"They represent a risk for us," said Michael Pley, Com Dev's chief executive, during a panel discussion Thursday at an Aerospace Industry Association of Canada conference in Ottawa.
The head of the Cambridge, Ont.-based satellite component manufacturer, which has a presence in Ottawa, said China is starting to develop its own technology, rather than purchasing it from suppliers such as Com Dev.
Export restrictions such as International Trades in Arms Regulations are hurting Canadian space business in a $3-billion market where half of the sales are generated from outside the country, he noted.
Given that is a United States program, Canadians have more control over their export program, the Controlled Goods Registration Program.
"The way space and satellites in particular are classified as controlled goods, that sort of broad ... consideration of satellite hardware, doesn't make a lot of sense and is an impediment to addressing those (international) markets," he said.
Mr. Pley's remarks come at a time when the Chinese are making headlines with their milestones in orbit.
Just this week, the country put together the first two pieces of its nascent space station. China has sent two orbiters to the moon and plans to land a robotic mission there in 2012. In addition, the country has flown several people in space under its own rocketry since 2003.
The Asian giant also has plans to establish its own GPS system by 2020 by launching 12 to 14 satellites in the coming years to form an autonomous navigation system, according to a spring presentation by Export Development Canada.
However, human rights groups have raised concerns that the Chinese government could use that network to track its own citizens.
For its part, the Canadian Space Agency is working on a treaty with China to make it easier for the two countries to work together, said agency president Steve MacLean, who moderated the panel.
"We consider this area to be very important," he said, providing little detail as to what the agreement would contain.
"It's fascinating to (broker) the Government of Canada agreement with China. It's quite complex and it won't happen overnight."
Part of the direction for export markets, including China, will come from a long-term space plan that the Canadian Space Agency was first tasked to put together with collaboration from industry in 2008, but was never released publicly.
"We are in the thick of it; an enjoyable process for sure, " said Mr. MacLean, a former astronaut, in a 2009 interview with OBJ.
"(We) have pretty well met with all of the academic and commercial interests in the country," he added, which included the largest space companies in Canada. Ottawa's Neptec, he said at the time, was among them.
The ground shifted in early 2011 in the federal budget, when it was announced that "all aerospace policies and programs," including the space sector specifically, would undergo a 12- to 18-month review.
That review will begin in early 2012 and the panel members will be disclosed shortly, Industry Minister Christian Paradis announced at the AIAC conference Thursday.
"The review will be comprehensive and will study key issues facing the sector, such as innovation, market access, and development of ... skills and suppliers," he said in a speech. The AIAC will lead the consultations.
Speaking in a scrum with reporters after the announcement, he would not talk specifically as to why the long-term space plan has not been released for more than three years, saying he just took on the industry portfolio in May.
"I sat down with Steve MacLean several times (since then). I think there is a good relationship here and we are just working on that," he said. Yet-to-be-determined parts of the long-term space plan will be incorporated in the new aerospace review.
Regarding export opportunities in China, he said the government sees it as an essential partner commercially - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was just there this summer, he added - and would be better able to take a look at relations with it because the Conservatives hold a majority in Parliament.
"We will be capable of moving beyond the questions of the day here and perhaps do a review that is more complete, at an international level that can better support our commercial partners," he said in French.
-With files from Peter Kovessy
