Canada founders urged to back home team on sovereignty

Toronto's CIX Summit started off with some direct words for founders and startup attendees during a panel on the future of "Redefining Sovereignty."

Craig McLellan, CEO & Founder of ThinkOn, Canada's first VMware Sovereign Cloud Partner, said there's not enough shared support from Canadian investors trickling from scale-ups down to startups.

"If you look around the room, you have each other to blame. You're not buying from each other. You're buying foreign products because it feels easier...When startups scale, and you don't actually support them, they can't get better. And then, by default, we're calling out the software capability, the home team capability," said McLellan. "It's a wake up call for all of us, you've got support the home team."

In conversation with moderator Vass Bednar, Managing Director of Canadian Shield Institute; Kath Intson, CEO of defence tech firm Sentinel Research & Development; and Heling Pu, COO at Quantum Bridge Technologies, with perspectives from independent policy, cloud services, defence, and quantum innovation, the overarching theme landed on fatigue within the ever-present use of "Canadian sovereignty" as a buzzword.

At its core, sovereignty in a technology context refers to a country's ability to control, secure, and sustain its own critical systems, from data infrastructure to defence capabilities. But panellists argued that the term is increasingly being diluted.

"We're defining things that are 'nice-to-have' or simply copies...as being sovereign, and that's not what sovereignty is," said Intson, pointing to a growing "wishy-washy" interpretation, particularly amid rising interest in dual-use technologies that serve both commercial and defence purposes. The risk, she suggested, is that Canada misidentifies priorities at a time when geopolitical realities are becoming less stable.

That instability is central to why sovereignty has re-emerged as a strategic concern. Historically, Canada has operated under the assumption that its security and, by extension, parts of its technological infrastructure could rely on allies, particularly the United States, Intson added. That assumption is now under pressure.

Last year, Canada amped up its sovereignty initiatives, increasing defence spending and investing millions into the Sovereign Canadian Cloud for AI, but many Canadian businesses seem to be struggling to keep their funds and talent within its borders.

Intson said multiple Canadian investment institutions did not invest in or bankroll her company in the early startup stages. So, Sentinel Research & Development went abroad.

"We found our way around. We found other investors who were willing to invest in the space. We knew that Canada would come back once we have proved ourselves outside of Canada. We went to war zones. We found another banking partner. So there were options that we did that probably other startups, it wouldn't be the best plan," she said.

McLennan said true independence is all about the "killswitch." There needs to be domestic capabilities to assume digital control of an organisation. He added that many Canadian firms are moving to hyperscalers in the U.S. and abroad.

If access is revoked, whether due to political, commercial, or security reasons, organisations may find themselves unable to operate. The implication is that sovereignty is not just about ownership but also about resilience: the ability to continue functioning even when disconnected from external systems.

While independent, sovereign capabilities are increasing nationwide, panellists still emphasised that Canada cannot compete across every domain. Instead, it must make deliberate choices about where to build distinct, strategic advantages.