Research consortium closing its Winnipeg operation
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/06/2016 (3607 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TRTech is closing its Winnipeg research operation at the end of the week, at least partly because of the slumping resource sector in Western Canada.
TRTech, which billed itself as Canada’s largest information and communication technology research and innovation consortium, has been around since 1986. It began with labs in Edmonton and Calgary and initially was focused exclusively on the telecommunications sector. It grew to two more locations in Saskatchewan before the Winnipeg lab was set up. Research in Winnipeg expanded into cyber-security and e-health.
Although Winnipeg was the final location to join the consortium, it was also the last one to close. The consensus is that of the three provincial operations, Winnipeg had arguably developed the most effective linkages with academia and business.
Harvey Kaita, the vice-president for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, praised the support TRTech received from the provincial government and the private sector here, who effectively split the funding of the $1-million annual operation 50/50.
“In Manitoba, it has been great,” Kaita said. “I can’t say the same in Saskatchewan and Alberta. We have struggled there for the last couple of years. It has had an impact on the Manitoba operations.”
Manitoba’s five-year, $2.6-million funding commitment ended March 31.
The two Saskatchewan labs closed a couple of years ago. Federal funding through the Western Economic Diversification program ended, then Alberta provincial funding also dried up. The labs there closed several weeks ago.
“We struggled raising funds out there,” Kaita said. “We’ve had a really good track record in Manitoba. The provincial government has been very helpful, industry has been very receptive. We had a strong book of business, and financially we were very viable. Unfortunately, we were part of a larger organization.”
Digvir Jayas, a TRTech board member and the University of Manitoba’s vice-president (research and international), said, “TRTech in Manitoba was very successful supporting growth and solving problems for many small and medium-sized clients. It’s very unfortunate it has come to this.”
Kaita said the ex-Winnipeg staff have all found work in the private sector or at the U of M.
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca