Vanguard Magazine

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland's position on the matter was that "government contracts are political junk food - superficially appetizing, but unhealthy in the long run." That may be, but if it is coming up in these negotiations, we must ensure we get our fair share. T TECHNOLOGY WaTCH www.vanguardcanada.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017 39 Meanwhile, trade in government procurement between the two countries has been under siege from protectionist measures. The US government has enacted many set aside programs to benefit local interest groups and disadvantaged businesses. And while NAFTA exempted Canada and Mexico from Buy Ameri- can restrictions, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act flowed federal stimulus funds down to states and municipali- ties with the Buy America Act provisions attached. This was essentially a work around the NAFTA commitment and froze Canadian firms out of these projects. It is estimat- ed that US Government procurement is four times larger than Canada's on a per capita basis. This is a gigantic, elephant size market that we are missing out on. There is a lot of spending on the table for Canadians; about $6B in defence and $9B in other sectors per year. While the defence sector has always and continues to be deemed special because of the national security exemption with the World Trade Organization, there is a lot of additional spending in Canada that we could leverage to achieve other ambitious social and economic objectives and to drive further investment in our tech- nologies that apply to either sector. The defence sector as most Vanguard readers know requires local economic benefits, which is managed by Innovation, Sci- ence and Economic Development Canada (ISED). This policy was upgraded in 2014 as a result of the Jenkins report, which I played a small role in. I believe the time is ripe to start talking about driving additional local economic benefits from infrastruc- ture, energy, mining and other sectors in Canada. Government procurement can be a very powerful lever to drive investments in key, Canadian-owned technology. If government procurement is a target of the NAFTA renego- tiations, then we should take the time to ask some of the hard questions, drill into the real country of origin data throughout our supply chains, and use data to drive decisions. I am not a protectionist, I just know that "Government procurements" have always had their own story when it comes to trade, and we have a very real opportunity to level the playing field in these renegotiations. There is too much at stake. In addition, we need to ensure the upcoming NAFTA renego- tiations don't hurt our ability to innovate in the digital economy. For most people, hearing the acronym "NAFTA", usually makes you think about the automotive or other traditional manufactur- ing industrial sectors, but embracing the digital economy will be key for businesses to stay competitive and continue to grow. Only 18 per cent of North America is digitized today, which provides a huge, blue ocean of open opportunities for entrepreneurs on each side of the border and for traditional sectors in Canada to adopt and thrive globally. I am sick of people referring to "tech" as its own sector. Technology is the key to driving innovation and increased DREAMS FUELLED BY QUALITY PASSION AND COMMITMENT CAN COME TRUE MANNARINO is a leader in the development and certication of safety-critical systems & software for the aerospace, defence, simulation, power generation and transportation sectors. Learn more about us at www.mss.ca Vanguard_Ad_Mannarino_august2017_final.pdf 1 2017-08-25 3:45 PM

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