One of Waterloo’s biggest tech firms is embarking on a major expansion.
Premier Kathleen Wynne was at the Sandvine office on Albert Street on Wednesday to announce a $15-million grant for the company, which will be put toward its planned $169-million expansion.
Sandvine providers internet service companies with tools to prioritize traffic and deploy new services. About 85 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from outside Canada.
“There’s a market there for companies that are going to be looking for the kind of information that you can provide,” Wynne said.
Also present for the announcement was Brad Duguid, Ontario’s minister of economic development, employment and infrastructure.
Asked why the government chose to create a $2.7-billion fund to invest in specific employers, rather than put that money toward a tax break, Duguid responded that the province’s economy is best served by putting that toward companies like Sandvine, which he said help Ontario compete on the global stage.
“The days where you could just sort of spread out, through a tax credit to everybody, a little bit of help … are gone,” he said.
“The realities of our global economy mean that we have to invest in our fast runners, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Sandvine currently employs 267 people in Waterloo. The expansion is expected to increase that number by 75.
Duguid was also asked about the status of OpenText, which was awarded a $120-million provincial grant in 2014.
Nearly two years later, not one person has been hired as part of that company’s planned 1,200-job expansion.
Duguid defended the grant, saying the company would have undergone that expansion outside Ontario without it – and said he isn’t worried that nobody has been hired, because none of the money will flow from the province until that happens.
“They’ll move ahead on their timetable, when they’re ready,” he said.
