Media Release - January 21, 2008

Media Release
Ottawa's Technology Sector Reports Record Employment Numbers

OTTAWA, ON, January 21, 2008 – OCRI's annual technology employment survey released today shows growth in both employment and the number of technology companies in Ottawa. The reported increase is reassuring as the city continues to stabilize from the long-term effects of the tech downturn but steps need to be taken to ensure that Ottawa can remain in a position of economic growth and attract and retain critical talent.

A three per cent increase in technology jobs brings the total number of people employed in the advanced technology sector in Ottawa to 81,910 - the highest recorded employment number yet. Since the 2006 report was issued, the number of knowledge-based companies in the region has grown from 1803 to 1819 representing an increase of one per cent. The 2007 OCRI survey indicates that 135 new companies entered the marketplace but we also experienced a high number of mergers and acquisitions which balanced out the increase.

"Ottawa continues to be Canada's technology leader. The quality of the companies and the people here in Ottawa are the key reasons why Ottawa continues to experience this overall upward trend," says Jeffrey Dale, President and CEO, OCRI. "Now is the time to make certain that we can continue this growth over the long term with a reliable supply of skilled talent, innovative companies and capital."

The survey results show that although the cleantech sector represents one of the smaller groups within the Ottawa technology community the employment numbers have increased at a much faster rate than other larger sectors. Worldwide, the cleantech sector is the third largest category for venture capital investment and the industry has grown exponentially in all major centres. Ottawa is no different. Local companies, such as PlascoEnergy, are poised for substantial growth and are actively searching for qualified critical talent.

"The Plasco Conversion System is getting a marvelous response, both in Canada and many other countries. The modular design will allow us to manufacture and assemble the Plasco Conversion System within a manufacturing and assembly plant. This will significantly increase the speed with which we can produce Plasco Conversion Systems and the ease of installing these systems around the world," reports Rod Bryden, CEO, PlascoEnergy. "This will fuel growth both at the corporate office in Ottawa and in one or more assembly plants as well as the addition of about 40 people for each operating plant. For this year, we expect to add about 100 people in the various divisions at the corporate office, about 54 new hires in engineering and 15 project managers."

The most substantial growth has traditionally been seen in the small and medium-sized companies with employment numbers ranging from 10-99 people. One such company is Mxi Technologies which grew their workforce by 60 per cent. "2007 was an exciting year for Mxi; significant revenue growth and emerging opportunities clearly demonstrate proven market acceptance and have allowed us to grow our team at an accelerated pace," said Les Hine, President of Mxi Technologies. "The strength of our integrated and intelligent aviation maintenance software lies in the people on our team and we plan to continue increasing our capacity in 2008 to meet the continued growth we expect to see in our business."

"These are great results. Without doubt, Ottawa is one of the best places to invest, work, live and grow your business," adds Dale. "There are companies in this city that are global leaders in their field with compelling stories to share and now we need to focus our efforts on finding ways to get that message out to the rest of the world."

Visit http://www.ocri.ca/economicstatistics/htsurvey.asp for graphs of the above data.

Each year, OCRI conducts the survey of local Ottawa technology businesses primarily to develop an online database of information about companies, products and service providers. The survey data, reported directly from the companies provides information to help identify trends within the region and calculate the total number of companies and employees. Over 90 per cent of the companies operating in knowledge-based industries located in the Ottawa region responded to the survey.

Knowledge-based industries are defined as those which are intensive in their inputs of technology and human capital. Locally, this has been defined as those that classify as primarily operating within the following sectors tracked by OCRI: telecommunications, software, contact/customer centre, defence and security, wireless, life sciences, semiconductor, environment, eBusiness, photonics and technology services that support these industries. It should be noted that industry definitions and classifications vary widely by country and therefore do not allow for comparative quantitative evaluation.

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