This week Industry Minister Mélanie Joly drew a Canadian-majority ownership floor on the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre spinout. The Defence Investment Agency Act released 14 statutory exceptions providing the scaffolding for the "build partner and buy" policy baked into the Defence Industrial Strategy. MDA Space stood up 49North, an Ottawa defence-tech subsidiary, and Moment Energy closed a US$40M+ Series B led by Vancouver's Evok Innovations.

Marc Parent (former CAE CEO) says that Canadian defence procurement still takes “10 years minimum on average,” and Matt Lombardi published “RFPs don't win fights”. Apple opened a Washington lobby front against Canada's Bill C-22 lawful-access framework.

Weekly Highlights

  • Canada's Photonics Fabrication Centre spinout: Joly draws a Canadian-majority ownership floor (Murad Hemmadi, The Logic, May 4 and continuing May 8). Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told The Logic that the spinout of the National Research Council's Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre will remain majority-owned by domestic shareholders while welcoming international industrial partnerships. European and Asian firms have already expressed interest in taking a stake. Photonics underpins both AI compute interconnects and defence sensing (LIDAR, infrared, secure optical communications). Ranovus CEO Hamid Arabzadeh, US PE funds, and Wesley Clover's Terry Matthews have all been named as interested in a stake. Read
  • Defence Investment Agency Act: 14 statutory exceptions for national and economic security procurements (CBC News / Lagassé Substack, May 7-8). Forthcoming legislation will give the Defence Investment Agency 14 statutory exceptions to bypass standard military procurement rules, including support for a Canadian economic sector important to national or economic security, contracts interoperable with allied government defence items, contracts on sensitive technology, and contracts for defence R&D and innovation. The bill follows Champagne's Spring Economic Update commitment of $103.8M over five years (and $22.3M ongoing) for the DIA. The exception list, in theory, operationalizes “build before partner and buy” and gives the DIA the legal cover to fast-track buying Canadian tech. Read
  • MDA Space launches 49North, an Ottawa defence-tech subsidiary (OBJ, May 5). MDA Space announced an Ottawa-based subsidiary, 49North, focused on developing technologies including drones and sensors. Expect other marquee Canadian incumbents to move deeper into defence tech. Read
  • Moment Energy raises US$40M+ Series B (PR Newswire / The Logic, May 5). Coquitlam B.C. cleantech Moment Energy closed a US$40M+ Series B led by Vancouver's Evok Innovations, with Liberty Mutual, W23 Global, Acario (Tokyo Gas CVC), Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Voyager, and US CIA-linked In-Q-Tel participating. Read

Capital Stack

  • NationGraph raises US$18M to bring AI to the black box of government contracting (BetaKit, May 5). NationGraph closed US$18M to apply AI to government contracting workflows, targeting opacity in public procurement. Read
  • Haply Robotics closes $16M CAD seed-plus (BetaKit, May 7). Montreal-based Haply Robotics raised $11.75M USD ($16M CAD) seed-plus led by Atlanta's Sound Media Ventures, with Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, South Korea's Hanwha Asset Management Venture Fund, Toronto's Two Small Fish Ventures, and a follow-on from BDC Capital Deep Tech Venture Fund. Stated applications include video games, surgical training, and flying military drones. Read
  • Telesat Q1 2026: Lightspeed LEO backlog at $1.1B booked, MDA remains prime (Stocktitan, May 5). Ottawa-based Telesat reported Q1 2026 with Lightspeed LEO backlog around $1.1B (customer commitments) plus a separate $800M GEO backlog. Read
  • Redwood AI approved for up to C$240k from NRC IRAP Defence Industry Assist (Stockhouse / AccessNewswire, May 7). Victoria-listed Redwood AI Operations Inc. (CSE: AIRX) was approved for up to C$240,000 in advisory services and funding for "Quantum-enhanced optimization for hazardous chemical risk classification" via NRC IRAP's Defence Industry Assist initiative. Read

Defence

  • The defence-tech gold rush is testing the limits of venture capital (Catherine McIntyre, The Logic, May 4). McIntyre's feature documents that government spending and procurement reform is drawing new investors to defence startups, but founders are waiting for promises to turn into contracts. Deep-tech defence companies need more capital up front, take longer to reach the market, and depend on a small number of government contracts for revenue, which makes the traditional VC playbook a poor fit. Read
  • Matt Lombardi, "RFPs don't win fights" (The Icebreaker, May 5). Lombardi argues traditional RFP procurement blocks the Canadian Armed Forces from startup capabilities, and the Defence Investment Agency's transparency model (with the $100M contract minimum expected to drop) is the first practical opening for domestic neoprimes to win below-threshold work. Read
  • Marc Parent on Canada's 10-year defence procurement cycle (Globe Intersect '26, May 5). Speaking at the Globe and Mail's Intersect '26 conference in Toronto, former CAE CEO Marc Parent said Canadian defence procurement takes "10 years minimum on average" even as Ottawa pours billions in. Kelly Craft (former US ambassador) on the same stage argued Canada must contribute more to NATO and own its defence stack. Read

Policy

  • Apple lobbies US politicians against Canada's Bill C-22 lawful-access framework (The Logic Briefing, May 8). Apple is enlisting US politicians against Canada's Bill C-22, a narrower successor to last Parliament's lawful-access bill that would let police and security agencies obtain digital communications and require service providers to install particular hardware or software for data requests. Apple argues the bill weakens systems Americans rely on. The Logic notes that Canadian regulation of US social media, streaming, and cloud-computing sovereignty are now hot spots in Canada-US trade talks. US Big Tech continues to against a Canadian sovereign-cybersecurity framework, framing it as a Canada-US trade irritant. Read

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