Hunter Prize Offers Up to $50,000 to Reverse Canada's Entrepreneurship Slide
Updated
Updated · The Hub · Jun 22
Hunter Prize Offers Up to $50,000 to Reverse Canada's Entrepreneurship Slide
1 articles · Updated · The Hub · Jun 22
Summary
$50,000 in Hunter Prize funding is now open for ideas to rebuild entrepreneurship in Canada, with submissions accepted until Aug. 2, 2026.
Canada's startup pipeline has weakened sharply: the self-employed share has fallen from 17% to under 13%, while self-employed Canadians with employees have dropped by more than half since 2000.
Business formation data show the same slowdown, with Canada's entry rate slipping to 12% in 2023 from 15% in 2008.
Judges and business leaders including Jeff Adamson, Don Archibald, Derrick Hunter and Shelley Kuipers argue entrepreneurship drives job creation, innovation and economic renewal as Canada faces AI disruption, demographic change and weak productivity.
The competition, backed by the Hunter Family Foundation, is seeking practical proposals that make it easier to start, finance, build and scale firms in a country whose 15 largest public companies had a median age of 122 years in 2021.
Is Canada's entrepreneurial drought caused by bad policy, or has the nation simply lost its appetite for taking risks?
Why is Canada, an AI research powerhouse, failing to create the startups needed to commercialize its own technology?
Can forcing pension funds to invest locally solve Canada's startup funding crisis, or is the problem more than just money?
Reversing Canada’s Entrepreneurial Decline: Policy Solutions and the 2026 Hunter Prize Challenge
Overview
The Hunter Prize for Public Policy is a major initiative that fosters innovative solutions to Canada’s most urgent challenges, with a current focus on reversing the country’s entrepreneurial decline. By creating a vital space for new ideas that might not surface through traditional policymaking, the prize injects fresh perspectives into public policy discussions. It supports the development of concise proposals and detailed policy papers, helping to turn theoretical concepts into practical public debate. Through this process, the Hunter Prize aims to shape economic opportunity and improve the daily lives of Canadians.