Industry Minister Mélanie Joly was a late addition to the SpaceBound conference in Ottawa. Her remarks and funding announcement (see our separate story: Canadian government pivots to Europe with $528.5 million investment for dual-use technologies) were made at the end of the afternoon sessions on Tuesday, November 18, 2025.
The following transcript has been edited-for-clarity.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly remarks
Folks, we are indeed living in a much more complex, more dangerous world. You know it. You have been seeing the consequences of geopolitics. I used to work much more on the Foreign Affairs side, and I have seen the causes of all the trade tensions over time. But now, I am working on the consequences, and I am very much involved in making sure that we protect our different industries.
While we are doing that, we know there are many things that we cannot control in this world, but there are many things we can control, and we are focusing on those.
We have a vision, which is to build Canada strong. We have a plan, and this plan is based on three things: First, we will protect our industries and our jobs. Second, we will create jobs. Third, we will attract talent and investment.
Your industry is part of what we think can be a source of creating jobs. When I look at the space sector and everything that is going on in the world, I really think that you are at the core of something that will become bigger than all of us.
We are working on a new Defence Industrial Strategy. When we think about defence, of course, we are thinking about the protection of our land, our sea, and our air—but also space, cyber, and everything linked to health prevention and the impacts of climate change, including dealing with wildfires. You are part of that definition of defence.
Of course, we will be investing a lot in defence. Good news: the budget passed. That is why I can talk to you today. If not, who would be canvassing this?
In our budget, we have $81 billion over five years for defence. That means $16.5 billion per year. Just to give you an example, the national daycare program is worth six billion per year for kids across the country. We are talking about a budget for defence that is nearly three times that.
While the space sector—which I am very happy to be defending at the Cabinet table—is important, with 14,000 people and an impact of $5 billion on our GDP, I think we can grow that. I think we can have an approach to our Defence Industrial Strategy, linked to our “Canadian by Canadian” policy, that will be able to support your companies so that we will build Canada’s space sector strong.
Part of that vision leads to good news today. I have the pleasure to announce a historic investment of $528 million to strengthen Canada’s partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
This investment is about creating direct opportunities for your companies. We want to increase our exports towards the European market and we want to diversify our partnerships. While other countries will become weaker, we will become stronger. That is part of what we can control: diversifying our market and being closer to Europe. You have a tangible proof of that today.
Our goal is to make sure that there are more contracts, more partnerships, and more jobs created through this investment. For nearly 50 years, we have been the only non-European seat at the ESA table. Now we are putting our money where our mouth is and we are making the right investments.
I know that some of your companies are already working with the ESA, including Kepler in Toronto, for example, which is the prime contractor for the ESA’s HydRON mission (internet in space), and C-CORE in Atlantic Canada, which is delivering critical satellite transponders. That is good news. We need more of that. I really hope that you will work to create the right relationships. We are offering you the funding and the infrastructure to make sure that you can do good business.
Next week will be an important ministerial meeting in Bremen, Germany, and our goal is to make sure that we highlight these investments. So I really hope that Lisa [Campbell] you will be representing us well, because we need to make sure that we are seeing concrete results from these investments.
Without further ado, Brian will now ask me difficult questions on the stage.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly Q&A with Brian Gallant (Transcript)
Brian Gallant: Merci. I want to ask you the toughest question first off. We don’t have too much time, but the toughest question… I—we had the chance to engage, you and I, with some other Space Canada members while you were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Global Affairs at the time. So, you were already engaged. You were already thinking about space. You were informed about some of the challenges and the way in which space is at the heart often of geopolitical tensions and considerations. So now you are the minister at Cabinet in charge of space. How are you enjoying it? Are you liking the role? Are you fascinated by the ecosystem? Tell us a little bit about that.
Minister Joly: Is it working? Hello. Yeah. What I really like about this new job is because I used to be in business before being in politics and I come from a family that is in business also. I like the transactional part of it. I like that. Yes, we’re able to engage with countries and you know in this case through space cooperation but concretely speaking what are the results at home? And foreign affairs is a fantastic portfolio, but fundamentally we were a lot about saying that we had issues with also much more tensions in space, geopolitical turbulence, with China investing a lot in space and you know also everything that is happening in the US on the space side. But you know, what are we doing about it concretely? And that’s where I think this portfolio is really fun and impactful because we’re able to make the right investments and create the right cooperation. And you know when you’re a minister—it depends on the ministers—but what I’m seeking every time I’m in a portfolio is to have an impact. And I really feel that what we’re doing on the defence industry will be a legacy piece for our government. So I’m really excited about it.
Brian Gallant: Often when I’m trying to communicate to decision makers about the importance of space, I’ll talk about all the economic opportunity, the way in which space can help us with some of our ambitions and challenges in Canada, but also want to talk about what it means if we don’t step up on space. So, I just want to say I think it’s actually excellent that you come with a lens with that background of Foreign Affairs understanding how space is at the heart of it because you also recognize what happens if we don’t make these types of investments and take it seriously. So, I think it’s fantastic. So, you talked a little bit about concrete action. So tell us a little bit about what the government’s vision is for space. What do you foresee us doing as an ecosystem together and obviously with the lead of the federal government and maybe how it fits into the overall strategy and priorities of the federal government at this time?
Minister Joly: So I think we’ve made a lot of headwinds on research and we’re very good at that and we can do more even. And we’ve been good at you know everything linked to exploration and doing our part and very happy that Jeremy Hansen will be participating in the future mission. I look forward to being you know there for the launch. But what I’m also preoccupied with is—and maybe it’s because I come from Montreal where we have like a great capacity in terms of space—but I’m looking for the commercialization of it. Because I want to create jobs. It’s not in my title, but I feel that working with of course the Minister of Jobs herself, Patty Hajdu, my job is to create jobs across this country and that’s where you come in. And I think that bearing that in mind, being better at that cooperation between you know our different agencies including the Canadian Space Agency and also our investment in defence and your world, I think we’ll get to even a stronger space. Um so that’s what I’m focused on. Seeing the tangible results.
And I’ll you know I’m also very preoccupied of what’s going on in our different democracies around the world and the lack of trust of people towards governments, institutions etc. And you can you know continue to do a lot of virtual signaling, try to talk about values, but fundamentally people want results and that’s why they don’t necessarily trust the institutions or trust the governments. So I’m a very pragmatic person and I like seeing results. And I really think that more we will be able to say to Canadians: things are not—are complicated maybe with the US to say the least, and the world is more complicated—but you can look at your wife or your husband going back home and say “I have a good job and I have a good career and we’ll be okay.” And you can look at your, you know, kids and grandkids in the eyes and say, “You know what, that, you know, we’re in the right country and your future will be fine and you’ll have a good job, too.”
And more we’re able to do that, more I think anxiety will come down. And so that’s why I’m so focused and our prime minister and the government is so focused, because more we’re able to create that trust with people, more we’re in results mode, more we will be able to stay strong as a country. Because ultimately what keeps a country stable is trust between people and trust in its leadership and institutions. So that’s why I’m saying to you what you’re doing is actually being part of something that is even bigger than your own company or your own family and your own friends. It’s actually building a country altogether.
Brian Gallant: One thing I can tell you is that you have a room here filled with people that the word commercialization certainly—I know I got from commercialization to democracy. I’m sorry about that.
Minister Joly: No, no, but yeah, but I think both are incredibly important topics.
Brian Gallant: But for what we are doing here in this room, I think commercialization is a theme that came up many times throughout our conference this morning. Have no doubt. And this afternoon, I have no doubt will continue tomorrow. And I think there’s a lot of people here that want to be able to provide capabilities, provide products and services to help Canada with its renewed focus especially on defence and security, but on economic security, sovereignty, and the list goes on. So maybe if you can—I know it’s not finalized, I know it’s not published—but the Defence Industrial Strategy, perhaps you could talk a little bit about what the goals are. Anything you’re able to share at this stage knowing that it’s not released? Because this is a room that’s ready willing and able to help you help the government be able to do what it needs to do.
Minister Joly: For sure. In my speech I mentioned you know the broader version—broader definition of defence, which is really important. That and it’s at the beginning of the Defence Industrial Strategy. But also what is important is we will… the idea is to build to partner, and that build is the general rule. And it is the rule, and buying will be the exception. So when I say build, is build in Canada. And being able to build the right satellites, the right technology for space for our own Canadian Armed Forces. Build the planes here, build the drones here, build the right AI. You know, that’s going to be the goal. We need to be able to be stronger in terms of our own military industrial complex, which we didn’t invest in for the past 40 years. But after the Second World War, we were—Canadian Armed Forces at the time had 2,000 planes and we were the fourth biggest in terms of aerospace—which is not space I gather—but was just after the US, the USSR and UK. Canada had the biggest air fleet.
And so what we need now is to bring back these great industrial projects we had that we decided even either to let go or you know not to invest in more. And why there was a space sector that was developed over time was because the government decided that it was an important industrial project. And what I’m telling you now is we will reinvest in that industrial project. We will make sure that we have much more things for space build here in Canada. And if we don’t—we can’t build it ourselves—we will partner. Partner with other companies and partner with other countries. And when we do that we will make sure that we protect access to IP, that we’re able to not call Paris or Washington or whatever, but we will be able to have an industry about maintenance and repair here at home. And that will create jobs across the country obviously.
And if we can’t do that—and that’s the case for for example the submarines—we will buy. And when we will buy we’ll do two things: we will make sure that there’s a very strong ITB policy where indeed there will be this you know a supply chain linked to that procurement, but we will also be very transactional. To say, “Okay, I’m buying you submarines. You’ll buy some satellites from us.” Because we will go—and I’m going to Korea next week to go to Hanwha, I’ve been to TKMS also in Germany. The Prime Minister has done the two shipyards. But that’s what we’ll do. And it’s yes, about creating jobs in our country and within the supply chain for submarines, but it’s about also saying, “Well, you will buy jets from us.” Are we you know… because that’s how countries are doing it so we should not be naive and we should be doing that. And that’s my job in Cabinet to do that, working obviously with my great colleague the Minister of Defence, Minister [Blair].
Brian Gallant: Thank you very much for all of this. Time is short so I want to ask one last question. You you have in this room the leaders of the Canadian space ecosystem and people that are incredibly interested in helping support it. If there’s something that we can do to help you in your work, to help your government, to help ensure that we are able to overcome the immediate challenges that the country faces and see some of the opportunities, what can we do? What are some of the things that you would like us to do as actions to support your work?
Minister Joly: Well, you know, of course, we’ll continue to trade with the US. They’re an important trade partner and we’ll continue to preserve that relationship but we can’t be naive and we need to make sure that we you know be able to look at other partners which is just the intelligent thing to do. And so I really hope that you take the risk of going more to Europe and developing these relationship. And it’s not in easy task, you may not know the different countries in which you’re going, but you have to develop these relationships because there’s lots of openness to do that there. Same in Asia. Please do that.
And then of course you can, you know, we can help you. We can work with you to make that happen. We can make sure that we’re able to open doors for you. And I’m really really open, Brian. You’re doing a fantastic job as the moderator, as a key representative of the sector as being also the main spokesperson, but if you have ideas you know of trade missions or whatsoever, let’s do that. Because I can’t stress how much it is important for us to be able to develop our own capacities and to be able also to diversify our markets because it’s the only way that we’ll be able to get through the economic turbulence that we may be experiencing because of the trade tensions. And you know uncertainty will be the new certainty. We’ll be in that world and there’s nothing worse than uncertainty when you’re dealing with business. So let me help you. Help me help you. Try to work on having things that DND can procure and at the same time let’s work on new markets together.
Brian Gallant: Message received. So I think I can speak on behalf of this room that we’re incredibly excited to work with you and your government but also that you’re going to chair the newly formed National Space Council which will be set up at any moment here. So ladies and gentlemen, please give her a big round of applause.