Industry Minister Mélanie Joly wants to see Finnish multinational Nokia invest more in Canada.
Joly made the desire known in a fireside chat with Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, on Wednesday morning as part of a business forum at Nokia’s Ottawa facility.
“We’re not yet at the golden age of the Canada-Finland relationship … but we can definitely get there.”
Mélanie Joly
The forum, focused on discussing defence, security, and resilience in the Arctic, was also attended by Canadian defence minister David McGuinty and Finnish economic minister Sakari Puisto.
“We want more investment from Nokia in Canada,” Joly said on stage, recounting what she previously told Nokia president and CEO Justin Hotard. “We’re at the forefront of quantum; we could invest even more in having this very strong partnership.”
The fireside chat followed the Finnish president’s first official meetings with Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this week. In addition to practicing hockey together, the duo issued a joint statement on Tuesday outlining the countries’ cooperation in the Arctic, the maritime economy, and defence, all of which Joly and Stubbs discussed.
“We’re not yet at the golden age of the Canada-Finland relationship … but we can definitely get there,” Joly said.
Following the event, Nokia Canada president Jeffrey Maddox told reporters that he’d also like to see his company increase its investments here.
“As the local team, we spend time selling Nokia to Canada [and] we also spend time selling Canada to Nokia,” Maddox said.
He pointed to the company’s $340 million Ottawa facility expansion and said that the “stimulus to the quid pro quo” in the relationship will be Nokia identifying how it can help Canada reach its goal of spending five percent of its GDP on defence.
“As we identify those opportunities, the company is surely going to end up doing more here,” Maddox said.
Nokia’s investment in its Ottawa site expansion wasn’t made in a vacuum, however. The company received $72 million in support from Canadian governments for the project. While Canada’s AI minister Evan Solomon called it “the gold standard” at the November groundbreaking, Canadian tech leaders pushed back, like Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, who called the government’s involvement “toxic,” arguing that it made labour cheaper and accrued wealth for a foreign company instead of Canada.
Still, Solomon and Puisto made their own joint statement on Tuesday, announcing intended collaboration between Finland and Canada on sovereign AI development and adoption.
Canada’s relationship building with Finland is the latest in a string of European partnerships Carney has pursued, including with the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Germany. Stubb even floated that he could see Canada as a member of the European Union earlier this week.
On stage, Stubb likened Canada as the “big sister” to Finland’s “little sister.”
“I think the revelation comes from how similar some of our industrial base is and how much knowledge, know-how, and expertise we all have,” Stubb said, pointing to “synergy” between Canada and Finland in defence, satellites, and quantum computing. “I’m sure when we come out of here, there are going to be a lot of companies that have made deals.”
All images courtesy Alex Riehl for BetaKit.