Automotive News Canada - January 2017 - V2 - 1

$500 MILLION: FEDS OPEN WALLET TO INDUSTRY/P4

JANUARY 2017 | VOL. 2, NO. 1 | AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA FOR BREAKING NEWS AND DIGITAL EDITION

2016 is a record, with predictions that 2017 won't be
Sales outpace 2015 by 50,000 vehicles on the
strength of pickups as the car market retracts
By JEREMY SINEK
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

THE YEAR JUST ENDED WAS
much better for auto dealers
than for auto-sales statisticians.
Midway through 2016, FCA

changed its reporting methodology, which meant all its previous data became invalid. About
the same time, Maserati began
to publish its sales in Canada,
but without initially providing
year-ago figures for comparison.
None of this, however, alters

the truth behind the trends that
defined the 2016 sales year.
Total sales reached a
record 1.95 million, missing
the two-million mark that had
seemed possible at midyear, but
still a meaningful 2.8 per cent
gain over the previous record
for 2015.
But that might be it for the
records for a while.
"We've had a long stream of
consecutive records, and you

The F-150 carried the load
for Ford as its car sales
dropped 14 per cent in 2016.
can't have records going on forever," said Scotiabank senior
economist and auto specialist

Carlos Gomes.
FCA's unprecedented sales
leadership title in 2015 remained
intact even after its numbers
were recalculated, but it was
also a one-time wonder as Ford
of Canada surged 9.3 per cent in
2016 and back into the overall
market leadership. Somewhat
disingenuously, Ford's triumphant year-end sales release

SEE FORD PAGE 21

2016
SPECIAL FEATURE

11 PEOPLE

C A NA DA' S

NEWSMAKERS
By ROBERT BOSTELAAR

11 CATEGORIES

O T TAWA C O R R E S P O N D E N T

EVEN IN THE CHAOTIC AUTOMOTIVE
world, 2016 was especially
hectic for Canada. Down-tothe-wire Unifor contract talks.
Record sales. Massive safety
recalls. The election of a U.S. president

who appears bent on reopening NAFTA.
Automotive News Canada has
been following these stories
and the people behind them,
and now it's time to reveal the
newsmakers of 2016.

PAGE 10

CANADA BANS ASBESTOS: Includes brake parts made with cancer agent
The decision is welcome
news, but there are likely
millions of sets of asbestos
pads already in circulation
By BILL McLAUCHLAN

Rick Jamieson has
made it a personal
mission to lobby for
the end of asbestos
brake pads. His company, ABS Friction,
does not use asbestos its pads.

TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT WILL
ban the "manufacture, use, import and

export" of asbestos-containing products
- including brake pads - by 2018.
That makes Rick Jamieson a happy
man as the decision comes hard on

the heels of his recent ABS Asbestos
Offensive campaign to ban the importation of asbestos-laced brake pads.
"This news was most heartening to
us," said Jamieson, president and CEO
of Guelph, Ont.-based brake pad manufacturer ABS Friction.
"While the ban is long overdue, we
are thankful it is finally going to happen. We have twice seen 'ban asbestos' private-member bills reach second
reading, only to stall for one reason or
another."

The ban of the cancer-causing material comes after lengthy campaigns
not only by ABS Friction but others
including Unifor, the country's largest private-sector union representing Canadian autoworkers, and the
Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC).
Although asbestos mining ended in
Canada in 2011, import and export of
asbestos was allowed, despite bans by
58 other countries such as Australia,

SEE ASBESTOS PAGE 21
http://www.AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - January 2017 - V2
