Ottawa, February 14, 2014 – “Today’s announcement at the General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada plant in London, Ont., of a major contract award shows what is possible with a focused, coordinated industry-government collaboration behind sales of world-class Canadian manufactured products,” said Tim Page, president of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI). “On behalf of more than 1,000 member organizations in the sector, I’d like to extend congratulations to GDLS and to Minister Fast for this important achievement.”

“This is yet another example of the global competitiveness of Canada’s defence industrial base,” said Page. “It supports and builds on a domestic industrial supply chain that helps hundreds of companies prosper in every region of the country. This contract is good for Canada’s auto sector and for the further entrenchment of the greater London area as a centre of excellence in armoured land vehicles. CADSI is helping member firms to double exports over 5 years, from $6.4B a year in 2011 to more than $12B a year by 2016.  The contract announced by GDLS today will have a major impact on achieving that goal.”

“A tremendous outcome like this is the result of a number of interconnected elements coming together,” said Mike Greenley, CADSI Chair, and Chair of the Defence and Security Advisory Board to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. “The foundation, of course, is for a Canadian firm to manufacture a product in a key industrial capability that is globally competitive. Proven ‘home market success’ is a necessary condition, and to that foundation, we now have a government strategy that clearly establishes ‘defence and security’ as a priority sector for support in what is essentially a managed government-to-government market. This is an excellent early indicator of what can be accomplished here in Canada, and strong motivation moving forward, to apply this systematic export-focused approach to a broader range of defence and security products and services,” said Greenley.