Quantum Power and National Security: Canada’s New Strategic Imperative

Canada's quantum leadership will not be decided in the lab. It will be decided by who can scale, secure, and deploy.

At this Defence Series event, the Empire Club convened Lisa Lambert (CEO, Quantum Industry Canada), Lieutenant-General Darcy Molstad (Commander, Canadian Joint Forces Command), Francesco Bova (Rotman School of Management), and David Roy-Guay (CEO, SBQuantum) to address Canada's quantum imperative at a pivotal moment.

This conversation reveals why quantum matters now. GPS denial in contested environments. Encrypted communications harvested for future decryption. Stealth capabilities eroding under passive quantum sensors. These are present-tense operational vulnerabilities, not distant predictions. Canada's first Defence Industrial Strategy explicitly names quantum as a sovereign capability—but naming isn't enough.

The panel explores how Canada holds structural advantages: one-third of global quantum workforce, second-highest number of quantum companies worldwide, mature research ecosystem. Yet the familiar pattern looms—foundational science and talent developed domestically, then industrial scale and IP captured elsewhere. For quantum, conditions are uniquely aligned to break that pattern, but only if procurement tempo matches technology maturity and government demand pulls industry forward.

From NORAD modernization requiring ultra-precise timing and resilient positioning, to post-quantum cryptography migration protecting critical infrastructure, to dual-use applications extending from submarine detection to mineral exploration—this conversation connects defense imperatives to economic sovereignty.

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