Years of federal bureaucratic delay may cost the North millions of dollars in investment in an emerging high-tech industry.

A Norwegian company has been waiting since 2016 for Ottawa to grant an operating licence for a satellite ground receiving station in Inuvik, N.W.T. The delay has limited services the company can provide to increasingly restive clients and its partner is considering moving.

鈥淲e鈥檙e quite frustrated with the pace of the Canadian bureaucracy,鈥� said Rolf Skatteboe, president of Norway-based Kongsberg Satellite Services, or KSAT.

Inuvik, on the N.W.T.鈥檚 northern tip, is considered a prime location for receiving stations for earth observation satellites. The first station was built there in the mid-2000s by the federal government for RADARSAT, its own earth observation satellite.

Since then, such satellites have become privatized. A 2017 industry report estimated global revenues from earth observation satellites at $100 billion a year, growing at 11 per cent.

Inuvik got into the game in 2015, when KSAT came to town.

KSAT had won a contract from the European Space Agency to receive data from Sentinel satellites, the agency鈥檚 premier environmental monitoring program. The company needed receiving stations to complement its installations in Norway鈥檚 Svalbard area.

鈥淲e looked for a place in Alaska, but since we knew there was ongoing activity in Inuvik, we decided to support the satellite business there,鈥� Skatteboe said.

鈥淚t also was part of our decision that Canada was an associate member of the European Space Agency, so we thought it was a good match.鈥�

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KSAT 鈥� with partner Planet based in California 鈥� has seven satellite-reading antennas in Inuvik and plans for three more, for a total investment of $50 million.

For reasons including national security, satellite receiving stations must be federally licenced under the Remote Sensing Space Systems Act.

But a report from the McGill Institute of Air and Space Law says that legislation, written when only governments launched satellites, has become outdated.

鈥淭his industry is really evolving very quickly,鈥� said Aram Kerkonian, who helped write the report. 鈥淭he commercialization of space is the direction we鈥檙e headed now.鈥�

The act is too restrictive, says the report. It recommends licences be streamlined for ground stations that receive data and send it out untouched. It also says Global Affairs Canada staff on the file are severely under-resourced.

鈥淲e spoke with the regulators and it was their position that the resources just weren鈥檛 there,鈥� Kerkonian said.

Despite interventions from the Norwegian ambassador and pleas to Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, the licences still aren鈥檛 there.

The government is doing its best, said an email from spokeswoman Amy Mills.

鈥淲e are aware that this is an important issue both to the company and to the local community, and we work to complete the review process as quickly as possible.鈥�

The company, which can鈥檛 operate its antennas without licences, is losing patience.

鈥淓urope is losing data from its flagship series of satellites,鈥� Skatteboe said. 鈥漋aluable data is just being lost.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had stations in 21 countries around the world and we鈥檝e never seen anything like this before.鈥�

The head of Planet has suggested his company may just move elsewhere.

Tom Zubko, who owns the company that maintains and operates the receiving station, said the industry keeps six people on the payroll in a city that has seen little economic activity since energy exploration ended. Construction would add more jobs, he said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of put a big stop to potential developments,鈥� Zubko said. 鈥滻t鈥檚 very difficult for us now, as a business, to go to other space-based satellite companies and convince them Canada is a good place to put facilities.鈥�

Kerkonian agreed.

鈥淭he long-term consequences are that companies that want to do really great and innovative things go to other jurisdictions where it鈥檚 clear how they鈥檙e allowed to do things and they get their licences on time.鈥�

Skatteboe鈥檚 shaking head is almost audible over the phone line from Norway.

鈥淲e underestimated the Canadian bureaucracy.鈥�

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Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

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