Irrespective of suggestions for specific technology programs being advocated by individuals and organizations in industry, it is important that the Canadian Space Agency and the government officials who oversee it recognize the importance of renewal by publicly and pro-actively pursuing new and innovative strategies on the government’s side of space.

However, their comments need to be taken in context with the specific suggestions for the future which are begining to percolate up from experts throughout Canada.

In essense, the authors are requesting action that’s already happening and they are being overtaken by events.

I again refer to the recent Canadian Space Summit where participants are begining to come forward with specific, concrete suggestions on what they feel should be part of Canadian space policy.

For examples I refer to the following:

CSCA’s presentation on why Canada needs its own independent launch capability and how this could be justified on national security, scientific and especially business grounds (for example, it would cost about as much as an extra Canadian icebreaker and would contribute far more towards policing the high arctic).

The presentation from an aerospace executive on how space based industries are essentially the R&D arm of aerospace and why Canadian aerospace industries are foolish to ignore this subset.

The MDA presentation on “flow through tax credits” how they are presently used in the Canadian mining industry to fund high risk, high cost ventures with a long lead time for ROI and how their use for aerospace R&D could expand and grow Canadian space based research and development exponentially.

The Rideau Group presentation on the present lack of a national space policy (which makes it difficult for industry to plan ahead) with a listing of the best politicians in Canada to talk with on aerospace R&D and industrial infrastructure issues.

The conference link is at http://spacecommerce.ca/events/canadian-space-summit/ for anyone who’d like to take a look.