BC + AI

A proposal, not yet a funded program

Wild Salmon a BC talent-return proposal

Global experience. A credible path back to British Columbia.

British Columbia produces ambitious founders, researchers and technical leaders. Many leave to gain experience, networks and scale elsewhere. This proposal asks what would make returning a serious option, and what BC could gain when they build their next company here.

Work in progress. Concept and white paper by Simon Haworth. Interactive public companion by BC + AI.

Explore the proposalShare your return story

Click or tap the water to send one home

The case

Leaving is not the failure. Having no credible path back is.

British Columbia trains people who go on to senior roles in the world’s largest innovation economies. Economic-development language calls that brain drain. This proposal treats departure as the first half of a cycle, and asks what the province would have to build for the second half to happen on purpose.

Theory of change

A return cycle.

The people who leave become more valuable while they are away. What BC does not have is anything built to bring them back on purpose.

BC is strong at starting companies and weaker at scaling them. Returnees are one way to close that gap, if there is a path they can actually take.

Salmon leave the river to grow. The proposal is about the trip back.

Framing lens

BC already has

Source waters

  • University research capability

    UBC, SFU and UVic produce internationally competitive talent and research in AI and life sciences.

  • Early-stage startup creation

    BC performs well at creating early-stage startups. The ideas hatch here.

These strengths are the white paper’s qualitative reading of BC’s position, not scores from a published index.

What is missing

Later-stage channel

  • Scale-up & commercialization

    BC’s key structural weakness: comparatively weak scale-up and commercialization performance. This is the gap returnees could close.

  • Late-stage capital depth

    Returning founders would carry international investment relationships and could anchor a government-matched fund.

The proposal would build

The run home

Relocation support, matched capital, immigration and work-permit pathway navigation, lab access and mentorship: the channel this proposal argues would turn a global career into a BC company.

Working hypothesis, not a finding

Two layers to a return decision

Simon Haworth’s working model is that a return decision gets tested in two stages. This is what the interviews are designed to confirm or break, not something the proposal has evidence for yet.

  1. Layer 1

    First, clear the practical threshold

    If these do not add up, the conversation usually ends here.

    • Capital and compensation
    • Customers and market access
    • Lab, clinical, compute or translational infrastructure
    • Company structure and cross-border tax friction
    • Immigration and work authorization
    • Partner employment
    • Housing, schools and relocation logistics
    • Co-founder and investor expectations

  2. Layer 2

    Then the personal case decides

    Once the practical case holds up, these are what people actually talk about.

    • Family and aging parents
    • Raising children near home
    • Belonging and identity
    • Contributing to British Columbia or Canada
    • Lifestyle and access to nature
    • Professional legacy
    • Rebuilding local relationships

People do not return for scenery alone. They return when the practical case is credible enough for the personal case to decide.

No split between the two is published here. Any ratio would be a guess until the interviews are done.

The evidence gap

This section is empty because the interviews have not happened yet.

The strongest thing this proposal could show is two or three real people describing why they left, what would bring them back, and what would still make them say no. None of that exists yet, so nothing is shown here. An invented quote would be worse than an empty section.

Who we are looking for

  • Someone who left BC and came back
  • Someone weighing a return right now
  • Someone who looked at it seriously and decided to stay where they are

Fifteen minutes, recorded only with your permission. Nothing is published without your approval of the exact words, and consent to be quoted is separate from consent to be named or photographed.

Share your return story

Diaspora

Where BC talent builds experience, and what can come back

Select a hub to see what people gain in each ecosystem, and what a returnee could carry back. These four are examples chosen for the AI life sciences beachhead, not a survey of where BC people go.

Pilot

What the proposal would do, and what different funding levels would buy

The white paper sketches a three-year pilot in AI life sciences. This chapter sets out why that sector, what the proposal would provide, and how the arithmetic responds to the size of the public commitment.

Pilot rationale

Why AI Life Sciences first

  • Artificial intelligence leadership
  • Biotechnology and healthcare innovation
  • Exportable intellectual property
  • High-value employment generation
  • Strong university research capability
  • Long-term strategic economic value

What the proposal would provide

Four systems, sixteen components, none of them committed

Every component is proposed. None has been committed by any government, university, investor, or by BC + AI, and no immigration pathway here is faster than the one anyone else can use.

Land

Getting a person and their household into the province.

  • Relocation planningProposed
  • Partner and family supportProposed
  • Immigration and work-permit pathway navigationProposed
  • Cross-border company, tax and legal navigationProposed

Build

Getting a company operating and able to do its actual work.

  • Incorporation and operating setupProposed
  • University, lab, clinical, compute and translational accessProposed
  • Commercialization and IP supportProposed
  • Local hiring and executive recruitmentProposed

Finance

Making the money work at least as well as it would elsewhere.

  • Matched investment or co-investmentProposed
  • Investor introductionsProposed
  • Non-dilutive funding navigationProposed
  • Customer and strategic-partner accessProposed

Belong

The part that decides whether someone stays.

  • Cluster integrationProposed
  • Alumni reconnectionProposed
  • Peer cohortProposed
  • Mentors, founders and senior operatorsProposed
  • Community and civic connectionProposed

Coalition

Who would have to be at the table

This is a proposed division of roles, not a list of partners who have agreed. No organization named here has committed to anything. Each entry records when its name and role were last verified.

At the centre

Wild Salmon proposal

A proposed division of roles, not a list of partners who have agreed. No organization named here has committed to anything, and several are named only because a proposal of this kind would have to involve them.

  • Simon Haworth

    Concept and program design. Wrote the white paper this page is built from.

    Author of the proposal.

  • BC + AI

    Ecosystem convener and publisher of this public companion. Would recruit participants for the research and carry what is learned back into the proposal.

    BC + AI does not operate or fund the proposed program, and is not proposed as its operator.

  • Province of British Columbia

    Policy sponsorship and program authority. A proposal of this shape needs a provincial owner to exist at all.

  • Universities and health systems

    Alumni access, research and infrastructure, and clinical and translational pathways. The diaspora this proposal is about is largely their graduates.

  • Capital partners

    Co-investment alongside any matched public fund, and the market test that comes with it. If nobody will co-invest, the proposal has its answer.

    Named firms belong here only once a firm has actually said yes. None has been approached.

  • Industry

    Customers, landing zones, partnerships, and demand for senior people. A returnee needs somewhere to sell and somewhere to hire from.

    Cluster integration is a proposed route to industry, not a confirmed partnership.

  • Federal partners

    Immigration, research and economic-development alignment. Work-permit and residency pathways are federal, so nothing about landing a founder is purely provincial.

  • Indigenous partners

    Design, governance, regional priorities and economic participation. This role has to be built through direct engagement, so the proposal names no partner and assumes no relationship.

    No Nation or organization is named here, and none has been approached. Writing that list at a desk is how this goes wrong.

Institution names verified 2026-08-19 against primary sources. Roles are proposed by the white paper, not confirmed by the organizations named.

Open water

Have you returned to BC, considered returning, or decided not to?

The proposal needs real return stories more than it needs another projection. If any of these describe you, we would like a short conversation. Fifteen minutes, recorded only with your permission, and nothing is published without your approval of the exact words.

I returned to BCWhat made it possible, and what nearly stopped you.I am considering returningWhat would have to be true for you to actually do it.I considered it and decided not toThe reason you stayed is the most useful thing on this page.I am an institution or employerWhat you could offer a returning founder, and what you could not.I am an investor or funderWhether you would co-invest, and on what terms.I have policy, tax, immigration, infrastructure or Indigenous-governance expertiseWhere this proposal is wrong, and what it is missing.

Or bring a missing piece into the draft.

If you have policy context, life sciences infrastructure knowledge, or a better question than the ones below, route it to BC + AI so the next version has more signal in it.

Share proposal feedbackWatch Simon’s talkVisit Life Sciences & AI

Still open

  • Economic impact modelling
  • Estimated pilot costs and funding structure
  • Comparative analysis versus international returnee programs
  • Selection criteria for returnee companies
  • Immigration and visa pathway analysis
  • Governance structure
  • Indigenous partnership opportunities
  • Gender and diversity considerations
  • Risk analysis and mitigation framework
  • Success metric methodology

One line per audience

For Government

“Bringing Global Innovation Home to British Columbia”

  • Emphasises economic development rather than retention
  • Positions BC as globally connected
  • Technology, investment and expertise returning to the province

For Universities

“A Global Career. A Path Back to BC.”

  • Speaks directly to students and alumni identity
  • Reinforces the long-term relationship with graduates
  • International ambition without permanent departure

For Venture Capital

“Importing Proven Founders, Technologies and Scale-Up Capability”

  • Focuses on reduced execution risk
  • Maturity and commercial readiness
  • Higher-quality deal flow

Brought to you by

Simon Haworth and Kris Krüg.

Simon is driving Wild Salmon forward: a work-in-progress returnee proposal focused first on AI Life Sciences founders, scale-up talent and the ecosystem conditions that would help them build in British Columbia. Kris Krüg and the BC + AI community publish this interactive companion and keep it evolving alongside the draft.

Simon approved launch inclusion on 2026-07-02 with clear attribution and work-in-progress framing.

His May 2026 Vancouver AI talk connects drug discovery, life sciences infrastructure, data security and community trust.

The Life Sciences & AI room gives this proposal a real BC ecosystem lane instead of a standalone policy artifact.

Watch Simon’s BC + AI talkExplore Life Sciences & AI
Simon Haworth, CEO at Intellomx, from a Vancouver AI talk thumbnail
Simon Haworth, CEO at Intellomx and lead of the Vancouver AI Life Sciences group. Source: Vancouver AI May 2026 talk, “Simon Haworth: Poetry, Pharma & the Life Sciences AI Underground.”

Provenance

Simon Haworth

Concept and white paper

Wild Salmon white paper draft · Vancouver, May 2026

Version 2 · 2026-08-19
Economic model v0
Institution names verified 2026-08-19

A foundational discussion document for a BC returnee innovation and scale-up proposal focused initially on AI Life Sciences.

A work-in-progress proposal that Simon Haworth is continuing to drive forward, published by BC + AI as an interactive companion for discussion and updates.

All projections on this page are illustrative.

No returnee has been interviewed for this proposal yet, so no quote or profile appears anywhere on this page. Contributors and interviewees will be listed here only after they consent.

Methodology and sources

These working research documents are not publicly available.

  • Revision brief, 2026-08-19

    What changed in this revision, why, and what is still unresolved.

  • Economic model notes

    Every formula behind the pilot calculator, with its units and defects.

  • Economic model source register

    Each coefficient the model needs, and whether anyone has sourced it yet.

  • Policy and coalition fact check

    Institution names, immigration pathway status, and what the page may not claim.

  • Naming and positioning research

    Name collisions, trademark screening limits, and why the descriptor exists.

  • International benchmarks

    What returnee programs elsewhere achieved, and what went wrong in them.