Canada risks losing its quantum head start to risk aversion, Stephanie Simmons warns
‘We’re building the foundation for technologies that will shape the next century,’ says Stephanie Simmons.
/ PHOTONIC PHOTO
When Stephanie Simmons looks at a silicon chip, she sees the future of computing — and the fate of Canada's place in it.
As Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic Inc., the Coquitlam, B.C.-based quantum computing company she co-founded in 2016, Simmons has spent nearly a decade turning a scientific conviction into a commercial enterprise that is now drawing international attention and investment.
“We’re building the foundation for technologies that will shape the next century,” she told Research Money.
Last month, Photonic closed the first tranche of its latest investment round, raising $180 million — a milestone that underscores the growing confidence of global investors in Canada's quantum sector. The company employs more than 150 people with offices in Vancouver, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Photonic's approach to quantum computing is distinctive. Where other companies have attempted to retrofit scientific prototypes into commercial products, Simmons and co-founder Dr. Michael Thewalt, an emeritus professor of physics at Simon Fraser University, designed their system from first principles — built around silicon T centres, which exhibit properties uniquely suited for scalable quantum computing.
Designed from the qubit platform up
“Our approach is unique in that it is designed from the ground up — or the qubit platform up — to create scalable, distributed systems,” Simmons said. “To tap into the promise of quantum computing, you need systems with large numbers of highly connected qubits, and it became clear to me that it was not feasible for those qubits to be constrained to a single box.”
Photonic's system is built on silicon and uses light to link its quantum components — the same way fibre-optic networks carry data. That means it can grow by adding power within a single unit, or by connecting multiple units together, without slowing down. "Instead of trying to re-engineer a scientific prototype into a computer, we're leveraging and adapting existing technology to accelerate the commercialization of the field," Simmons said.
Simmons, who also co-chairs the Quantum Advisory Council that provides advice to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and monitors the progress of the National Quantum Strategy, believes that the quantum opportunity is not just scientific — it is an economic one. It’s one that Canada risks squandering if it does not move faster to commercialize what it has built.
“Canada's greatest advantage in quantum is its head start in quantum research,” she said. “The country has a deep bench of talent, institutions that are world class, and a collaborative ecosystem supporting the development and commercialization of companies that are globally competitive.”
But that lead, she warned, is not permanent. “We need to turn that early lead into a long-term economic impact. That means overcoming a tendency toward risk aversion, especially when it comes to scaling deep tech. If we wait until technologies are ‘proven,’ we risk losing the return on investment and the talent we've trained,” she said.
“I think back to Avro Arrow and Bombardier and Nortel and BlackBerry — I mean, we can do it, and we can keep it if we learn from what structurally seems to be working elsewhere.”
She pointed to the quantum opportunity across multiple industries as evidence of the commercial potential: drug discovery, clean energy, financial services, and national security. In healthcare and chemistry alone, she noted that classical computers cannot fully simulate complex molecules — even something as seemingly simple as caffeine. “Having a tool fit for purpose for the material world opens up the opportunity to produce not just a large language model, but a large chemistry model, or a large physical model, to really understand how the physical world works,” she said in a separate podcast interview with John Stackhouse, host of RBC's Disruptors podcast.
Harvest now, decrypt later
For business leaders, Simmons said quantum computing is not a distant abstraction, and the window to prepare is now. “If you don't do it, your competitors will, and then they'll be able to use it to their advantage in a first-mover sense,” she said.
Beyond productivity gains, Simmons is sounding the alarm on a more urgent challenge: the threat quantum computing poses to today's encryption infrastructure. The concept known as “harvest now, decrypt later” — where adversaries collect encrypted data today, intending to decode it once sufficiently powerful quantum systems exist — means the security risk is not hypothetical. It is already underway, she said on the Disruptors podcast.
Her advice: “Get a quantum transition plan in place. There's a lot of work that now exists that you can leverage. You don't need to start from scratch. Part of that is going to be putting some of the suppliers on notice that you, as an org, need them to be quantum secure.”
In December, the government announced the launch of the first phase of the Canadian Quantum Champions Program (CQCP), investing $92 million “to anchor top Canadian quantum companies and talent at home.” This is part of the $334.3 million investment over five years announced in Budget 2025 to strengthen Canada’s quantum ecosystem.
Photonic received a contract under the program worth up to $23 million.
“Governments around the world have recognized the transformational potential of quantum technologies, and the importance of building sovereign capabilities,” she told Research Money. “That means guiding investment, developing skills, securing supply chains, and anchoring deployment here at home — all of which require coordinated national leadership.”
For Simmons, the broader lesson from Canadian tech history is that invention alone is not enough, she said on The Disruptors. “I think back to Avro Arrow and Bombardier and Nortel and BlackBerry — I mean, we can do it, and we can keep it if we learn from what structurally seems to be working elsewhere,” she said. “I think it's our time to learn the lessons of commercialization … especially if it’s important from a sovereignty perspective to be first and have an actual commercial landing.”
