Canada is home to a vibrant auto manufacturing industry and to leading expertise in emerging automotive technologies such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analytics. It's an ideal place to design and build the car of the future. Canada's combination of industrial and technological excellence already has attracted major autonomous- and connected-vehicle investments from automakers and tech leaders alike.
Canada
Canada has the most highly educated workforce among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development-nearly two-thirds of Canadians have a post-secondary education. Canada's Global Skills Strategy makes it even easier for employers to hire highly skilled talent, and the diversity that highly skilled immigrants bring to Canada makes the country even more dynamic and prosperous.
The Smart Cities Challenge is empowering communities to address local mobility challenges using artificial intelligence, the "internet of things," geospatial analysis and other technologies. The competition invests up to $75 million in data-driven approaches to "unsolvable problems" that engage residents and are scalable, so the outcomes can benefit communities across Canada.
Canada's innovation funding programs support r&d and foreign investment. The $1.26 billion Strategic Innovation Fund supports multiple sectors including the automotive industry. The Innovation Superclusters Initiative is investing up to $950 million, matched dollar for dollar by the private sector, to transform the existing strengths of five regional superclusters into competitive advantages, including an Ontario-based Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster and Quebec-based Supply Chains and Logistics Excellence.AI (SCALE.AI), which uses artificial intelligence to optimize supply chains.
Five global auto manufacturers produce 2.2 million vehicles a year in Canada, and all five have announced reinvestments in their Canadian operations since 2015. Canada has a rich supplier ecosystem and fee-for-service research and testing facilities that work with manufacturers to optimize their products, such as the ACE Climatic Wind Tunnel at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (pictured).
Canada's quality of life consistently ranks among the best in the world, owing in part to a publicly funded health care system that helps keep employers' insurance costs low.
Invest in Canada, investcanada.ca, canada.ca/invest-auto, canada.ca/investir-auto
Send us a letter
Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.