Much of Canada’s data and voice traffic travels through US networks, but US threats against Canadian sovereignty have forced Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to review this vulnerability.

The founder of Norway’s Bulk Infrastructure Group AS says he has a solution, and he’s seeking investors to help make it a reality.

Bulk is looking for a Canadian strategic partner that would take majority ownership of a proposed transatlantic fiber network to connect Europe to Canada, without going through the US.

The project — named the Leif Erikson system after a famous Norse explorer — was included in the information presented to global investors at the Canadian government’s investment summit in Toronto in September. The system would provide “direct, secure, high-capacity data transmission for AI, telecom and hyperscale markets,” according to the summit prospectus.

Only a handful of submarine cables directly connect Canada with the rest of the world without routing through the US, and none belong to a Canada-based entity. Alphabet Inc.’s Google owns the newest submarine fiber-optic cable, called Topaz, connecting Japan and Canada.

“It needs to be a Canadian sovereign cable system,” said Peder Nærbø, Bulk’s founder and executive chair, who’s been working on the idea for more than half a decade.

Carney’s government seems to agree that something needs to be done to better connect the continents. Together with Europe, it will study “the best way to enhance digital links between Europe, Canada and Asia through new subsea cable infrastructure,” according to a joint statement that the European Union and Canada plan to endorse at a summit in Montreal on Oct. 29 and 30.

Over the past 15 years, Bulk has built more than 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) of subsea and terrestrial fiber cables. It also operates data centers. Nærbø’s goal is to “unlock the Nordics’ potential for all the renewable energy to be utilized for digital infrastructure,” he said.

BGO US Real Estate LP, a subsidiary of Canada’s Sun Life Financial Inc., owns a 65% stake in Bulk through two funds. Some Canadian pension plans are invested in the company through BGO.

Leif Erikson would start at the southern tip of Norway, cross 4,600 kilometers through the Atlantic Ocean and land at Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province. It would then pass through Quebec to reach Montreal.

Like Norway, eastern Canada is rich in hydroelectric energy, and cold weather can reduce data centers’ cooling and energy requirements.

“Quebec and Labrador, together with the Nordics, would be a perfect place to run, operate and compute at large scale on behalf of the continents of North America and Europe,” Nærbø said.

He first approached Canadian governments five years ago, but the funding needed was a challenge. Geopolitical tensions make the project more appealing now, and not only for Canada. Europe and Asia rely on routes going through the Red Sea, where ongoing conflicts in the region threaten the security of networks. More subsea infrastructure could be built between Canada and Asia afterward.

“Canada lacks resilience,” Nærbø said. “The game-changer was when the current situation with the US escalated.”In the Middle East, “there’s deliberate sabotage of cables and other types of challenges with shipping, anchoring and so on,” he added.

Vendors have signed on for the Leif Erikson project, but studies backed by the EU and Canada must be done to further plan the route, and customer commitments and financing are still required. Capital expenditures are expected to total more than $620 million.

Canada’s Major Projects Office, which seeks to accelerate large projects, has been in touch with Bulk recently, Nærbø said, as well as government investment vehicles and some of the largest Canadian telecommunications providers.

The project is expected to face challenges along its 1,900-kilometer underground terrestrial route, including permitting, and would need the backing of Indigenous communities in Canada.

Erin O’Toole, a former Canadian politician who’s now the North American head of the risk advisory firm ADIT, said Canada needs “resilient and sovereign connectivity,” and that includes subsea cables and satellite communications. “Subsea connectivity between Canada and Europe should be a key part of growing trade and security collaboration the Prime Minister is proposing with the EU,” he said.

Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly met with Nærbø earlier this year in Norway. Her department declined to comment on the Leif Erikson project, but said in an emailed statement that the security and resilience of Canada’s telecommunications infrastructure are key priorities.

Spokespeople for Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. did not respond to requests for comment. BCE Inc. declined to comment. The three companies are Canada’s largest national telecommunications providers.

Carney told the New York Times last month the country will diversify away from Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet service. The Canadian government awarded Telesat Corp. a C$2.3 billion contract in August to deliver military satellite connectivity in the Arctic.