Federal agencies help with export opportunities.

When Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) officials wanted to bring their expertise and advanced technical knowledge to NASA to deliver high-tech outer space drills, they looked to the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) to connect them.

"It was because of the efforts of [the CCC] that we were able to get into the NASA contracting books at all," says Dale Boucher, manager of prototype development at NORCAT.

While NORCAT is the most prominent Northern Ontario beneficiary of the CCC's recent efforts, many exporters across the country make use of the Crown corporation every year, according to Gabriela Gref-Innes, business development officer with the CCC.

Between 2006-2007, the CCC oversaw $1.2 billion worth of export contracts, and regularly does business with more than 25 countries around the world, she says.

Speaking to a crowd of entrepreneurs and industry officials at the 12th NORCAT / Northern Ontario Business Opportunity Series breakfast, Gref-Innes highlighted two often-overlooked federally funded resources for exporters: the CCC and the recently reconstituted Trade Northern Ontario program.

As a Crown corporation formed in 1946, the CCC acts as the prime contractor and central point of contact for foreign governments or related agencies seeking export products from Canada.

The CCC doesn't handle direct business-to-business linkages, unless the foreign business is itself a prime contractor whose end products go to governments.

The process begins with the CCC, which signs contracts with foreign governments and agencies, and then signs out domestic contracts to Canadian exporters.

In this way, the foreign customers can be certain the export provider has been thoroughly vetted by the Canadian government, Gref-Innes says.

The CCC also provides several significant advantages for the Canadian exporter as well.

In particular, she highlights the ability of exporters to avoid having to submit cost and pricing data to American government agencies such as NASA and the Department of Defense.

This is a benefit in that competing firms could appeal to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to discover these kinds of trade secrets. By providing that information to the CCC instead, exporters can ensure the security of that information, she says.

Gref-Innes also highlighted Trade Northern Ontario as another key resource for firms looking to move further beyond their own backyards.

Though shut down in 2006, the FedNor-funded program was re-structured and brought back to life in June 2007.

This particular initiative does not seek to provide funding, but rather guidance through the complicated network of government programs and other avenues available for entrepreneurs seeking to export, according to Jay Aspin, Trade Northern Ontario trade advisor.

Aspin, who's tasked with overseeing the Sudbury and North Bay regions, says he's met with 70 of the 250 exporters he's identified in his area since the June revival.

In that time, he's already helped connect one Sudbury business, Novenco Consultants Limited, with Cleanfields Energy, a southern Ontario green energy producer. This partnership has allowed Novenco to become a regional distributor of an energy generation product, with the potential for larger export opportunities.

"We're really happy that we were able to make this connection, and that Trade Northern Ontario could help us in this way," Barry Hamilton, sales consultant with Novenco, says.

www.ccc.ca

teamnorthernontario.ic.gc.ca

By NICK STEWART

Northern Ontario Business