Cargojet hires lobbyist, seeks federal cash for new Ontario aircraft facility

Cargojet Inc, the Canadian cargo airline whose shares trade on the TSX, is seeking federal money to develop a new Ontario aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility, Global News has learned.

The Mississauga-based company has hired a lobbyist to press Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) for “grants, loans or other financial benefits” as it develops the new facility, according to a federal lobbying registration filing.

Cargojet says its plan would see the company build a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility for its own fleet of 41 Boeing 757 and 767 freighter airplanes.

The facility would also perform work for other companies and their airplanes, the filing adds.

No cost estimate for the Cargojet project was included in the filing, but such facilities typically cost tens of millions of dollars and create hundreds of aviation sector jobs.

In the aviation world, such installations have typically migrated to low cost, low wage paying countries in Asia and South America over the past two decades.

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Cargojet mentioned plans for a new MRO facility as being among its broader corporate ambitions in a September PowerPoint presentation to investors. It didn’t say where in Ontario it would be located or anything about when the company would go ahead with it.

Cargojet has hired Mathieu Ouellet, a Montreal-based lobbyist for KPMG, as the lobbyist to help arrange meetings with ISED, MPs and other government officials to help secure federal support for its project.

Ouellet,, a senior manager of strategy and economic advisory services at KPMG who was hired Dec.4, could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Cargojet co-CEO’s Jamie Porteous and Pauline Dhillon also did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

News of the request for federal financial assistance comes just a few months after Cargojet announced that it signed a three-year, $160 million agreement with China-based Great Vision HK Express to provide scheduled charter air cargo services.

The flights will operate from Hangzhou, China to Vancouver, B.C., and from Vancouver, B.C. to Hangzhou, usiing B767-300F aircraft flying a minimum of three trips per week.

Cargojet said the service aims to help the rapidly expanding Chinese e-Commerce sector.

The 22-year-old Canadian cargo airline has grown into a $900 million a year operation that employs more than 1,800 people across Canada.

The carrier serves 16 Canadian airports from coast to coast with overnight air cargo services.