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  August 29, 2019 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  The Sky’s No Limit – Girls Fly Too! event landing in Abbotsford in October

  You're invited to attend the world's largest event to inspire female future leaders in aviation, aerospace, marine and defence, and other high-tech STEM fields. Everyone is welcome and events are always free for all participants to prevent barriers to participation. This is made possible by the generous support of agency, industry, community and education partners. You may be aware that the event has previously been held in March during the week of International Women's Day. For reasons outside of Achieve Anything Foundation's (AAF) control, it had to postpone the 2019 event to Oct. 5-6, coinciding with the week of the Canadian-driven International Day of the Girl. It plans to evaluate the success and feedback from the fall dates, and then evaluate whether this should become a permanent change. The Sky's No Limit – Girls Fly Too! (GF2) is not an air show and the event is not just for “girls”. In fact, it's the world's largest gender diversity outreach event of its kind in aviation, aerospace, marine and defence and everyone is welcome. This is an international, multi-agency event to which the Canadian Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal police forces, local and international search and rescue organizations, first responders, civilian companies, educational institutions, the United States and Canadian Armed Forces are invited to participate and highlight the various aspects of aviation, aerospace, marine and defence. The combined represented assets of these agencies totalled over a billion dollars in 2018. This Canadian signature annual event showcases an unprecedented international partnership towards the improvement of gender and cultural diversity in high-tech STEM fields. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of Canadian and U.S. citizens come to the completely free GF2 event to interact with military/civilian aircraft and tactical assets, hands on activities and interactive displays. Participants and major media representatives are present at the opening ceremony to listen to the leadership from Canada, United States, B.C. and other major government agencies, speaking to the importance of nurturing this international partnership toward improving gender and cultural diversity in high-tech fields. Entering its eighth year, its had over 67,300 in attendance at the GF2 events, with 9,172 girls and women given free first-time helicopter flights. With the successful conclusion of GF2 2019, AAF anticipates surpassing 100,000 participants and achieving 12,000 free flights. https://www.skiesmag.com/press-releases/the-skys-no-limit-girls-fly-too-event-landing-in-abbotsford-in-october/

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  November 2, 2018 | Local, Aerospace

  Canada to accept bids for new fighter jet in May — here are the potential competitors

  By: David Pugliese VICTORIA, British Columbia — Canada expects to accept formal bids for a new fighter jet in May, with the first aircraft delivered by 2025, according to Canadian government procurement officials. A draft bid package for 88 fighters was issued to companies for their feedback by the end of this year, said Pat Finn, assistant deputy minister for materiel at the Department of National Defence. From there, the final bidding instructions for the CA$16 billion (U.S. $12 billion) procurement will be issued and bids required by May 2019, he added. The aircraft will replace Canada's current fleet of CF-18 fighter jets. The aircraft expected to be considered include Lockheed Martin's F-35, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Dassault Rafale, Saab's Gripen and the Boeing Super Hornet. The Canadian government will require a robust package of guaranteed industrial benefits or offsets from the winning bidder, government officials said. But that could be a problem for the F-35, as Canada is still a partner in that program, which does not guarantee participating-nations contracts. Work on the F-35 program is based on best value and price. Canadian industrial participation in the F-35 program has reached $1 billion, as more than 110 Canadian firms have landed contracts related to the aircraft program. Jeff Waring, director general for industrial benefits policy at the federal Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, said the country sees the fighter jet program as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity for the Canadian economy.” But he noted the industrial benefits policy is flexible. “It is a market-driven approach,” he said. “It encourages suppliers to make investments that make sense to them.” The issue of industrial benefits has already been discussed with companies interested in bidding on the project, and those talks will continue as feedback is received on the draft bid package, government officials said. Email: dpugliese@defensenews.com https://www.defensenews.com/global/the-americas/2018/10/30/canada-to-accept-bids-for-new-fighter-jet-in-may-here-are-the-potential-competitors

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  January 16, 2019 | Local, Naval

  Business group wants National Shipbuilding Strategy reopened for Quebec shipyard

  Murray Brewster · CBC News Association puts pressure on Liberals to direct new projects to Davie yard A Quebec-based business association claiming to represent over 1,000 companies inside and outside the province is launching a high-profile campaign to convince the Liberal government to reopen the oft-maligned National Shipbuilding Strategy. The group is demanding the federal government include the Davie shipyard, in Levis, Que., in the policy and plans to make it a major issue in the October federal election. The Association of Davie Shipbuilding Suppliers, which has been around for about a year, represents companies that do business with the shipyard. It plans an online campaign, beginning Thursday, and will lobby chambers of commerce as well as federal and provincial politicians. It is hoping to use its extensive membership and thousands of associated jobs to put pressure on the government in an election year to direct the building of additional coast guard ships exclusively to the Quebec yard, one of the oldest in the country. The shipbuilding strategy, conceived under the previous Conservative government but embraced by the Liberals, has turned into a giant sinkhole for federal cash with little to show for it, Simon Maltais, the association's vice-president, told CBC News. "We can call it a boondoggle," he said. "It has been seven years in the making. At the moment, there is absolutely no operational ship afloat and working for Canada." The Conservatives under former prime minister Stephen Harper chose two shipyards — Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax and Seaspan in Vancouver — as the government's go-to companies for the construction of new warships and civilian vessels. The Davie shipyard was, at the time, emerging from bankruptcy, and under the strategy it only became eligible for repair and refit work on existing vessels and perhaps the construction of smaller vessels. Delays and cost overruns Irving and Seaspan have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in modernizing their yards and have just begun to produce new vessels. The first Arctic offshore patrol ship for the navy is being outfitted in Halifax and others are in various stages of construction. Three offshore fisheries science vessels, constructed in Vancouver for the coast guard, are undergoing repairs after defective welds were discovered last year. The entire program has been beset with delays and rising cost estimates. Last year, Public Services and Procurement Canada refused to release a revised timeline for the delivery of ships from Seaspan, including construction of a heavy icebreaker and the navy's two joint support ships. Politics and shipbuilding Maltais said it makes no sense to keep excluding Davie from full-fledged ship construction work when much of the coast fleet is over three decades old and in dire need of replacement. Refreshing the strategy would insure the federal government gets the ships it needs and Quebec companies "get their fair share" of the program. "We know it's an electoral year and, yes, we want the federal government and the people in the election to talk about it," he said. Maltais clams members of his association have been talking to federal politicians on both sides of the aisle in the province and they support the idea. "They seem to be on the same page as us," he said. Defence analyst Dave Perry, an expert in procurement and the shipbuilding program, said the political campaign has the potential to make the federal government uncomfortable, but he doubts it will achieve the objective of reopening the strategy to add a third shipyard. "That would certainly be a major change in the strategy," he said. "There had been a view of doing something less than that." The proposal being put forward by the association would not take any work from Halifax or Vancouver, but instead direct all new work, on additional icebreakers for example, to the Quebec yard. Just recently, Davie was awarded a contract to convert three civilian icebreakers for coast guard use, but the association argues the need is greater. The federal government did debate an overhaul of the strategy, according to documents obtained and published by CBC News last summer. The size and scope of the "policy refresh" was not made clear in a heavily redacted memo, dated Jan. 23, 2018. So far, nothing has taken place and government officials have insisted they were still committed to the two-yard strategy. During the last election campaign, the Liberals pledged to fix the "broken" procurement system and invest heavily in the navy. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/business-group-wants-national-shipbuilding-strategy-reopened-for-quebec-shipyard-1.4979592