TPC announces $31.5 million in four new investments

The release of backlogged announcements by Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) continues unabated, with four more investments last week totalling $31.5 million. The largest investment — $9.4 million — goes to Norsat International Inc, Burnaby BC, for a new generation of satellite interactive terminals to facilitate two-way Internet access from personal computers. The satellite technology is expected to support Internet access speeds 10 times faster than current modem technologies and at a much lower cost than existing systems. In the area of environmental technologies, TPC has made two new investments. SNC-Lavalin Energy Control Systems Inc (ECSI) has received $8.7 million for its electric power system automation and management project to develop control software and hardware products aimed at the energy utility sector. The project will develop electronic sensors that will be used to reduce energy losses stemming from the transmission and distribution of electricity from power plants to end-users. St Laurent PQ-based ECSI is a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc and was created following the July/00 purchase of CAE Inc’s energy control systems division. Calgary’s Northstar Energy Corp has received $7.5 million from TPC to develop and test heavy oil recovery technology that uses solvent rather than energy-intensive steam. The vapour extraction (VAPEX) process injects the reuseable solvent into oil reservoirs via horizontal wells, diluting the heavy oil and allowing it to be drained by gravity to the production well. The oil and solvent are then separated and the solvent is recycled. The investment follows a $1.3-million, 1998 TPC award to develop a steam-assisted gravity drainage system for heavy oil extraction. In the area of biotechnology, TPC has invested $5.9 million in Intellivax International Inc, a St Laurent-PQ-based subsidiary of ID Biomedical Corp, Vancouver. Intellivax will use the funding to conduct R&D for oral and inhaled vaccines targetting proteosome influenza, shigellosis (bacterial dysentery) and other infectious diseases. The project will be undertaken primarily in the firm’s St Laurent facilities, with subcontracting to firms in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Edmonton…