Space Canada
Credit: Space Canada.

Fresh from their founding in 2022 and their first conference in Ottawa in October, Canadian space-sector industry group Space Canada is coming into 2023 with a variety of new members and renewed focus.

In an email exchange with SpaceQ, Space Canada CEO Brian Gallant discussed the group’s year, and what they’re looking to in 2023. 

Founded for Space Advocacy

Space Canada is an industry lobbying organization, much like the ones that represent established Canadian business groups like retailers, energy companies, or even other tech firms (like John Ruffalo and Jim Balsillie’s Council of Canadian Innovators).

That industry needed strong governmental relations support, since most space firms (including Canadian ones) rely strongly on government support in one way or another. As Canada has a much less developed angel investment and venture capital infrastructure than the United States, many tech startups in the space rely on grants and awards from programs like NRC-IRAP and the CSA’s Space Technology Development Program to have enough runway to get their technology developed, polish their pitch to potential clients and investors, and get their company off the ground. 

Even when they do successfully start the business, the reality is that space firms worldwide often still rely heavily on government contracts for everything from communications, to space launch, to Earth observation. The private market is larger than it has ever been, and is growing every year. Nevertheless, managing government relations is still critical to the health of any country’s space sector.

It makes sense, then, that it was former New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant that stepped up and help establish Space Canada to fulfill that role, especially considering his previous work establishing a cybersecurity hub in the province during his time as Premier. In his comments to SpaceQ, Gallant said that there was a “strong base to work with,” as companies in the growing Canadian space sector “contribute billions of dollars in GDP and thousands of high-paying jobs to the Canadian economy every year.” 

So Space Canada brought together nine founding members, including both large Canadian space companies like MDA and up-and-comers like Maritime Launch Services, and founded the organization in March of 2022 to advocate on behalf of that sector. 

The other founding members were Calian, GHGSat, Magellan Aerospace, Mission Control Space Services, NorthStar Earth & Space, SpaceBridge and Telesat.

2022 Membership Drive and Conference

Soon after, Gallant said, they began the all-too-familiar process of organizational scale-up. After their establishment in March, they began “a membership drive in the spring that ended in the summer of last year.” After the drive, they hosted their first conference in Ottawa in October, the SpaceBound Conference, which was attended by (and covered by) SpaceQ’s Marc Boucher and James Careless. Boucher said that the conference’s Day on the Hill was “very well attended,” with Space Canada telling him that the event was sold out.  

For his part, Gallant said that the conference had “hundreds of participants,” including “60 thought leaders in the industry,” and that feedback was “overwhelmingly positive.” Boucher noted at the time that a wide variety of Government and Parliamentary figures attended. Attendees included prominent Liberals, like Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne; prominent Conservatives like former CPC leader Erin O’Toole; and NDP MPs like South Okanagan—West Kootenay’s Richard Cannings. 

So even though Gallant is a former Liberal Premier, his organization’s conference was attended by a variety of major national party representatives, showing the cross-partisan (and nation-wide) interest in the space sector.

Space Canada’s Membership Rises

Gallant and his staff couldn’t provide information on when individual members joined, so it’s difficult to sort out whether members joined due to the spring-summer membership drive, the fall conference, or somewhere in between. Nevertheless, Gallant said that the organization has now grown to 50 members, including “global private sector companies, academic institutions, not-for-profit organizations, and cutting-edge tech start-ups,” who all “share a vision in which Canada and the international community prioritize space to overcome economic, social, and environmental challenges.” 

Gallant emphasized that these were not all big companies like MDA, saying “over 75% of Space Canada’s members [are] organizations with fewer than 100 employees,” and that “there is a helpful diversity of perspective within the organization”. 

Gallant shared some perspectives from some of Space Canada’s post-founding members: EarthDaily Analytics and SkyWatch. 

Wade Larson, Senior VP of Business Development at EarthDaily Analytics, said that “Canada’s small but dynamic space industry has always punched above its weight in terms of both technological innovation and exports, but it hasn’t always been particularly well organized as an industry.” He went on to say that Space Canada was addressing that issue, “bringing greater cohesion and coordination” to the Canadian space sector, and that “it’s a vision and mission that we at EarthDaily Analytics strongly support.”

Meanwhile, SkyWatch CEO James Slifierz made a similar point, saying that they “need to partner with like-minded organizations who are helping raise the profile of the power of space-based data,” and that they’re “thrilled to join Space Canada and work with other businesses, academic institutions, and NGOs to continue to advocate for the importance of access to Earth observation data, and strengthen the Canadian space ecosystem overall.”

Space Canada in 2023: Lobbying for the Space Council

When asked about their goals for 2023, Gallant said that they were planning on continuing their “momentum” from 2022. He was proud of their first year, saying that “a lot of work went into launching and operationalizing the organization, forging relationships with key stakeholders such as the federal government, recruiting organizations to join Space Canada, and organizing a successful first annual conference.”

In 2023, he looks forward to continuing those activities, as well as “focusing our efforts as an organization on promoting the Canadian space sector with key partners, enhancing collaboration within the Canadian space sector,” and “advocating that the federal government further prioritize space.”

He specifically highlighted that they would be redoubling their efforts to create a Canadian “National Space Council.” In the United States, the National Space Council is “the White House policy council responsible for ensuring the United States capitalizes on the rich opportunities presented by [the] nation’s space activities.” Chaired by Vice President Harris, it “synchronizes the nation’s civil, commercial, and national security space activities to advance the broader priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration.” 

Gallant maintains that a Canadian National Space Council would “strengthen governance, coordination, and oversight of Canada’s national civil, defence, and commercial space policies and investments while enabling a whole-of-government approach.” 

A similar Council exists in the United Kingdom, chaired by the Prime Minister.

Space Canada wants to recreate the same synchronization in Canada; their launch release says that Space Canada “strongly encourages the federal government to create a National Space Council akin to what the United States and United Kingdom currently have to guide their space policies and investments.” 

Current Member List

The current membership of Space Canada, as passed along by Gallant and his team, includes the following organizations. Links are included to either SpaceQ coverage of the organization where available—or to their websites, again where available. 

Craig started writing for SpaceQ in 2017 as their space culture reporter, shifting to Canadian business and startup reporting in 2019. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists, and has a Master's Degree in International Security from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. He lives in Toronto.

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