Waterloo looks to boost aviation sector
Regional staff exploring strengths and weakness of this area to attract major manufacturers
WATERLOO REGION — Regional staff are investigating ways to increase this area’s share of the multibillion dollar aerospace industry pie.
Last week, members of the Region of Waterloo’s economic development committee of council heard some of the early findings of a months-long examination of the region’s strengths and weaknesses in the sector, which contributed more than $25 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2018.
“It’s a fairly significant industry that flies under the radar, so to speak, and something we feel is a definite strength for us as we position the economy to evolve over the next few years,” said Rod Regier, commissioner of planning, development and legislative services.
More than 100 aerospace companies already operate in the region but most are small or medium-sized businesses that provide manufacturing or software expertise for larger, toptier manufacturers such as passenger jet manufacturer Airbus.
Since November, three regional staffers have been working with consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers on identifying ways to grow the sector. Through interviews with about 50 local aerospace companies and by comparing this area to other communities active in the sector such as Toronto, Alabama, Seattle and Toulouse,
France, staff discovered Waterloo Region already has many of the qualities major companies are looking for — access to talent, available land to build on, and important infrastructure such as railways, highways and an international airport.
“The thing is that Waterloo Region has a lot of these characteristics, it’s just not tweaked to support aerospace and aviation,” said Matthew Chandy, manager of the region’s Office of Regional Economic Development.
Waterloo Region has the fourth-largest aerospace cluster in Canada and the fourthlargest advanced manufacturing sector, Chandy told councillors.
Talent in particular is something this region could do a better job of leveraging.
The University of Waterloo is one of the top engineering schools in the world but doesn’t have a specific aerospace engineering program, Chandy said, even though many of their grads eventually go into the sector.
Regional staff have been in talks with UW, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College about possibly establishing a new program focused on aerospace engineering.
“When we talk about talent supply, this is key for building the sector,” Chandy said.
Interviews with local companies also revealed a lack of overall awareness about the industry’s presence. Even Chandy said he was surprised to learn just how many companies were already operating in the region when he began the project last fall.
More than 3,200 people are employed by local aerospace or aviation companies, including Honeywell Aerospace, Rockwell Automation, Heroux-Devtek, and Navblue — a subsidiary of Airbus that develops integrated flight solutions and air traffic management services to help navigate the planes. Other local firms, from BlackBerry to artificial intelligence specialists DarwinAI, have recently announced partnerships with companies in the aerospace sector.
“How do we co-ordinate better to let the world know there’s an aerospace presence here? This is something we’re giving some thought to,” Chandy said.
The region is also home to Waterloo Region International Airport, which has been identified as a possible hub for international flights once Pearson International Airport reaches capacity over the next decade.
Some experts have questioned how well the aerospace or aviation industry will bounce back from the impact of COVID-19 and the grounding of passenger jets around the world. Regional Chair Karen Redman asked Chandy if staff have taken it under consideration.
“I really cannot put a timeline on when the industry might recover and we’ll see what the situation is and try to adjust accordingly or listen to industry about how they’re responding,” Chandy said, noting some manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing are starting to resume production.
Redman also asked about this region’s relative size and if that would impact its ability to attract top-tier manufacturers to this area.
Chandy said as long as Waterloo Region demonstrates it has the desired traits he mentioned earlier, including access to talent and important infrastructure, size shouldn’t be an issue.
“They also look at livability and quality of life in a community,” he said.
Another report is expected to come to council in the future, but no date was provided.