By Joe Varner, June 18, 2026
In every era, nations invest in the infrastructure that defines their future. Past generations built railways, ports, highways, airports, and telecommunications networks because they understood that economic prosperity and national security depended upon them.
Today, space is emerging as the next strategic frontier. According to a Royal Bank of Canada report, the sector offers a potential $21 billion windfall for Canada. Satellites underpin modern communications, military operations, navigation systems, weather forecasting, financial transactions, transportation networks, emergency response, and critical infrastructure. Access to space is no longer a luxury reserved for major powers. It is increasingly a prerequisite for economic competitiveness, national resilience, and sovereign decision-making.
That is why Canada’s decision to invest $200 million over ten years to support the development of a space launch facility operated by Nova Scotia’s Maritime Launch Services deserves far greater national attention. For the first time, Canada is taking meaningful steps toward establishing a sovereign launch capability that would allow satellites to be launched from Canadian soil using Canadian infrastructure in support of Canadian national interests.
The federal government’s investment is intended to support the operational requirements of the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Armed Forces, and other federal departments while also providing launch opportunities for allies and partners.
More importantly, it reflects a growing recognition that access to space is becoming a strategic necessity. Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy identifies sovereign space launch capability as a national requirement tied directly to security, prosperity, and autonomy. The significance of this investment begins with national security.
The international security environment has changed dramatically. Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s military modernization, increasing tensions in the Indo-Pacific, the war in the Middle East, and growing competition in the Arctic have reinforced the importance of space as an operational domain alongside land, sea, air, and cyberspace. Modern military operations depend upon satellites for communications, intelligence collection, navigation, surveillance, targeting, and early warning.
Canada currently relies on foreign launch providers to place satellites into orbit. While alliances remain essential, dependence carries risks. Launch schedules, geopolitical tensions, regulatory changes, commercial priorities, or disruptions in global supply chains can all affect access to space. In a crisis, the ability to launch or replace critical satellites quickly could prove decisive.
Major powers like China and Russia have developed systems to disrupt or destroy satellites. Replacing satellites rapidly when something goes wrong is crucial. Reliable and independent launch access would allow Canada to place critical satellites into orbit even during periods of geopolitical tension, supply chain disruption, or uncertainty in foreign launch markets.
A Canadian spaceport would strengthen Canada’s ability to support military operations, maintain secure communications, monitor emerging threats, protect critical infrastructure, and ensure continuity of government operations during crises.
The Arctic illustrates why this matters. As climate change opens new shipping routes and expands access to resources, northern regions are attracting growing international interest. Russia continues to expand its Arctic military infrastructure while China has declared itself a “near-Arctic state” and seeks greater influence in northern affairs. Protecting Canadian sovereignty across vast northern territories requires persistent surveillance and situational awareness. Satellites provide the ability to monitor maritime traffic, detect unauthorized activity, support search and rescue operations, track environmental conditions, and maintain communications across remote regions where conventional infrastructure is limited. Canada must move to protect its Arctic territory or lose its treasured North.
The economic case is equally compelling. The global space economy is expected to reach approximately $2 trillion by 2040. Countries that possess launch infrastructure occupy a privileged position within that economy because they provide something few jurisdictions can offer: direct access to space.
Nova Scotia’s Atlantic location offers a significant competitive advantage, including safe over-ocean launch corridors and access to highly desirable orbital inclinations that only a limited number of launch sites worldwide can support.
Strategically, Nova Scotia occupies a piece of geographic real estate that many countries would envy. The spaceport offers access to one of the widest ranges of orbital inclinations in North America, including Low Earth Orbit (LEO), polar, and Sun-synchronous orbits, the orbital pathways most used for Earth observation, intelligence collection, remote sensing, telecommunications, Arctic surveillance, and national security missions.
For Nova Scotia, the implications are potentially transformative. Launch facilities create economic ecosystems that extend far beyond the launch pad. Aerospace engineers, software developers, advanced manufacturers, logistics providers, cybersecurity firms, telecommunications companies, construction contractors, and research institutions all become part of the supply chain. These are precisely the kinds of high-value, knowledge-based jobs that governments seek to attract and retain.
The benefits extend beyond Nova Scotia. Atlantic Canada already supports more than 200 defence-related firms and 10,000 direct aerospace and defence jobs, representing approximately 20 per cent of Canada’s defence industry employment. The region contributes advanced shipbuilding, aircraft and engine maintenance, sonar and acoustic systems, training and simulation technologies, cyber resilience capabilities, and a wide range of advanced manufacturing expertise. A sovereign launch capability would build upon these strengths while creating new opportunities for Canadian firms to participate in both domestic and international space supply chains.
Importantly, the federal agreement requires that 90 per cent of its $200 million investment be spent in Canada. That means at least $180 million will flow directly into Canadian businesses, workers, suppliers, and research institutions. Rather than exporting economic activity abroad, this investment helps build domestic industrial capacity, strengthen Canadian supply chains, and develop expertise in a sector expected to generate trillions of dollars in economic activity over the coming decades.
The project also carries strategic value for Canada’s allies. NATO members increasingly recognize that future security challenges will require resilient space capabilities. Allied governments are investing heavily in military and dual-use space infrastructure to ensure access to communications, intelligence, navigation, surveillance, and missile warning systems. A Canadian launch facility strengthens Canada’s contribution to collective defence while reinforcing our reputation as a technologically capable and strategically relevant ally. In 2023, the United States Air Force and Space Council was already looking at the potential of a Canadian space launch facility as a benefit to NATO and the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing partnership.
As it stands, Canada spends millions of dollars abroad to carry out its space operations using foreign launch facilities either through SpaceX or the European Space Agency. There is currently a two-year waiting list to get a payload on a rocket for launch, and Canada’s priorities will always take a backseat as long as it depends on other nations to launch its satellites.
Additional launch capacity in Atlantic Canada would provide geographic redundancy, and greater resilience within allied space infrastructure. For NATO planners, this means greater resilience, greater flexibility, and another secure allied location from which critical space capabilities can be launched and sustained during periods of crisis or conflict.
It’s important to also note that this investment builds upon a legacy Canada has already established. In 1962, Canada became the third nation in space with the launch of Alouette 1. Canadian innovation helped pioneer satellite communications, remote sensing technologies, and space robotics. The Canadarm became one of the most recognizable symbols of Canadian ingenuity on the international stage. Indeed, Canada has been a world leader in space robotics. Canada has never been absent from the Space Age, but what has been missing is the ability to launch from Canadian soil.
Critics will focus on the cost, but strategic infrastructure is rarely judged solely on immediate financial returns. Canada did not build the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Trans-Canada Highway, major airports, naval facilities, or telecommunications networks because they generated instant profits. Those investments expanded opportunity, strengthened sovereignty, improved security, and positioned Canada for future growth.
The same logic applies to space. The question is not whether access to space will become increasingly important. It already has. The question is whether Canada intends to remain dependent upon others for access to this critical domain.
Keep in mind, the federal government will not be directly supporting the construction of the launch facilities. Rather, Ottawa has pledged to spend $20 million per year over 10 years to pay for the launches themselves.
The Nova Scotia spaceport represents an opportunity to strengthen Canada’s ability to protect its sovereignty, monitor its Arctic approaches, support its armed forces, contribute to allied security, and participate in a rapidly expanding global industry. It will create high-value jobs, attract investment, strengthen Canadian supply chains, and support innovation across multiple sectors of the economy.
For Nova Scotia, it offers the prospect of becoming Canada’s gateway to space. For Canada, it represents something even more important: a strategic investment in the security, sovereignty, and prosperity of future generations.
Joe Varner is a senior fellow of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and the Center for North American Prosperity and Security in Washington, DC.
