Automotive News Canada - January 2017 - V2 - 8

OPINION

01.17

The federal
goverment will
kick in less than
10 per cent of
the total $482
million it will
take to upgrade
the Honda plant
in Alliston, Ont.

$500M in all
the right places
JEFF MELNYCHUK

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

WHEN JUSTIN TRUDEAU'S LIBERALS CAME TO POWER AFTER
the federal election in October 2015, it was thought by many in
the auto industry that the days of the supposed Conservative cold
shoulder were over.
In Automotive News Canada's inaugural edition (July 2016),
Unifor union leader Jerry Dias said, on the topic of industry investment, that he had had more discussions with Trudeau in the first
year of his term than with Conservative
Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the entire
10 years of his. Unifor represents about
23,000 workers at Ford, FCA and GM
plants in Ontario, so a union leader talking
about industry investment is just smart as is
having a receptive government.
The Liberal government has been quiet,
however. Too quiet, actually, leading us to
wonder if it was as receptive to the auto
industry as was thought in the beginning.
There's reason to be impatient. On page
17 of this issue, in a story by Steve Mertl about the collapse of
auto manufacturing in Australia, the blame was squarely on the
shoulders of a federal government that stopped subsidizing the
industry. The country went from 16 factories to none and the story's sources predicted that, without a significant federal policy
change, Canada could wind up without an auto industry by 2050.
Why does Canada's auto industry need federal subsidies? In
the words of Canada's Car Czar, Ray Tanguay, without them he
has nothing to sell. Nothing to entice business to set up shop in
Canada instead of Mexico or the southern U.S. states, where new
auto investment is heavily subsidized.
But just as we began wondering about the silence, on Jan. 9
our reporting staff discovered that the federal Automotive
Innovation Fund had begun to offer grants instead of repayable
loans, to the tune about $500 million through 2021. The details
can be found in two stories on Page 4 of this issue, but the
money is definitely real as the Liberals immediately steered $41.8
million toward a $492-million upgrade to Honda's plant in Alliston,
Ont., which builds the Civic and CR-V.
There are some conditions and the feds get a pat on the back
for those. The money will be doled out on a preferred basis for job
creation, plant longevity and, perhaps most interestingly, for technical innovation and environmental concerns.
Is this the right move? Well, Ray Tanguay is a happy man now,
and if this is just the beginning of federal assistance for the auto
industry, then so are we. - ANC

The $500 million
in grant money
comes with
conditions that
push technology,
which is the nudge
Canada needs.

Automotive News Canada,
one year and many stories later
FEBRUARY 2016, IN A SMALL
dining room in the centre of
Toronto on the eve of the country's biggest auto show, an
executive from one of Canada's
major automakers approached
with a comment that was as
bewildering as the look on her
face.
"We're a little surprised," the
executive said, holding up a
copy of the first Automotive
News Canada, "we were sure
that this would just be a small
insert into Automotive News
written out of Detroit. This is
actually really Canadian."
It was a defining moment out
of the gate, to be sure.
Maybe it was healthy skepticism, cautious optimism or perhaps just a wait-and-see
approach, but a funny thing
happened on the way to creating a new publication for car
dealers, manufacturers and their
original-equipment suppliers in
Canada: Canadians actually
believed what we were doing
was real.
A year into our satisfying
adventure, many things are reality.
We have a robust print product that lands in the mailboxes
of 10,000 readers every month.
We have a packed weekly email
newsletter that lands in the
inboxes of 2,500 recipients a
week. And we have a vibrant
home page and breaking-news
alerts that keep our readers

WHEN I WAS A KID, MY DAD
took me to the North American
International Auto Show in
Detroit. I wandered the displays
collecting brochures and posters in plastic promotional bags
until the handles stretched like
taffy and nearly snapped under
the weight of hundreds of slickly
designed, glossy handouts.
I plastered my bedroom
walls with posters of sports

EST. 1925.

KEITH E. CRAIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
K.C. CRAIN, GROUP PUBLISHER
JASON STEIN, PUBLISHER

DAVE VERSICAL, DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS GROUP

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

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PUBLISHER,
AUTOMOTIVE
NEWS CANADA

JASON STEIN

COMMENT
informed at every moment of
their business day.
So much more is coming in
a busy 2017.
Automotive News Canada, in
partnership with the Automotive
Parts Manufacturers Association,
has built a world-class lineup of
influential and powerful speakers who will appear at our first
annual Automotive News
Canada Congress Feb. 16-17 in
Toronto during the auto show.
That same week we will
launch a newsletter with the singular focus to bring daily news
to our readers every afternoon.
And there are more projects

to come, from video products to
webinars to special sections in
print and online.
All of it uniquely Canadian.
What has been even better
during this year is the journey
we've made together.
With reporters positioned
across the country, we have met
so many readers and told so
many stories, from car dealers
in Vancouver to suppliers in
Ontario, from inside the meeting
rooms during historic labour
negotiations to the plant floors
of transforming manufacturers.
We've analyzed currency fluctuations, trade implications and
new businesses opportunities
across the country.
All of what you see is the
antithesis of what was assumed
would happen with the launch of
Automotive News Canada. This
is not pre-packaged news from
America. It is Canadian news for
Canadian readers. - ANC

Just try sticking a digital brochure to a wall

PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

JEFF MELNYCHUK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, 506.854.5024, JMelnychuk@autonews.com
JOE KNYCHA, NEWS EDITOR, 204.648.5733, JKnycha@autonews.com

WRITE TO US

We invite letters from our readers for publication (250-word max., please indicate
"for publication"). We reserve the right to edit all submissions for length, content and
clarity. Include your name, title, company name, city and province, and tell us
your connection to the auto industry. Email letters to JKnycha@autonews.com

A brochure to inform people
why Ford is cutting 800,000
print brochures a year and
why fans of brochures
should be on board with
that.

DIGITAL AND
MOBILE EDITOR
AUTOMOTIVE
NEWS CANADA

GREG
LAYSON

COMMENT
cars, mainly. Porsche, Corvette
and Camaro brochures were
immediately affixed to the
painted drywall until the following year when they were all
replaced by the newest models.
My son won't have quite the
same experience as automakers move toward showroom
touchscreens and downloadable
computer files of the promotional material. As an example,
Ford is cutting 800,000 printed
brochures of new models from
its bottom line in 2017.
They all claim it's for the
environment, but of course we
know it also has to do with the
cost. It's not cheap to produce
hundreds of thousands of brochures a year.
And I get it, you need to go
where the buyers are: Online.
Nearly 80 per cent of
Canadians do some shopping
online, according to any number of surveys from online
retailer eBates to Canada Post.

At least one Canadian auto
dealer, Birchwood Automotive
Group in Winnipeg, can complete an entire sales transaction
online. No wonder automakers
are putting all their marketing
effort into online videos and
interactive displays. They're
more dynamic, engaging, customizable and shareable than
any piece of paper.
"Why would you ever have a
static picture and you can't see
the product in action?" marketing professor Robin Ritchie said.
Why? Because some of us
still like to take it home and put
it on the wall. Others collect
them like ticket stubs, which, by
the way, are also fading away.
"Demand still exists for printed brochures," FCA spokesman
Daniel Labre assured me.
"Most prominently with enthusiasts, proud owners who want
something tangible as they wait
for their new cars to arrive."
If you're like me, you can at
least peruse some blasts from
the past on the Automotive
News Canada website, where
we've uploaded photos of some
old time brochures curated by
the Automotive Archives at the
Windsor Public Library, dating all
the way back to the 1932
Buick Eight.
Enjoy them, even if you can't
stick them to your wall. - ANC

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - January 2017 - V2