The federal government has launched Canada’s first Strategic Exports Office to provide Canadian businesses with centralized diplomatic and financial backing when competing for major international contracts.
Announced at the global headquarters and Space Robotics Centre of Excellence of MDA Space in Brampton, Ont., the initiative represents a pivot in federal trade policy. Rather than relying on siloed trade missions and independent agencies, the new office will merge diplomatic advocacy from Global Affairs Canada with export financing from Export Development Canada (EDC) and commercial execution through the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC).
International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu framed the move as a necessary response to an increasingly aggressive global trading environment, where Canadian firms frequently find themselves outmaneuvered by foreign governments offering state-coordinated backing.
“They would get to the finish line, another state leader would swoop in, a trade minister would swoop in, make a call, and billions of dollars of deals would be lost,” Sidhu said. “So better coordination is what’s required, is what industries have asked for.”
Sidhu cited France and French President Emmanuel Macron as explicit examples of the aggressive commercial advocacy Canada intends to emulate, where top government officials directly intervene to secure high-value international procurements for domestic industry.
Brampton hub and space sector influence
Hosting the announcement at MDA Space carries significant political and commercial weight. Located in Brampton South, the facility sits within the federal riding represented by Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu, while Minister Sidhu represents neighbouring Brampton East.
MDA Space chief executive officer Mike Greenley is a frequent participant in federal trade outreach, having joined the minister on recent missions to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.
Greenley stated that following the recent two $1-billion acquisitions of U.S.-based Blue Canyon Technologies and France-headquartered Collecte Localisation Satellites, the company projects its workforce will grow to 5,500 employees operating across 43 sites in 23 countries by January 2027.
The space sector also has a presence on the newly created Strategic Exports Advisory Council, launched alongside the office to provide guidance and strategy. Greenley and Telesat president and CEO Daniel Goldberg represent the space industry on the 14-member panel, joining chief executives from Bombardier, AtkinsRéalis, Cameco, CAE, WSP, and OpenText, among others. Together, the organizations represented on the council account for more than 300,000 Canadian jobs.
Confronting silos and foreign competition
The rationale for creating the office came under scrutiny during the media question period. A Globe and Mail reporter asked the minister how the unit differs from existing trade infrastructure like EDC, the Trade Commissioner Service and the CCC.
Sidhu acknowledged that while those individual institutions performed their respective roles, lack of alignment between commercial negotiators, diplomats, and financial underwriters often left Canadian bids vulnerable during final contract negotiations.
“In this office, we’ll have diplomatic experience, we’ll have financing experience from EDC, but we’ll also have business backing from the industries,” Sidhu said. “This formalizes it so we can accelerate it even more.”
The federal government stated that this coordinated approach, piloted informally over the past year, has already helped Canadian exporters secure $28 billion in international contracts. Major space sector deals cited include:
- MDA Space: A $1.1-billion contract with Globalstar to build more than 50 satellites, and a joint defence communications satellite arrangement with Japan’s Mitsubishi.
- Telesat: A strategic partnership in Qatar to deliver low-Earth orbit satellite connectivity across the region.
Small business export gap
Addressing a question regarding broader economic inclusion, Sidhu confronted the reality that only 15 per cent of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) currently export goods or services outside Canada.
While Ottawa continues to negotiate new bilateral and regional free trade agreements, including recent pacts with Ecuador and the United Arab Emirates, Sidhu emphasized that trade agreements alone do not guarantee commercial success.
“You don’t want to sign a free trade agreement and forget it,” Sidhu said. “You need to be able to work with small businesses to take advantage of that trade agreement, whether it’s with CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) or CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Europe). So you’re approaching it from two different angles: opening new markets, but also walking businesses through that hallway so they can land more contracts.”
The federal strategy aims to boost goods and services exports to non-U.S. markets by $300 billion over the next decade, doubling non-U.S. exports by 2035 as Canada seeks to reduce its single-market trade dependencies.