Dr. Tracey Lauriault’s recent interview, Before It’s Too Late: Canada’s Data Sovereignty Crisis, struck a chord with me. Her message about the risks of losing control over Canada’s geospatial data — and the need to reclaim our digital sovereignty — couldn’t be more timely.

As someone working at the intersection of geospatial education and workforce development, I see these same vulnerabilities every day. And they extend far beyond maps and infrastructure. Health data faces many of the same risks: fragmented systems, foreign hosting, and limited national oversight. When we separate spatial and health datasets, we lose the ability to respond effectively to emergencies, track public health, or secure critical infrastructure.

This issue also exposes a deeper challenge — our tendency toward individualistic data ownership. Treating data as private property rather than a shared national asset fragments our systems and weakens our collective resilience. From telecom infrastructure to hospital networks, the implications of uncoordinated data governance are serious.

Canada needs sovereign, interoperable data centers capable of securely hosting all data — built and governed within Canada, with strong privacy laws and public accountability. Such systems should treat data as part of our critical infrastructure, not just as an IT service.

But as Tracey notes, technology alone won’t solve this. The real foundation of data sovereignty lies in education — in how we prepare the people who will design, manage, and protect Canada’s digital infrastructure.

Education: The Missing Piece of Sovereignty

The question is: how can education — through engineering, geomatics, health informatics, and public-policy programs — equip the next generation to manage and protect Canada’s data responsibly?

I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it: we are bleeding expertise faster than we can rebuild it. And that’s not just a workforce problem — it’s a sovereignty problem. Without people who understand how spatial data is created, validated, and governed, Canada risks outsourcing not only its technology but its competence.

Geomatics isn’t a niche. It’s the invisible framework that underpins everything we build — from transportation and housing to health systems and climate models. Yet most students don’t know these careers exist. Most high-school graduates have never heard of geomatics, even though they use maps and spatial apps every day.

That lack of visibility is part of a larger education crisis. Programs are closing, funding is shrinking, and institutions are losing instructors and field expertise. Post-secondary schools are being asked to do more with less, and without national coordination, each one is trying to survive on its own.

We need to treat geomatics as essential infrastructure within education — something that demands stable investment, not short-term enrolment fixes.

The other part of the crisis is a growing mismatch between what we teach and what the country needs. We’re producing analysts when the real shortage is in the field — crew chiefs, technologists, people who can work hands-on. At SAIT, we are in the planning stages of piloting an apprenticeship-style model to bridge that gap: short hybrid academic terms paired with paid field experience, so students learn by doing and stay in the workforce as they train.

To rebuild sovereignty, we need a national framework that links industry demand with academic pathways, supports models like apprenticeships, and rebuilds awareness from high school upward. Every student who studies climate change, infrastructure, or public health should understand that geospatial data connects them all.

Finally, education has to expand beyond technical training. Students must learn about data ethics, governance, and sovereignty — who owns the data they work with, where it’s stored, and how it fits into the systems that shape public trust and national resilience.

This goes beyond filling jobs. It’s about building the human infrastructure that allows Canada to act independently — to collect, interpret, and govern its own information in the national interest.

Building a Collective Future

When we treat data literacy and geospatial awareness as core skills — not optional extras — we empower Canadians to bridge disciplines and protect the systems that hold the country together.

Education and sovereignty are two sides of the same coin. We can’t build sovereign data systems without the people to sustain them. We can’t sustain them without teaching why they matter.