In article <Pine.NEB.4.64.0805100145280.12617@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
danny burstein <dannyb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Ottawa boosts MDA's business after blocking space deal
> By David Akin and Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun
> Published: Friday, May 09, 2008
>
> "The federal government on Friday appears set to send more business to
> MacDonald Dettwiler Associates Ltd., of Richmond hours after confirming
it
> was blocking the billion-dollar sale of part of that company to an
> American firm....
>
>
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=7cc46498-f9db-4
> eb0-8944-4e0a62aed40e
> _____________________________________________________
> Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
> dannyb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
I'm very familiar with that story, having covered MacDonald Dettwiler
for a number of years as a re****ter. They own the company that developed
the Canadarm, several generations of which have helped build the space
station. They also operate the world's leading commercial radar
satellite. They operate in a number of other areas, but space robotics
and guidance systems with possible military applications are the
relevant ones.
So. Since 9/11, it has become increasingly difficult for a Canadian
company to get any U.S. government contracts in sensitive areas. Most
projects, MDA is not even allowed to bid on any more. That's why they
put their space division up for sale; it couldn't make money without
being able to bid on U.S. government/military/NASA contracts. By the
same token, it had to be sold to an American company, because no other
non-American company was going to be able to bid either.
A move got going in Ottawa to block the sale because there was hundreds
of millions in Canadian government money in the Radarsat II satellite;
the satellite is used to gather information relevant to the fight over
who owns the Arctic, in which the U.S. looks to be one of Canada's
rivals; and the Canadarm is a significant source of Canadian pride. If
the ruling Conservatives allow the sale, the opposition parties will
make hay for years to come. They've sold out our heritage, and so on.
So the sale was blocked, but the government's advisers will have told
them by now that they're condemning MacDonald Dettwiler's space division
to slow bankruptcy if it ends there. So it looks like for the moment,
they'll ****p more work to the company to keep things on an even keel,
maybe until a better solution comes up.
But so far, all they've done is extend MDA's maintenance contract for
some of the space station robotics. It's not like anyone else could do
that work, since MDA invented, built and helps operate the equipment in
question.
--
bill
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