My priority when I am chosen as the next Windsor Tecumseh Lakeshore MP, is to look at ways to revive the Automotive Industry in Windsor Essex.  We have seen a steady decline and need to look at the reason.  According to a 2018 article, Canada’s automotive industry isn’t what it once was, having shrunk from producing about 3.1 million vehicles at its peak in 1999 to roughly 2 million today.  Fast forward to today, leading experts say it is due to higher prices of vehicles, increased number of off-lease vehicles and consumer debt levels.  New vehicle sales, both in Canada and the US, are expected to decline in 2019. US new car sales are expected to decline by 2.4% in 2019 to 16.8 million vehicles, versus 17.2 million in 2018, while Canadian car sales are expected to decline by 2.8% to 1.93 million vehicles, versus 1.99 million during that period.

According to the Automotive advisors on my election team, the industry started to change 30 years ago. Canadian automotive manufacturers started to turn their backs on Canadian Tool &  Mold manufacturers.  Chinese companies started to set up in China to manufacture the tools and molds for the Automotive Industry.  The quality wasn’t there at first, but it developed over time.  Then Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam followed by setting up new companies which Canadian companies favoured because of the savings and low cost of labour.  China presently dominates the manufacture of tools and dies.  For instance a typical order for tooling from a Canadian tooling company that is $600,000 would only cost $300,000 from China.  But this saving is NOT passed onto the consumer when they purchase a vehicle.  There is also the discussion about shipping.  During the pandemic it would have been easier to have a Canadian company supply directly to factories rather than from China, or anywhere else in Asia.  Remember the backlog of cars that did not have computer chips that caused a year long shortage of cars and trucks?  The Global chip production is monopolized by a few global, Asia-Pacific suppliers.  We also need to consider the problems with the shipping problems in the Red Sea which we have experienced.

What should Canada do?

What would give the Automotive Industry a massive boost to our local automotive employers which would mean jobs and increased union membership, would have been a 60% import tariff on all imported tooling.  Unlike battery plants that will be highly automated, tool shops need skilled workers.  People can and will be replaced by robotics in a battery plant, but tooling can not be replaced by a robot as it needs skilled labour.

But in all honesty, my automotive consultant friends have told me about the greatest Automotive leader in the Industry.  This man is who we should get advice.  His name is Frank Stronach who started Magna International back in 1954 and built that business into a global multinational coporation employing close to 180.000 people.  He has written many articles featured in the National Post started the Stronach Foundation for Economic Rights.

1. Hallmark Technologies goes under (April 01, 2007.  This company operated for more than 20 years, and 150 jobs were lost and the companies that were their suppliers.  This is one of the many Plastic companies that went bankrupt
2. Border Tool and Die operated for over 45 years.  They built automotive dies, jigs and fixtures.  Dies for sinks, bath tubs.  Basically metal stamping.  The owner passed away and the son sold it all.  There were 70 employees.
3. Windsor Matchplate  went into receivership https://windsorstar.com/news/windsor-match-plate-in-receivers-hands
4.  Windsor Tool & Die – they built bumper dies
5. SteelMaster
6. International Tool & Mold
7. Paragon Tool
8. Valiant Machine & Tool started by Mike Soltz was bought up by a Chinese Government.

Windsor and Essex County had 212 tool, die and mould companies in 2015, according to Statistics Canada. “Slowdown on the horizon” was the big story in 2017 reported by the Windsor Star. A leading expert Craig Wiggins, of Tooling and Equipment Capital Solutions Inc. said:  “A big factor is (owners) who went through 2008-09 are now war time generals. After what they went through, if they survived they are better business people. They learned so much they won’t let themselves be as leveraged next time as back then.”  But we are still seeing a yearly decline.  We do have some success stories such as Cavalier Tool and Manufacturing who has operated since 1975 and employs 250 people. And the biggest success story which is Magna International