CANSEC 2016 : A Resounding Success.

OTTAWA – Last Wednesday and Thursday was hold at the EY Center on the outskirts of Ottawa McDonald Cartier International Airport, the 18th edition of CANSEC.

Organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) whose organization represents more than 700 defence and security companies accross the country, CANSEC has enjoyed a tremendous success for a few years as Canada’s premier defence and security show.

From a local event in 1998, CANSEC turned into an international one with many exhibitors coming from abroad.

This year CANSEC covered in 135 000 square feet of exhibition floor, hosted 309 exhibitors and 11 000 registrants.  Sixty two foreign delegations including chiefs of staff and ministers, attended this year against fifty last year and none in 2005.

On the aerospace side, on the show floor were found the booths of Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, CAE, Discovery Air, Field Aerospace, Finmeccanica,  General Electric, KF Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Magellan Aerospace, Marinvent, PAL Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Rolls-Royce, Saab, SAFRAN, Standard Aero, Textron, Thales and Team Rafale, Vector Aerospace, Viking Air,…

Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff as well well as two federal ministers addressed the attendees.

On the first day of the convention, CADSI President Christyn Cianfarani standed by the controversial $15 billion sale of LAV III light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia built in London, Ontario by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada.  This contract should bring or sustain more than new 3000 jobs to Canada, in peticular in Southern Ontario.

She underlined that it is the responsibility of her industry to follow the rules set by the government ‘As an industry association, we certainly don’t take positions on the judicial practices of other nations’. She added that ‘Nor are we responsible for setting the foreign policy of the country’.

She concluded by reiterating that ‘It’s our responsibility to follow the rules, it’s very simple…The industry is heavily, heavily regulated and our job is to follow the rules that are set by the government of Canada’.

Madam Cianfarani unveiled what she called ‘the most detailed and comprehensive study of the Canadian defence industry’. This report titled ‘State of Canada’s Defence Industry 2014’ was prepared by Science, Innovationand Economic Development Canada and Statistic Canada in collaboration with CADSI on behalf of the Canadian Defence Industry.

According to the finding of this annual report presented by Philippe Richer, Director, Research and Analysis, Industrial and Technical Benefits Branch at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, the Canadian defence industry with sales of $10 billion contributed $6.7 billion in GDP and 63,000 jobs to the Canadian economy in 2014. Some 60% of its production is exported up from 50% in 2011 while 30% of its workforce is made of engineers, scientists, researchers, technicians and technologists.

On top of that, defence industry compensation is 60% above the manufacturing sector average.

According to madam Cianfarani, this report confirms that ‘Canada’s defence industry is high wage, export extensive technology rich and pan-Canadian’.

So 17 per cent of total employment is in Atlantic Canada; 24 per cent

is in Quebec; 44 per cent is in Ontario and 15 per cent is in Western & Northern Canada.

The report is available at :

http://www.defenceandsecurity.ca/UserFiles/File/Presentations/StateOfDefenceIndustry/State%20of%20Canada’s%20Defence%20Industry%202014.pdf

On the Wednesday morning breakfast, the guest speaker was Chief of the Defence Staff, General Jonathan Vance.

He reminded his desire is that ‘any policy that we have is to be achievable’ and that ‘Armed forces do what our country wants to do’. General Vance underlined that ‘despite its modest size, the Canadian forces are extremely eficient’ and that ‘Canadian contribution is highly valuable whatever we go’.

According to the Chief of the Defence Staff, Canadian forces are tasked :

To protect and shield Canada’s population and territory during fires, floods ans any other natural disasters ;

To be part of the Continental defence with the United States in the context of NORAD not only as dedicated to aerospace defence but also to maritime surveillance and beyond ;

To assure participation in NATO for peace operations often in hostile environment, humanitarian missions involving also the DART team and in teaching and training foreign armed forces.

According to him, theses missions will occur in an evolving environment where threats will not recede.

On Thursday morning breakfast, it was Honorable Harjit Singh Sajjat, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, turn to address CANSEC.

Sajjan said he has been working with Judy Foote, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, and Navdeep Singh Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, to reform the defence procurement system.

For him, ‘performance-based contracts, where the cost of the program is tied directly into performance, ensuring equipment is mission-ready when needed’ is the path to follow.

While rebuilding the Royal Canadian Navy has garnered much of the government’s attention since it took, he acknowledged that the replacement of McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet fighter jet remains a priority.

Mr. Sajjan acknowledged that the fighters, acquired between 1982 and 1988, have far exceeded their intended 20-year service life and need to be replaced now. ‘It needs to be dealt with quickly. Older planes are more costly and difficult to maintain. They must be taken offline to be refurbished and serviced….The fact that they have not been replaced means we are facing a capability gap in the years ahead’.

The Minister recalled that The Royal Canadian Air Force has managed to meet all of the government’s operational requests and its NORAD commitment, but that ‘we are risk managing a gap between our NORAD and NATO commitments and the number of fighters available for operations’. He added that ‘In the 2020s we can foresee a capability gap. And this I find unacceptable and I do plan to fix’

In a press scrum that followed his address, the Minister refused to put a specific timeline on when a competition might be announced to replace the 77 remaining CF-18 Hornet.

At noon Honorable Judy Foote, Federal Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada spoke to CANSEC attendees.

Her keynote address focused on Royal Canadian Navy frigates replacement ‘the largest, most complex military purchase in the country’s history’ she underlined.

The Ministrer confirmed that the cost of the Canadian Surface Combatant will be kept secret until the signing of a buildcontract. Moreover, the National Shipbuilding Strategy, which was launched almost six years ago with much fanfare will deal exclusively with Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax for the construction of combat ships and Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver for civilian vessels.

Ottawa is not expected to award a design contract until next year. The agreement to build the warships won’t be signed until 2019.

Madam Foote concluded his address by stating that the steps taken to enhance the National Shipbuilding Strategy will likely apply to future aerospace projects like stronger expert oversight; improved capacity within the departments to manage the projects; more accurate approaches to costs; enhanced monitoring and measurement to track project performance; and increased accountability and communication with the public and Parliament Hill.

On a final note, on Thursday morning, between 7:15am and 7:45am, the access to the EY Center parking lot was impeded by protesters demonstrating against the sale to Saudi Arabia of Canadian-built LAV III armoured vehicles.

About 30 activists carrying placards peacefully walked back and forth at the entrance of the parking lot, slowing down the flow of cars. One of them even asked for the termination of Canada’s military sales to Israel.

« »