This agreement will contribute to the development and promotion of skills in Quebec's remote sensing products and services industry and to the upgrading of radar remote sensing research skills in Quebec universities. It will also promote the use of Earth observation data by Quebec departments to meet their land management, natural resource and environmental requirements.

An Agreement with Two Components

The objective of the agreement's first component is to provide support for industrial projects involving the development or demonstration of RADARSAT data applications. The objective of the second component is to upgrade the research skills of Quebec's post-secondary educational institutions and the training of research students in the field of radar data applications. The second component will be made possible through joint funding, with a contribution from Quebec's researcher training and research assistance fund ( the Fonds pour la Formation des Chercheurs et de l'Aide a la Recherche (FCAR).

The agreement will be administered by representatives of the federal department of Industry, the Quebec department of Industry, Trade, Science and Technology, the Quebec department of Natural Resources, the Canadian Space Agency and the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing.

According to federal Industry Minister Manley, "This agreement will promote the development of new RADARSAT data users and applications in Quebec. It is an excellent example of governments setting up partnerships with industry and universities in order to pool our expertise, enhance our reputation for excellence in the Earth observation field and encourage the growth of our knowledge-based industries."

According to Quebec Deputy Premier Landry, "The signing of this agreement means that Quebec businesses in this sector will be able to count on government support to implement worthwhile projects for the departments and carve out a prime segment of the remote sensing products and services market."

Denise Carrier-Perreault, Minister responsible for Lands and Mines at the Quebec department of Natural Resources, explained, "This agreement is an opportunity to use leading-edge technology to develop the lands and natural resources on which the economies of many Quebec regions are based. I am certain that several departments will be interested in showcasing and providing test sites for the technology and that the activities to be carried out will be an asset for Quebec's strategy to promote geomatics industry exports."

RADARSAT, Canada's first Earth observation satellite, was designed and built in Canada by a team of 30 Canadian companies under the supervision of Spar Aerospace. Its synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which can provide images of the Earth's surface under nighttime, daytime and cloud conditions, gives Canada a dominant position in the field of Earth observation technologies. Since its launch in November 1995, RADARSAT has already provided the first complete SAR coverage of the Earth and is now associated with 55 distributors in 41 countries who deliver the data products to about 400 users world wide.

An information session for industry and the research community is scheduled for July 3, 1998, at the Centre de formation continue du Pavillon La Laurentienne at the University of Laval (Sainte-Foy, Quebec).