Alberta
Financial boost will engage Red Deer Polytechnic with partners working on medical device innovations
Red Deer Polytechnic’s CIM-TAC receives national funding
Two years after being designated a Technology Access Centre through a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Red Deer Polytechnic’s Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing (CIM-TAC) is celebrating new funding. The national funding – and the equipment it supports – were highlighted at the CIM-TAC Open House, hosted yesterday at the industrial research facility.
“The Open House provided an opportunity for stakeholders and community members to come to CIM-TAC and gain a better understanding of the first-class innovation and opportunities that are available here,” says Jim Brinkhurst, Interim President of Red Deer Polytechnic. “The prestigious grant funding that the CIM-TAC has received over recent years allows us to grow the knowledge, expertise and equipment available to support research and innovation – in central Alberta and beyond.”
NSERC announced in April that the CIM-TAC would receive $300,000 over two years in an Applied Research and Technology Partnership (ARTP) grant to promote the growth of innovations in health care assistive devices in Alberta. CIM-TAC’s business and industry clients will be able to accelerate commercialization of their devices through the addition of engineers and technologists with specialties in mechanics, mechatronics and robotics, as well as students in engineering, business, and health sciences to assist on projects.
“The TAC grant in 2020 allowed us to increase our capabilities to include design engineering and material experts,” says Dr. Tonya Wolfe, CIM-TAC Manager. “The additional staff we’ll be able to take on with the ARTP grant will give us an integrated team of specialists capable of accelerating new product development for our industry clients. Additionally, we will be able to provide a new focus area for central Alberta’s existing manufacturing base, many of whom have already expressed a desire to find areas for new opportunities as the traditional economy of our region changes.”
The majority of medical devices used in our healthcare system are imported. By encouraging the growth of innovations in health care assistive devices in the region, it will enable Alberta’s manufacturers to diversify into this market through the adoption and integration of digital manufacturing, which is key to meeting the changing realities of Alberta’s economy.
“With our enhanced capacity, CIM-TAC is able to provide Alberta’s assistive health care companies an integrated one-stop applied research shop to accelerate the commercialization of their homegrown innovations,” says Wolfe. “Our expertise includes design for manufacturing, validation, and manufacturing optimization – all intended to support SMEs at every stage of the innovation cycle as they focus on improving their manufactured products and processes.”
Darryl Short of Karma Medical Products (KARMED) gave a keynote address at the Open House event about his collaboration with the CIM-TAC in the development of a system for hand and upper extremity therapy. The product assists patients in gaining flexibility, strength, and functional independence. CIM-TAC worked with KARMED on prototyping and in the scale up stage.
“Through our recent funding and the opportunities it provides, Red Deer Polytechnic’s CIM-TAC is positioned to collaborate with innovators and industry to meet an important need across our province,” says Brinkhurst. “We look forward to working with our partners and stakeholders to achieve positive short-term and long-term goals that will benefit Albertans.
About the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing (CIM-TAC):
While its Technology Access Centre designation was awarded in 2020, the CIM opened in 2009 as one of the key facilities of RDP’s Four Centres. Since then, they have collaborated with hundreds of small and medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs to create solutions to numerous real-world manufacturing challenges. In 2021, the CIM-TAC had more than 500 engagements with business and industry clients interested in applied research and advanced manufacturing. Out of these, 28 new products and processes were developed, and 41 existing products were improved.
Alberta
Premier Danielle Smith hints Alberta may begin ‘path’ toward greater autonomy after Mark Carney’s win
From LifeSiteNews
Alberta’s premier said her government will be holding a special caucus meeting on Friday to discuss Alberta’s independence.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith hinted her province could soon consider taking serious steps toward greater autonomy from Canada in light of Mark Carney and the Liberal Party winning yesterday’s federal election.
In a statement posted to her social media channels today, Smith, who is head of Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party, warned that “In the weeks and months ahead, Albertans will have an opportunity to discuss our province’s future, assess various options for strengthening and protecting our province against future hostile acts from Ottawa, and to ultimately choose a path forward.”
“As Premier, I will facilitate and lead this discussion and process with the sincere hope of securing a prosperous future for our province within a united Canada that respects our province’s constitutional rights, facilitates rather than blocks the development and export of our abundant resources, and treats us as a valued and respected partner within confederation,” she noted.
While Smith stopped short of saying that Alberta would consider triggering a referendum on independence from Canada, she did say her government will be holding a “special caucus meeting this Friday to discuss this matter further.”
“I will have more to say after that meeting is concluded,” she noted.
Smith’s warning comes at the same time some pre-election polls have shown Alberta’s independence from Canada sentiment at just over 30 percent.
Monday’s election saw Liberal leader Mark Carney beat out Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre, who also lost his seat. The Conservatives managed to pick up over 20 new seats, however, and Poilievre has vowed to stay on as party leader, for now.
In Alberta, almost all of the seats save two at press time went to conservatives.
Carney, like former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before him, said he is opposed to new pipeline projects that would allow Alberta oil and gas to be unleashed. Also, his green agenda, like Trudeau’s, is at odds with Alberta’s main economic driver, its oil and gas industry.
The federal government under Trudeau pushed since 2015 a radical environmental agenda similar to the agendas being pushed the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” and the United Nations “Sustainable Development Goals.”
The Carney government has also pledged to mandate that all new cars and trucks by 2035 be electric, effectively banning the sale of new gasoline- or diesel-only powered vehicles after that year.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
Smith: ‘I will not permit the status quo to continue’
In her statement, Smith noted that she invited Carney to “immediately commence working with our government to reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta with meaningful action rather than hollow rhetoric.”
She noted that a large majority of Albertans are “deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our provincial economy almost unabated for the past 10 years has been returned to government.”
Smith then promised that she would “not permit the status quo to continue.”
“Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be strong, prosperous, and united, but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa,” she said.
Smith praised Poilievre for empowering “Albertans and our energy sector as a cornerstone of his campaign.”
Smith was against forced COVID jabs, and her United Conservative government has in recent months banned men from competing in women’s sports and passed a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
Alberta
Hours after Liberal election win, Alberta Prosperity Project drumming up interest in referendum
News release from the Alberta Prosperity Project
Carney’s In. Now what?You’ve been paying attention. You understand this is really bad. Worse than that, it’s dangerous. The country has somehow chosen several more years of a decade-long Trudeau Travesty…on steroids. Because this new Prime Minister has a three digit IQ, deep and questionable connections and a momentum to accelerate the further dis-integration of a nation we all once proudly belonged to. It’s untrue to say the country is dying. But it’s also not a stretch to say it’s on life support. The era of Carney Carnage is here. While every province will experience it, there’s no secret he’s placed an extra big bulls-eye on Alberta. It’s not personal, it’s financial.His plan includes continuing to limit three of Alberta’s most prosperous sectors: energy, agriculture and, by extension, innovation. To acknowledge this requires we abandon our sense of romanticized national nostalgia. Nostalgia is a trap that prevents us from assessing the reality we exist in. For instance, GDP is considered the financial heartbeat of a country. Over the past decade of Liberal Leadership, the national GDP has been an abysmal 1.1%. By relatable comparison, Mexico was 4%, the UK was 6%, Australia had 8% growth and the US was a whopping 19%. That’s great information for an economist, but what does it mean to your pay cheque? The everyday impact on the average Albertan —say, a teacher or mechanic— of 10 long years of 1% GDP means rent’s up at least 25%, a trip to the grocery store always stings, and driving an older car is the norm because an upgrade is out of reach. Does this sound like your reality? We aren’t starving, but we’re not thriving, either.Does this make sense for 4.5 million people living with the third most abundant energy deposits in the world? There’s an absurdity to the situation Albertans find themselves in. It’s akin to being chronically dehydrated while having a fresh water spring in the backyard. The life you’ve invested for, the future you believed was ahead, isn’t happening. If Alberta stays on this path. So what can you, as an Albertan, do about it? This Fall, we’ll be provided an opportunity. A life raft in the form of a referendum. It requires curiosity, imagination and courage to step into it, but the option will be there — a once in a lifetime shot at prosperity for you and your family: Alberta Sovereignty. A successful bid means Albertans can finally paddle out of the perilous economic current that’s battered us for ten long years. Alberta has the resources, talent and spirit of collaboration to create a prosperous future for our families and communities. |
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WHAT CAN ALBERTANS DO?Register Your Intent To Vote “YES” |
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