CRITICALCONTROL SOLUTIONS (TSX-V: CCZ)
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Friday, October 22, 2004
Calgary, Alberta

CRITICALCONTROL TO ACQUIRE VALCURA INTERNATIONAL

CriticalControl Solutions Corp., (“CriticalControl” or the “Company”) (TSX Venture: CCZ) is pleased to announce that it has signed formal agreements to acquire Valcura International Assessments Inc. (“Valcura”) and certain operating assets of Valcura's parent, GDS & Associates Systems Inc. (“GDS”), which support Valcura's business.

Valcura focuses on providing systems integration services and solutions to municipalities and counties exclusively in the area of real property tax assessments. Valcura's market is primarily North American, with significant penetration in the United States. In a relatively short period of time, Valcura has generated significant reference sites and established a niche in CAMA (Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal) systems replacement and enabling mass appraisal systems.

Valcura's average revenues for the past two years were approximately $3,500,000 per year. Based on operational efficiencies to be gained in the acquisition, Valcura will have an immediate positive impact on CriticalControl's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”).

Pursuant to the terms of the acquisition, CriticalControl will acquire Valcura, certain operating assets of GDS and will eliminate a total of $2,474,000 of debt for the following consideration:

$635,000 cash to eliminate secured debt of $1,292,000.
$250,000 in shares of CriticalControl at a deemed price of $0.10 per share to eliminate certain other liabilities.
$750,000 performance based compensation which shall be issued in shares of CriticalControl in three equal portions upon meeting revenue targets of $1,500,000 for the five months ending March 31, 2005; $4,000,000 for the twelve months ending December 31, 2005; and $5,500,000 for the twelve months ending December 31, 2006.
In order to fund the purchase price and working capital for the acquisition, CriticalControl intends on completing a private placement of up to $600,000 at $0.10 per share. It is intended that $200,000 of this private placement will close on October 22, 2004 and will be subscribed for by officers and directors of the Company. CriticalControl has entered into an agreement with Northern Securities Inc. (the "Agent") for the Agent to raise the remaining $400,000 gross proceeds for the Company pursuant to a private placement (the "Arrangement"). Under the terms of the Arrangement, the remaining $400,000 will be raised by the Agent through George Watson, CEO of CriticalControl, and Alykhan Mamdani, President of CriticalControl selling an aggregate of up to 4,000,000 free trading common shares of the Company at $0.10 per share to purchasers as arranged by the Agent. George Watson and Alykhan Mamdani will then subscribe for a number of common shares of CriticalControl equal to the number of common shares sold to those purchasers for $0.10 per common share, such common shares to be issued from the treasury of CriticalControl in reliance upon the prospectus and registration exemptions contained in the securities legislation of Alberta and to be subject to a four month hold period from the date of issuance.

"The principal focus of our nonproprietary services has always been on Government and the energy sector. The acquisition of Valcura strengthens our offering to Government and provides a stronger document and record focus which is leverageable in the same geographic market as our products. Repeatable solutions in specific niches to customers we understand is the key to enhanced profitability in the current market where systems integration is becoming commoditized," said Alykhan Mamdani, President of CriticalControl

"Having achieved our targets of positive EBITDA through the higher margins associated with our proprietary products, we are looking to build a profitable enterprise within our service offering to ensure the long term viability of our entire company. The acquisition of Valcura allows us to leverage the knowledge and exposure gained through our contract with the Government of Alberta registries and land titles departments and our large scale product implementation, customization and support abilities in the United States with Valcura's expertise in real property tax assessments," said George Watson, CEO of CriticalControl

"Over the past 4 years, Valcura has achieved significant market penetration in real property management solutions for municipalities through successful execution of solutions at key reference sites in North America. Our integration into CriticalControl will provide us with the depth of expertise, critical mass and execution capabilities to meet the growing demands of the industry and maintain a market leadership position," said Tim Walker, President of Valcura. Mr. Walker will be joining CriticalControl as Vice President, Real Property Solutions.

About CriticalControl

CriticalControl provides organizations better control over their mission critical information. We build, operate and support applications which gather, manage and disseminate information primarily in government and the energy sector. Our imaging service bureau and outsourcing offering is the front end document gathering and control service for numerous government departments. We provide high end content and information management expertise to our government and energy sector clients to manage and securely share their critical information. Using our core area of expertise, we have assembled industry leading information control applications for the energy sector. These applications include ezy-Ops, a leading materials management application for the upstream oil and gas sector and PipeWorks, an industry leading application for the operation of pipelines around the world. For more information, please visit www.criticalcontrol.com.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. George Watson
Chief Executive Officer
Tel: (403) 705-7500
Fax: (403) 705-7555
E-mail: george.watson@criticalcontrol.com

or

Mr. Alykhan Mamdani
President
Tel: (403) 705-7500
Fax: (403) 705-7555
E-mail: alykhan@criticalcontrol.com

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.