Auto adviser releases long-awaited report
If Canada wants to be the location of choice for automotive manufacturing, it must develop talent, cluster all the best minds in the country and create great technological achievements, suggests a long-awaited blueprint from the nation’s automotive adviser.
Ray Tanguay, retained by the Canadian and Ontario governments in June 2015 to provide a framework for success in the industry, submitted his 54-page report Drive to Win, outlining the state of Canada’s automotive industry and how it can become a leader in the world.
Tanguay’s recommendations call on Canada to be the leader in design and development of the car of the future, create smart highways and national testing centres. Tanguay, the retired chairman of Toyota Canada, believes those measures will provide such a great advantage over other global jurisdictions that auto manufacturing investment and jobs will follow. He spent 30 months gathering information after being appointed to the job.
The automotive industry employs 530,000 people directly or indirectly in Canada. There is a lot at stake as several states in the U.S. and locations in Mexico continue to gain new investment while the industry has stagnated in this country.
Tanguay believes Canada already is well positioned to take economic advantage of the car of the future. He cited strengths that include lightweight materials, mobile communications, sensors and controls, software development, cybersecurity and advanced battery research.
“These capabilities, backed by our talent pool and access to globally recognized researchers, are putting Canada on the map,” he said.
The next step is to promote use of the advanced technologies in manufacturing, Tanguay said.
A budget needs to be established to support a sales plan, he said.
“In the end, it’s all about selling our value proposition to the world,” Tanguay said.
Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains has received the report and thanked Tanguay for his efforts.
“As the automotive sector undergoes massive change with emerging and disruptive technologies, I am pleased to see that Mr. Tanguay’s report recognizes that Canada has taken the right steps to position itself as a location of choice for the design and development of the car of the future,” Bains said in a statement.
But the minister did not provide a response on next steps for the report or its recommendations.
Tanguay’s report provides a strong foundation, but steps must be taken to form an all-star team in Canada whose sole assignment is to fight for automotive investment, said Matt Marchand, CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“Our American and Mexican counterparts have been exceptionally aggressive in attracting auto investment,” he said. “They do what it takes and have a mindset to win the business. We are not as aggressive and Ontario has been declining in automotive jobs.”
That’s especially critical given how industry investment globally has hit record levels in recent years, Marchand said.
“We need to take this not just to the next level, but next couple of levels, in terms of aggressiveness,” Marchand said. “We have to be better than the U.S. and Mexico to maintain the auto industry in Ontario. It’s a ferocious fight for jobs and investment.”
Our American and Mexican counterparts have been exceptionally aggressive in attracting auto investment.