startup Visa)
• Major gaps reported by high-growth firms in executive and management
level sales and marketing, organizational design, IPO related activity, and
internationalization.
• Addressing this talent gap requires both endogenous (domestic) talent
pipeline and development of more effective pathway for international talent
to relocate.

4. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
International Models
United Kingdom
• Fast-track visa application and
processing; exempt from labour
market test for qualified
firms/applicants;
• Focus on enabling scaleups;
regional development; attracting
exceptional talent;
• Administered through third-party
industry associations (e.g.
TechCityUK).

5. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Capturing Exceptional / Executive Talent
UK Model (Tech Nation Visa Scheme)
• Open to both expert technical and validated executive / management talent
• Significant focus on “scaling” related management/executive talent
• Technical focus on emerging fields (big data, AI, cybersecurity)

6. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Tech Nation Visa Scheme Process

7. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Other Examples
New Zealand Global Impact Visa (April 2016)
• Developed to facilitate the attraction, selection and integration of a targeted
group of global entrepreneurs;
• Premised on belief that existing policy (investor and entrepreneur) ineffective
at attracting the “more innovative (experienced) , global entrepreneurs
needed to support the growth of the New Zealand innovation system”;
• Four year pilot project with maximum 400 visas allocated;
• Attraction and selection of migrants administered by third party selected
through open procurement process;
• Desired outcome to match domestic firm needs with international applicant
pool as well as to develop more flexible intake of international entrepreneurs.

8. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Focus on entrepreneurs/startups (akin to Canadian StartUp Visa):
• France: French Tech Ticket
• Chile: Startup Chile
• Australia: Entrepreneurs Visa
• Ireland: Trusted Partner Initiative
• Singapore: EntrePass
• Italy: StartUp Visa
• Netherlands: StartupVisa
Related Examples
Do we have a startup problem
or a scaleup problem?

9. The Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance
Dan Herman
Executive Director
dherman@deepcentre.com