Federal government announces more than $17.2M for quantum projects in Ont.

WATERLOO — Bardish Chagger, Member of Parliament for Waterloo; along with Bryan May, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Small Business and to the Minister responsible for FedDev Ontario, announced an investment of over $17.2 million through the Regional Quantum Initiative. With this support, 12 companies within southern Ontario’s quantum sector will advance and commercialize their quantum products and solutions for domestic and global markets, and support up to 150 jobs. This investment is an important step in advancing the Government of Canada’s National Quantum Strategy.

Parliamentary Secretary May and MP Chagger made the announcement at Waterloo-based High Q Technologies Inc. (High Q), where they were joined by Valerie Bradford, Member of Parliament for Kitchener South–Hespeler, and Tim Louis, Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Conestoga. High Q is a women-led life sciences technology company that uses quantum-enabled systems to solve complex problems in protein dynamics, including shortening the timeline to discover new drugs that will help Canadians. As part of this investment, High Q is receiving an investment of up to $3.75-million to support product enhancements to launch their technology into the biopharmaceutical market. These improvements will support their transition from academic use to adoption by biopharmaceutical companies, aiding the process of discovering new forms of medicine.

This investment includes support for Toronto-based GoodLabs Studio Inc., an advanced software engineering company that focuses on machine-learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technology to solve real-world problems in the health and finance sectors. The company is receiving a contribution of nearly $845,000 to further develop a quantum payment optimizer that works to reduce time and security risks related to the transfer of large payments between financial institutions.

A number of other companies received support as well.

“Southern Ontario is well-positioned for quantum breakthroughs because we are home to world-leading research centres and high-potential quantum companies, like the ones we are celebrating today. Businesses in this sector are creating incredible technologies and our government is providing support so they can bring them to market faster, advancing Canada’s role as a world leader in quantum technologies,” said Filomena Tassi, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.