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Member Spotlight
Latest News
New Coffee Club Event
September 9, 2019 by WCDIA Sullivan Machine Works has graciously offered up their space for the October Coffee Club event. Sign up on the events page and join us for some food, refreshments and networking. WestDef 2019 June 26, 2019 by WCDIA The Western Canadian Defence Industries Association would like to thank everyone for their interest in WestDef 2019. Due to the current restructuring of our management team and board, we have decided to use this opportunity to establish priorities and set a new strategic plan over the summer. With these activities underway and the federal election taking place in September, we have decided to defer the 2019 event and host a revised WestDef next year. WCDIA will still be hosting networking events and our SMB focused “Getting in the Game” workshops in BC and AB in 2019, so please make sure to stay connected through our newsletter and website. We are grateful for all your support while we transition and look forward to serving you and your business in the future. Calendar and Website Updates May 7, 2019 by WCDIA We have updated our event dates to reflect the latest changes to our organization. We added information on our "Getting in the Game" workshops on the events page. Time to Say Goodbye... March 27, 2019 by WCDIA After 10 years of leadership, Denean Tomlin is stepping down as President of WCDIA and moving into her new role as ITB/Offsets Manager for Peraton Canada. We thank Denean for her support and guidance throughout the years and wish her all the best in her future endeavors! Updated Funding Overview January 31, 2019 by WCDIA Strategic Timelines has released their latest 2019 funding bulletin and overview of the Federal and Provincial funding programs. Find them here. We have also updated our event calendar. More news... |
Upcoming Events
WCDIA AGM
Date to be announced Calgary, AB Welcome to WCDIA, Western Canada's Defence Industries Association. We are proud to represent and promote activities for our members and the industry in western Canada.
Western Canadian companies have a depth of expertise and a passion, and drive for doing business. Whether it’s a CNC machining company, an information technology company, or a developer of micro and nano-technologies, the applications in the aerospace, defence, marine and security sectors are many. WCDIA FUNCTION & PURPOSE
Message from the Chair:
Welcome to 2019! I hope all had the opportunity to enjoy the holiday season. We have a very interesting 2019 forming up. We will be facing a Fall Federal election and a Spring Alberta Provincial election that could change the political landscape. Major capital programs including Canadian Surface Combatant and Future Fighter are inching forward and new In-Service Support awards such as the Army’s C4ISR support contracts are in the process of being announced. All of these will require a 100% Canadian offset component and a 15% Small to Medium Business component. This is a great opportunity for small businesses. One of the roles of WCDIA is to help prepare companies, especially small one that do not have the experience, participate in the Defence sector. The ‘Getting in the Game’ workshops are one of the steps to help address this need. They have been very successful. We are working on a program that will see addition workshops given in Northern Alberta in the first quarter and hopefully across all four western provinces over the next two years. WCDIA also can help decipher the large number of innovation programs that exist and whether a program could potentially be useful to a member. Eileen Ashmore provided a good overview of these programs at the December Coffee Club meeting. These include programs such as BCIP, IDEaS and even some from industry such as Raytheon’s Cyber Challenge. Speaking of Coffee Club meetings, thanks to Peraton for hosting the first Coffee Club meeting of 2019. Their new facility looks great! Hopefully they will be shortly adding some new traffic signs as they help convert RAAF F-18s to fly on the right-hand side! We have open slots available if anyone would like to showcase their company to our membership. If you have not already done so, please take a moment to renew your membership for the year. Here’s to a very interesting and successful 2019! Doug Brown WCDIA Chairman |