PEREIRA: The Bison Economy: How Manitoba can lead Canada’s tech revolution

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Manitoba’s 2025 Economic Development Strategy highlighted five pillars of transformation: investment, trade, workforce development, intellectual property, and productivity. All powered by a single unifying force: technology. Innovation runs through each pillar like a digital current, turning policy into productivity and ambition into action.

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This is the dawn of the Bison Economy, a bold new era rooted in Indigenous heritage and powered by the spirit of the charging bison: resilient under pressure, adaptive to change, and unstoppable in momentum. And who better to lead that charge than Premier Wab Kinew.

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The province already has the ingredients for a digital renaissance: abundant, clean hydro, world-class research institutions, and a vibrant startup ecosystem. But Manitoba’s true tech awakening began with the creation of the Department of Manitoba Innovation and New Technology (MINT) in November 2024.

Within months, Manitoba’s first venture capital fund launched with $15 million for early-stage startups, and by mid-2025, Winnipeg had burst onto Canada’s tech map, recording six deals worth $125 million and ranking fifth nationwide in total investment value, ahead of several larger tech centers. It was clear proof that Manitoba’s innovation strategy wasn’t just working, it was charging ahead.

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1. Productive Investment: Financing Innovation

The first pillar focuses on making capital work smarter by channelling investment toward productivity and innovation. The province’s $50-million productivity financing program helps businesses adopt technology, modernize equipment, and innovate processes that drive efficiency and create high-quality jobs. By leveraging private equity and commercial lending, Manitoba multiplies public capital and accelerates its shift toward a high-productivity, innovation-led economy.

Reforming the Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit (MITC) by converting refundable portions into a retail sales tax exemption reduces upfront costs for firms adopting robotics and advanced machinery. Expanding the Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit (SBVCTC) by 36% and introducing founder-friendly financing tools like SAFEs (Simple Agreements for Future Equity) makes early-stage capital more accessible.

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Together, these reforms create an ecosystem where innovation is not a risk but a rebate, turning investment incentives into a flywheel for digital adoption and R&D commercialization.

2. Trade and Investment: Expanding Global Reach Through Technology

The second pillar redefines trade for the digital age. Trade is no longer about moving goods, it’s about moving ideas, data, and digital capacity. Manitoba’s plan to modernize trade corridors, develop certified investment-ready sites, and market them globally sets the foundation for a “Digital Trade Corridor,” where logistics, customs, and financing systems are seamlessly connected through digital platforms.

By digitizing supply chains and export documentation, Manitoba can significantly reduce transaction costs, accelerate market access, and empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to compete globally.

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Trade in the 21st century also means trading in talent. The proposed “Made-in-Manitoba” visa program positions immigration as an economic lever, attracting global entrepreneurs and skilled professionals in the tech industry.

Technology can turn Manitoba’s geography from mid-continent isolation into a borderless platform for trade and innovation. Manitoba can evolve from a regional hub into North America’s next digital gateway, where data moves as freely as goods and where innovation defines economic reach.

3. Workforce Development: Building a Digital Ready Manitoba

Economic growth depends on a skilled workforce, and Manitoba’s third pillar makes workforce development its cornerstone, aligning training, education, and immigration with the industries shaping the province’s future.

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A Digital Skills Portal could connect learners to training, micro-credentials, and employers in real time, creating a data-driven ecosystem that anticipates labour needs, bridges skill gaps, and ensures Manitobans remain globally competitive.

The Strategy’s focus on inclusion — particularly Indigenous peoples, newcomers, and persons with disabilities — is not just social; it’s strategic. By combining human capital with digital capacity, Manitoba can turn education into innovation and inclusion into competitive advantage. A skilled, inclusive, and tech-savvy workforce will power the Bison Economy: resilient, adaptive, and ready for the future.

4. Intellectual Property and Innovation: From Ideas to Impact

The fourth pillar addresses one of Canada’s chronic weaknesses: creating innovation but failing to own it. Manitoba’s Strategy changes that by making intellectual property (IP) ownership a cornerstone of growth, ensuring what is invented here stays here and scales from here.

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The province has established an Innovation and Productivity Taskforce, supported by MINT, to guide IP creation and commercialization. Programs like Research Manitoba’s IP Collective will help innovators protect and monetize their discoveries so Manitoba benefits from its own ingenuity.

Embedding IP strategy into every stage of innovation attracts investors who value strong ownership frameworks. Manitoba’s shift from generating ideas for others to owning them outright marks a defining transformation — one that turns invention into independence and creativity into capital. In the Bison Economy, ideas are not just created; they are claimed, scaled, and exported as “Made-in-Manitoba” value.

5. Productivity: Building a Digital Government Backbone

The fifth pillar recognizes that productivity starts at the top. A more efficient government does not just save time; it multiplies productivity across the economy.

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By digitizing procurement, permitting, and licensing systems, Manitoba can make government interactions faster, simpler, and more transparent. Streamlined approvals, online applications, and data-driven compliance will save time for both business and government, especially for SMEs that face the highest administrative burdens.

A productive public sector becomes the foundation of a productive economy. When government leads by example, it sets the tone for private-sector innovation.

From “Have-Not” to “Have”: The Charge of the Digital Bison

The Bison Economy is not just a vision — it’s a declaration that Canada’s next tech revolution will not come from its largest cities, but from its boldest province. Rooted in Indigenous strength, powered by innovation, and united by purpose, Manitoba is proving that small economies can lead big transformations.

The Digital Bison is charging — unstoppable, adaptive, and resilient — showing the nation that progress is born from courage, not caution. When it reaches full stride, Manitoba won’t just lead Canada’s tech revolution; it will define it.

— Jason Pereira is the founder & CEO of ezMakaan and a guest writer for Klein Media.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca.

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