The federal government says it’s simplifying the current ‘Buy Canadian’ procurement process to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to be competitive and get new projects to market faster.

To do this, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement Joël Lightbound said the government will streamline the process of filing paperwork and navigating government systems.

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Lightbound also announced that Ottawa plans to spend up to $80 million over the next five years to boost Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC).

ISC awards contracts to entrepreneurs who may have otherwise found it difficult to get a project beyond an initial concept, proposal or pilot and empowers innovators by funding research and development and testing prototypes in real-life settings.

This also comes a few weeks after the federal government lowered the minimum threshold for the Buy Canadian procurement policy from $25 million to $5 million, which Lightbound said was done to open the doors to smaller and medium-sized business.

“The biggest barrier for many innovators is not the quality of their idea, it’s getting that first chance to prove it. And this program, ISC, fixes that,” Lightbound said.

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