A study funded by CFIR compared ten provinces over two fiscal years, 2021-22 and 2022-23, on three measures: how much venture capital each received, how many patents it filed and how many of them were granted, and how many of its firms stayed in business.
Three numbers carry the finding.
95% of venture capital sits in four provinces: Ontario 48%, Quebec 20%, British Columbia 17%, Alberta 10%. The other six share 5%.
The more patents a province files, the more venture capital it gets, almost in step, in both years. The share of patents actually granted shows almost no link to where the money goes.
Alberta has the best grant rate in the country, 56%, and receives 10% of the money. British Columbia has the lowest, 37%, and receives 17%.
The link to survival shifted between the two years. In 2021-22, provinces with more venture capital also kept more firms in business. By 2022-23 that link had largely faded, while 89.5% of firms nationally stayed in business. The authors read this as investors chasing fast growth.
These are patterns that move together; the study does not claim that one causes the other.
The paper is published open access. Read it in full, with the figures, the method and the licence.
