Incoming CMTDA president Frank Haydar

December 1st saw the 69th annual general meeting of the Canadian Machine Tool Distributors’ Association. Held at the Board of Trade Golf and Country Club in Woodbridge, ontario just north of Toronto, John Manley outgoing president CMTDA introduced the new president, Frank Haydar. Haydar, (Elliott Matsuura Canada Inc.) reported dramatic increases in orders for both machining and fabricating equipment but also warned about the impact of a rising Canadian dollar: “a low Canadian currency during the past two decades has allowed Canadian manufacturers to make gains internationally without investing in more efficient technology. Now that our dollar hovers around parity with the US dollar, Canadian manufacturing companies are struggling to balance the productivity gap between Canada and the US by investing in new machinery-and this is ultimately good for all of us.”
Membership in the CMTDA is up from 78 to 82 members over 2010. New member companies are: HUB Sinclair Cockburn, Kennametal Inc., Mitcham Machine tools, Garant Machinery and Zecom Media. Following the membership report from Steven Fitz, a plaque was presented to new members company representatives Robert Dunbar (Ellison Technologies) and Dean Drager (National Leasing). John Manley introduced keynote speaker Tom Deans, author of the bestseller “Every Family’s Business”, who delivered a presentation about protecting wealth within a family business.

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