Publish Date : 14-May-2019
Through Canadas defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, the Government of Canada is ensuring that our women and men in uniform have the equipment they need to do their jobs and to protect Canadians.
Today, the Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport and Francis Scarpaleggia, Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Louis, on behalf of the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, announced that the Government of Canada has awarded a $39-million contract to Macdonald, Dettwiler and Associates Corporation (MDA) of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, to design, build and deliver 10 search and rescue repeaters for National Defences Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) system.
This contract will help create or maintain 44 jobs over the length of the contract, which will stimulate economic growth in Quebec.
Deployed on a satellite, a repeater detects signals from distress beacons across the country and along Canadas coastlines and relays them to a ground station.
As part of an agreement between National Defence and the United States Air Force (USAF), the Canadian repeaters will be hosted on USAFs next-generation GPS satellites.
The MEOSAR system is expected to deliver improved response times for search and rescue activities and increase accuracy to locate people, ships or planes in distress. It will replace Canadas current search and rescue system, which has been in place for several decades.
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Our Government is committed to providing the Canadian Armed Forces with cutting-edge technology for search and rescue operations to save those in distress in Canada. These repeaters will be designed and built with homegrown Canadian aerospace expertise, supporting our aerospace sector and stimulating economic growth in Quebec.
The Honourable Marc Garneau
Minister of Transport
Through this investment, our government is supporting the Canadian Armed Forces in their important work to help save peoples lives both on land and sea. The contract with MDA will also help sustain economic growth in our community with 44 good middle-class jobs.
Francis Scarpaleggia
Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Louis
This project builds on the successful partnership between National Defence and MDA to develop innovative solutions that are vital to Canadas sovereignty and security. Once qualified as operational, this system will dramatically improve both the speed and location accuracy for detecting beacons, and as a result, greatly enhance the coordination and dispatch of search and rescue teams to help people in distress.
Mike Greenley
Group President of Macdonald, Dettwiler and Associates Corporation
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