Advanced manufacturing

Manufacturing Heartland

Advanced Manufacturing Sector Brochure cover with download button The Toronto Region is located in one of North America's advanced manufacturing heartlands. The advanced manufacturing sector in Canada is ranked as having the greatest overall cost advantage of all G-7 economies and placed first out of all 11 selected sub-sectors surveyed.

Home to a growing population of world-renowned advanced manufacturing companies, the Toronto Region is a booming location for innovative technology, products, and processes.

Tariff-Free Zone

Canada has taken important steps in providing new trade advantages for investors. The Government of Canada has announced the elimination of over 1,500 tariffs on manufacturing inputs, machinery and equipment. This made Canada the first country in the G-20 to become a tariff-free zone for manufacturers and intensified the competitiveness of Canadian companies around the world.

Free trade in advanced manufacturing is an important source of competitive strength for businesses in Canada. By reducing the cost of importing key factors of production, tariff relief encourages innovation, enhances productivity, reduces customs compliance costs, and eliminates the administrative burden of complying with various rules and regulations. Investors who choose Canada for their advanced manufacturing investment will have the advantage of importing advanced machinery and equipment into Canada free of import duties, thus reducing import costs and increasing productivity and profitability.

Automotive and Aerospace Hubs

The strength of the automotive and aerospace industries in the region keeps Canada at the forefront of cutting-edge innovation and discovery. Using advanced manufacturing products and processes, Toronto Region is a hub for the expansion of innovative automotive and aerospace companies in Canada.

The Province of Ontario is home to Canada’s second largest aerospace cluster, with 21,000 employees working in over 300 companies. In the Toronto Region alone, there are over 15,000 people working in nearly 150 establishments. In addition, the recently formed Downsview Aerospace Innovation and Research (DAIR) Consortium, a collaboration between academia and industry supported by all three levels of government, will be a world leader in R&D and Innovation. DAIR is the centerpiece of the growing Downsview Aerospace Campus Hub at the heart of the Toronto Region aerospace cluster.

Durham Region, home to General Motors (GM), is a major hub for motor vehicle and parts manufacturing. The Province of Ontario is an automotive manufacturing giant, boasting advanced R&D facilities, world-class academic institutions and leading-edge businesses that collaborate to transform ideas into globally traded commercial products. With over 104,000 skilled autoworkers in the province, we remain at the forefront of vehicle technology research, and we are home to some of the most sophisticated R&D facilities anywhere.

Canada's Automotive and Aerospace industries are expanding at a rapid pace in both employment and concentration, and the Toronto Region is a central location for this exciting growth. Your business should be innovating here to take advantage of our competitive costs, highly skilled and dynamic workforce, and the right infrastructure to bring new ideas and products to market. Join like-minded individuals, businesses, and startups in the Toronto Region as they change the face of advanced automotive and aerospace manufacturing in Canada.

Leading Centre For Emerging Technologies

As a bustling hub for advanced manufacturing, the Toronto Region is a leading center for businesses with emerging technologies with high levels of design and complexity that solve a variety of problems. These innovations can be found in a wide range of sectors, such as robotics, 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), and system integration.

The Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (Davis Campus), located in Brampton, is a leading center for emerging technologies, science, and business. Sheridan’s Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design (CAMDT) is a 40,000-square-foot technology institute for students, manufacturers, and industry partners to develop highly specialized manufacturing and design equipment. CAMDT is a learning environment for students and a testing platform for local manufacturing and industry, a facility where students, industry partners and faculty experts come together to learn, apply, collaborate, and innovate.

Investing in advanced manufacturing can be a financially rewarding market, and Toronto Region has many lucrative opportunities for partnering with businesses focused on innovative technology. Join other investors and reap the benefits of Canada’s diverse advanced manufacturing industry.

“MDA, a global leader in space and communications technology, is making a name for Brampton in space. The Canadarm used by NASA is a real Canadian success story made right here in Brampton.”
– Craig Thornton, General Manager, Robotics and Automation, MDA