The Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry, and the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Defence and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, today congratulated the Canadian delegation that attended last week's Farnborough International Airshow.

Ministers Prentice and MacKay met with international aerospace stakeholders to promote the domestic industry's strengths and technological capabilities, thereby positioning Canadian firms as ideal suppliers in global value chains.

"I'd like to congratulate the Canadian aerospace industry for its solid showing at Farnborough," said Minister Prentice. "The rest of the world took notice of the breadth and diversity of our aerospace industry."

"A healthy aerospace industry is important to Canada," added Minister MacKay. "We anticipate the successes achieved at Farnborough will translate into thousands of jobs across the country, not to mention raise our global competitiveness in the aerospace industry."

The Farnborough International Airshow, held near London, England, from July 14 to 20, is regarded as the premiere event on the aerospace calendar. This year, 108 Canadian companies from coast to coast were represented at the show.

Participants attended business meetings, networking events, market familiarization briefings and roundtable discussions with key industry leaders. They also toured the show exhibition and potential client sites.

Some of the highlights at the 2008 event included:

- the launch of Bombardier Inc.'s CSeries aircraft, to which the federal government is committing up to $350 million in support of research and development costs;

- Heroux-Devtek Inc. signing its first contract with Embraer, S.A., providing the landing gear for the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer's Legacy 450 and 500 business jets;

- CAE Inc. signing contracts for more than $50 million to build flight simulators for Bombardier, British Airways, Embraer, and Etihad Airways, as well as a $78-million contract to provide military training support services to the Commonwealth of Australia; and

- National Research Council signing a 10-year framework agreement with Airbus on research and technology cooperation.

The Canadian aerospace industry has annual sales of approximately $22.7 billion and employs 82 000 skilled employees in over 400 firms. It also features important industrial clusters and is home to numerous small and medium-sized enterprises that occupy crucial parts of global supply chains, as well as leading multinational companies with global influence.

To ensure they remain on the leading edge of such a competitive industry, Canadian aerospace companies collectively invest more than $1 billion every year in research and development activities.