Calian Group has formed an alliance with six organizations in Atlantic Canada aimed at creating an “end-to-end maritime capability to support Canada’s evolving defence priorities” in the North, the Kanata-based firm says. Besides Calian, the other founding members of the alliance, dubbed the Canadian Arctic Maritime Security Consortium, include: Genoa Design International, a Newfoundland-based company […]
Get Instant Access to This Article
Become an Ottawa Business Journal Insider and get immediate access to all of our Insider-only content and much more.
Calian Group has formed an alliance with six organizations in Atlantic Canada aimed at creating an “end-to-end maritime capability to support Canada's evolving defence priorities” in the North, the Kanata-based firm says.
Besides Calian, the other founding members of the alliance, dubbed the Canadian Arctic Maritime Security Consortium, include:
- Genoa Design International, a Newfoundland-based company that brings “digital ship design, production engineering and design-for-build expertise supporting Canadian and North American shipbuilding programs”;
- Horizon Naval Engineering, another Newfoundland firm that specializes in Indigenous maritime operations, seafarer training and workforce development for northern marine operations;
- Newdock, a firm headquartered in St. John’s, N.L., that provides repair, refitting, maintenance and lifecycle sustainment services for marine and defence vessels;
- PolArctic Canada, a Halifax-based venture that focuses on AI-enabled Arctic sea-ice forecasting, ocean modelling and decision-support tools;
- Arctic Economic Development Corp., an organization headquartered in Halifax that aims to accelerate economic and infrastructure development and security and sovereignty initiatives in Canada’s North; and,
- The Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University in St. John’s, which specializes in marine education, applied research, ocean technology, operational testing and workforce development for Canada's maritime sector.
Calian said the consortium is designed to accelerate the development of Canadian-led defence and security programs that support Arctic sovereignty, maritime surveillance, autonomous systems and other “next-generation defence capabilities.”
The alliance hopes to make Atlantic Canada “a leader in Canada's next generation of Arctic and maritime security,” Calian said. The group plans to create a Canadian Centre of Excellence for Maritime and Arctic Training, which will feature “advanced simulation, operational training, applied research and digital technologies to prepare Canada's future Arctic workforce while supporting the evolving needs of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian Coast Guard and Canada's marine industries,” the company said in a news release earlier this month.
“No single organization can deliver the capability Canada needs on its own,” Chris Pogue, the president of Calian’s defence and space division, said in the release.
“CAMSC brings together expertise across Canada’s maritime ecosystem to help strengthen defence readiness, accelerate sovereign capability and create new opportunities for our Atlantic marine and defence sectors as Canada invests in the next generation of Arctic and maritime security.”
The move comes as Canada ramps up its military spending, with the goal of investing the equivalent of five per cent of the country’s GDP in defence by 2035. Earlier this year, the federal government unveiled a $35-billion plan to upgrade civilian and military infrastructure across the Arctic.
1Valet teams up with B.C. telecom provider
Ottawa prop-tech venture 1Valet has teamed up with B.C.-based telecom provider Beanfield to offer its smart-building services to tenants of multi-residential buildings in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Under the new partnership, residents in buildings served by Beanfield’s wifi network will be able to access 1Valet’s platform, which provides condo and apartment dwellers with features such as keyless entry, remote thermostat control and automatic package delivery alerts.
The software also uses AI facial recognition technology to allow users to unlock doors and lets couriers enter apartment lobbies by scanning a package’s barcode, among other features.
The Ottawa firm says more than 300 developers, owners and property managers across North America now use its platform.
“Residents shouldn't have to think about which app does what, and operators shouldn't have to manage disconnected systems,” 1Valet CEO Demetrios Barnes said in a release. “Our job is to make the experience feel effortless, regardless of who provides the connectivity behind the wall. This partnership with Beanfield strengthens our open ecosystem approach, bringing together connectivity, resident experience and building operations through a single platform.”
CAF to use Telesat’s LEO satellites in Arctic project
Telesat will provide high-speed connectivity for a major Canadian Armed Forces project in the Arctic via the firm’s soon-to-be-launched low-Earth-orbit satellite network.
The Ottawa-based firm said this month its Telesat LEO subsidiary that will operate the new Lightspeed satellite constellation has reached an agreement in principle with Canada’s Defence Investment Agency to deliver secure Military Ka-band connectivity for the CAF’s Enhanced Satellite Communications Project – Polar (ESCP-P) program.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Telesat said it intends to “share more detailed information about the expected financial impact” once the deal is signed.
Telesat said the program will also include end-to-end network integration services, including user terminals, ground and control infrastructure, training and support services.
Dan Goldberg, the firm’s president and CEO, said the agreement “will accelerate access to secure, advanced, resilient and sovereign connectivity while driving meaningful cost efficiencies in program delivery” for the Canadian military.
“Telesat Lightspeed will help strengthen the CAF’s ability to maintain persistent communications, operational awareness and mission success across the strategically vital Arctic domain,” he added in a news release.
Telesat said the US$3.5-billion Lightspeed network is on track to begin serving customers in the first quarter of 2028. The company aims to have 156 LEO satellites circling the Earth once the program ramps up.
Thermal Energy inks record order tally in fiscal 2026
Ottawa cleantech company Thermal Energy International booked a record $29.9 million worth of new orders in fiscal 2026, a 27 per cent increase over the previous year, the firm says.
In a letter to shareholders last week, Thermal Energy president and CEO William Crossland said the surge in orders during the fiscal year ending May 31 was fuelled by “strong demand across multiple industries,” including pharmaceuticals, food and beverage and building materials.
Crossland said customer response to the company’s streamlined turnkey HeatSponge products that capture and recycle energy from boiler plants and steam operations has been “very positive.”
Thermal Energy’s turnkey offerings will allow the firm to “pursue larger, more strategic HeatSponge opportunities on a quicker, more repeatable basis,” Crossland added, noting the firm booked $5 million in HeatSponge project orders in fiscal 2026, including two projects with a multinational building materials company and three with a global nutrition company.
Crossland also said the firm is building a network of independent representatives who will handle smaller equipment sales so its internal sales team can focus on “larger, more strategic opportunities” in North America and beyond.
“We see significant opportunity to expand HeatSponge into Europe, an attractive and largely untapped market,” he said. “Our initial approach is straightforward: our U.S. facility will supply components for assembly and testing in Europe, with the intention of shifting to contract manufacturing in Europe as volumes grow. Establishing local manufacturing should shorten lead times and improve cost competitiveness.”
Thermal Energy recorded revenues of $9.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, a 62 per cent increase over the previous year. The company has not released its full-year 2026 financial results.
The firm, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange, has engineering offices in Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Bristol, U.K., as well as sales offices in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Poland and Italy.
C-Com Satellite Systems reports drop in first-half revenues
C-Com Satellite Systems says its revenue for the first half of fiscal 2026 was $1.7 million, a decrease of about half a million dollars compared with the same period a year earlier.
In a news release earlier this month, the Ottawa-based firm said demand for its legacy antenna systems “continued to be affected by supply chain delays, market uncertainty related to U.S. tariff actions and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.”
The firm, which specializes in mobile auto-deploying satellite antennas, posted a net loss of $822,000 for the six-month period ending May 31.
Still, C-Com president and CEO Lesley Klein said the firm’s balance sheet “remains one of the strongest” in its industry, adding it will “continue investing aggressively in technologies that we believe will transform the company over the coming years.
“While current geopolitical events and trade uncertainties have affected demand for our traditional products, they have not changed our long-term strategy or our confidence in the opportunities ahead,” Klein said.
The CEO said new products now in development such as electronically steerable antennas “represent a significant technological leap” for C-Com and will allow it to tap into “the rapidly expanding multi-orbit satellite communications market."
C-Com, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange, says it has sold more than 11,000 antenna systems in 100-plus countries.