BC budget includes $500 million for strategic investment fund to retain IP in the province

British Columbia’s recently-released provincial budget includes $500 million to support the launch of InBC, a new strategic investment fund.

Premier John Horgan said during a press conference Tuesday that the fund will invest in firms in the technology, life sciences, and green tech sectors, and ensure that intellectual property developed in post-secondary institutions and industrial sectors remains in the province.

“Too often in the past, the good ideas that have come from our post-secondary institutions have migrated to other jurisdictions for a host of reasons,” Horgan said. “We want to stem that flow of brain power out of British Columbia.”

Premier Horgan added that the investment will “send a message to the world in multiple sectors that British Columbia is a place to come, put down roots and attract the talent that we’re going to need to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

InBC will provide capital to small- and medium-sized businesses based in BC with the potential for high growth, according to the province. The fund will have a “triple bottom line” investment mandate with three major goals: establish BC as a globally competitive low-carbon jurisdiction, promote values that make life better for people in the province and achieve a return on investment.

“This fund will help promising companies scale up, anchor talent, and keep jobs and investment at home in British Columbia,” said BC finance minister Selina Robinson in her budget speech on April 20. “It will also deliver economic, environmental and social returns.”

The BC budget also provided $60 million for an innovation centre to support the commercialization of clean technology and $96 million for the CleanBC Program for Industry, a program meant to reduce emissions and expand the clean tech sector.

The province’s investments in clean tech dovetail with recent investments in the sector in the 2021 federal budget, which included $5 billion for the government’s new Net Zero Accelerator (NZA) program. The NZA is aimed at decarbonizing heavy industry, supporting clean technologies and assisting firms in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The InBC fund will operate independently from the provincial government and investment decisions will be made by a chief investment officer and a team of investment professionals, according to Premier Horgan’s office.

The chief investment officer will answer to a nine-member board of directors, the majority of whom will be from the private sector, the premier’s office said. The board is expected to be in place in May 2021 and the chief investment officer will be hired by fall 2021.

Several members of the BC business community spoke in support of the investment fund during the announcement, including Dr. Wal van Lierop, the executive chairman of Chrysalix Venture Capital, Wendy Hurlburt, President & CEO of LifeSciences BC, and Greg D’Avignon, the President & Chief Executive Office of the Business Council of British Columbia.

In its measures to support industry in the province, the budget also included $4 million for a Climate Action Secretariat to develop climate action measures to support what the BC government called “clean, inclusive economic growth.”

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