Business Review USA - November 2017

DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES OF MANITOBA

AGRIMARINE TECHNOLOGIES INC

CANADIAN SOLAR INC

November 2017

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unique CANADIAN

challenge Interview with Carlsberg Canada CEO Sebastiaan Besems

TOP10

Largest franchises in Canada

SOLAR STORMS:

A warning from the Canadian Space Agency

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FOREWORD HELLO AND WELCOME to the November edition of Business Review Canada.

This month’s cover story features Carlsberg Canada CEO Sebastiaan Besems, who discusses the unique challenge that the country poses the world’s third-largest brewer.

Carlsberg is used to holding significant market share in the countries it serves, but the Canadian market is currently dominated by AB InBev and Molson Coors. How does Besems intend to increase Carlsberg’s footprint in Canada? Read on to find out.

Solar power is on the rise in Canada,

and another exclusive interview comes from Canadian Solar, touching on how the company is investing heavily in R&D in order to stay ahead of the curve. Dylan Marx, Managing Director of Global EPC and Operations and Maintenance Services, answers our questions.

Other exclusive insights come from AgriMarine Technologies and Diagnostic Services of Manitoba, while our top 10 profiles the largest franchises operating in Canada at the moment.

www.businessreviewcanada.ca

www.bizclikmedia.com

Enjoy the read!

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F E AT U R E S INSIGHT

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Interview with Carlsberg Canada CEO Sebastiaan Besems

36 TECHNOLOGY

16 Solar storms warning from Canadian space agency TOP 10

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Top 10 Largest franchises in Canada

Diagnostic Services of Manitoba

52 AgriMarine Technologies Inc

C O M PA N Y PROFILES HEALTHCARE 36 Diagnostic Services of Manitoba

FOOD & DRINK 52 AgriMarine Technologies Inc

ENERGY 64 Canadian Solar Inc

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Canadian Solar Inc

INTERVIEW

unique Canadian Carlsberg’s

challenge Wr it t e n by TO M WA D LOW

INTERVIEW

The world’s third-largest brewer holds major market shares in countries the world over, but Canada presents a different puzzle to solve for regional CEO Sebastiaan Besems. Starting at a lower base than Carlsberg is used to, how does he plan to make further inroads into the Canadian beer industry?

“EVEN THOUGH WE’RE the thirdbiggest brewer in the world, we are looking to punch above our weight in Canada,” remarks Sebastiaan Besems, CEO of Carlsberg Canada.

The Danish brewer produced 11bn litres of beer in 2016 and amassed C$12.2bn in revenue. In terms of market share, Carlsberg holds a top-two position in 12 Western European, five Eastern European and seven Asian countries.

Canada represents a somewhat different, smaller beast. Molson Coors and AB InBev occupy the lion’s share of this marketplace, between them accounting for well over three-quarters of all beer sales.

But beer sales have been declining in the country – 2016’s total of 2.24bn litres represents consistent drops in annual output since 2008, with 2.34bn litres sold. For Besems and Carlsberg, currently sitting in the chasing pack, this signals a 8

November 2017

readiness for an alternative offering.

“My task here can be explained very simply: to professionalise the organisation and to make it ready for further growth, and to increase profitability,” Besems says. “We need to keep that growth trajectory from the past five to seven years and make sure it is sustainable.”

From Copenhagen to Canada Having worked at Unilever for 11 years across numerous territories, Besems joined Carlsberg HQ’s global sales development team in Copenhagen in 2011. After gaining a solid grounding in how the business operates, he started to travel into the local markets: notably Russia, France, the Nordics, the UK and Malaysia.

“I am a true believer in the need to get out and get into the market, and not spend too long in a head office when you’re in this sort of commercial role,” Besems comments.

CARLSBERG CANADA CEO SEBASTIAAN BESEMS

11bn litres

– volume of beer produced by Carlsberg in 2016

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INTERVIEW

“I had to practice what I preach.”

In the summer of 2014, he took the role of Commercial VP for New Business in Carlsberg’s Swiss division, a sizeable and profitable venture for the company, which is currently the market leader in Switzerland.

“Over my career I always wanted to work more in general management,” Besems continues, “and when I trace back through my time in business, I covered a lot of different functions such as finance, sales and marketing

– step-by-step getting ready for that.”

In January 2016, the opportunity in Canada arose. “I thought it may have come a little too early as I had been in Switzerland for just under two years, but it was a great chance to lead a national market,” Besems says. “And it is a different challenge – I had been used to working in big markets for Unilever and Carlsberg to this point.

“For me, it was time to be

“For me, it was time to be experimental and entrepreneurial, although still within a multinational corporation.

This is what Canada offered” – Sebastiaan Besems, CEO of Carlsberg Canada

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CARLSBERG CANADA CEO SEBASTIAAN BESEMS

experimental and entrepreneurial, although still within a multinational corporation. This is what Canada offered. We are not number one or two in the market, more like number four or five, but we are on a growth trajectory and profitable here.”

Relevance Besems paints a mixed picture of the Canadian brewing industry. On the one hand, it is mature with two big

players holding a majority market share, while liquor boards still wield significant power, something the Dutchman is not used to from his experience in other markets.

However, there has been a sizable influx of craft brewers arriving in Canada, especially along the west coast, most notably Vancouver. The market is awash with beer flavours and innovation – great news for the consumer, but a trend which is placing ever more pressure on

300k-400k hectolitres – volume of beer sold in Canada in 2016

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INTERVIEW

“We need to keep that growth trajectory from the past five to seven years and make sure it is sustainable” – Sebastiaan Besems, CEO of Carlsberg Canada those companies in the chasing pack to gain real traction.

Carlsberg is neither part of the Canadian brewing establishment nor a craft brewer. “We certainly have a role to play here,” Besems asserts.

“We can offer an alternative. Some craft brewers are actually struggling a little bit in terms of translating their 12

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stories into equally impressive service to customers - for instance, in terms of a dedicated salesforce and people on the ground to help with setting up bars and lines. Producing a quality, stable liquid that doesn’t, for example, double-ferment on the shelf and therefore has a good ‘drinkability’ for the consumer, is also another big

CARLSBERG CANADA CEO SEBASTIAAN BESEMS

Kronenbourg - 1664 Blanc (pubEN)

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INTERVIEW challenge facing the craft industry.

“If we’re doing a good job, we can offer the best of both worlds. We can offer entrepreneurial solutions, aspirational brands, new liquids and innovations different to the flavours made by Molson Coors/ Labatt which consumers have been used to for many years. This can be matched with the infrastructure and service provision.”

Threefold focus Indeed, perfect sales fundamentals form one of Besems’ three overarching priorities that he believes will help Carlsberg establish a firmer foothold in Canada.

The first focus revolves around branding, whether with newer entries to the market such as Brooklyn, Grimbergen and Not-Your-Father’sRoot-Beer, or Carlsberg brewing staples like Kronenbourg 1664, Somersby cider and Carlsberg premium lager. Each brand has its own story to tell, and Besems is determined to emulate the success of craft brewer storytelling while also being able to offer the aftersales infrastructure to back it up.

“Coupled with that is innovation,” 14

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CARLSBERG CANADA CEO SEBASTIAAN BESEMS

adds Besems, who describes some of the recent work being carried out with Somersby and Kronenbourg Blanc flavours. “This year we announced another new flavour with Somersby – rhubarb – which is performing very well. We are also introducing a semi-dry cider under the brand.

With Kronenbourg Blanc, we have made a red fruit flavour which is not very sweet, unlike a lot of fruity beers. This is currently being sold as Kronenbourg 1664 Fruits Rouges by the keg to bars, and will be introduced

in bottles and cans in 2018.”

Carlsberg is actually a market leader for cider in Ontario and of the wheat beer category in Canada as a whole, and a continuous innovation pipeline with these trusted brands will only serve to strengthen this position. For Besems, the task is to bring more of Carlsberg’s portfolio into the limelight.

He concludes: “It is a great privilege and challenge to lead our Canadian business and help growing ‘probably the best beer and brands’ in the world.”

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TECHNOLOGY

THE IMPACT OF A SOLAR STORM ON TODAY’S CONNECTED WORLD Written by JESS SHANAHAN

Solar storms causing worldwide chaos may seem like something out of science-fiction, but the threat is something we should be taking seriously

TECHNOLOGY

AN APOCALYPSE-LEVEL SOLAR storm isn’t something reserved just for sci-fi. In fact, our planet has already experienced one. In 1859, a solar storm hit that was so large, it would have devastated the modern world.

The storm was dubbed the Carrington Event after British astronomer Richard Carrington, 18

November 2017

who made the link between the solar activity and geomagnetic disturbances on earth. During the event, the northern lights were seen as far south as Cuba and Rome, and it was said that people in the northeastern USA could read the newspaper by the light of the aurora.

This wasn’t the only effect of the

SOLAR STORMS

‘In 1989 an intense solar storm caused the collapse of the entire Canadian HydroQuebec power grid, which left 6mn people without electricity for nine hours’

storm: some telegraph operators reported sparks leaping from their equipment, with some bad enough to even start fires.

The part of the solar storm that plays havoc with our planet’s geomagnetic field is called a coronal mass ejection (CME). Severe solar storms have a similar electromagnetic

pulse (EMP) effect as a nuclear detonation, which could cause power outages – this represents the biggest threat to our connected world.

With power outages and disruption to the satellites providing GPS services, we could suddenly find ourselves disconnected and this has far more implications than an 19

TECHNOLOGY inability to check social media.

The first risk is ground-based cables that could burn out, taking out the power to homes and businesses. This is difficult to repair and could see entire towns and cities without power for extended periods of time. In 1989 an intense solar storm caused the collapse of the entire Canadian Hydro-Quebec power grid, which left 6mn people without electricity for nine hours.

While this affects our homes, it

THE AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION (AGU) REPORTED IN JANUARY THAT ELECTRICITY BLACKOUTS FROM AN EXTREME SPACE WEATHER EVENT COULD COST THE USA UP TO

US$40BN DAILY, OR MORE 20

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also has an effect on a variety of infrastructure systems as well as on banks and hospitals, meaning we wouldn’t be able to use ATMs and critical healthcare would be a risk too.

However, in this hyper-connected world, the real risk is the internet and GPS services going down for extended periods of time. This would present a number of inconveniences such as not being able to pay for anything with card; being unable to use any Transport-as-a-Service apps, such as Uber; airports wouldn’t be able to operate; satellite navigation systems wouldn’t work and businesses wouldn’t be able to access anything stored in the cloud.

A storm the size of the Carrington Event would destroy the entire fleet of satellites in orbit, causing billions of dollars-worth of damage and wiping out global telecommunications.

Humans wouldn’t even have time to find out that a flare had hit, we’d be suddenly and terribly disconnected.

If a city was to go without power for an extended number of days, maybe even months, businesses could lose huge amounts of money.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) reported in January that

SOLAR STORMS

‘Severe solar storms have a similar electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effect as a nuclear detonation’

electricity blackouts from an extreme space weather event could cost the USA up to US$40bn daily, or more. This figure is based on direct economic costs and doesn’t take into account the indirect effects on domestic and supply chain loss.

The best available estimates, from NASA and the America Philosophical Society, suggest a modern Carrington Event would cost humanity US$1-2trn in the first year and that it would take another four to 10 years to achieve full recovery.

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TECHNOLOGY

‘Look ahead to a world where every vehicle, city and person is connected, and the picture becomes even more bleak’

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SOLAR STORMS

The Internet of Things would be under considerable threat from this kind of weather event too.

Even now, an outage of GPS and internet services would have huge ramifications on communication and the economy, but look ahead to a world where every vehicle, city and person is connected, and the picture becomes even more bleak.

We’re moving towards Mobilityas-a-Service, where very few people will own a car and instead we’ll be relying on all manner of connected vehicles that can be called at the touch of a button. These vehicles will speak to one another and the cities around them. They’ll rely on the internet to know where they are on the road, where the other cars are and where the people within need to go. Suddenly pulling that connectivity could result in multiple accidents.

You can see the impact on transport infrastructure and the businesses running it in this future scenario, but this level of connectivity is growing in hospitals, banks, offices, logistics companies and a vast array of different industries that we rely on day-to-day.

The Canadian Space Agency is working to understand the modern-day impacts of a solar storm the size of the Carrington Event, as well as the likelihood of one striking in the near future. Scientist Pierre Langlois told CBC News: “I like to compare the risk of space weather to your risk of death.

“So, it’s easy for you to say, ‘well, I’ve never died before so I don’t think the risk is very high’, but you know it’s going to happen. For space weather, it’s like earthquakes in Canada, it doesn’t happen very often – that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.”

Unfortunately, there isn’t much businesses can do to protect themselves from a solar storm.

Thankfully Carrington-sized events happen once every 500 years and the smaller solar storms don’t often cause much more damage than a brief power outage. However, many experts believe it’s not a case of ‘if’ a large storm will happen but ‘when’.

As we become more connected, there’s an increasing need to understand space weather and the impact it has on our planet.

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TOP 10

TOP 10

franchises i n C a n ad a Are home-grown or US-born franchises coming out on top in Canada? We take a look at the top 10 franchises in the country, based on the number of retail units Written by OLIVIA MINNOCK

born and raised in Canada, s se hi nc fra p to e th at d ke We have previously loo a’s top overall, using betheboss.c on t ou g in m co o’s wh e se now it’s time to are really triumphing or s se hi nc fra n ow gr em ho r index to find out whethe essful in Canada. cc su e or m e ar s ain ch al ion whether internat

10 COUNTRY STYLE FOODS, CANADA Country Style Foods was founded in Toronto in 1963 when the first store opened in Toronto and sold coffee and donuts. The menu now includes breakfast and lunch dishes, too. The franchise currently has over 400 locations across Canada and its parent organisation is the MYT food group.

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TOP 10 FRANCHISES IN CANADA

DAIRY QUEEN CANADA, US Dairy Queen was founded in Illinois in 1940 with an unnamed frozen dairy dessert. By 1947, the chain had 100 stores and today Dairy Queen has over 6,000 restaurants across the world of which around 4,800 are in the US. The first Dairy Queen opened in Canada in 1953 and there are currently 602 Canadian units of the franchise.

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TOP 10

KFC, US KFC was first founded in the US in 1930 and is number two on Forbes’ Global Fast-Food Chains list. Its parent is the Yum! Brands organisation. KFC made its way to Canada in 1953 and as such became one of the first American fast food chains to expand internationally. It now has 650 outlets in the country, having opened its first outlet in Calgary. In Quebec, the brand is known as PFK (Poulet Frit Kentucky), which is the only alteration of the trademark in the world and was necessary because the provincial ‘language watchdog’ insists businesses in Quebec include some French in their titles. The company as a whole has over 19,900 locations worldwide.

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TOP 10 FRANCHISES IN CANADA

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PIZZA PIZZA, CANADA Pizza Pizza is a Canadian-born food franchise, founded in 1967. It has 724 units across the country and employs over 3,000 people. The company has traditional locations and ‘non-traditional’ locations such as university campuses and movie theatres. The chain was owned by its founder, Michael Overs, until his death in 2010.

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TOP 10

REMAX, US

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Remax, short for ‘Real Estate Maximums,’ is an American real estate company operating through franchises. The company as a whole operates in about 100 countries, with 6,800 offices and 100,000 agents. It was originally founded in Colorado in 1973 and made its way to Canada in 1977, where it opened its first office outside of the US in Calgary. It now has 785 units across the country.

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TOP 10 FRANCHISES IN CANADA

A&W FOOD SERVICES OF CANADA, CANADA A&W Food Services of Canada has 803 units across the country and was originally a part of A&W Restaurants, a US-based chain; it was eventualy sold to Unilever in 1972 and subsequently went through a management buy-out in 1995. As such, it is now a fully Canadian outlet as it has no connection to other A&W operations. The company as a whole was founded in 1919 in the US and the first Canadian branch was launched in 1956 in Winnipeg. In 2016, A&W Food Services of Canada reported $80.64mn in revenue.

05

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TOP 10

JAN-PRO CANADA, US Jan-Pro Canada currently has 1,281 units in the country. The firm supplies commercial cleaning services to businesses from schools and churches to gyms and offices. Jan-Pro was founded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1991 and across the US and Canada Jan-Pro has over 10,000 units in total.

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TOP 10 FRANCHISES IN CANADA

03

MCDONALDS, US US-born multinational franchise McDonald’s arrived in Canada in 1967 and currently has 1,400 units in the country since the first shop was opened in Richmond, British Columbia. The chain was originally founded in 1955 and has since opened over 35,000 stores in over 120 countries and McDonald’s venture to Canada was its first outside of the US. The firm is currently seventh on Forbes’ Most Powerful Brands list.

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TOP 10

02

SUBWAY, US Subway was founded in the US in 1965 and made its way to Canada in 1986 when the first Canadian store opened in St. John’s. Canada now boasts 3,032 Subway units while the franchise as a whole has 44,834 restaurants across 112 countries. As of May 2017, Forbes valued the Subway brand at $7.1mn. Subway is currently 92nd on the company’s ‘World’s Most Valuable Brands’ list.

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TOP 10 FRANCHISES IN CANADA

01

TIM HORTONS, CANADA Tim Hortons was founded in Canada in 1964, and its popularity as the top franchise, with 3,500 units in the country, shows that Canadians have chosen a home-grown business as their favourite coffee chain and indeed their mostloved franchise. ‘Canada’s largest quick-serve restaurant’, the company has a total of 4,613 units in nine different countries including the US, the UAE and the Philippines. Recently, Tim Horton’s announced it would be opening more stores in the UK, with the second store opening in Glasgow, Scotland. More branches are expected to open across Wales, England and Northern Ireland soon. The company as a whole reported a 2016 revenue of $3bn.

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DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES MANITOBA

Providing Results That Matter Written by Fran Roberts Produced by Quiyonni Borja

DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES OF MANITOBA

2017 marks the 15th anniversary of Diagnostic Services Manitoba (DSM). Its mission is simple – to serve communities across the province, aiming to provide all Manitobans, no matter where they live, with high quality laboratory tests and rural Manitobans with diagnostic imaging procedures

D

iagnostic Services Manitoba (DSM) touches the entire scope of the healthcare system from prenatal testing to autopsy and forensics; from pediatrics to geriatrics; from medical and surgical programs to public health and mental health and all other health services in between. While accounting for 3.5% of the provincial healthcare budget, their services influence over 80% of clinical decisions with laboratory and imaging results. As DSM celebrates its 15th year milestone, the company is keen to acknowledge the keys to its success.

“Our success over the last number of years has been a direct result of prioritising, collaboration and relationship building. We’ve developed important relationships with so many of our clinical colleagues and have really studied how best to deliver value to their work,” says Jim

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D S M O P E R AT E S 82 SITES ACROSS MANITOBA

H E A LT H C A R E

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H E A LT H C A R E

1,600

Number of employees at Diagnostic Services of Manitoba

Slater, Chief Executive Officer.

And Slater is not alone acknowledging the role relationships have played in the success of DSM over the years. “Another unique dimension to Diagnostic Services Manitoba is our philosophy that relationships are collaborative partnerships,” states Petr Kresta, Chief Operating Officer. “We have 82 sites across Manitoba delivering diagnostic services and our staff work hand-in-hand with nurses, physicians or other allied health workers to deliver quality healthcare services to the communities they serve. Over the years we’ve seen a trend towards centralisation within laboratories, and while this may be true, it does not mean that we work in isolation from our clinical and regional partners.

Without a strong collaborative partnership, we wouldn’t be able to provide efficient and effective

diagnostic service models of care that deliver value for our patients.”

Not just a laboratory

DSM is Manitoba’s public sector diagnostic healthcare service provider. “We’re not just a laboratory, we’re a full-scale diagnostics service centre. We manage laboratory testing, rural diagnostic imaging and diagnostic cardiology, which is what makes our model so unique within Canada,” comments Slater.

“Our tagline is, ‘We deliver results that matter’. Instead of passively providing lab results or conducting an x-ray or EKG, we work closely with clinicians to ensure that they’re ordering appropriate tests for their patients to help improve outcomes.”

The appropriate use of diagnostic tests has become a significant topic of conversation among the international medical community.

A 2015 study published in the

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DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES OF MANITOBA

Another unique dimension to Diagnostic Services Manitoba is our philosophy that relationships are collaborative partnerships – Petr Kresta, Chief Operating Officer

Academic Emergency Medicine Journal found that over 85% of respondents believed too many diagnostic tests are ordered in their own emergency departments, and 97% said at least some of the advanced imaging studies they personally ordered were medically unnecessary.

“If you think about it, unnecessary diagnostic tests can cause harm and delays to patients. It can also cause unnecessary costs that burden the healthcare system. What we’ve found in the last few years is that by working closely with our clinical colleagues we are able to

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collaborate on what clinical tests best improve their patient’s outcome and help minimise unnecessary testing,” Slater observes.

For example, every x-ray and even more so every CT, exposes patients to the increased risks associated with radiation. DSM has made it a priority to work with its partners to ensure that only necessary imaging tests are ordered and performed.

“When we meet with the emergency department we can actually talk about these issues and discuss as a team what makes the most sense for the patient,” explains Dr. Amin Kabani, Chief Medical Officer.

“Patient care has always been our top priority. While we are working with our clinical partners to address the use of unnecessary tests and to extract the efficiency and resource savings that go along with that, patient safety and care is never compromised. We have checks and balances in place within DSM to make sure the patient always receives the most appropriate testing and best possible care. As an organisation we pride ourselves

H E A LT H C A R E

DSM IS ACCREDITED

BY THE MANITOBA QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM

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© Siemens Healthcare Limited, 2017.

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H E A LT H C A R E

The appropriate use of diagnostic tests has become a significant topic of conversation among the international medical community.

A 2015 study published in the Academic Emergency Medicine Journal found that over 85 per cent of respondents believed too many diagnostic tests are ordered in their own emergency departments, and 97% said at least some of the advanced imaging studies they personally ordered were medically unnecessary.

on our track record of being accredited by the Manitoba Quality Assurance Program (MANQAP) and College of American Pathologists (CAP), which is one of the highest ranked accreditation agencies for medical laboratories in the world.”

Significant investment

By creating such efficiencies, DSM has been able to increase investments in other areas. “By eliminating unnecessary testing we’ve been able to redirect resources and significantly invest in genetic testing, which is one of the biggest challenges we are facing today,” Slater observes.

“The future of diagnostics is becoming very genetics-based.

There are drugs, for example, which will not work if you do not have the right gene, gene combination, gene expression or gene inhibitor. A major challenge for everyone across the world, frankly, is how do we keep up with the science of genetics with high quality, reproducible genetic testing? Many cancers now are not only diagnosed or staged simply on traditional pathology morphology, but are now using genetics to differentiate them.”

A broad mandate

Of course, as a province-wide provider of diagnostics services, DSM has not solely invested in genomics. “We’ve made a significant investment, between

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CA$25mn and CA$30mn, in our decision making. We can now look provincial laboratory information at costing data, utilisation data, system,” advises Slater. “A stocking data in an integrated way significant portion of that is a that allows us to make rational critical Provincial Laboratory decisions, particularly when we’re Information System (PLIS) – talking to our stakeholders,” chemistry, hematology, adds Kabani. “All our microbiology – that provincial sites are linked we call the core up to our information. It laboratory and doesn’t matter which we’ve rolled out site you’re talking Diagnostic Services the PLIS across to, you’re working of Manitoba the province.” from the same Annual Revenue Having one system. This allows repository of us to actually be costlaboratory data across effective and economic, but Manitoba has greatly more importantly in our minds, benefitted DSM. “Fifteen years it helps us make good decisions.” ago, we used to have limited data In addition to the laboratory that was very fragmented and we information system, DSM is also couldn’t use it as effectively for rolling out a provincial Anatomic

US$200mn

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DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES OF MANITOBA

Our tagline is, ‘We deliver results that matter’.

Instead of passively providing lab results or doing an x-ray or doing an EKG, we work with clinicians to ensure that they’re ordering appropriate tests for their patients to help improve outcomes – Jim Slater, CEO

Providing Innovative Diagnostics Solutions Now and into the future

Core Laboratory

Microbiology

Pathology

Point of Care

Sequencing

Doing now what patients need next 2017 Roche DSM Ad.indd 1

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November 2017

9/25/2017 1:01:35 PM

H E A LT H C A R E

Pathology Laboratory Information System (AP-LIS), due to be fully implemented by the end of the fiscal year. “A big part of that investment was publicly funded by our provincial government. We also have partnered with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) who has provided funding to DSM to make significant investments in AP-LIS that will enable synoptic reporting, along with another federal funding partner, Canada Health Infoway,” notes Slater.

“Manitoba has made a major investment in digital imaging contributing to the creation of a province-wide digital imaging system. Most recently, the province of Manitoba made a CA$25mn investment in digital mammography that was delivered under the leadership of DSM and funded almost entirely by our provincial government. DSM receives 9599% of our funding through the public sector. As we are a Canadian Corporation this allows us to enter into partnerships with industry, business and funding

agencies. It makes us unique in the country, unique in the world, I would think, because we have such a broad mandate.”

Geographic challenges

Indeed, DSM’s mandate is broad both in the sense of the services that it provides but also geographically.

“We have a land mass that is 1.5 times the size of the state of California and so we’re a very large geographic area,” Kresta advises.

The population is also not evenly distributed. The 2016 Census of Canada found that approximately 1.3mn people live in the province and around 778,000 of those live in the metro Winnipeg area, located 68 miles from the US border.

This uneven distribution can be a struggle for DSM at times. “It’s very challenging at some of our sites. If you look at the map, we have pretty remote and isolated sites – sites which you can only fly into,” Slater observes. “If you look at our farthest northern site on the map, which is Churchill, it is only accessible by air travel and by ship

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DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES OF MANITOBA

D S M O P E R AT E S W I T H 95-99% PUBLIC FUNDING

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for part of the year. So, it’s a very big challenge.”

Despite this, DSM works hard to service such communities. “We’re actually able to provide remote support to our rural staff through technology, and this is an area where I think others in the country are looking to learn from our various models of diagnostic service delivery,” advises Slater.

Future value

Looking ahead, DSM is in a period of transition, as they become part of a new provincial health organisation called Shared Health Services Manitoba on 1 April 2018. “All of the value and all of the benefits, the positive things that we’ve been talking about for DSM are going to get even broader. Shared Health Services Manitoba’s mandate is set to transform Manitoba’s health care system and will go well beyond just diagnostic services. It will look at how to deliver more connected and coordinated health care services across the province,” Slater concludes.

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AgriMarine Canada’s

AQUACULTURE INNOVATOR Written by Fran Roberts Produced by Aquarius Rougely

AGRIMARINE TECHNOLOGIES INC.

Canada-based AgriMarine has developed innovative aquaculture technology for finfish farming. COO Rob Walker discusses how the company’s systems can combat the twin challenges of sea lice and toxic plankton blooms

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quaculture, probably the fastest growing food-producing sector, now accounts for nearly 50% of the world’s food fish, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). AgriMarine Technologies Inc. (ATI) is looking to leverage on this growth by creating, innovating and building the most advanced marine-based aquaculture systems in the world.

“In the early days, we were net cage farmers off the west coast of Vancouver Island. We also ran a large hatchery, a processing plant and a small truck fleet. Through a number of circumstances, mostly natural factors, we ended up losing our farms and eventually closed the processing plant. We got involved in the enclosed system farming business in the year 2000,” states Rob Walker, COO. “We didn’t want to leave the farming industry behind; we really liked what we were doing but wanted to find a better way, so we began looking at containment systems for the farm. We ran a project on land actually – a pump ashore system – for about five years, and learned an awful lot about containment farming.

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“It’s been a really exciting time.

Aquaculture generally is a fascinating business, no one day is like any other” – Rob Walker, COO, AgriMarine Technologies

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In 2013, the company acquired a freshwater farm in Lois Lake, British Columbia, installing six container systems there.

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Unfortunately, that facility was very expensive to run and was not sustainable. We were able to take the design concepts and transpose them into marine containment facilities. This enabled us to dramatically reduce the energy required to move water.”

It is these marine containment facilities that ATI manufactures today, although the development process has not always been smooth. “Our first installation was in northern China, near a town called Benxi and so we created our systems there in a reservoir. They worked quite well and we had a further system built and installed in British Columbia, where we reared chinook salmon, and that actually worked very well,” advises Walker.

“Although our first experience with the ocean tank was excellent from a husbandry perspective, it didn’t end well. We had a series of storms that winter that were pretty brutal and it finished off with a hurricane strength storm that actually put a crack in the tank so we opted to remove the tank from the water.”

Despite this, the crack proved to be an excellent opportunity for ATI. “It was a perfect learning experience and we were able to take everything that we learned and do a complete redesign. We then built a series of tanks that are far more robust and able to handle that level of stress from the natural environment,” Walker notes.

Excellent location In 2013, the company acquired a freshwater farm in Lois Lake, British Columbia, installing six container systems there. Two more systems have also been exported to Norway – one of which has been running for four generations

US$12mn AgriMarine Technologies Inc. Annual Revenue

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of fish. ATI will have the second one in the water towards the end of 2017. “It’s been a really exciting time. Aquaculture generally is a fascinating business, no one day is like any other,” advises Walker.

As well as having its company origins in British Columbia, the province provides the perfect setting for ATI’s business. “It’s an excellent location. For example, the industry here actually started in an area called the Sechelt Peninsula, which is just north of Vancouver, and the water there was thought to be good for a number of reasons, it’s warm and protected and close to the markets,” Walker notes.

“However, it turns out for net cage farming it really wasn’t that good.

There are a lot of plankton blooms in that area because of the warm summer temperature and the lack of flow in the water. The industry learned to move away from that area to more rugged water further up the coast and it’s continued to grow from there. The AgriMarine containment technology is ideally suited to this type of environment.”

Robert Walker, COO, AgriMarine Holdings Inc. Mr. Walker has extensive experience in logistics, sales and marketing, procurement and regulatory compliance, having worked with AgriMarine since 1993 in a variety of positions, and in the seafood distribution industry as a senior manager with responsibility for sales and purchasing. Mr. Walker holds a Master of Business Administration from Royal Roads University, where he focused on Executive Management with a specialization in Leadership Studies.

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AGRIMARINE TECHNOLOGIES INC.

Toxic blooms Plankton blooms negatively affect fish in three different ways – mechanical irritation, producing toxins and lowering the dissolved oxygen in the water column – leading to high mortality rates of the fish. “The reason we lost our farms on the west coast of Vancouver Island to begin with was because of plankton,” Walker observes.

“We could not protect our fish from natural elements and toxic plankton blooms. Every few years we’d grow our inventory – it takes 18-24 months to grow inventory – and then along came a plankton bloom that killed everything.

“We really wanted to find ways around that. Our system as it’s designed currently is able to do that. We have the capacity of drawing water from depth to modulate temperature and avoid plankton. This works in both fresh and salt water environments.”

Ahead of the curve As well as avoiding toxic blooms,

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this system also helps to avoid sea lice. Sea lice are marine ectoparasites (external parasites) that feed on the mucus, epidermal tissue and blood of host marine fish. “It’s big news here and we have never had a sea lice issue in our systems, either the pump ashore or the marine systems that we’ve had in play. We believe it’s because the sea lice live primarily in what’s called the phototropic zone, which is the light-enhanced area of the water that goes down 12-15m below the surface. So, by drawing water from 30-40m below the surface, we are able to avoid the majority of sea lice,” Walker states.

A low energy pumping system, combined with a proprietary deep-water oxygenation system creates an optimised and healthy environment for the fish. When ATI first introduced this technology, many in the aquaculture business were sceptical. “It wasn’t that long ago that most people in the industry felt that we were heading down the wrong path,” explains Walker. “When you look

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Sean James Wilton, VP Business Development, AgriMarine Holdings Inc.

Stephen Robinson, General Manager, AgriMarine Technologies Inc.

Mr. Wilton has worked for AgriMarine since 2004 and has been involved in many aspects of the environmental engineering, construction and aquaculture industries for over 17 years. His engineering experience encompasses a multitude of designs, from complex municipal water systems to the most advanced fish hatchery systems in the world and the largest cold-water fish hatchery in North America. Mr. Wilton is an aerospace engineering graduate from the Canadian Forces School and holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the Royal Military College of Kingston.

Mr. Robinson has significant salmon aquaculture farm management experience, including project planning, designing and installing automation control systems, sampling, and designing IT systems. Mr. Robinson has worked for AgriMarine since 1994 and currently acts as General Manager and Senior Manager of Design and Technology for AgriMarine’s marinebased solid-wall containment finfish aquaculture systems. Mr. Robinson has designed and installed control and monitoring systems for pumps, oxygenation, and waste water treatment and has conducted environmental field monitoring and background surveys in pursuit of prospective freshwater and marine aquaculture licenses.

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at what’s going on in Norway right now and the literally hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on the design of new floating closed containment systems, we’re obviously way ahead of the curve and I think we continue to be.” Indeed, ATI believes the

system was the first marine-based closed containment system to be certified under the Norwegian NS9415 construction standard.

With ATI already ahead of the competition, the future certainly looks bright for the firm in this fledgling industry sector.

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Aquaculture, probably the fastest growing food-producing sector, now accounts for nearly 50% of the world’s food fish

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brighter future

FOR THE SOLAR INDUSTRY Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Josef Smith

CANADIAN SOLAR INC.

Technological ingenuity is crucial in the solar industry and no company understands this better than Canadian Solar. By investing heavily in research and development, the company has developed innovative technologies which are increasing the value of solar energy

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hrough cutting-edge technologies and its commitment to sustainable energy, Canadian Solar is a company which lives up to its slogan - ‘making a difference’. Over its 16-year history, the company has had a successful track record of developing, engineering, constructing and connecting solar projects worldwide and now boasts a total project pipeline of 9.5GW. Indeed, as one of the three biggest solar companies in the world by revenue, Canadian Solar has established itself as a name the industry can trust.

For Dylan Marx, Managing Director of Global EPC and Operations and Maintenance Services, the key to the company’s success lies in its comprehensive services and innovative approach. “We really like to think of ourselves as a full solution

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Field maintenance

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provider rather than just a ‘solar panel Driving efficiency company,” he says. “We’re trying to A commitment to efficiency and really understand what our customers performance is integral to Canadian are looking for, what’s prohibiting Solar’s ethos. The company’s PV them from being successful, and then panels have been so thoroughly tested developing solutions to cater for that.” under harsh conditions, that it not Initially beginning its O&M services only offers a 25-year warranty, but from an asset owner perspective, also guarantees the power output for Canadian Solar has sold many 20 years. The company also of its assets to third parties conducts 359 internal as it has built and quality tests daily and, Canadian Solar developed new ones. in doing so, keeps Inc has a total Demonstrating its efficiency and project pipeline of business acumen, productivity high Canadian Solar on its agenda. continues to provide This commitment O&M services to to efficiency these third party clients also extends to and has expanded its Canadian Solar’s O&M solutions to include a unique services. “We’ve recently offering of products including medium developed a custom monitoring voltage stations, string inverters, PV software platform that conducts a connectors as well as its PV modules. performance test every day based “Now, we primarily service the on the previous day’s performance,” projects that we sold and thanks to our adds Marx. “This allows us to verify O&M services we have been able to every single day that a plant has or leverage our knowledge to maximise hasn’t performed as it was expected the efficiency and performance to, even if there are no obvious of these assets,” says Marx. problems or alarms. This essentially

9.5GW

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“I think we’ll continue to be successful because we’re much more than ‘just a solar company’; we’re a comprehensive solution” – Dylan Marx, Managing Director of Global EPC and O&M Services

allows us to run a performance test on every asset every day.

That commitment to maximising efficiency and performance is a key advantage that we’ve been able to offer to our customers.”

Technological ingenuity With a 9,700-strong workforce globally, Canadian Solar boasts some of the best talent and expertise in

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the industry who are motivated to innovate and research so that they can improve the company’s solar cell and solar module technologies.

With R&D investments of over US$600mn, Canadian Solar is widely recognised as a key innovator in the solar industry, says Marx.

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Acacia Solar Farm O&M by CSI “R&D is a critical component of our global operation,” he adds. “I think we have some of the most experienced and respected researchers, scientists and engineers who are continually innovating and developing our next wave of technologies.

“The solar industry is very competitive, and often what distinguishes a company is whether it has a head start with a given technology. Therefore, Canadian Solar is investing heavily in R&D to ensure that we are truly at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.”

This drive towards technological ingenuity is a core focus for the company. One cutting-edge

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Beamlight Solar Farm O&M by CSI - 01

“Canadian Solar is investing heavily in R&D to ensure that we are truly at the cutting edge of technology and innovation” – Dylan Marx, Managing Director of Global EPC and O&M Services technology that Marx is particularly excited about are Canadian Solar’s Ku series of modules, the company’s new line of solar products, based on the next-generation dualcell technology. With low power loss in cell interconnection and low operating temperatures, this technology has higher output, better shading performance and is more reliable, explains Marx.

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“It really offers unparalleled performance characteristics,” he says. “There’s a whole range of advantages that the technology offers and I think that’s why the company is focused on and investing in R&D. We really offer a full range of solutions to the market and I think that’s pretty unique. Not many of our competitors offer that type of variety.

“Many of our competitors are

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Beamlight Solar Farm O&M by CSI - 02 focused on producing as many panels as they can and not focusing on innovation,” Marx adds. “In contrast, Canadian Solar has always been innovative and has tried to offer something different that’s more compelling to the customer.”

The solar industry is a competitive one to be in, but if there is one thing that can define the integrity and indeed the success of a company, it is trust.

A bankable brand Over 1,200 active customers across the globe have put their faith in Canadian Solar. As one of the most long-standing tier-one suppliers in the industry, Canadian Solar has

established itself as a stable business operation and a name that the sector can rely on. “To us, being a tier one supplier is primarily based on trust,” explains Marx. “It shows how much you can trust the quality of Canadian Solar’s products, the performance characteristics that we offer, and the products and services we provide. It demonstrates the bankability of our company and, more than anything, it shows that our customers can trust our products and performance.”

As one of the three biggest solar companies in the world by revenue, Canadian Solar is widely recognised as a market leader in the industry.

With the growth of renewables

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“That commitment to maximising efficiency and performance is a key advantage that we’ve been able to offer to our customers” – Dylan Marx, Managing Director of Global EPC and O&M Services

Panel Washing

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Canadian Solar “Make the Difference”

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and an increasing focus on ‘going greener’, it seems that the future of Canadian Solar is looking bright.

“We’re very optimistic about the opportunities for solar, the continued adoption of renewables and the growth of these types of technologies,” reflects Marx.

“For example, more than 60% of the total generating capacity that was added in the US last year was solar power. That’s a really striking trend and we expect that growth

of solar energy to continue.

“I think Canadian Solar has a competitive edge because we’re different to some of our competitors,” he concludes. “We feel really proud of our new Ku module technologies as well as the next generation of technologies that we have coming down the pipeline. But more than that, I think we’ll continue to be successful because we’re much more than ‘just a solar company’; we’re a comprehensive solution.”

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