Madam Chair, thank you very much.
Honourable members of the standing committee, thank you for letting me present today.
My name is Kimberley Van Vliet. I am the director of aviation, aerospace and logistics for Invest Alberta. I am also the founder and CEO of WaVv and ConvergX, a strategic consulting company and a global congress that focus on technology transfers across multiple industries, including the aerospace industry.
Today, I am honoured to present to you as the director of aerospace for the Alberta Aviation Council, a catalyst for industry growth and the voice of aviation interests in Alberta. You have heard that the aerospace sector is an umbrella industry. It's an engine that powers economic growth and investment we desperately need for middle-class jobs in communities across Canada to build back better.
We have a unique opportunity. There lies before us a nation-building opportunity on an order of magnitude of the Trans-Canada Highway. The opportunity is the creation of the Canadian centre of excellence for aerospace and aviation research and training, CCEAART, which will attract foreign direct investment to link sustainable and responsible northern development; accelerate Canada’s Arctic sovereignty; and grow Canada’s middle class through advanced manufacturing jobs and training for indigenous peoples, youth and women. This opportunity will also provide job transition and export development opportunities to Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
We have the perfect storm. As Arctic tanker traffic increases and global forces transcend upon the Arctic with repeated nation-state incursions into Canadian waters and airspace, the challenges facing Canada’s Arctic sovereignty are increasing exponentially.
We are also facing post-pandemic economic recovery challenges, with job and business losses never experienced before. Some of our hardest-hit communities are women. RBC reported that women who have lost their jobs during the pandemic will experience increased joblessness for longer than their male counterparts, and this is amplified in indigenous communities.
The economic impacts of COVID and the mounting pressures to tackle climate change are putting tremendous pressures on our industries and added pressure on Canada’s aviation and aerospace industry. Yet, in adversity, there is always opportunity to develop future workforces, put Canadians back to work and develop industries with jobs of tomorrow. There are countless technologies awaiting development that have yet to be imagined, markets waiting to be explored, and Canadians who are ready to build back better.
We have the vision. The CCEAART is a set of shovel-ready, finance-ready projects in Alberta. The Alberta Aviation Council is a supporter of this initiative, which was created by many devoted people, communities and organizations.
The main campus of this centre would be an innovation hub in the Edmonton area, where companies converge to develop new aviation, aerospace and defence technologies with a focus on space and unmanned systems. The centre, a supercluster of development, would accelerate new unmanned system platforms, materials science, propulsion systems, fuels research and ground systems. Canada and Alberta, with our highly skilled and technical workforce, could lead global use of nanotechnologies, AI, and advanced computing in aerospace.
This centre would also be a nexus of aerospace and aviation education for under-represented groups and provide access to Alberta’s world-leading engineering and business talent at a critical time for an area of the country that has been hardest hit by sectoral downturns and a global health pandemic.
Augmenting the campus, the centre would also manage an air corridor—the largest on earth—for research and testing of unmanned systems with continuous beyond visual line of sight operations, from southern Alberta all the way to the Arctic.
The centre’s programs would help to fund and accelerate Alberta’s Arctic gateway infrastructure, and would leverage Alberta’s research institutions that specialize in space systems, ethical fuels, hydrogen fuels, computing science and advanced materials—materials that are critical to the global, low-carbon energy transformation.
Alberta, with its unique position, is home to the Alaska Highway, a critical jumping-off point to the United States, and to its waterways to Hudson Bay. With Edmonton being one of the world’s most northern metropolises, it has the population and infrastructure needed to support northern development.
The centre would also support Canada’s Arctic sovereignty programs, by linking Alberta’s four military bases and the centre’s massive flight corridor, to accelerate development and testing of unmanned Arctic surveillance platforms. All this means jobs for Canadians and technologies that can be exported around the world.
We have policy asks. Alberta can't do it alone. Alberta has made aviation and aerospace a strategic pillar, backed by new initiatives like the new Invest Alberta Corporation, and the newly created Strategic Aviation Advisory Council, which are intended to aid an initiative like this.
An initiative like this requires collaboration from every level of government, including Ottawa. Federally, there are policies that may inhibit the types of FDI needed to develop the centre of excellence.
The SR and ED program eliminated capital expenditures. This has adversely affected advanced manufacturing industries like the automotive and aerospace industries. An aerospace company exporting its products around the world needs capital expenditures. We would like to see these expenditures reinstated.
The industrial and technological benefits policy could be improved to better incentivize foreign direct investments into small Canadian companies.
An aerospace industry, focused, indigenous benefits program is critical.
We need policies but also funding. We need federal leadership. We need you.
In conclusion, the Alberta Aviation Council is proud to present this Canadian nation-building opportunity, the Canadian centre of excellence for aerospace and aviation research and training.
This centre would leverage Alberta's unique assets. The benefits would reach well into the north, helping to advance reconciliation by developing our northern economies and communities responsibly and collaboratively with indigenous communities. Investments today ensure Canadian leadership tomorrow will benefit across our borders and beyond, providing a sustainable and secure future across Canada.
Thank you very much.