TORONTO — The Liberal government plans to act swiftly to head off the threat of losing quantum computing companies to the U.S. as Washington goes hunting for cutting-edge technology and talent, AI Minister Evan Solomon told The Logic.

“We need to guard, keep and grow our domestic and sovereign quantum [sector], and we will be taking steps to do that,” Solomon said in an interview on Monday, suggesting an announcement will come “sooner than you think.”

In November, the federal Quantum Advisory Council recommended that Ottawa commit $2 billion to boost the field in Canada and help retain promising firms. That would include the launch of a $1-billion program to match the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) blockbuster Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).

The QBI requires participating quantum computing companies to prove that their technology can produce a machine capable of solving real-world industrial problems by 2033. In April, DARPA announced it had picked 18 companies for the program’s first phase, including three Canadian firms: Sherbrooke, Que.-based Nord Quantique, Vancouver-based Photonic and Toronto-based Xanadu. 

Companies that make it through all three stages of the QBI could receive up to US$316 million. In a letter to then-innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne, the advisory council warned that later-stage QBI contract terms could force winners to move to the U.S.

On Monday, Solomon did not say whether the new Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney will implement the group’s recommendations specifically. But he said that Ottawa is concerned about the QBI’s effect on the Canadian quantum sector. “This competition is more than just about who’s the best,” Solomon said, calling the program a “strategic threat to a strategic asset for us.” 

Tech firms are pursuing several different approaches to quantum computing, so potential investors and customers can find it difficult to decide which to back or buy from. DARPA’s program sets out to do that due diligence for them by analyzing the developers’ scientific advances and R&D plans. Solomon expressed concern that Canadian firms’ IP could be shared during that process in a way that “leaves us at a competitive disadvantage.”

In addition to DARPA funding, the state of Illinois has committed US$300 million for a campus to attract firms participating in QBI. Combined, that’s enough to tempt the boards of Canadian quantum computing companies “to do exactly what we’re trying to avoid, which is [to] have them be bought [and] have them move,” Solomon said. 

Other countries are also circling. France has launched a €1.8 billion ($2.87 billion) quantum plan, while the U.K. has committed £2.85 billion ($5.3 billion) through 2033. 

Canada has a “leadership position” in the field because researchers here have made and commercialized breakthroughs in the technology, Solomon said. Renewing Canada’s quantum strategy is among the newly appointed minister’s short-term priorities. Ottawa will act quickly to ensure that DARPA “does not end up lifting our quantum industry out, loading it on their container ship and sailing it south,” he said.

The Liberals under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau already rolled out a $360-million plan for the field, first announced in the April 2021 budget, which included new research grants and cash for commercialization. Ottawa has also provided financing to individual quantum computing firms.

Solomon spoke to The Logic shortly before he attended the opening of Xanadu’s new $10-million chip packaging line. The late-stage manufacturing process adds connectivity and protective material to processors. Xanadu outfitted the lab in part through a $40 million award from the federal Strategic Innovation Fund. 

The firm will now process chips for its light-based quantum computer in-house. Xanadu is also in discussions to sell packaging services to other chipmakers, said CEO Christian Weedbrook. Its specialized manufacturing process ensures processors lose very little information as they work, making it a good fit for firms selling hardware for drones or data centres. 

“We want to expand” and “keep this sovereign in Canada,” Weedrook said during a tour with Solomon of the line, which is housed in the basement of Xanadu’s office building, between the storeroom for a Dollarama and the bakery of a Farm Boy grocery store.