News Summary

Ontario recently announced a new Procurement Restriction Policy intended to limit US businesses from participating in public sector procurements. However, the policy includes exceptions for US companies with more than 250 employees in Canada, allowing them to continue doing business with the province. This has sparked criticism from the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), which advocates for prioritizing homegrown innovation. The CCI has called for the Ontario government to expand the mandate of Supply Ontario to prioritize domestic technology solutions and to review non-Canadian technology contracts. Despite these calls, Ontario has introduced some tariff-relief measures mostly unrelated to the tech sector.