New website hopes to spur innovative policy ideas to drive the economy

As this country looks for ways to diversify the economy to make it more self-sufficient and resilient, new ideas will be needed because the old way, simply won’t cut it, experts say.

A group of Canadian tech industry leaders have come together to develop a new website designed to help bring those new ideas to the political landscape.

Buildcanada.com is a platform that allows entrepreneurs and industry leaders to transform their lived experiences into real-world, actionable items that can be presented to policymakers.

Daniel Debow, a former Shopify executive and co-founder of buildcanada.com, was a guest on The Mike Farwell Show and said this idea was born out of the comment section.

“Like many Canadians I’m in chatrooms with friends and people, complaining a little bit. Me and some others thought this is not productive. It’s good to complain and vent but how do these ideas get to the people who are creating policy today?”

Debow said one of the hurdles the founding group recognized was that entrepreneurs don’t have the time or the expertise to present their ideas in a way that can be useful in discussions with politicians. This website aims to do just that.

“I want to really be clear, these aren’t ideas just about tech. They’re about how we can unlock health records and save Canadian lives. How we can improve our immigration system. A lot of the entrepreneurs in this country have encountered all these systems as barriers to building their business and they’ve got ideas.”

Ignoring those ideas would simply be foolish said Debow.

“At the end of the day, you can disagree about how we should redistribute (wealth) in our society. But, there is nothing to redistribute if we don’t have great, prosperous businesses,” he said. “That’s the underlying thing that drives all the wealth we have that allows us to pay for social programs and the things we do. I think everyone can around the idea of new, clever ways to help our businesses grow.”

Buildcanada.com launched earlier this week and there are already memos posted. Debow said he’s heard from several business leaders who have expressed interest in contributing.