The Upcoming 2013 Canadian Aerospace Summit

There's likely not going to be quite so many cozy comments about aerospace "...and space" belonging together as there were from politicians, bureaucrats and Aerospace Industry Association of Canada (AIAC) officials in 2012, but its still worth noting that the 2013 Canadian Aerospace Summit kicks off on Wednesday, October 16th, in Ottawa.

David Emerson. Batting 2 for 3? Photo c/o APFC.

As reported in the September 8th, 2013 post "Emerson Update: Aerospace is Go but Space Still Stalled,"the AIAC has just finished up a year of lobbying for Federal dollars with bankable Harper government promises of a new $110Mln CDN Aerospace Technology Demonstrator Program (ATDP) plus an additional $1Bln CDN over seven years to maintain the ongoing operations of the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI).

Both programs were recommendations from the first volume (focused on the aerospace industry) of the November 2012 Emerson Aerospace Review, an arm's length report mandated by the Government of Canada, led by ex-MP David Emerson and organized with the participation of the AIAC.

But the space industry, the subject of the second volume of the Aerospace Review, hasn't done quite so well.

Recommendations from the second volume to "stabilize" overall Canadian Space Agency (CSA) funding, add an additional $10Mln CDN to the CSA administered Space Technologies Development Program (STDP) and Earth Observation Application Development Program (EOADP) during each of the next three years plus provide ongoing and consistent funding afterwards have, so far at least, not been addressed.

Of course, all that is water under the bridge for at least the next few days.

Speakers booked for the event include former CBC newsman (and current senior strategic adviser for Blue Sky Consulting Group) Don Newman, ex-CSA astronaut (and current adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo) Chris Hadfield, Karen Corkery (the executive director of the industrial technologies office at Industry Canada), Stephan Germain (the CEO of Canadian based satellite chip manufacturer Xiphos Systems Corporation) and Federal Minister of Public Works and Government Services Diane Finley, along with quite a few others.