Mining Found the Vein. Tech Is Following: Why Extending Flow-Through Shares to Technology Is a Compliment – Not a Competition

By David E. Perry, Founder, CanFlowthrough.com

If you want to understand how good policy becomes great nation-building, look at Flow-Through Shares.

They have been one of Canada’s most quietly effective investment incentives – turning risky mineral exploration into private-sector opportunity, long before the term ‘innovation economy’ entered the political lexicon.

There’s no question where this breakthrough originated: the mining industry. For 71 years, mining has shown the country what’s possible when we de-risk the frontier, invest upstream, and reward those willing to bet on what lies beneath.

Today, another sector – technology – is asking to be allowed to follow that lead. I am leading a campaign to convince federal officials this is a good thing to do and the right thing to do.

Not to replace mining. Not to compete with it. But to apply the same proven financing model and create the tech sector’s own form of early-stage risk and discovery. If exploration is the lifeblood of mining, then research and development for tech serves the same purpose and needs the same financing options.

On April 19, 2025, the federal Liberal party issued a set of policy promises and under the heading of measures to supercharge the economy promised to extend FTS to tech startups. This is a sharp and welcome change.

Flow-Through Shares: A made-in-mining success story

Flow-Through Shares (FTS) were created in the 1950s to stimulate investment in Canadian exploration, and it propelled Canada onto the world stage. According to the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canda (PDAC) and the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), mining today captures 75 to 80 per cent of all FTS capital, raising between $800 million and $1.4 billion CAD annually – almost all of it from private investors. And for every dollar raised, the economy sees between $2.50 and $3.00 in activity – from drilling contracts to logistics, software, camp services, and geoscience talent. (Source: Natural Resources Canada, 2023)

These are not grants, however. These are structured incentives with accountability.

That’s what makes the model so successful and why it has been expanded over the years – first to oil and gas and then, 29 years ago, to renewable energy firms. So, change is possible.

Our own research indicates FTS for tech would generate $500 million in new investment, $1.25 billion in new economic activity and $375 million in new tax revenue.   

Modern mining Is modern technology

There’s a misconception outside the industry that mining is ‘traditional.’ But insiders – as well as the thousands of engineers, technologists, and data scientists who keep it running – know that’s nonsense.

Modern mining is deeply high-tech, with innovations such as:

• Autonomous vehicles
• Predictive orebody modelling
• AI-enabled geophysical surveying
• Drone-based monitoring
• Real-time ESG compliance and reporting systems

We don’t just dig anymore. We compute, optimize, and simulate, and that driver improvements in safety, output and profits.

Mining has been quietly leading the industrial innovation agenda for year. Helping Canadian tech will help mining.

The tech sector is trying to solve the same problems mining faced

Early-stage risk. High capital intensity. Long development timelines. Sound familiar? That’s what software engineers, robotics firms, clean-tech startups and many others face every day.

But here’s the catch: Tech does not have a flow-through equivalent. Not yet, at least.

According to the Canadian Capital & Private Equity Association ‘s (CVCA), WilmerHale VC Report, 2024, this means:

• Canadian seed-stage deals are limited to $500K–$2M CAD, far less than the United States.
• More than 74 per cent of tech venture capital comes from outside Canada

And without early-stage capital, Canadian firms:

• Sell early to foreign buyers
• Lose control of intellectual property
• Send jobs and innovation abroad

Here’s the opportunity: Flow-Through for tech

What if the same tax-advantaged structure that built Canada’s world-class mining sector were extended to qualified Canadian tech companies?

We’re talking about:

• Sensors for environmental monitoring
• Remote automation systems
• Predictive analytics for exploration targeting
• Clean extraction technologies
• Real-time mine safety systems

In other words: the technologies that mining already depends on.

Let’s be clear – this is not about tech seeking a handout. It’s tech following a map the mining sector developed.

Tech needs a financing vein. Mining found it

Just as mining turned Flow-Through Shares into a foundation for discovery, growth, and job creation. So too could technology.

It would:

• De-risk private investment into Canadian-developed mining tech
• Keep upstream innovation onshore
• Strengthen Canada’s ability to process and add value to critical minerals here at home
• Create high-paying jobs across sectors and geographies

Mining laid the policy groundwork. Tech is simply asking to build on it and, in doing so, will strengthen the very sector that pioneered the path.

Critical minerals are only an advantage if we process them here

Canada is sitting on a once-in-a-century opportunity as the global demand for lithium, nickel, graphite, cobalt, and rare earths is exploding. But if we don’t develop the processing capacity, software systems, and data layers here, those minerals – as well as their value chains – will leave the country.

By using a proven policy, we can expand the tech sector Canada’s resource economy needs to stay competitive, green, and globally relevant.

Let’s not export the upside

In mining, we know that discovery is just the beginning. The value comes from what happens next: development, extraction, processing, and scaling, and it’s the same in tech.

Tech has proven we can discover. Now we need to support what comes after – so Canada can keep the upside, not just the origins.

Let me be crystal clear; Flow-Through for tech is not about shifting support away from mining. It’s about honouring the success of mining. It’s a compliment, not a competition.By applying FTS where it can create significant national value, it can potentially add to the tech sector’s current $125 Billion contribution to GDP.

Given the turmoil currently being generated by Trump, we need to take bold action to grow and protect our economy – and even our sovereignty. If government acts and if we get this right, we won’t just have more innovation – we will have a more resilient and future-proof economy built on pillars of resources and knowledge.