Opinion - Economic Development Slow As Molasses In SE Alberta

Staff from Toronto-based Prandtl Dynamics demonstrate the company’s Meteorological Ultrasonic Drone Destruction System (MUDDS) at CFB Suffield last year. (Photo courtesy of the Dept. of National Defence.)

There are few better demonstrations of how city and provincial governments failed to realize the economic development potential of Medicine Hat than their lack of support for the region’s development of unmanned vehicle technology.

The dissolution a decade ago of the Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (CCUVS) comes to mind when looking at past efforts to boost the local aerospace sector.

While it attempted to be the tip of the spear in development of the technology in the Hat, it didn’t get the support it needed.

A promotional “Beaverworks” bobblehead distributed more than a decade ago as part of a push to develop unmanned vehicle technology in Medicine Hat. The item was intended to be a play on Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Program, better known as “Skunk Works.” (Photo Alex McCuaig)

As is the wont of the current crop of local elected officials, efforts now feel too little, too late.

However, when CCUVS opened its doors at its location at the Medicine Hat Regional Airport, there was no shortage of city and provincial officials along with economic development agencies making appearances at the grand opening.

When it dissolved in 2015, none of them lamented the fact.

A decade later, development of unmanned vehicles is an economic development priority.

CFB Suffield’s Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) station might not share all its initiatives but it has provided public access to enough of its unmanned technology efforts in the past 25 years that it should have given a hint.  A social media post on Monday from DRDC on its counter drone technology development at Suffield is as subtle as a hammer to head about how things are shaping up.

Amplifying the visuals of DRDC’s work – which it provides easy access to – every time an economic development official is in front of a council would be easy enough to do.

In the early 2000s, DRDC officials were more than willing to present to any organization willing to hear them talk about the leaps and strides in development of unmanned vehicles to detect and dispose of mines. While that priority sparked by a global initiative led by individuals like the late Princess Diana has changed, it created a foundation which has taken too long to build on.

One would think the crash landing of a military Heron UAV onto a provincial highway outside of CFB Suffield in 2010 by a member of the Isreal Defence Force would raise the idea that something might be going on locally.

Multiple UAVs deployed over the skies of CFB Suffield last year during the Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems event held between May and June. (Photo courtesy of the Dept. of National Defence.)

The fact that the Medicine Hat and the Canadian War museums both have Vindicator UAVs built in the Hat hanging from their ceilings since 2012 should have alerted economic development officials there might be something worth building on.

But city officials and the municipality’s economic development contractor have demurred from even mentioning the fact local firm QinetiQ has just announced a new contract with the US Navy for the locally produced Vindicator. 

The Foremost UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) Range established in 2014 has had a mixed reaction since its inception.

That’s best exemplified by a 2021 Calgary Herald article written by former Medicine Hat News reporter Amanda Stephenson.

Then provincial Jobs Minister Doug Schweitzer was quoted in that article about UAV development stating, “it’s just another one of these industries that has flown under the radar in Alberta, and it seems to be hitting its stride at this time.”

It appears that four years later, it’s now on regional economic development officials’ radar.

How long it will take before they announce a strategy to attract more development in the sector that has seen its first steps taken locally before coming into maturity nationally is anyone’s guess.

So far, the region’s economic development agency, Verge, does not appear to mention anything about what’s been identified as a sector priority. Both the city’s economic development arm and the Palliser Economic Partnership fair a little better with their respective webpages.

But both feel a little light highlighting the significant history of the technology locally.