Calian CEO Patrick Houston at the company's Ottawa offices on Monday.Keito Newman/The Globe and Mail
Canadian defence company Calian Group Ltd. CGY-T is leading a $100-million investment, alongside government and other industry members, to build a network of labs across the country where military and industry can work together on the technologies needed to stay connected while operating in harsh Arctic environments.
The investment is being orchestrated by the 44-year-old company’s newly created arm, Calian Ventures, which was established to help Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) scale up and sell to the Canadian Armed Forces, and eventually, abroad.
Each lab will focus on bringing many of Calian’s SME partners together with the Armed Forces to work on the development of C5ISRT, or Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting. Essentially, C5ISRT is the framework that helps ensure everything used on the battlefield, from sensors to drones to ships, can talk to each other, allowing for faster and more well-informed decision-making.
Calian launches venture to help smaller Canadian defence companies scale
Patrick Houston, chief executive officer at Ottawa-based Calian, said C5ISRT is the next generation of the commonly used C4ISR – with the addition of cyber and targeting – and will be a key capability for Canadian Forces operating in the North.
“You’ve heard a lot about securing the Arctic, whether that’s new ships, submarines or bases, but all of this has to get connected together. There’s going to be thousands of new assets, sensors, drones, and satellites, to monitor and secure that, and the point of this is trying to bring it all together,” he said.
Calian’s decision to focus its new initiative on building C5ISRT capabilities comes from a desire to have the technology be something that’s built in Canada, Mr. Houston said.
“Maybe in a prior moment in time we would have relied on non-Canadian companies to do a lot of this, but I think in the time we’re in today, it’s an opportunity to do something different,” he said.
A chinook helicopter lands during the Canadian Armed Forces's annual Arctic training and sovereignty operation, in Inuvik, NWT. on March 1, 2025.COLE BURSTON/AFP/Getty Images
The $100-million investment will be shared across Calian, private investors, and federal and provincial governments. Mr. Houston said the company is already in talks with local governments about locations for the first labs in its network, and Canada’s East Coast, as well as Ottawa, are emerging as likely candidates. Mr. Houston said discussions to establish a lab in the North are also under way.
In November, the federal government announced a $29.4-million investment to establish its first Defence Innovation Secure Hub in Halifax, where industry, academia and government can collaborate on ocean technologies. Defence Minister David McGuinty said the centres, which will eventually exist all over the country, will be key for classified research and development to take place in Canada.
Calian’s network of labs will be complementary to these hubs and unique, owing to their focus on C5ISRT, Mr. Houston said. Often, he said the Armed Forces will show interest in a company’s technology but then face challenges procuring it because it’s not interoperable with their existing systems. The aim of these labs is to bring everything under one roof so it’s interoperable, scalable and rapidly deployable when a customer needs it, Mr. Houston said.
“To go from a solution to the customer actually using it, that’s always been a challenge in defence, and specifically in Canada. The speed of innovation from an idea to getting it in the hands of the soldier has been very long and it’s been difficult for companies to scale up because of that. This tries to solve some of that,” he said.
In some cases, Calian will glean a financial benefit from the procurements made as a result of the work being done in its labs, if the contract is with one of its partner SMEs and makes use of the company’s own C5ISRT systems. Other times, the company will only play the role of orchestrator but then may be able to use the resulting technologies as part of the training it does for the Canadian Forces, Mr. Houston said.
“It’s bringing our technology, it’s bringing our capital, as well as relationships and industry knowledge, to put all of this together and make something Canadian.”