Canada makes a bet on San Diego

New consulate aims to drum up business for neighbor to the north

By Elizabeth Malloy
San Diego Daily Transcript

December 19, 2005

Thousands of miles of coastline and an international border separate San Diego from Vancouver, Canada, but Sunil Sharma thinks the two cities have more in common than meets the eye -- particularly when it comes to business. Sharma is the head of the Canadian Consulate in downtown San Diego, only the second foreign consulate in the city, the other being Mexico. While Mexico and San Diego share a border, Sharma said Canada was interested in putting a consulate here because San Diego County shares many of the same business clusters as several Canadian cities, particularly Vancouver.

"Vancouver is a city remarkably similar to San Diego in terms of size, population, landscape and geography, West Coast, sharing a time zone," Sharma said. "But in addition, Vancouver represents a great technology cluster in its own right with a lot of similarities to the cluster you find in San Diego."

With only five employees located in the same building as the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Consulate is small. Sharma and a colleague are both Canadian nationals, and the other three employees are local Americans charged with making connections in the wireless, biotech or aerospace and defense industries, which the consulate have identified as key local markets compatible with Canada.

Though open for only about a year and a half, Sharma said he thinks the consulate is beginning to make headway in connecting the two countries, and particularly the San Diego and Vancouver regions. The consulate held two different trade missions at the end of November, one focusing on biotech which drew representatives from 18 different Canadian institutions and organizations, and a wireless trade mission which brought representatives from nine different wireless companies.

Jim Kirkpatrick, chief technical officer for the Carlsbad branch of Sierra Wireless (Nasdaq: SWIR), which is headquartered in suburban Vancouver, attended the wireless conference and said he sees some strong connections between San Diego and America's neighbor to the north.

Kirkpatrick was CEO of the wireless company Air Prime before Sierra Wireless bought the company in June 2003 and converted it into a Sierra branch. He said it's imperative for modern electronics companies to develop an "ecosystem" of fellow designers, manufacturers and distributors, and that he agreed Vancouver and other areas of Canada match up well for San Diego.

"(Vancouver) has something like 240 identified wireless companies in the greater Vancouver area -- that just floored me," Kirkpatrick said. "We're hoping to stay more engaged with the consulate. It's pretty clear they have a really good handle on what's going on here and in (British Columbia) at the same time, and other areas of Canada."

Kirkpatrick also pointed to less costly labor in Canada and a strong talent pool when it comes to engineers.

"We're finding it very challenging to recruit staff and engineering here in San Diego, as all companies are. It's a very competitive environment for engineers here, so anything we can do with the consulate that raises our exposure … it can only help us," Kirkpatrick said.

Canada has been making inroads in San Diego for years, Sharma said, pointing out that high-ranking officials at local companies like Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Gen-Probe (Nasdaq: GPRO) are originally from Canada. The consulate is hopeful that a new direct Air Canada flight between San Diego and Vancouver will make business between the two areas easier and more common.

Kirkpatrick said he thinks the flight, which arrives daily at 11:15 a.m. and departs for Vancouver at 11:50 a.m. and lasts about two and a half hours, will be very helpful. According to San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Chairman Joe Craver, more than 80,000 passengers fly between San Diego and Vancouver each year and 240,000 people fly between San Diego and Canada.

With a Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles to issue visas, passports and assistance to Canadian citizens in Southern California, the San Diego Consulate is designed to focus primarily on business relationships, Sharma said. In addition to trade missions and supporting the new Air Canada flight, the consulate is trying to encourage Canadian companies to use San Diego research facilities like the Salk and Burnham institutes. Conversely, the consulate is attempting to make more San Diego companies take advantage of Canadian research facilities, and make them aware of incentives like Canada's recent research and development tax credits.

"We're here as a dedicated trade and investment office to basically look for opportunities where the two regions can work together," Sharma said.