Edmonton Firms Garner Federal Support for Defence Technology Innovation

Canada has unveiled more than $6 million for two Alberta-based companies.

Eleanor Olszewski, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, says the investments align with Canada’s first Defence Industrial Strategy, which seeks to boost domestic manufacturing, strengthen supply chains, and create jobs.

“By investing in Alberta’s defence manufacturing capacity, we are expanding made-in-Canada production, strengthening our national industrial base, and ensuring the Canadian Armed Forces can rely on high-quality, domestically produced equipment when it matters most,” stated Olszewksi.

The Canadian defence industry contributes $10 billion to the gross domestic product and supports 81,000 jobs, according to the minister.

Olszewksi says the financial support hails from the Regional Defence Investment Initiative, which launched to accelerate the integration of smaller enterprises and regional ecosystems into major defence supply chains.

Edmonton’s Logican Technologies received a repayable investment of $1.5M from PrairiesCan to expand advanced manufacturing capabilities for defence tech, including sonar and sensors used to detect and track submarines, in order to support the readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces and NATO partners.

The investment will also enable Logican to adopt automated manufacturing technologies.

“For over 30 years our organization has provided critical electronics to our Royal Canadian Navy and NATO allies to protect and monitor our sovereign and arctic waters,” commented Jason Pincock, Chief Operating Officer of Logican. “This investment in technology and jobs will support not only our existing defence projects, but our broader defence ecosystem as a whole by enabling Logican to provide secure domestic manufacturing of critical electronics for our Canadian Military and Canadian defence contractors.”

Zero Point Cryogenics, meanwhile, garnered $5M to commercialize sub-kelvin cryogenics required for defence prototypes and mission critical systems to meet domestic defence needs in quantum sensing, computing, and communications.

Chris Cassin, Chief Executive Officer of Zero Point, says the Canadian innovator is “one of only six global manufacturers of sub-kelvin cryogenics.”

Zero Point Cryogenics, Cassin posits, “is transforming the Prairies into a global epicentre for quantum hardware and research.”

Logician was founded in 1994. Zero Point launched in 2017.