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30th September 2010

Government of Canada Initiatives to Support Innovation and Trade

CanadaThe Government of Canada has launched a program to help kickstart Canadian businesses by testing their innovative products and services within the Government of Canada before taking them to the marketplace. To make the announcement, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, was joined by Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for the Greater Toronto Area, and the Honourable Rob Moore, Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism.

“There is no question that in Canada we have enormous talent and potential when it comes to innovation,” said Minister Ambrose. “With this new program, our Government will be giving our talent a kickstart in getting their innovative products and services off the ground.”

This program is a new $40 million program announced under Budget 2010 to encourage federal departments and agencies to test innovative products and services in four areas: environment, health, safety and security, and enabling technologies.

“We listened to businesses across the country in developing Canada’s Economic Action Plan, and an important concern was how they could get their product to market in today’s economy,” said Minister Flaherty. “By testing their products and services within government, we are investing in job creation and in the future of Canadian companies that have innovative ideas.”

“Today’s new initiatives are among the important measures introduced by our Government to ensure Canadian small and medium-sized businesses can grow and prosper,” said Minister Moore. “We are proud to encourage Canada’s tremendous entrepreneurial spirit through this new program.”

“The government is recognizing that the gap between innovators’ ideas and the marketplace is simply someone willing to bet on them, willing to take a chance on their product and then willing to give them feedback so that they can grow their business,” said W. Brett Wilson of the Dragon’s Den. “This program is about giving entrepreneurs a chance, and I’m looking forward to watching as it performs over time.”

More information about the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program and Buy-Sell can be viewed online at their respective web sites.

The Canadian Embassy and DFAIT have extended an invitation to developers to a
Canadian Partnering Program at ModSim World 2010. The conference will be held October 12th – 15th at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, Virgina.

The program starts off on Tuesday, Oct 12, at 3:00 pm with an Information Session and Tutorial at Innovation Research Park at Old Dominion University, including a chance to practice your pitch with local companies, and will feature a site visit to see the school’s latest medical modeling and simulation technology.

The program will focus on finding partners for our Canadian participants. The Canadian Embassy will have a meeting room at the Convention Centre for one-on-one meetings, and will help set up meetings in advance for all participants, so get your company profiles in as soon as possible.

Wednesday will include a site visit to NASA’s Langley Research Centre, and all Canadian participants will receive a complimentary pass to the ModSim World VIP reception.

Thursday will feature the Canadian Happy Hour. This invite-only event will allow you to meet with invitees chosen to suit the Canadian attendees, as well as giving each participant the chance to invite conference attendees that they meet during ModSim.

Companies are encouraged to indicate their interest, and provide a company profile as soon as possible. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity! There is no fee for Canadian participants (ModSim World registration not included). If you are interested in participating and would like more information, please contact Daniel Zaharychuk or send your company profile to Assistant Trade Commissioner Stephane Eyer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 30th, 2010 at 10:40 am and is filed under Business News, Events, Government, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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