The Source Canada Newsletter, Monday September 14, 2026

In this week's newsletter we are sharing a perspective from Uma Gopinath, Chief Information Officer at Porter Airlines. Throughout her career in both the public and private sector she has been a champion of Canadian innovation.

Source Canada has long advocated that corporate leaders can play a direct and meaningful role in growing Canada's tech sector through their procurement function.

“I think Canada has incredible talent and innovation. Our challenge is often scaling successful ideas. We need to get better at moving from pilot to enterprise adoption.  

Canada doesn't have an innovation problem. We have a scaling problem. How do you build a successful Canadian company without a first Canadian customer? 

One challenge I've observed over my career is that many large organizations, both public and private sector, have become very effective at managing risk. The unintended consequence is that we've sometimes made it difficult for smaller innovators to work with us. 

Procurement processes, security reviews, insurance requirements, reference checks, financial thresholds, and vendor onboarding processes all make sense individually. But collectively they can create barriers that are very difficult for emerging companies to overcome.

Having worked in both the public and private sectors, I understand why those controls exist. They're often there for good reasons. But I also think leaders need to challenge themselves to find ways to create safe pathways for innovation.

As CIOs, one of the most impactful things we can do is create opportunities for smaller companies to pilot, demonstrate value, and earn the right to grow.

If we're serious about building a stronger Canadian innovation ecosystem, we have to ask ourselves whether we're creating enough opportunities for emerging Canadian companies to prove value and scale.”

-Uma Gopinath, CIO at Porter Airlines

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Highlights

  • TD committed $150-billion over five years in lending, underwriting, advisory and financing across five sectors: energy, critical minerals and resources, defence and aerospace, digital technology and AI, and infrastructure. CEO Raymond Chun was careful to say the capital alone is not enough — “it's about how do you make sure you get the investors and the opportunities linked together.” — The Globe and Mail
  • Scotiabank committed more than $100-billion in financing over five years and launched the Scotia Growth Institute, with former ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman as lead strategic adviser. The targeted sectors align with the Major Projects Office. Separately, on September 8, the bank published a Canadian Defence Issuance Framework, the first Canadian structure for labelled defence issuance including Canadian Defence Bonds. — The Globe and Mail
  • BMO will deploy up to $70-billion in new capital over 10 years across electricity, energy and transportation infrastructure, mining and critical minerals, AI computing, defence and security, and oil and gas, through bank financing, debt capital markets and public equity raising — The Globe and Mail
  • CIBC committed $2-billion over five years for small and medium-sized defence-related and dual-use businesses. — BetaKit
  • RBC launched the RBCx Growth Fund, a $1.4-billion vehicle for scaling Canadian technology companies, with the bank putting in up to $300-million USD of its own capital and seeking the rest from third parties. It plans direct equity positions in as many as 15 companies across enterprise software and applied AI, health tech, frontier tech spanning aerospace, dual-use defence and quantum, energy and climate, and ag tech — BetaKit
  • The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan will invest an additional $10-billion in Canada by the end of 2027, adding to a $100-billion domestic portfolio inside a $303-billion fund, in both public equities and private assets that “meet its return objectives.” CEO Jo Taylor says roughly $1.5-billion has already gone in over the past few months. PSP is targeting a move from $72.4-billion to $100-billion domestically, OMERS pledged $10-billion in April, and Sun Life added a $5-billion infrastructure program — The Globe and Mail

Defence

  • Ottawa awarded the first contracts under the Defence Drone Initiative, worth up to $50-million, to six Canadian suppliers: Beonyx, AVSS, Volatus Aerospace, Twenty20 Insight, Draganfly and Objexis AI, covering ISR drones and uncrewed ground vehicles. Training, maintenance, repair and sustainment must happen in Canada. The stated target is a tenfold increase in CAF drone holdings, and the awards came 50 days after the marketplace launched — True North Strategic Review
  • Mirabel-based Volatus Aerospace won a five-year Government of Canada contract for low-cost tactical ISR uncrewed aircraft. The initial buy is 100 systems with options for 4,900 more, under a framework capped at $25-million and $5,000 per system, through the first RFP issued under Stream 1 of the marketplace. First deliveries start in Q4 2026 — True North Strategic Review
  • Draganfly was also selected to supply low-cost tactical ISR drones to the Canadian Armed Forces under the same stream — True North Strategic Review
  • Lockheed Martin Canada is committing $11.7-million to Avalon Holographics, the St. John's company building 3D holographic light-field displays for defence, industrial design and medical use. The commitment adds a $5.6-million contract on top of an earlier $6.1-million Phase 1 investment, with work in St. John's and Edmonton, and counts toward the prime's industrial and technological benefits obligations on the River-class destroyer and Victoria-class submarine command and control programs — True North Strategic Review
  • Ottawa suppliers say federal procurement is genuinely speeding up. The Canadian Armed Forces contracted Kanata-based Dominion Dynamics in July to build and integrate a sensor product in under a week; the firm delivered in four days and was paid the next. Calian's Chris Pogue puts federal defence RFP and RFI postings at nearly 600 last quarter, up 60 per cent year over year. Tactiql and Robotics Centre say the tone at DND and PSPC has shifted toward buying Canadian, but want proof the Defence Industrial Strategy turns into SME contracts — Ottawa Business Journal
  • Stellantis signed a memorandum of understanding with Roshel over the potential sale of its Brampton, Ontario assembly plant, putting a Canadian armoured vehicle maker in line for a facility built for automotive volume — CBC News

Capital

  • Wittington Ventures closed a third fund at $180-million, 50 per cent larger than its $120-million 2022 predecessor, bringing assets under management to $820-million. Limited partners include Wittington Investments, the Weston family holding company behind Loblaw and Shoppers Drug Mart. The plan is roughly 15 companies at Series A and B across climate, commerce, consumer, healthcare and food tech, at about $10-million each — BetaKit

Counter Signal

  • University Health Network is publishing a blueprint, From Discovery to Global Supplier, arguing Canada invents well and commercializes badly, and that the single most important fix is procurement — making government "the disciplined first customer," with adoption targets and an end to interprovincial red tape. Brad Wouters, UHN's EVP of science and research, on the largest pool of public spending in the country: "we don't use it as a lever for our procurement to support Canadian startups, Canadian businesses. In fact, we make it really hard for them to access that market at all." The report also asks OMERS and Ontario Teachers to anchor domestic Series B rounds and backs a Canadian patent box — The Globe and Mail

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