Business and Hi-Tech News

CAM-TAG Ind. Inc. - Manager & Operations

CREDIT: Lynn Ball, The Ottawa Citizen

Maurizio Campagna's firm, CAM-TAG Industries, has 45 employees who produce landing gear assemblies for various aircraft, including the F-18 Hornet.

The Ottawa region's billion-dollar-a-year aerospace industry, overshadowed for years by the fortunes of the telecom sector, wants to develop a stronger network to help win a larger share of the growing defence market.

The aerospace sector in Eastern Ontario is made up of 120 companies and organizations. Now they have formed a distinct chapter of the Ontario Aerospace Council, an industry self-help group.

The companies, which include multinational subsidiaries, employ at least 1,000 skilled people, but the figure might well be higher. With major defence initiatives under way in the United States and Britain especially, area companies are forging closer ties to raise their profile.

"There is a huge amount of business out there and by working together we can get to it," says Dan Beaton, co-ordinator of the council's chapter in Eastern Ontario. "Strengthening the industry improves our ability to do that."

Additionally, the aerospace sector tends to be dominated by major market players, such as Bombardier, which are closely followed by business analysts, adds Mr. Beaton.

"We don't have large firms here with the kind of visibility you have with big companies in Toronto and Montreal," he says. "When you go to Montreal, you can't miss Bombardier's presence at the airport."

Among aerospace firms in the region is EMS Technologies, whose parent is a U.S. corporation. The Ottawa division researches, develops and manufactures high-speed data-communications equipment that delivers e-mail and Internet capability in aircraft. The application crosses into datacom and telecom, says Mr. Beaton, "but the fact that it is found on an aircraft means that it is a lot more expensive and a lot harder to do because you have to reach the satellite from an airplane that is in motion.

"Linking it to the aerospace industry is almost unheard of in Ottawa."

CAM-TAG Industries, an aerospace machine shop with 45 employees producing aircraft landing gear assemblies, is another hidden gem in the region, says Mr. Beaton.

Top goals of the new chapter included getting a piece of the $19-billion U.S. Joint Strike Fighter2 program. The JSF awarded the major contract to Pratt & Whitney, with Lockheed Martin, which are teaming with BAE and Northrup Grumman to produce aircraft for the U.S. air force, navy and marines and, in the U.K., the Royal Air Force and navy.

"Canadian and Eastern Ontario companies can get a piece of that," says Mr. Beaton. "But you just can't knock on any door and ask if they want to buy something. At an absolute minimum you have to have tremendous credentials. You also have to know the program is coming, which portion is being subcontracted, and which door to knock on."

The OAC is not a lobby. Its goals are building corporate relationships, sharing information and expertise on readiness standards, for example, and training programs related to new materials, for example.

The Eastern Ontario Chapter was conceived by Neil MacKay, senior vice-president of EMS and general manager of the SATCOM division. An OAC director, Mr. MacKay says he was flying to Toronto every month and saw the benefits of the council's efforts in Toronto's industry.

"It was exciting to see, but they weren't flowing back to the Eastern Ontario region largely because of the distance," he says. "We need to have creative interest locally so we could pass on some of the benefits to the region here as well."

Ottawa is regarded as a centre for federal government programs or its high-technology industry, he says. "A lot of the high-tech that is happening here is in fact aerospace, but I don't think it is that well known."

Out of High-Technology's Shadow