CALGARY The federal government has made a pilot project which encourages Canadian companies to develop products and get them from the lab to the marketplace a permanent program.

The program gives small- and medium-sized businesses contracts for pre-commercial inventions or services in hopes of creating high-value jobs.

The government provides feedback, performance testing and the opportunity to enter the marketplace if the new goods or services are successful.

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Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose told a gathering of defence, security and aerospace executives in Calgary the program now has an additional component directed toward military procurement.

She said the government is more effective as a customer than as a subsidizer.

Ambrose said its estimated that every $1 billion in defence or security spending creates or sustains 18,000 jobs and $710 million in gross domestic product.