Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a $110 million investment to support Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada’s $1.4 B investment in its plants in Cambridge and Woodstock, ON.
Trudeau was joined at the announcement by the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne.
The investment will support more than 8,000 jobs in Southwestern Ontario, and will create 450 new jobs as well as 1,000 new co-op placements. Toyota will also invest $200 M in Canadian research and development over ten years.
Ottawa says Toyota’s investment will bring a new advanced manufacturing platform to the company’s plants in Ontario. Once complete, Canada will be the North American hub for the RAV4 and home to Toyota’s largest hybrid vehicle production in North America.
Quick Facts
• This project is funded under the Strategic Innovation Fund, a $1.26 billion program to support research, development, and commercialization of new products that pave the way for Canada as a global innovation leader and attract investments that create jobs. The Government of Canada launched the Strategic Innovation Fund in Budget 2017.
• The automotive sector is Canada’s largest export industry, supporting over 500,000 jobs and contributing $18 B annually to our economy.
• This is the largest of several recent investments in the Canadian auto sector. Recent investments include:
– In March 2017, with support from the federal and provincial governments, Ford Motor Company of Canada announced more than $1 B in investments, including the establishment of a new connected vehicle research centre, and the creation and maintenance of almost 800 jobs.
– In January 2017, also with support from the federal and provincial governments, Honda of Canada Manufacturing launched a project worth $492 M that will maintain Canadian jobs by supporting advanced and clean technologies.
– In June 2016, GM announced more R&D spending, which will increase its total number of software engineers in Canada to 1,000.
