During a visit to Australia last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney made it clear that Canada is looking to break its dependence on foreign tech, specifically pointing to a made-in-Canada satellite network as a must-have for national security.
While Carney was vague and didn’t drop the name in his speech to the Australian parliament, his office has since confirmed to Global News that he was talking about Telesat Lightspeed. This multibillion-dollar project is being pitched as Canada’s sovereign answer to SpaceX’s Starlink, which currently dominates the global market.
“Satellite communications are now a fundamental requirement for security and strategic autonomy,” Carney told Australian lawmakers. He didn’t pull any punches, alluding to past instances where Musk restricted Starlink access during the war in Ukraine.
While Musk was criticized for refusing to extend Starlink coverage to support a Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian fleet in Crimea in 2022, he recently collaborated with Kyiv in February 2026 to implement a “whitelist” that successfully blocked the Russian military from using unauthorized terminals.
Starlink is currently a heavy hitter in Canada and globally, ranking as our sixth-largest internet provider. It has been a lifesaver for rural and Indigenous communities, many of which still rely on Canada Post to mail hard drives to move large amounts of data. But Starlink has changed that for many researchers in the Arctic.
Telesat Lightspeed will fly its satellites at a higher altitude of 1,300 kilometres to offer more coverage per satellite. Starlink satellites orbit at around 480 kilometres, offering lower latency that allows for video streaming and online gaming.
While Telesat is based in Ottawa, its major investors are not Canadian. New York-based firm MHR Fund Management currently owns about 36.2% of Telesat on a fully exchanged and converted basis.
As of today, Starlink has over 10,000 satellites in orbit, a milestone reached on the weekend. Telesat Lightspeed has zero operational satellites. It plans to launch it first batch of satellites ironically on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket later in 2026. MDA Space has a new Montreal factory that that plans to build up to 400 satellites per year in early 2027. Telesat previously said it expects to have at least 156 satellites in orbit by 2027, which is required to start its global commercial satellite service (it will sold to enterprise resellers and not directly to consumers like Starlink).
The federal government recently elevated space to a Sovereign Capability in its new defence strategy. On top of the $2.14 billion taxpayer loan already given to Telesat (and taking a 10% stake in the company; don’t forget Quebec loaned $400 million), the feds signed a separate $5 billion deal with Telesat and MDA Space in December, to build out military communications for the Canadian Armed Forces in the Arctic.
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By 2027, Starlink will likely have V2 and more direct-to-cell satellites. It will be challenging for Telesat to compete.
No way on earth would I consider a service with triple the latency! Starlink is already barely acceptable