The Asia Policy journal October 2024 issue is available and it includes a roundtable discussion titled Asia’s Space Ambitions: Driving the Next Chapter in Global Space Competition. Within this 90 page roundtable is a contribution by Brian Gallant and Jordan Miller on Canada.
The issue is timely as the Canadian government has been putting more emphasis on the Asian Pacific region including releasing its Indo-Pacific Strategy on Sep. 3, 2024 and its Indo-Pacific engagement and priorities on Oct. 10, 2024.
The Asian Pacific region includes “four major space powers,” those being the United States, China, Japan and India. Canada is considered a “middle power” along with South Korea, Australia, and Singapore.
Readers of SpaceQ will be familiar with Brian Galant as the CEO of Space Canada and the former premier of New Brunswick. Readers might not be aware that he is also a board member of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Readers of SpaceQ might be less familiar with Jordan Miller. He is Director, Brand Strategy & Government Relations at the Calian Group and Vice-Chair, Public Policy and Advocacy Committee at Space Canada. He is also a a Ph.D. candidate at the Royal Military College.
In their contribution, Canada’s Next Frontier: Connecting Commercial Capabilities to a National Strategy, Gallant and Miller discuss many of the issues readers of SpaceQ are familiar with including pushing the narrative of Space Canada. However, it’s likely that many readers of the Asia Policy journal are less familiar with Canada’s space program and its trajectory.
Some of the highlights from their contribution include how Canada ranks compared to other space nations. They say, “Canada ranks twelfth globally at roughly $540 million, with significant potential for growth. If Canada were to increase its share of the space economy to match its proportion of the global economy — a quite reasonable goal — the country’s share of the global space economy could be worth up to $40 billion by the year 2040.” This comes from a report Deloitte published early this year called Reaching Beyond: A $40 Billion Canadian Space Economy by 2040.
Further into the contribution we get to one of the key messages, and it relates to Canada’s commercial space sector and the government.
“Missing from Canada’s vision is a meaningful role for the commercial space sector. Most of the innovation for space is currently being driven by companies providing commercial capabilities. This is not an argument for less civil or defense investment. Instead, the salient point is how Canada’s current strategic vision and policies could be bolstered by finding a meaningful role for the commercial space sector, including in supporting civil and defense programs with dual-use and dual-purpose technologies.”
And this is shortly followed up with the “challenge” ahead for the newly formed National Space Council. Before we get to “challenge,” a reminder that the National Space Council is a “multi-level governance structure of Ministers and senior government officials (Assistant Deputy Ministers/Vice Presidents and Deputy Heads) comprised of members from over 20 departments and agencies.” And that the National Space Council will have an Assistant Deputy (AD) Ministers’ Committee that will be co-chaired by the Canadian Space Agency and National Defense. The AD Ministers’ Committee will report to the “Deputy Heads’ table” and there will be an annual meeting of Ministers. A key component to this structure is that the AD Ministers’ Committee is co-chaired by the Canadian Space Agency and National Defense. According to people familiar with the Council from industry that SpaceQ has spoken to, there is some displeasure that the Council is co-chaired by the Canadian Space Agency and National Defense, an added buffer between industry and the top layer of the Council.
And now to the challenge Gallant and Miller bring up.
“The challenge now is to connect the commitment for the National Space Council to a national strategic vision that includes the industrial base in a meaningful way.” And they go on from there to add that, “Many of Canada’s allies and partners have already connected their civil, defense, and commercial sectors together through strategic policy documents, underlining how commercial sector capabilities will support a broader vision. Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all done this though strategic policy documents and frameworks for space. For Canada to get the most out of its National Space Council and space industrial base, a comprehensive strategic vision that includes the commercial sector— and focuses on the commercialization of new space capabilities across sectors — is required.”
For a limited time, the Asia Policy journal roundtable discussion can be downloaded for free.
