Ontario-Québec cooperation essential for economic development in Canada

As the severity of the global financial crisis plays itself out, Canada won't go unscathed. But it is good to know that our two manufacturing juggernauts, provincial rivals Québec and Ontario, are working together in a spirit of cooperation these days.

The provinces need to work closer on joint economic development, according to Raymond Bachand, Québec Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade and Minister of Tourism.

Speaking at a recent conference at the Canadian Club of Toronto, Bachand noted that two provinces have good reason to share resources "because Ontario and Québec have a combined GDP of over $880 billion."

He added that they also have more than $70 billion worth of interprovincial trade annually. "Because Ontario and Québec are Canada's two major economies and that almost 2/3 of the population lives there. Together, they generate close to 58% of the Canadian GDP and over 55% of all interprovincial exports."

"Ontario and Québec constitute a manufacturing sector that shares the same reality, and similar challenges where we are both called upon to make important changes," said Bachand. He provided a list to illustrate that the interdependence of the regions is already considerable:

• Bombardier: 12,000 employees in Québec, 4200 in Ontario.
• CGI: 9000 employees in Québec, 5300 in Ontario.
• Spectra Premium in Boucherville supplies parts to automobile manufacturers in Ontario.
• Bridgestone/Firestone manufactures components in Woodstock that are used in the production of tires in Joliette.
• Hydro-Québec is building a new major transmission line to increase the availability of clean electricity for Ontario.

"If we break down the barriers that interfere with trade between our territories, we will reinforce our economies, our businesses and will prosper together."

Bachand pointed out that negotiations in the form of joint meetings were well under way to deal with the historic barriers that exist between the two provinces.

Eight sectorial forums of experts are already set up to cover the following concerns, including these areas: labour mobility, energy, financial services, transportation, agriculture and food products, rules and regulations, and, economic cooperation.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions has also been under discusson, with an industrial carbon credits system proposed. "Cabinets have (also) discussed a ... project of a high-speed train between Québec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Windsor, an ambitious and greatly anticipated project that will contribute to the strengthening of our economies and also contributing to improving the environment," said Bachand.

Mike Edwards, Editor, DPN Magazine medwards@clbmedia.ca
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USEFUL SITES + NEWS

Data acquisition. National Instruments has updated its NI support site to strealine support for hundreds of products. It includes Standard Service Program member access to the "Ask an Engineer" online utility (ni.com/support).

Reverse engineering. NVision has expanded its Contract Service Division to meet higher volumes of non-contact reverse engineering and inspection work (nvision3d.com).

Industrial automation e-learning. Three new educational modules (SCCR, HART and dc drive control) have joined WAGO Corp.'s online E-learning suite at www.wago.us. Professionals can select from nine free E-learning modules to keep current on industrial technologies and products. WAGO training manager Marc Immordino (right) presents industrial issues and highlights key technologies.

CAD history. Cyon Research Corp. has announced the free PDF download (cadhistory.net) release of The Engineering Design Revolution – The People, Companies and Computer Systems That Changed Forever the Practice of Engineering, David E. Weisberg's new book on the history of the computer-aided design (CAD) industry.
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                    UPCOMING EVENTS

November 10-14, 2008. Burlington, ON. Bosch Rexroth Canada presents training course Principles of Hydraulics (boschrexroth.ca/training).

November 18, 2008. Toronto. CAN - CANopen - SAE J1939 Seminar Series presented by esd electronics, Inc. (canseminar.com).

November 18-20, 2008. Mississauga, ON. Festo presents training course P111: Introduction to Pneumatics. Contact June Davies, Didactic coordinator (june.davies@ca.festo.com).

November 24-25, 2008. Burlington, ON. Bosch Rexroth Canada presents training course IndraDrive Single Axis Servo (boschrexroth.ca/training).

December 2-4, 2008. Mississauga, ON. Festo presents training course EP211: Introduction to Electropneumatics. Contact June Davies, Didactic coordinator (june.davies@ca.festo.com).

December 2-5, 2008. Las Vegas. Autodesk University Annual User Conference and Exhibition presented by Autodesk, developers of Inventor, AutoCAD and AliasStudio software (http://au.autodesk.com/).

February 8-11, 2009. Orlando, FL. SolidWorks World 2009 International User Conference & Exposition (solidworks.com).

May 5-7, 2009. Toronto. PACKEX Toronto 2009 exhibition presented by the Packaging Association of Canada (packextoronto.com).

June 22-26, 2009. Chicago. NPE2009, a triennial event sponsored by The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (npe.org).
 

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