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“From a management perspective, I have a boss who I report to who is in the United States,” said Osborne, president of MDA’s information systems group. “Companies have very complicated legal structures for all sorts of reasons.”

Osborne said MDA has been very open about its need to expand and make inroads into the U.S. market.

What you’re seeing is a stealth takeover of sensitive technology that Canadian taxpayers paid for

“Part of the targeting of a U.S. market was to bring in management that can better access that market and we would structure ourselves legally in a way which would allow us to better access that market,” he explained.

Chuck Black, an analyst in Toronto who operates a website dealing with commercial space activities, said Canada is losing control of its domestic space industry. Earlier this year, Canada’s second largest space company, COM DEV, was purchased by a U.S. firm, Honeywell International, he pointed out.

“You have one company that has been bought outright by Americans,” Black explained. “A second has reorganized so it is now operated out of the United States.”

Black said MDA’s actions are aimed at winning lucrative U.S. military and government contracts, something its Canadian pedigree had hindered.

But both Black and Staples say MDA’s initiative has security implications for Canada.

U.S. law is now governing vital Canadian security and space assets.

Black pointed out the U.S. government was able to delay for years the launch of Canada’s Radarsat-2 surveillance spacecraft over its concerns about the type of data it would collect. As part of the ongoing dispute, the U.S. government prevented American technology from being used in the satellite and Canada had to rely on other nations for components.