A decorated Canadian Armed Forces officer, police officer, elected member of parliament and minister of defence, Harjit Sajjan has spent his career in public service roles where he believed he could make a difference.
“I know people with amazing ideas, but they don’t have the right investment to take their idea to the prototype stage. At the prototype stage, they don’t have the ability to take it to the manufacturing stage. So guess what happens? Another company from outside the country comes and snatches ‘em up.”
Harjit Sajjan
Juno Industries
Now, Sajjan is reporting for duty once again as a defence-tech entrepreneur with Vancouver-based Juno Industries. Juno, which recently secured $12 million in commitments as part of plans to list publicly on the TSX via reverse takeover, wants to be a defence prime for Canada and Sajjan talks on the podcast about the company’s plans to be a sort of innovation hub for defence: building, partnering, or buying technology based upon government needs.
Based on his work history, Sajjan obviously has a large network and a lot of experience to leverage, so we also got his thoughts on the current state of procurement for defence tech, the new Defence Industrial Strategy, and the state of play for Canada overall in this uncertain moment. We also talk about Canada’s increased spending commitments, and Sajjan has a unique perspective on that as well based upon his time in government that I’ll let him share.
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It’s not often you get a chance to speak with someone who has both been in the field and in the room where it happened, so pay close attention to why Harjit thinks Canadian talent and capacity are so important
So, Harjit Sajjan is once again reporting for duty. What comes next?
Let’s dig in.
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The BetaKit Podcast is presented by the Solve for X Podcast: Innovations to change the world.
Solve for X is back! The latest season of the MaRS podcast is exploring more world-changing ideas. Join journalist Manjula Selvarajah as she talks to the people behind the latest innovations in tech and science.
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Recorded and edited by Toronto Podcasts.