Jonquière, Quebec, September 26, 2012 – The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, announces that the firm Inspection SEP Inc. has been granted financial assistance to implement measures aimed at strengthening its innovative capabilities.
“By lending financial support to Inspection SEP, the Government of Canada is demonstrating its firm commitment to promoting economic growth centred, in particular, on innovation,” said Minister Lebel.
Inspection SEP (Service d'Entretien Préventif) Inc. has been specializing for more than 20 years in the analysis of surface and internal metallurgical anomalies. The company’s mission is to provide technical support to forest companies, aluminium smelters, mining enterprises, hydroelectric power stations and processing and manufacturing plants. It oversees pressurized equipment maintenance programs and conducts advanced analyses on the structure and properties of the metals contained in its customers’ equipment to ensure the good condition, safe operation, and optimal production capacity of the machinery.
Inspection SEP will use the allocated funds to set up a research and development department for the design and ultimate commercialization of new specialty services. This will better enable the firm to integrate the value chains of its customers, which will thus have the opportunity to improve their own productivity, as well as to significantly increase its sales and expand into markets outside Quebec.
This financial assistance has been granted in the form of a $160,000 repayable contribution through Canada Economic Development’s Temporary Initiative for the Strengthening of Quebec’s Forest Economies (TISQFE).
The TISQFE was brought into force in June 2010 to help communities affected by the forestry crisis diversify their economies in order to ensure their growth and create and maintain employment. The initiative's goal is also to support secondary and tertiary wood processing projects in these communities.
This measure is one of several put in place by the Government of Canada to counteract the effects of the forest crisis. Others include the Community Adjustment Fund, with its $1-billion budget over two years to mitigate the impact of the crisis, the $1 billion granted to the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program to help enterprises carry out environmentally-friendly projects, and the $238 million invested, in collaboration with the Government of Quebec, for silvicultural work and the maintenance of multi-use forest roads. Workers have also received their fair share of support, with the Government of Canada introducing numerous measures to help them through the global economic crisis.
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Media Relations
Canada Economic Development
Tel.: 514-283-8818
E-mail: media@dec-ced.gc.ca
Geneviève Sicard
Press Secretary
Office of the Honourable Denis Lebel
Canada Economic Development
Tel.: 514-496-1282
E-mail: genevieve.sicard@tc.gc.ca
