The British Canadian Chamber of Trade and Commerce in partnership with Tech Canada Advocates and B2BeeMatch launched on October 29th the Advanced Manufacturing Working Group. This group unites leaders to explore ways to drive innovation in Canada’s advanced manufacturing sector by building an impact platform and an advisory committee.
Sponsored by Gowling WLG and London Consulting Group we had the pleasure to have the presence once again of The Honourable Victor Fedeli, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, and with Fouzia Younis, OBE, the British Consul-General to Toronto. They both set the tone for this working group alongside other industry voices.
Minister Fedeli pointed out Ontario’s a long history of manufacturing excellence and said: “From our automotive sector to aerospace, life sciences, and robotics, our province boasts a diverse and vibrant manufacturing ecosystem. With more than 800,000 people employed across the sector, our province is seeing one of the highest levels of manufacturing employment in fifteen years.
In 2023, Ontario created more manufacturing jobs than all 50 U.S. states combined; jobs that have contributed directly to the prosperity of many communities across the province.
As the global manufacturing landscape shifts, Ontario remains uniquely positioned to seize these generational opportunities. With unparalleled access to stable infrastructure, a highly-skilled workforce, competitive tax credits, and ongoing investment in R&D, domestic and international manufacturers who invest in Ontario benefit from a business climate designed to support growth and innovation.
Through key initiatives like our government’s Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, manufacturers looking to expand their operations and modernize their facilities may now qualify for a 10 per cent refundable corporate income tax credit.
By promoting Ontario in key markets, creating opportunities to forge new partnerships and blazing a trail to secure new, high-value investments, our government continues to propel Ontario forward as a major player in the global manufacturing supply chain.”
Marcus Hinkley from Gowling WLG advised the attendees on how to come into market, "some people like to go in the organic route which is fine, however there are some points that we need to be careful with, for example transfer pricing - make sure you have the proper price for the new market” he said. Other areas of extra consideration are IP, stock options - if you’re a Canadian employee and have stock options overseas that’s complicated for tax purposes. To finalize, he advised on leveraging Canadian programs such as SHRED.
Claudia Krywiak, President of the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) - a non profit organization which objective is to advance and accelerate innovation and emerging tech. With their programs such as the critical industrial initiative they drive the deployment of industrial technologies to stay competitive and be even more competitive. “We bring together those partners to drive an innovation project and create jobs” Claudia explained. She emphasized this event also underscored the urgency of digitalizing operations to build a future-ready sector.
Natasha Gagnon, the Interim CEO of the Ontario Aerospace Council (OAC) and current member of the Ontario Advanced Manufacturing Council, completely agrees: “The majority of SMEs are paper based, not digitalized, and we are one of the most highly regulated industries. SMEs need partners, associations like ours who they can trust and can help”. In regards what the needs for the future are she added digitalization!, we need more software engineers, and more robots to control robots.
Another challenge facing the manufacturing sector today, specifically SMEs, is the adoption of emerging advanced technologies in supply chain, they want someone to share that risk with them, providing additional support but also educating them on those new technologies.
Our British Consul General emphasized that there is no other international relationship like the UK and Canada, she added: “our industry strategy at the International Summit from the UK covered all these aspects to promote growth and jobs, and my role is to support. Diageo is opening up a big distillery in St Catherine’s, we have 147 million dollars of medical exports from the UK to Ontario last year, our relationship is strong but not good enough, we got new tech coming from the UK, and we need more.”
Ms. Younis introduced her team at the UK Consulate, and their newest member who is part of UK Export Finance, this program looks into new capital expenditures to support, meaning if a Canadian company buys goods & services from the UK, UK Export Finance could finance them! - this is the first time we have UK Export Finance in Canada!
As we also want to hear from “the guys who do the work” Martin Buckle, VP of the BCCTC, welcomed Jeff Nelson from Nelson Industrial Inc. a client of London Consulting Group. Jeff said “there’s a lot of opportunity on digitization, AI, but my work is now changing on a constant rate, the challenge is identifying what tech is good for us, if we are ready for it. We also invest a lot in employees and when they don’t work, it is very difficult to let them go. When employees don’t perform, and we have to let them go, is very costly for the company, it is all very pro-employee, and not very good for owners.” For which Natasha added “the same happens when companies steal other employees, it is a big challenge for Ontario companies.”
The 2 big takeaways were we can’t do it by ourselves, we need academia, non profit, and the private sector; and we want to provide SMEs with the tools they need to succeed.
Special thanks to Gowling WLG and London Consulting Group for supporting the BCCTC.
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