Industry Minister Mélanie Joly opened consultations at SpaceBound last week on a Canadian space act that would put in-space activity, and the ground segment that controls it, under one authorization. The government also released Canada’s first positioning, navigation and timing resilience framework.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) published the consultation document and the Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Resilience Framework on Oct. 20, the day Joly spoke in Gatineau, Que., and the news release followed on Oct. 22. Submissions on the act are due Dec. 21.
The consultation builds on a 2023 CSA consultation on a modern regulatory framework, which produced a what-we-heard report. It also draws on a 2022 independent review of the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act, which found Canada’s space regulation complex and fragmented and recommended consolidating it under a general space act. That is what ISED now proposes. It comes six months after the government tabled Bill C-28, the Canadian Space Launch Act.
Three ministers, three laws
ISED is proposing a new act because Canada currently regulates space one activity at a time, under statutes written for each. This is not efficient for a fast moving industry that needs a government that is more responsive. A company launching a radar satellite from Canada today applies to ISED for spectrum under the Radiocommunication Act and to Global Affairs for a remote-sensing licence under the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act, and once C-28 passes it will apply to Transport for a launch permit under the Aeronautics Act. Each act has its own minister, regulations and enforcement.
Refuelling or repairing satellites in orbit, removing debris, manufacturing in space, running a commercial space station and mining the Moon or asteroids are all poorly regulated or not regulated at all in Canada today. The consultation says the current approach “could become increasingly outdated” and push Canadian firms to friendlier jurisdictions.
ISED’s proposed plan is a comprehensive space act under the Minister of Industry. It would issue one licence per mission rather than one per activity, judge applications on outcomes and risk rather than a checklist, and give lower-risk missions a lighter review. The document floats phased and conditional approvals, regulatory sandboxes for novel missions, and recognition of licences already issued by allied regulators. It would absorb the remote-sensing act, and it would strip the space-operations conditions now bolted onto spectrum licences, such as collision avoidance, debris mitigation and end-of-life disposal, and put them in the new law instead. Spectrum and launch would stay where they are.
ISED also puts a narrower option on the table in case the comprehensive act runs into trouble: a targeted act covering only the new activities, with remote sensing staying under Global Affairs. The consultation asks which model industry prefers and how long current licensees would need to move to a new one.
The act would also give the minister authority to require insurance or indemnities, with the document asking whether government should backstop catastrophic losses, to run security assessments on applicants in consultation with other departments, and to set sustainability rules. Whichever model wins, ISED wants a single window for applications. The 2022 review found that more than nine in 10 respondents considered dealing with multiple departments a burden.
The PNT framework
The framework starts from Canada’s dependence on foreign Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), chiefly the U.S. GPS, at a time when jamming and spoofing incidents are rising. The Arctic adds its own problems: fewer satellites in view at high latitudes, no augmentation coverage and more space weather.
The framework sets out 10 areas of focus rather than programs. Among them: a national PNT office inside ISED, a sovereign timing backbone for banks and telecoms, expanded geodetic infrastructure, space-based and ground-based alternatives to GPS, quantum sensors for navigation where no signal reaches, and an open-air test range where equipment can be jammed and spoofed on purpose. The document says more information will be published as initiatives advance.
Joly announced the week’s one PNT commitment on Oct. 20, $15 million for Xona Space Systems to open a Montreal centre for its low-Earth-orbit navigation constellation, a project SpaceQ reported in June was aimed squarely at the Arctic.
Defence Minister David McGuinty, in the release, put the framework in military terms. “Whether it’s to defend our sovereignty in the Arctic or operate alongside our allies, the Canadian Armed Forces depend on reliable positioning, navigation and timing systems,” he said. The framework itself describes PNT as dual-use technology and ties it to the sovereign capabilities named in the Defence Industrial Strategy.
What is not decided
ISED says it may run further consultations as the work progresses, and that the regulations under any act would be consulted on separately, so a bill could be some ways off even with the government understanding the need for speed as advocated by industry.
C-28, the launch act the new one is built on, was on its second day of second-reading debate on Oct. 23. Conservative MP Alex Ruff, opening for his party, said the bill leaves foreign-ownership and security screening of launch operators and payloads to regulation and ministerial discretion rather than statute. The Bloc Québécois supports the bill but questioned how launch sites are chosen, and both parties pressed the government on its lease agreement with Maritime Launch Services in Nova Scotia. ISED’s consultation proposes security assessments of space act applicants in consultation with other departments and asks the sector which threats concern it most.
The bill’s 16 sections cover launch vehicles, re-entry vehicles, sites, permits and indemnities, but do not mention a scenario where Canada could launch its own astronauts or spaceflight participants. Should that be discussed now?
Its definition of a launch vehicle, a rocket or anything else designed to reach orbit, does not mention whether anyone is aboard, so it does not prohibit a crewed launch. It does remove launch and re-entry vehicles from the Carriage by Air Act, which governs airline liability to passengers, and from the Canada Transportation Act’s definition of an air service, without replacing either. Transport Canada’s draft application requirements, consulted on this spring, were written for uncrewed rockets. The United States has required informed consent from spaceflight participants since 2004, and the U.K.’s Space Industry Act 2018 covers human occupants.
The bill defines a re-entry vehicle as one designed to return “substantially intact, from Earth orbit or beyond.” A reusable first stage never reaches orbit, so a booster flying back to a landing pad is not a re-entry under the bill and the pad is not a re-entry site. Whether the landing is part of the launch depends on a definition of “launch” the bill leaves to regulation. Transport Canada would keep its general powers over the booster as an aircraft and could stop any launch-related activity in an emergency, but the permits, sites and zoning rules in the bill are written for rockets going up and vehicles coming down from orbit.
The consultation also comes as the government works on a national space strategy, with former astronaut Jeremy Hansen named special adviser on it, and the regulatory framework will be one of its foundations.
Submissions go to spaceregulation-reglementationspatiale@ised-isde.gc.ca by Dec. 21.