Thursday, September 10, 2009

Government of Canada Invests in Next–Generation Earth Observation Technology

Toronto, Ontario – September 9, 2009: Bob Dechert, Member of Parliament for Mississauga–Erindale, on behalf of the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today confirmed $200 million in funding for the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI) and announced a $7.6-million repayable investment in support of a research and development (R&D) project being undertaken by PCI Geomatics to develop next-generation earth observation technologies.

"I'm very pleased to confirm our government's commitment to support SADI's budget with $200 million," said Mr. Dechert. "These funds will help Canadian companies build on their existing capabilities, diversify into new areas of expertise and develop new products and services. The SADI repayable investment in PCI Geomatics builds on Canadian expertise in space technologies while helping an innovative company to play a vital role in the growing earth observation market."

The R&D project at PCI Geomatics will involve developing a high-speed computing framework and software suite that will make it possible to process large amounts of raw satellite image data faster and more cost-effectively, with an emphasis on increasing the automation of image processing. The resulting data are essential for decision making in many fields, including environmental monitoring, agriculture, security and intelligence, aerospace and defence, and wide-area surveillance.

SADI supports strategic industrial research and pre-competitive development projects in the aerospace, defence, space and security industries. SADI is managed by the Industrial Technologies Office, a special operating agency of Industry Canada with a mandate to advance leading-edge research and development by Canadian industries.

For further information (media only), please contact: 
Lynn Meahan
Press Secretary
Office of the Honourable Tony Clement
Minister of Industry
613-995-9001

Media Relations
Industry Canada
613-943-2502

PCI Contact
Alysia Vetter
Marketing Manager
Tel: 819-770-0022, Ext. 233
Fax: 819-770-0098
Email: vetter@pcigeomatics.com
Web: http://www.pcigeomatics.com/