Ottawa opposed to the transaction

The Harper government seems to belong to the arguments of experts who have argued in recent weeks that the possible sale of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates to foreign interests spell the end of the Canadian aerospace industry and could ultimately be detrimental to Canada.

The Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail supports, Thursday, the Federal Minister for Industry, Jim Prentice, wrote to the American group Alliant Techs stems, which offers $ 1.3 billion to acquire MDA, in order to serve the refusal preliminary Ottawa.
To justify its refusal, Minister Prentice will be based on the Investment Canada Act and the work of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology who has studied the issue for several weeks.
It would appear that Ottawa is concerned that the sale of the aerospace subsidiary of MDA does not result in the loss of an advanced technology funded by public money.
Alliant Techsystems, which now has one month to reassure the Canadian government, has clearly hinted at the Globe and Mail that he does not give up.
The sale of MDA to an American arms manufacturer would, in the opinion of many experts, a fatal blow to the future of research in aerospace in Canada since all the experts MDA take the path of the United States.
MDA is the rightful owner of technology Radarsat, a satellite system that allows Ottawa to monitor effectively the Canadian Arctic.Its sale to American interests, according to observers, could drastically reduce Canadian sovereignty in the region.
Indeed, opposition MPs said they fear that Washington, once it became a de facto owner of Radarsat, Canada prohibits the access to data and images from space and can be used to Ottawa in its quarrel with the United States on sovereignty in the Arctic and the delineation of its boundary.
The direction of MDA, it is estimated that the sale to American interests is the only way for it to survive economically in a world where 81% of all contracts space are controlled by the United States.

"From a business, it is certain that this is a good decision;" said a few weeks ago, the co-founder of the company, John MacDonald, in an interview with the newspaper The National Post. Mr. MacDonald, who is no longer associated with MDA since 1998, however that the transaction does sound a blow to the Canadian aerospace industry.
According to John MacDonald, the transaction shares many similarities with the sad saga of the Avro Arrow, in the late 50's.At that time, Ottawa had decided to put an abrupt end to the production of a Canadian military plane very promising to turn to American products less efficient.This decision has decimated the Canadian aerospace industry, and it took years to recover.
MDA was mostly known for being, since the takeover in 1999 of the Ontario Spar Aerospace, the manufacturer of the famous Canadian robotic arm which can be found on the American space shuttle and the International Space Station.