The federal government is investing in a new program to help Canadian

defence

and dual-use technology

startups

develop, refine and sell their products in the country and beyond as Canada accelerates its biggest military buildup in decades.

Toronto-based startup accelerator Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) will receive $7 million from Ottawa for its newly launched CDL Defence program, which will help early stage ventures move from research to commercialization, navigate government procurement processes and link them with buyers, including the Canadian Armed Forces and North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

The program will also be supported by the Department of National Defence and the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.

“Canadian innovators are developing technologies that are essential to our national security and our future economic prosperity,” Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon said in a statement on Thursday. “Today’s investment in Creative Destruction Lab supports the development of sovereign technologies to meet Canada’s defence needs.”

Sonia Sennik, chief executive of CDL, said Ottawa’s investment is a recognition that commercializing research is critical to Canada’s technology leadership and economic resilience.

Ottawa has allocated $82 billion to its recently

released

defence industrial strategy to boost Canada’s security and economy through increasing defence exports, awarding more federal government contracts to domestic suppliers and shoring up sovereign supply chains in critical areas such as drones and aerospace.

New defence and dual-use tech startups and venture funds have launched in recent months. For example, Canada’s biggest space technology company, MDA Space Ltd., last week

launched

a new, defence-focused subsidiary that has its eye on “multi-billion-dollar contracts.” Former national defence minister Harjit Sajjan in January

announced

a new startup, Juno Industries Inc., that will develop military and civilian technologies for the Arctic.

Provinces from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island have also made their own bids to tap into the new defence funds, setting up panels and securing advisers to identify opportunities for local businesses.

  • Opinion: Carney’s defence industrial strategy is a huge step forward, but there are vulnerabilities that must be patched up
  • These are the TSX stocks that could be winners from Mark Carney’s defence industrial strategy

• Email: ylau@postmedia.com