Science and Research Committee on June 1st, 2026

[Andrew Lawton, Conservative, Elgin—St. Thomas—London South, ON]

Could you be more clear in the answers, please? I'm just asking if you are aware that $10 billion has been reclassified to give the government credit for something they aren't doing, which is increasing defence capacity. Why is this being allowed? We're supposed to be proud of this, as a country, when we're just moving around numbers on a balance sheet.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tony Baldinelli]

With that, I'm going to have to stop. Perhaps you can provide a written response to the question my colleague has presented.

I'll go now to MP Noormohamed for five minutes.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here.

I know my colleagues have been trying to finalize the answer to this.

Ms. Hadwen, in one minute or less, can you please finish your answer on how you're working with the academic community to ensure they're ready for security requirements? I have very limited time, so if you can keep the answer brief that would be great.

[Adam Green]

I'm happy to lean in on this one. This is a joint approach across government. We have worked hand in glove with the academic community going back to 2016-17. This is because this is an all-fronts approach, whereby a lot of the research and development has migrated away from government facilities into both the academic and the private sector. All the safeguards we were previously focusing on government facilities have now moved into the academic sector, requiring us to work together as the programs and the resources expand.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Thank you very much.

One of the things we hear a lot about when we talk to Canadian innovators and Canadian companies is that they want the Government of Canada and Canada's military to be their customer. Sometimes it is more challenging to become a customer of the Government of Canada or Canada's armed forces than it is to be the customer of other governments or other armed forces. What are some of the things we should be thinking about at this moment in time, when Canada is working on, and the Prime Minister is very clear on, making sure that we have our own independence, that we look at sovereignty as something that is essential, not optional? What are some of the things we need to be doing from a policy standpoint to ensure that those directions and that directive, and that sense of purpose for Canadian innovators being able to sell into Canada, the Canadian government...? And, of course, our armed forces is front of mind.

[Wendy Hadwen]

We heard lots of these same points as we began work on the defence industrial strategy. That's one reason why there is a new program, the regional defence investment initiative, delivered by the regional development agencies of the government across the country so that small and medium-sized businesses can directly make applications to sell to the government, to national defence, particularly in the dual-use space. Of course, there's more we can do. The country is largely small and medium-sized businesses. We think that working with universities and BOREALIS will give us a chance to be more exposed.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

If we then go to the question of how BOREALIS can take this on intentionally, one of the concerns, obviously, is that these small and medium-sized businesses grow in Canada a little bit, they get customers elsewhere, and they recognize or they realize that perhaps they're not going to be able to continue their growth plan here. Of course, that's one thing we want to change, and obviously decisions that we're making are going to help inform that. What else should we be doing, and what are some of the things that you have seen, particularly through the work that BOREALIS is doing as it gets organized, in ensuring that those SMEs can become larger global players based in Canada?

[Kate Kaminska]

I think it gets to the heart of what we're trying to do with BOREALIS, which is to ensure that we retain the talent that we have in Canada; we retain the IP; and we allow our small and medium-sized companies to grow, thrive and stay in Canada, as opposed to moving elsewhere.

There are many components. There's not one simple answer to this. It's a suite of measures, taken together, that is going to help this problem.

One of them—and I believe this is a key one—is that we need to work with venture capital and the capital markets to ensure that we provide them a signal as to which of these great Canadian companies really have the cutting-edge technology, so that they can secure private investment. This is one of the objectives for the defence innovation secure hubs. We will be bringing Canadian innovators into an environment where they can test and showcase their technologies to the end-users, whether they are our Canadian Armed Forces members or national security partners, and, through that, get a sense of where they can improve their technology to perhaps secure that first contract, that first buy. That will also send a signal to the venture capital markets as to which of the innovations are ones that we can expect to sell, not just in Canada but also abroad.

Canada is a relatively small defence market—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tony Baldinelli]

I'm going to have to stop you there.

With that, I'm going to go to a final, additional round.

We're going to go to MP Ho. You have five minutes.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'm going to change gears here. In March 2026, the Liberal government announced that it was spending $200 million on a space pad in Canso, as you're probably aware, but in the photos it looks as if it's nothing more than a gravel pit. Last week, we had the president of the Canadian Space Agency at this very committee, and she said that it was the Department of National Defence that was involved in the procurement of the space pad. I just want to confirm that DND was, in fact, involved in the procurement of this space pad.

[Kate Kaminska]

I can speak only to BOREALIS. Certainly, it is not a part of the BOREALIS program.

[Wendy Hadwen]

Indeed, it was the Minister of National Defence who announced this investment, as part of moving out the defence industrial strategy's focus on space launch as a sovereign capability. It is a priority because, at the moment, everything that Canada and our innovators send into outer space is not going from Canadian soil.

The amount of money also involved three Canadian companies—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Just to follow up on that, did you or did any Department of National Defence official verify the physical state of the Canso site before the so-called investment was made? Do you know if a DND official visited the site?

[Wendy Hadwen]

I do. National Defence did verify the site and the proposals, and additional environmental assessments and other due diligence was done on all of the aspects of—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

It just looks like a gravel pit. It's not a fully built-out facility. Is that correct?

[Wendy Hadwen]

I do not know what the space launch looks like. This is something I can take on notice, and it can come back in writing—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

What, exactly, is the Department of National Defence leasing for $200 million? Is it a launch pad that we're getting or launching services? Is it access? What kind of infrastructure are we actually getting? Two hundred million dollars is a lot of money. It's not a rounding error. Could you just elaborate on that?

[Wendy Hadwen]

In the course of preparing the defence industrial strategy, we identified space launch as a really important opportunity because of the intersection of the operational need—so much of our military's domain awareness in the future will likely come from space-based capabilities—but also because of the industrial opportunity. So many of Canada's industries are doing really exciting research that we could be using in Canada to achieve an operational and industrial advantage.

The program specifically—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Okay, we understand that space is important.

[Wendy Hadwen]

If I may—

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

We can all agree on that.

What is, specifically, this $200-million investment that was made just a couple of months ago? The Liberal press release came out from the Liberal defence minister. It talked about the defence industrial strategy and dual use, which is exactly what we're studying here today.

What exactly are we getting? What objective are we achieving with this space pad? It's just a gravel pit. What operational requirement is this gravel pit—which many are describing as a parking lot—meeting?

[Wendy Hadwen]

The announcement the minister made had three elements to it. One of them is joining NATO's Starlift, an alliance project on space capabilities.

Another is a competition for three Canadian companies to prepare light lift, and they are meant to be ready by 2032. The commitment is for three companies to enter into a competition to launch and deliver a space launch capability.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

I want to talk, in my last question, about Maritime Launch Services, the company involved in this Liberal boondoggle. It has a pattern of missing deadlines. Back in 2017, it was projected to launch eight rockets by 2022. They have launched only two rockets to date, and one of them was a student-built rocket. One launched in 2025, but it was a commercial supportable test. Neither of them crossed the Kármán line.

Are you confident that Maritime Launch Services will deliver, and if not, what kinds of penalties are there if they miss a deadline?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Tony Baldinelli]

I'm going to have to stop you there. We're over time. Perhaps you could provide a written response to the question that the member has posed.

With that, we're going to go for five minutes to MP Rana.

[Aslam Rana, Liberal, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for your valuable time.

Dr. Kaminska, Canada's defence industry contributes nearly $10 billion to our GDP and supports over 81,000 jobs. BOREALIS is designed to shorten the distance between promising ideas and impact. What concrete measurable milestones will BOREALIS use over the next three years to demonstrate that it's accelerating that path?