Today, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the launch of Canada’s National Quantum Strategy.
This $360 million research strategy will amplify Canada’s existing global leadership in quantum research and grow Canada’s quantum technologies, companies and talent.
The National Quantum Strategy will “support a resilient economy by strengthening our research, businesses and talent, giving Canada a competitive advantage for decades to come,” said the Minister in today’s press release.
The new strategy focuses in three areas:
- Computing hardware and software – to make Canada a world leader in the continued development, deployment and use of these technologies
- Communications – to equip Canada with a national secure quantum communications network and post-quantum cryptography capabilities
- Sensors – to support Canadian developers and early adopters of new quantum sensing technologies
The government expects quantum technologies to be a $139 billion industry in Canada and account for more than 200,000 jobs.
This builds on an existing area of strength for Canada, which consistently ranks in the top five globally for quantum research and technology. Even before this announcement, Canada led all G7 nations in per capita spending on quantum research.
Since 2012, the Government of Canada has invested more than $1 billion in quantum research and commercialization.
Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announces the launch of Canada’s National Quantum Strategy from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo.
Continuing the quantum revolution in Waterloo
It’s no mistake that the Canadian government chose Waterloo as the launching point for the national strategy.
Known as “Quantum Valley,” Waterloo is a world-leader in the development of quantum technologies, including quantum computing, communication, security and sensing. The presence of world-class quantum theory, experimentation and commercialization centres within a 3km/2mi radius makes our community unique on the world stage.
Perimeter Institute, which hosted the announcement, is the world’s largest independent theoretical physics research centre. Created by BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis, Perimeter is home to world leaders in quantum information and quantum condensed matter.
The Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo – also helped along with funding from Mike Lazaridis – is one of the world’s preeminent centres for quantum experimentation and commercialization. Altogether, Waterloo has more than 250 researchers specializing in quantum.
Download our Quantum Ecosystem Map to see the strength of our quantum ecosystem or contact us to learn more about how you can become a part of it.