Hunter Prize Offers $50,000 for Plans to Reverse Canada's 57% Entrepreneurship Slide
Updated
Updated · The Hub · Jun 3
Hunter Prize Offers $50,000 for Plans to Reverse Canada's 57% Entrepreneurship Slide
1 articles · Updated · The Hub · Jun 3
Summary
$50,000 in Hunter Prize awards are being offered for practical, fiscally disciplined policy ideas to revive Canadian entrepreneurship and business formation over the next decade.
Canada's decline is steep: self-employed people with paid employees fell to 1.3 per 1,000 working-age adults in 2022 from 3.0 in 2000, while the 2023 business entry rate slipped to 12.3% from 15.2% 15 years earlier.
Regulatory buildup, fragmented provincial markets and tax rules that can reward staying small are cited as key barriers, alongside financing, talent and market-access constraints.
International comparisons sharpen the concern: annual business entries were essentially flat in Canada from 2015 to 2024, versus gains of 34% in the United States, 40% in the United Kingdom and nearly 86% in France.
The prize frames entrepreneurship as central to Canada's wider growth problem, arguing weaker firm creation means less competition, slower productivity gains and ultimately lower wages and living standards.
With its main startup visa paused, is Canada becoming more selective or simply closed-off to global founders?
Why do Canada's pension funds invest abroad while its tech innovators are starved for growth capital at home?
Does Canada's support for small business actually prevent the creation of globally competitive large companies?
Reversing Canada’s 45-Year Low in Entrepreneurship: Policy Solutions and the Hunter Prize Initiative
Overview
Canada is facing a serious decline in entrepreneurship, with self-employment at a 45-year low and fewer new businesses being created. Many Canadian-educated founders are choosing to start their companies in the United States instead. This trend is driven by failures in administrative simplification, access to capital, and regulatory modernization. As a result, Canada is experiencing an erosion of entrepreneurial spirit, reduced market dynamism, and weaker incentives for investment and innovation. The Hunter Prize Initiative aims to address these challenges by encouraging policy solutions that can revive entrepreneurship and strengthen the country’s economic future.