Nano2Sol by Marc Boucher

On March 5th the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology held a hearing chaired by Mr. James Rajotte, member for parliament form Edmonton-Leduc. Witnesses included Mr. Marc Garneau former President, Canadian Space Agency, Mr. Steven Staples, Chair, Rideau Institute on International Affairs, Mr. Michael Byers, Professor, Canada Research Chair (Tierne) in Global Politics and International Law, University of
British Columbia, Mr. Hugh Thompson (Spacecraft systems engineer, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.

The attached PDF provides their statements and answers to questions posed by members of the committee.

Here is an excerpt from Mr Steven Staples:

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Citing a lack of “net benefit” to Canada it appears, according to the Globe and Mail, that the Canadian Government has rejected the sale of MDA to ATK, for now. And while this is a move I agree with as stated in my earlier posting, I am a little surprised. The Canadian government has never rejected a takeover since the Investment Canada Act went into affect in 1989.

So what does this mean for the deal? Well, Industry Minister Jim Prentice has given ATK 30 days to make its case that the deal should go through. I don’t think they can make a case that it would be a “net benefit” for Canada. Radarsat2 is a national security space asset that Canadians paid for and should remain in Canada’s control. And while there are jobs at stake, perhaps this case has shown the government that investing in space is important to Canada’s interests and that they should try to revive an industry that has been neglected for some time.

It’s been almost two months since Alliant Techsystems (ATK) announced they would acquire MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) space division. In that span there’s been a lot of discussion in Ottawa about the ramifications of the deal and in particular the access to data from Radarsat2 which was just launched this past December 14th.

There’s even been talk of having the federal government not approving the deal and just yesterday the NDP, one of the opposition parties in parliament, threatened to seek legal action to stop the deal.

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A day after the MDA deal to sell its space division to ATK we learn that the Canadian Space Agency president Laurier Boisvert resigned in December and was replaced on January 1st by Guy Bujold, an assistant deputy minister at Industry Canada.

The Canadian Press is reporting that Mr. Boisvert may have left because of the pending MDA deal.

“He was officially replaced by Bujold this past Jan. 1, but the resignation was communicated to CSA staff on Dec. 20.

There has been speculation Boisvert may have quit over the planned sale of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.,a Vancouver-based company known as MDA, to Alliant Techsystems (NYSE:ATK) of Minneapolis.”

Even if this was the case which in itself begs for more questions to be asked, why are we only learning of this now?

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Yesterday’s acquisition of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) is bad for Canada for so many reasons. It’s reminiscent of when Avro Canada closed down and most of their talent headed to the US and were instrumental in helping them with the Apollo program. While MDA is not shutting down operations in Canada it should be asked what the long term viability is for them in Canada. After all the Canadian dollar is stronger than the US dollar and the Canadian government seems indifferent to sustaining a space sector made in Canada.

MDA is the leading space company in Canada. Best known for the Canadarm which it acquired from another Canadian company, Spar Aerospace in 1999, MDA has led the way in Canada for the space commercialization sector. It’s also known for its satellite systems which included the recently launched Radarsat-2. Their planetary robotics division had been growing and the Canadian Space Agency had been hoping that it would be a key contributor to the European Space Agencies ExoMars rover by having Canada build the rover through MDA. Even if the government had changed its mind and approved this plan it seems unlikely to do so now that MDA would be under foreign control.

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