2008 Ottawa Heads of Mission Tour – Moving Beyond Mounties, Mountains and Moose

One of my staff’s greatest wishes is that I learn the “NO!” word. But how can you pass up the fantastic opportunities to show off your city to international decision makers in a new light. And so it was when Brent Court of the Ontario office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) gave me a call one fateful day in March.

For Canada’s cities competing globally in the knowledge based industries game, some of Canada’s greatest strengths are our greatest challenges. Canada has some great international icons: our red coated mounties, our spectacular mountain ranges typified by the Canadian Rockies and our wide open spaces symbolized by the moose. Who hasn’t seen these images and they are great for our tourism industry.

Also from Canada comes the telephone, insulin, the digital telephone switch and the Canadarm. Unfortunately these are far less known than the mounties, mountains and moose. In an era of global business competition, our tourism image is at odds with that of the innovation nation.

DFAIT has launched a program to give foreign Heads of Mission (Ambassadors and High Commissioners assigned to Canada) a look at the strength of our economy. Trips had already been made to Calgary, Toronto and Montreal when the idea of showing them the other side of the Nation’s Capital was made. Given the close working relationship between OCRI and DFAIT, OCRI was approached with the idea. And so the journey began.

Opening briefing at the Foreign Affairs building on Sussex Drive in Ottawa.

The OCRI team of Kelly Daize, Marysabel Gonzalez and yours truly was introduced to Albert Galpin of Canada’s Chief of Protocol Office. Let me just say that experts in economic development are not necessarily attuned to the fine points of diplomatic protocol, nor to the patience required.

This looked easy. We had the itinerary for the Montreal tour. A nip here, a tuck there and voila, the Ottawa tour. Not quite.

First came dates. With summer fast approaching and schedule conflicts galore in the time between, target dates were soon reduced to either the weeks of May 5th or May 12th. Montreal had included a Mayor’s reception, a visit by the Premier of Quebec and a talk by a senior Federal Cabinet Minister. Six weeks away, these people aren’t busy, a piece of cake! No mention yet made of the companies we are to visit.

We were dealing with Mayor Larry O’Brien’s Office on another matter, so his Chief of Staff Eric Lamoureux referred us over to Kathy Bowles of Ottawa’s Protocol Office. The good news, the Mayor holds an annual reception for the Heads of Mission, the bad news, it was scheduled for the last week of May. After considerable negotiation and resolution of scheduling conflicts, Kathy came back saying that it was possible the evening of May 13th. Great, this could kick off the Tour and the dates were set May 14,15. Not! It looked like those dates were not possible for Federal officials, so Albert suggested let’s go back to the week of 5 May, could I contact the Mayor’s Office. Not a call I wanted to make! You want to know a secret, I didn’t bother. I knew the answer. I waited 24 hours and said that unfortunately it was impossible.

Just to make things interesting, we also learned about this time that Amr Al-Dabbagh, the Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) was coming to visit on May 13. Makes you feel like an Air Traffic Controller at O’Hare airport.

On to the real stuff, the site visits. Canada wanted to show off Canadian technology and innovation. We looked to our areas of strength and decided on digital media (nice flashy stuff), our historic telecommunications strength (world leading technology, a no brainer), medical devices (health is an issue everywhere) and garbage (whattttt!). Come on, everyone has a garbage problem and the Ottawa company Plasco Energy has a unique solution.

We ended up with a fantastic line up: Fuel Industries, Magmic Games, Research in Motion, Nortel, BreconRidge Manufacturing, the National Research Council, Plasco Energy Group, EMS Satcom and Abbott Point of Care.

We also had to get around, so we were asked to recommend a luxury coach rental company. Our suggestion: OC Transpo, our Municipal Transit Authority. That rated, “You want us to put Heads of Mission on a City bus and then take them to a Municipal Dump, did you ever take Diplomacy 101!” When we scraped the Office of Protocol off the ceiling we explained that Ottawa has an excellent Transitway system that will not only simplify logistics but demonstrate an innovative solution to municipal transit in urban areas. Our Plasco pilot demonstrates how you can incinerate municipal waste without harmful by products and by creating electricity.

Not only did we keep the buses and the Trail Road Waste Facility in, but Canada’s Minister of the Environment, John Baird, agreed to join the tour at the landfill site, travel on the bus, and join us for lunch. Unfortunately, Canada’s Opposition Party would have none of this, introducing a snap vote in the House of Commons just before the Minister was due to leave. He voted, missed the site visit and bus ride, but made lunch at the Brookstreet Hotel. You can’t win them all!

Was it a success, of course with OCRI, DFAIT and the City of Ottawa on the job, how could it not be! As we had suspected, most of the Heads of Mission had never seen the technology side of Ottawa and were surprised by its depth and diversity. Many had rarely been out of the City core and it provided them with a feeling for Ottawa, and Canada outside the world of National government and international diplomacy.

They were impressed by our dedicated transitway system and how it got people around. Nothing feels better than zipping by single occupant vehicles stuck in rush hour traffic.

The Heads of Mission board the buses.

Garbage is indeed every nation’s challenge. Plasco offers a solution that not only replaces the need for landfill sites but creates energy. The exuberance of the CEO Rod Bryden and Minister Baird demonstrated our corporate capability to develop sustainable solutions and the Federal government support for those innovative solutions.

Rod Bryden explains Plasco’s demonstration unit in Ottawa.

The youth, creativity and energy of our digital media sector were clearly evident. Fuel and Magmic definitely provided the “wow”.

Canada’s national flagships RIM and Nortel gave them a glimpse of the future. These companies operate in arguably the most competitive sector in the world. And they win, not by resting on their laurels, but by keeping ahead of the pack.

Manufacturing in Canada is dead, I don’t think so. BreconRidge and Abbott illustrated how sound business plans, technology and talent can produce solutions for global markets and provide manufacturing jobs here.

The visit to the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre at NRC showcased a central part of the local infrastructure that keeps Ottawa at the centre of the Photonics industry. EMS Satcom reaffirmed Ottawa’s R&D and high end manufacturing capabilities.

The group visits the National Research Council (NRC).

And the Brookstreet Spa will see a spike in appointments.

It only goes to prove that public transit and garbage can impress! We received nothing but positive comments from the over 60 attendees on the tour. They strongly indicated that this should be an annual event and that we should do a similar tour for the Commercial Attaches. So much for learning the “NO!” word.

(Michael Darch is the Executive Director of OCRI Global Marketing)

Saudi Arabia’s Ambitious Diversification Plan – SAGIA Makes No Small Plans!

On 13 May, OCRI had the privilege of meeting with Mr. Amr Al-Dabbagh Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA). The Governor was on a visit to various cities in Canada to determine how Canada could assist in the massive Saudi project to establish six new cities, yes that is right, build six new cities out of the desert with a population target of 4-5 million by 2020!

The law firm Heenan Blaikie was working with SAGIA on visits to Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. SAGIA had mentioned that they were looking at models to accelerate the growth of their technology clusters and Heenan Blaikie introduced them to OCRI. SAGIA researched OCRI on the internet and requested that a meeting be set up on the Ottawa leg of their trip.

We don’t wake up one morning now without hearing about the price of oil hitting yet another high. Most people now cringe when having to fill up the gas tank. Escalating gas prices are finally driving serious development of non-fossil fuel based energy sources.

With the world’s largest proven conventional oil sources, Saudi Arabia should be sitting pretty. And it is, but for how long! Rather than bask in the glory of its fortunate wealth beneath the sand, Saudi Arabia is looking to the future. How does it use the wealth of today to ensure the continuing prosperity of its citizens after the oil runs out.

Their answer was simple, move from a resource based economy to a knowledge based economy while you have the financial resources to do it. With the world’s economy becoming truly global, the geopolitical space of the Middle East only improves. It is a natural logistical hub, its oil wealth makes it a financial hub, therefore the question becomes “how does it become a sustainable economic hub?”

The Emirates are certainly addressing the question with the development of Dubai. “Cities” have been developed within Dubai to support specific sectors of the global economy. Dubai is becoming a hub, but it lacks the population base and the “cities” are more like zones.

Saudi does have the population and unlike the aging demographic of Europe and North America, its average age is 23 and the population is growing. To address future need, it is looking not to expand existing cities, but to create new cities. Building on the theme of sustainability, these cities are being planned to promote balanced regional development, achieve economic diversification, create jobs and upgrade competitiveness. Most countries have to develop their emerging clusters amongst legacy industries and infrastructure. These new cities will have the luxury of building from a clean slate.

And SAGIA did its homework. They brought in the best thinkers on modern economic development such as Michael Porter. They studied over 1000 Free Zones. They have studied the factors that will make them a success in global competition, such as being at the pivot point between Europe, Asia and Africa. They have even examined constraints to global competition. For example, they determined that the minimum population size for a city to be globally competitive is 800,000. Any smaller and you do not have the critical mass for the necessary talent pool and infrastructure. If only our Federal government and the Ontario governments would understand the difference between policies for regional income distribution and policies to strengthen Canada’s globally competitive urban regions while addressing balanced regional development.

SAGIA is also putting a different spin on incoming investment. To most inward investment agencies, that means bring money. Several times throughout the day, we were asked “what is Saudi Arabia’s second largest export?” The simple answer: CASH. Investment to SAGIA is knowledge, talent, know how, cutting edge products, partnerships. To a region like Ottawa: music to our ears.

Another discussion point was taxes. Saudi is building a sustainable model built on talent and intellectual capital. The rush to be the lowest tax regime will ultimately mean that you cannot develop the education, health care and infrastructure to attract and retain the best and brightest.

We did discuss specific ways that OCRI and SAGIA could cooperate. These were in the areas of knowledge transfer, commercialization and market gateways. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership.

Saudi Arabia and SAGIA may not meet their aggressive targets. But they have worked to understand global economics in the 21st century. It is an interesting model and far better than that of many countries who remain locked in mid-20th century models of domestic regional development while ignoring strengthening urban regions to compete globally. You cannot redistribute wealth that you have let flow to other countries.