In this series of reports, we observe the contributions of Canada’s six automotive technology clusters located in Vancouver, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), Kitchener Waterloo-Cambridge (KWC), Windsor, Ottawa and the Greater Montreal Area (GMA).

In doing so, we shed light on each regional cluster’s domains of technological expertise, its employment and skills distribution, and the factors that sustain its development. Moreover, we examine the pivotal role played by Canada’s automotive technology clusters in the advancement of the country’s broader automotive sector through their contributions to its manufacturing capability, development of new product technologies and enhancements to product quality.

Earlier labour market forecasts produced by the Future of Canadian Automotive Labourforce (FOCAL) Initiative determined the number of employees in the broader automotive manufacturing sector. This series of reports examines the labour market characteristics of Canada’s automotive technology clusters. For each cluster, an establishment-level approach is adopted to determine the total number of employees and associated individuals in emerging automotive technology organizations. Those organizations include automotive technology manufacturing facilities, emerging technology development companies, academic labs, organizations, partnerships and government offices. The rationale for broadening our analysis to include those organizations is as follows.

First, as we detail in our studies, emerging automotive technology organizations contribute a significant number of jobs to the broader Canadian automotive industry. Second, emerging technology-oriented organizations provide vital research & development (R&D) capabilities to Canada’s automotive manufacturing and automotive technology sectors. Third, those organizations have also supported the formation of numerous emerging technology company start-ups and spin-offs with expertise in connected, autonomous, shared and electrified (CASE) vehicle technologies.