Procurement event draws $3.2M RRC partnership announcement

Darryl Bauer arrived with open ears and a business plan: aims for Opaskwayak Cree Nation to enter aerospace and defence manufacturing, either through acquisition or partnership.

Paskwayak Business Development Corp.’s economic development director carried the physical plan through an aerospace procurement event Wednesday in Winnipeg. The day-long conference drew all levels of government and industry executives.

“There could be significant long-term benefits,” Bauer said of breaking into the sector. “The government’s committing a lot of financial resources.”

Ottawa released a $6.6-billion defence industrial strategy in February.

On Wednesday, it announced $3.2 million for Manitoba businesses to work with Red River College Polytechnic and partners on production of dual-use items (to be used in military and civilian life).

The province is contributing another $642,000.

Bauer joined the conference attendees eyeing government cash. Opaskwayak Cree Nation — located about a six-hour drive north of Winnipeg — is working with Prairies Economic Development Canada, Bauer said.

“We’re doing a lot of networking today,” he said, pausing inside the Victoria Inn’s convention space. “We’re keeping our minds open.”

The Manitoba First Nation could spend between $10 million and $20 million to enter aerospace and defence manufacturing. It’s building a roughly 24,000-square-foot trades training facility on its reserve, Bauer said.

The $19-million facility will include training resources necessary for aerospace manufacturing, Bauer added. He estimated the site would open in fall 2027.

“What we have to do is create more awareness (of defence sector spending) so First Nations can capitalize and hopefully bring some income equality to their communities,” Bauer said.

OCN owns a mall, gas bar, hotel, casino, apartments and construction companies.

Still, many of its 8,000 members are unemployed, Bauer said. He’s viewing aerospace and defence manufacturing as a long-term economic boon.

More Indigenous manufacturers in the sector are needed, said Jamie Wilson, RRC Polytech’s vice-president of Indigenous strategy, research and business development.

He called Manitoba “perfectly situated” for an increase. In general, a new program for dual-use products will “help level up Winnipeg, Manitoba and our ability to respond to what’s happening in the defence world right now.”

RRC Polytech will run the program with Manitoba Aerospace and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters’ Manitoba chapter.

It’s anticipating 100 companies to flow through the two-year “innovation bridge.” Staff will assist with research and development, cybersecurity training, business assessments and the defence procurement process.

Program leads will talk with the Canadian Armed Forces and relay military needs to program participants, Wilson said.

“To understand the need … and to navigate that procurement at the same time that you’re developing that product is really unique. Usually (businesses) do one or the other,” said Jolen Galaugher, RRC Polytech’s executive director of research partnerships and innovation.

The $3.8-million program is the latest in a series of Manitoba-based aerospace announcements. Last week, the provincial government launched the Manitoba-Canada Defence Alliance to draw federal defence spending and new business.

CFB Winnipeg/17 Wing is set to grow by at least 1,000 personnel over the coming years. StandardAero and Boeing have recently expanded their local footprints.

Cadorath, an aerospace firm, expects to boost its Winnipeg workforce by 30 per cent in the next three years, said Rodney Kucheran, the company’s senior director of business development.

Roughly 100 hires could come as Cadorath increases its Airbus helicopter-servicing capacity.

“The global demand, even commercially, is dramatically growing — never mind the military presence,” Kucheran said. “We’re faced with the challenges of ‘How quickly can we grow?’”

Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson, Waverley MLA David Pankratz and Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham attended the aerospace conference Wednesday. Manitoba Aerospace held the event.

All three politicians touted the aerospace and defence sector’s potential growth. Gillingham called the federal spending a “once-in-several-generations opportunity.”

The program to further dual-use goods production will support small- and medium-sized businesses as they enter the military procurement process, said Pankratz, the province’s special envoy for military affairs. The program could create 90 jobs, a federal news release says.

Paul Soubry heads the Manitoba-Canada Defence Alliance. The group has a list of businesses to contact; it’s following leads a Manitoba delegation got during the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto earlier this week, Soubry said.

The aerospace industry employed at least 5,000 Manitobans last year and added more than $450 million to the province’s GDP, according to Pankratz.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com