Alps Welding president says Canada is well-positioned to be a cleantech leader

Alps Welding is a company that prides itself on flexibility. The Woodbridge, Ont.-based custom metal fabricator mainly served chemical companies from the time it was founded more than 40 years ago until about 2008, when oil prices plummeted. That’s when the company broadened its focus to find new opportunities. 

That flexibility may come in handy again, as a recent report sponsored by the Climate Change & Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) suggests Canadian businesses have a chance to gain an early foothold in the international cleantech market.

The report, entitled Cleantech Directions, points out that the usual challenges involved with international markets may not apply to cleantech industries. Instead of competing with a number of well-established companies, many cleantech markets have yet to mature, and fierce competition has yet to be established.

Dennis Dussin, president of Alps Welding Ltd., agrees that the future for Canadian businesses in cleantech is international markets.

“We should be saying, ‘How do we use this carbon challenge to invent a new industry and be a huge exporter of this technology’,” Dussin said. “That’s where I think a lot of the jobs are going to be — not just satisfying the need here, but satisfying the need internationally.”

Canada’s position

In the report, Dussin also noted that Canada is well-positioned to become a global leader in cleantech thanks to its expertise in the resource and energy industries. 

“What country in the world should be the leader in carbon management technology? It should be Canada. We’re a resource-based economy, we have all these challenges, we should be the ones selling all this to everyone else in the world.”

Alps Welding has experience taking on new markets. Since expanding its focus in 2008, the company has excelled. It provides custom fabrications for the largest engineers, designers and plant operators in North America, and serves a range of industries, including mining, food processing, pharmaceutical, power generation, water treatment and more. Cleantech is an area the company has already started to pursue. 

Report details

Alps Welding was a supporting sponsor of the Cleantech Directions project, which included a business survey of more than 500 executives across Canada, fielded in September 2015, as well as a roundtable discussion with a panel of technology innovators, policy experts and industry insiders.

• Tweet