OTTAWA - Building the next generation of radar satellites is "absolutely'' the goal of an American arms-maker that wants to buy Canada's newly launched Radarsat 2, company officials told MPs on Thursday.
The proposed $1.325-billion sale by Vancouver-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates to Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, has triggered widespread protest in Canada.
Selling the acknowledged crown jewel of Canada's domestic space technology industry has been panned by everyone from research scientists to labour leaders.
ATK officials tried to allay those concerns Thursday in their first public appearance on the transaction. But in the words of Conservative committee chairman James Rajotte, they raised almost as many new questions as answers.
While Canadian government control over the taxpayer-funded Radarsat 2 may or may not be assured by existing contracts for the seven-year life of the bird, there will be no such restrictions when Minneapolis-based ATK manufactures the next model.
"Those restrictions and limitations apply to the Radarsat 2 and are unequivocal,'' Steve Cortese, the Washington vice-president for ATK, told the Commons industry committee.
"To the extent that future satellites are built, then those would be ... subject to the terms and conditions associated with that specific transaction.''
And building new satellites for the U.S. government appears to be the end game.
Liberal MP Scott Brison quoted ATK's chief financial officer John Schroyer, who told an American defence conference in February that the purchase of MDA would unlock classified U.S. space work.
"The key for us is to be able to move that technology, transfer that technology, into the ATK U.S. space (division) and go after what we believe is a very significant, growing U.S. classified market,'' Schroyer said at the time.
Carl Marchetto, president of ATK's space division, told the committee that ATK is depending on the space division to drive the company's growth. Last year, ATK got 59 per cent of its revenues from U.S. defence contracts and another five per cent from intelligence contracts.
That has many critics worried that tight U.S. security laws will not only shut down Canadian access to future Radarsat images, but cut off MDA's Canadian high-tech employees from classified work.
"The next generation of both robotics and satellites -- the Radarsat 3 that is already on the books -- is going to belong to the American company and will be used for their purposes,'' said Carol Phillips of the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents MDA's unionized Canadian employees.
Phillips said the next generation will be "built on the shoulders of the best technology in the world, paid for by (Canadian) taxpayers. And for us to just wholesale let them go like this is not about nation-building. It's foolishness.''
The CAW preceded ATK officials in testifying Thursday to the committee. The union presented a legal opinion that strongly argued that current U.S. laws on satellite ownership would trump Canadian laws that guarantee domestic control over Radarsat 2.
It's a question that has not been satisfactorily answered despite repeated inquiries by the committee over weeks.
"I will leave that up the legal folks,'' ATK's Marchetto conceded under intense questioning Thursday from New Democrat MP Peggy Nash.
The industry committee has so far been unable to get Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier to appear to explain his understanding of the competing domestic satellite laws. The Commons foreign affairs committee is also considering a motion to have Bernier appear on the matter.
What is not in dispute is that the next generation technology under ATK ownership will be firmly under American control.
Losing the intellectual property developed with Canadian government help over more than a generation is the real loss for this country, Lucy Stojak, a consultant on air and space law from McGill University, told the MPs.
"The space industry is one which needs an extremely long lead time. ... If you lose the IP (intellectual property) you lose the stepping stone on which to build the future generation, and you really have to start at zero.''
