At present, the companies working in the quantum field in Canada do participate in worthwhile collaboration with the academic community. That is not the case for all companies, but some of the budding talent companies that have just started up simply have no choice but to work closely with academics. The research they are doing comes out of what is being done in the universities and is really pretty fundamental.
In all honesty, I don't think working in a vacuum is a problem in the quantum field, although it does happen, I agree, in other fields.