Manitoba aerospace gets $10M

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2018 (2547 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal government is pledging $10 million for Manitoba’s aerospace sector, the Free Press has learned.

It’s the Trudeau government’s first major announcement for the aerospace sector after compensating the industry for allowing Air Canada to transfer high-paying Winnipeg jobs abroad.

In Winnipeg today, federal Industry Minister Navdeep Bains will reveal an anticipated 70 jobs in the province, with half the funding bound for Magellan Aerospace.

Magellan will receive $5 million to beef up its design and production in Manitoba. The firm is part of a global supply chain involved with construction of F-35 fighter jets.

Ottawa is contributing $3.4 million to the Composites Innovation Centre. Of that cash, $1.6 million will allow the engineering non-profit to design and administer a new fund for small and medium-sized aerospace businesses within the province.

The rest of Composites’ funding — $1.8 million — will go to developing a program through Red River College’s Smart Factory to develop composite products and processes.

West Canitest R&D Inc., also known as WestCaRD, will receive $1.6 million to expand its growing General Electric engine testing centre at Richardson International Airport.

Manitoba’s aerospace industry has faced turbulence since the Liberals took office in 2015.

In June 2016, the federal government passed Bill C-10, which removed a requirement for Air Canada to retain high-paying heavy maintenance jobs in Winnipeg, Montreal and Mississauga, Ont.

Roughly 2,600 people lost their jobs, including 400 in Winnipeg, when the airline’s maintenance subsidiary went bankrupt in 2012. Air Canada moved the work abroad, prompting successful lawsuits from the Quebec and Manitoba governments.

The contentious legislation ordered Air Canada to keep jobs in the three affected provinces, but didn’t specify the type of job or salary scale. That effectively scuttled the provinces’ chance of seeking a Supreme Court order to restore the jobs.

Ottawa ended up offering $20 million for Manitoba aerospace after Tory Sen. Don Plett and others opposed Bill C-10. Half of that money went to the Smart Factory program, and it’s unclear whether today’s announced $5 million falls under the remaining $10-million pledge.

There were further questions raised about Manitoba aerospace in November 2016, when the Liberals announced they’d buy 18 Super Hornets — upgraded versions of the outdated CF-18 fighter jets — while delaying the purchase of F-35 fighters.

Premier Brian Pallister feared that would jeopardize Magellan’s contracts for the F-35 project, until Ottawa assured him those contracts were safe. The company’s Winnipeg branch is the largest Canadian contributor to the F-35 project, producing horizontal tail assemblies for Lockheed Martin.

In February 2017, Ottawa extended Winnipeg maintenance contracts for search-and-rescue aircraft.

Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Air Force will soon review its current pilot-training arrangement, which is split between CFB Moose Jaw and the Southport facility in Portage la Prairie, which replaced the local base and has 350 employees.

Ottawa has stressed it will have a fair, competitive process, after the Free Press reported last spring that the force’s outgoing chief voiced a preference for consolidating that program in Saskatchewan.

Provincial officials confirmed the Growth, Enterprise and Trade Department helped the federal Western Economic Diversification department to select the recipients of today’s funding.

Bains will hold a “fireside chat” at 11:30 a.m. at the Fairmont with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, before announcing the funding at noon outside the Composites building on Commerce Drive, accompanied by St. James MLA Scott Johnston.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca