Why Trade Matters
Success Stories
The New Consulate General in Miami:
Increased Support to the Canada-Florida Economic Partnership
Florida is no ordinary state to Canadians. For over a century,
the Sunshine State has symbolized for many the dream of a comfortable
retirement, sheltered from our winter cold. But Florida is much
more than a heavenly wintering spot. It has become a southern economic
superpower, as well as a business gateway to Latin America and the
Caribbean. Florida’s state economy is now the fifth largest
in the U.S., with a gross domestic product the size of South Korea’s.
Canada is no ordinary country to Floridians either. According to
a 2004 study by InfoAmericas, Canada is Florida’s number one
international economic partner, its number one source of foreign
direct investment and its number one source of tourism. Two million
Canadians are expected to visit Florida in 2004. Two-way merchandise
trade between Canada and Florida was valued at $7.7 billion in 2002.
Our trade relationship with Florida is harmonious, with our imports
balanced by Canadian exports of such diverse products as newsprint,
softwood lumber, engines and turbines and office machines and equipment.
After suffering from four major hurricanes during this year’s
storm season, Florida is showing its resilience and Canadians are
helping rebuild affected areas through the supply of world-class
building products and technologies.
To reflect Florida’s rapidly growing population and economy,
Canada’s representation in Miami has been upgraded from a
consulate to a consulate general in order to provide a wider range
of services, as part of the Government of Canada’s Enhanced
Representation Initiative (ERI). Canada’s Consulate General
in Miami will open officially on November 15, 2004. This issue of
Success Stories features Canadian companies doing business
in the sunshine state.
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Luxury Yachts for the Sunshine
State
Central Marine
Fiberglass,
Winsloe, Prince Edward Island
In order to accommodate its burgeoning business with a leading
Florida-based boat builder, Central Marine Fiberglass
(CMF) has undergone two expansions and hired eight new staff. Since
2001, the small P.E.I. company has been supplying Huckins Yacht
Corporation of Jacksonville with hull and superstructure components
for the classic Huckins 44 Yacht—a luxury craft that retails
for more than US$500,000. CMF is also about to ship a 40-foot Phoenix
sport fisher boat to another client in Florida.
CMF primarily manufactures and modifies fishing boats for clients
in the eastern United States. However, the contract with Huckins
has allowed the company to expand into new markets and introduce
advanced technology into its production process, notably the vacuum
core method of construction. This technology produces stronger craft
weighing one third as much as conventional fishing boats built using
the lamination method.
“Our goal has always been to break into the recreation craft
market,” says Sterling Hennessey, CMF’s owner and operator,
who is currently developing a prototype for a new line of yachts.
“The contract with Huckins has helped to build credibility
for our workmanship and facilitate further expansion into the U.S.
and other markets.” CMF has also built boats for a Caribbean
resort in St. Martin, which uses them for sightseeing and scuba
diving, and is currently negotiating with a potential client in
China.
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Pioneer in Ballistic Identification
Systems
Forensic
Technology,
Montreal, Quebec
When detectives on CSI Miami consult IBIS to identify
a crime gun, they are referring to the Integrated Ballistics Identification
System created by Forensic Technology
in Montreal. But it is not only fictional characters in popular
TV series (including Law & Order) that rely on IBIS
to solve firearm-related crimes. Law enforcement agencies in Florida
and around the world use the technology to manage information across
the entire criminal justice system, from the crime scene to the
courtroom.
IBIS works by digitally capturing the images of bullets and cartridge
cases, storing them in a database, performing automatic comparisons
and ranking them according to the likelihood of a match. Forensic
Technology has also developed b.a.r.d (Beyond A Reasonable Doubt),
which allows sharing of data between law enforcement and criminal
justice communities, and Gunsights, a software collection of firearm
specifications and images.
While its major market is the United States, Forensic Technology
is promoting safer societies in more than 30 countries and territories.
Its newest client is India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, which
purchased a comprehensive crime-fighting package this year and is
partnering with Forensic Technology to institute a state-of the-art
forensic science laboratory. The company was introduced to the Indian
market in 2002 during a Canada Trade Mission, when it signed an
agreement to deliver training and technology to 25 laboratories
throughout the country. According to company president Robert A.
Walsh, Canadian trade commissioners have been instrumental in the
company’s global success. “Commercial attaché
staff have always been available when we needed them,” says
Walsh. “They do everything they can to assist Canadian business
ventures abroad.”
Winner of a 2004 Canada Export Award, Forensic Technology employs
226 people in Montreal and has offices in Largo, Florida and Washington,
D.C., as well as in Ireland, South Africa and Thailand.
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Standing Up to Frances
Hydro Mobile
Inc.,
L’Assomption, Quebec
In the aftermath of Hurricane Frances in September 2004, the only construction
equipment still working in south Palm Beach County, Florida, were
Canadian mast climbing work platforms outside an oceanfront high-rise
condominium on Singer Island.
Manufactured by Hydro Mobile Inc. of
L’Assomption, Quebec, the hydraulic platforms are being used
in the renovation of the Tiara—the county’s tallest
building and one of Frances’s biggest targets. With six storeys
of exterior stucco ripped away by the storm, the work was expected
to take twice as long as originally planned. However, thanks to
Hydro Mobile’s gas-powered machine, which requires no electricity,
the construction crew was able to recover residents’ belongings
and resume work as soon as the hurricane subsided, considerably
speeding up the reconstruction process. “Our F-Series platform
was initially selected by our Florida client for its weight and
speed capacity,” explains Vincent Dequoy, President of Hydro
Mobile. “They were overwhelmed by how productive it was under
such devastating circumstances, when other access equipment was
out of order for reasons such as lack of power.”
Hydro Mobile is a North American pioneer in mast climbing platforms,
which, due to their safety and productivity, are increasingly used
by the construction industry in place of conventional scaffolding.
The Canada Export Award winning company sells its products across
North America and Europe through a wide network of distributors.
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North American Master Builder
PCL family of companies,
Edmonton, Alberta
Since its founding nearly a century ago, the PCL family
of companies has grown from a small Saskatchewan builder
of brick schoolhouses, banks and town halls in the Prairies to an
award-winning company of about 1,900 people that builds just about
any structure imaginable. One hundred percent employee-owned, PCL
exports about half of its products and services to the United States.
Headquartered in Edmonton, PCL has offices in 25 cities across
North America and boasts an annual construction volume in the range
of $3.4 billion. That makes it Canada’s biggest general contracting
organization and among the largest in the United States. “Although
PCL has built some of the continent’s premier projects, such
as the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, the smaller ones, with an
average value of $150,000, account for the bulk of our business,”
says Ross Grieve, President and CEO.
PCL’s subsidiaries in Orlando and Tampa have been contracted
for diverse projects throughout Florida. Among the most recent are
Tropics of the Americas at the Palm Beach Zoo, which includes a
Mayan-themed plaza surrounded by pyramids and artifacts, a suspension
bridge, a marketplace and a boardwalk that weaves through eight
exhibits of South American animals. The Orlando team has also constructed
the 6,250 square metre Crandon Park Golf Clubhouse in Key Biscayne
and a three-level automated guideway system for Orlando International
Airport. PCL’s Tampa-based operations recently completed the
$56-million Ringling Causeway Project in Sarasota and the $82-million,
award-winning Fort Lauderdale International Airport Interchange,
which involved the construction of eight new multi-level segmental
bridges.
Projects currently under way include the widening of eight kilometres
of major thoroughfares on Interstate 95 in South Florida and the
$60-million Memorial Causeway project spanning Clearwater Harbour.
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Clinical Research Group Moves
Into Florida
Allied Research International,
Mississauga, Ontario
Allied Research International (ARI) Inc.,
a contract research organization (CRO) based in Mississauga, is
taking its first step toward international expansion. The clinical
research group of scientific and medical professionals is planning
to open a 7,600-square-metre facility in the newly incorporated
city of Miami Gardens, Florida, in March 2005.
The clinic will have 120 beds arranged in a U-shape formation around
the central monitoring and processing centre, as well as a 12-bed
intensive observation unit. “The common and study areas will
allow participants to be segregated, thereby maximizing the flexibility
for different study and size requirements,” says Marc Routhier,
ARI’s Vice President, Business Development.
ARI’s 76-bed facility near Toronto contains two 34 in-patient
units and an 8-bed intensive observation unit. “All our units
can conduct independent studies simultaneously or be combined to
house a large, 76-subject study,” explains Routhier. ARI is
the only CRO to have developed and validated three environmental
exposure chambers, which expose subjects to known, controlled amounts
of allergen—thus simulating a heavy pollen day. The chambers
are used for the study of the reaction time and relative efficacy
of anti-allergic drugs, and to the effect of common environmental
chemicals and irritants on the human body.
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