The Opportunity
The Context
The Canadian automotive sector currently supports over 500,000 direct and indirect jobs. Despite this, the automotive sector has been in decline for the past twenty years with most greenfield investments in North America going to the U.S. and Mexico. This decline has been felt by workers in the sector who have lost their jobs due to plant shutdowns and shift reductions.
Now, driven by electrification, the automotive industry is undergoing the biggest change since the invention of the internal combustion engine.
As the automotive industry undergoes transformational change, Canada needs to ensure that it is prepared to succeed in the global marketplace and retain its significant automotive manufacturing footprint. While there have been exciting announcements on EV manufacturing in Canada, compared to other leading jurisdictions, efforts to develop an integrated ZEV supply chain have been modest and disjointed.
Canada has many companies across the supply chain, but there is currently no national industrial strategy that brings all the necessary pieces together.
The Opportunity
While the fast-changing landscape presents a challenge to the automotive sector, it also presents Canada with a unique opportunity.
Canada can leverage its strengths in the emerging supply chain to not only retain its automotive footprint but expand into new areas of value-added manufacturing (i.e., batteries). Securing investments in ZEV assembly and the associated supply chain will create job opportunities and economic activity across the country. However, to help capture this opportunity, there is a need for companies along the supply chain to organize and align themselves on the policies, programs, and support needed to ensure its growth and success.
Accelerate has been formed as a time-bound initiative (5 years) focused on accelerating the supply chain’s development.
Accelerate is the only national initiative that includes key players from across the ZEV supply chain.
Accelerate will mobilize key players along the supply chain and push for the necessary provincial and federal policies, programs, and support needed to grow the sector. This includes the development of specific strategies targeted at key segments of the value chain, which will signal to the global supply chain that Canada is prepared to do what it takes to be a part of the future.
