Convened for a third consecutive year, the 2025 Waterloo Security Dialogue (WSD) brought together Canadian cybersecurity leaders and network defenders from various jurisdictions and sectors in the collective pursuit of national cyber resilience. The WSD was started in 2023 to promote the idea that the best defence against cybersecurity threats is a connected and engaged network that collaborates to tackle key challenges.
Hosted in Ottawa, Canada, on October 19–20, 2025, the WSD focused on evolving foundational themes, including clarifying and improving cyberthreat information sharing, expanding Canada’s cybersecurity talent pipeline and building regional cybersecurity communities to strengthen resilience. Through inclusive and incremental improvements in best cybersecurity practices, the WSD aims to build a more secure digital Canada.
The following opening remarks were delivered by the Hon. Ruby Sahota, secretary of state for combatting crime, during the 2025 WSD opening reception.
It’s a pleasure to welcome you to Ottawa and to the 2025 Waterloo Security Dialogue. I’m honoured to be among this impressive gathering of experts, public servants, business leaders, researchers and innovators — all of whom are dedicated to strengthening Canada’s cybersecurity and digital resilience.
Let me begin by thanking Aaron Shull and the amazing team at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Thank you for your vision and leadership in convening this dialogue. CIGI has built a reputation as one of Canada’s foremost independent think tanks — one that brings together evidence, experience and insight to shape governance for the digital age.
Through the Waterloo Security Dialogue, CIGI has created something rare and valuable: a trusted space where public, private, Indigenous and community partners can exchange ideas, challenge assumptions and identify real solutions to Canada’s most complex cybersecurity challenges.
Over the past three years, this dialogue has grown into a national forum for collaboration. It embodies a simple but powerful belief — that cybersecurity is not the responsibility of any one government, company or sector alone. The dialogue’s success reflects its founding principle — that Canada’s cyber resilience depends on the strength of our connections. The connections between institutions, between regions and between people. Every discussion here, every partnership formed and every lesson shared moves us closer to a truly national culture of cybersecurity.
By reducing cyber risk, we are safeguarding jobs, investment and the essential digital infrastructure that underpins our modern economy.
Regional Cyber Hubs and Local Collaboration
One of the most impressive outcomes of this dialogue has been the emergence of regional cyber hubs, like the pilot project now under way in British Columbia.
The idea is simple but transformative: By creating pockets of strength and resilience in communities across the country, we can connect them into a national network — one that supports the most vulnerable organizations, helps small businesses improve their security, and builds a culture of trust and collaboration at the local level.
These hubs are already demonstrating what can happen when we combine technical expertise with community leadership, and when we draw on principles like reciprocity and collective responsibility — values that reflect both Indigenous knowledge and the best of Canadian cooperation.
This is what cybersecurity looks like when it is built by Canadians, for Canadians.
Cybercrime and Canada’s Economy
Cybercrime is not an abstract threat. It affects our hospitals, municipalities, small businesses and schools. In a predominantly digital age, it undermines confidence in our digital economy and diverts resources from innovation and growth to recovery and repair. Last year alone, the global cost of cybercrime exceeded trillions of dollars, and the economic toll in Canada continues to rise.
Protecting Canadians from these harms is therefore not just a matter of security but one of economic prosperity and competitiveness, which is especially important now as Canada enters a new age of economic transformation — an inflection point in the way in which we see our economic opportunity and outlook. By reducing cyber risk, we are safeguarding jobs, investment and the essential digital infrastructure that underpins our modern economy.
Canada’s National Cyber Security Strategy 2025
That is why the Government of Canada released its National Cyber Security Strategy 2025 earlier this year. It’s our most ambitious and inclusive cybersecurity strategy yet.
This new strategy is built on two core principles: whole-of-society engagement and issue-specific action plans. It recognizes that defending Canada in cyberspace requires participation from every part of society — from government and industry to civil society, academia and individuals. A truly Team Canada approach, it calls for partnerships that cross jurisdictions and sectors, and for collaboration that is pragmatic, transparent and focused on outcomes.
The strategy also emphasizes innovation and the harnessing of Canadian research and technology to secure emerging systems such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and critical infrastructure.
My colleague Evan Solomon, minister of AI and digital innovation, is working extremely hard to ensure that the adoption of AI and other digital innovation tools are safe, secure and in the best interest of Canadians and Canadian businesses and institutions. I was extremely pleased to hear from him that Canadian companies are starting to build sovereign AI factories, which will ensure that all computing infrastructure, data processing and operations remain under Canadian control, supporting Canadian businesses, subject to Canadian laws and regulations.
While businesses are stepping up to secure the future of sovereign Canadian AI tech and innovation, as government, we will do our part to ensure the laws and regulations keep up with these ever-evolving times.
Security Is a Shared Responsibility
As we gather this evening, I want to underscore that cybersecurity is no longer a niche policy area or a purely technical discipline. It is a shared national project — one that requires every Canadian to be engaged, informed and empowered.
Everyone in this room, from policy makers to practitioners, from educators to entrepreneurs, is part of that new approach. Together, we are building a Canada that is more secure, more resilient and more confident in the digital age.
So, as we enjoy this evening’s conversation and prepare for the dialogue ahead, let us remember that our collective strength — our partnerships, our diversity, our shared commitment — is Canada’s greatest cybersecurity asset.
Thank you, and I wish you a productive and inspiring dialogue.
