Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - v2 - 8

* N O V E M B E R 2019

A Jeep Gladiator undergoes testing inside the FCA r&d
centre in Windsor, Ont. The joint venture between the
University of Windsor and FCA tests components using
the only nine-direction drive simulator in North America.
PHOTO: ROB GURDEBEKE

CANADA'S QUIET RETOOLING
Research and development take
on major roles in auto industry
By ROBERT BOSTELAAR
O T TAWA C O R R E S P O N D E N T

FACTORY CLOSURES AND JOB
cuts get the headlines, but technology is driving an evolution of Canada's
auto sector as employers compete
for highly skilled workers to support
expanding research-and-development
efforts into the car of the future.
"We are interviewing every day,"
said Sara LeBlanc, director of General
Motors' three Canadian tech centres,
which routinely have 30-plus open
positions.
General Motors needs specialists in

vehicle output in Canada
continues to fall.
GM Canada has hired
about 700 of a planned 1,000
tech specialists, mainactive-safety and driver-asly for its new Markham
sist technology.
Technical Centre near
Ford is looking for softToronto that develops
ware developers for its
infotainment and auton"rapidly growing" vehiomous-driving systems.
cle-analytics framework.
Fifty kilometres east,
Apple, not a company
Oshawa Assembly, once
associated with the auto
Sara LeBlanc,
a 22,000-worker, multidirector of GM
industry, seeks software
line complex, will employ
Canada's three
engineers with "strong
just 300 when it becomes a
high-tech centres,
problem-solving and
parts plant in 2020.
says she is on the
debugging skills" for its
While Ford has
secretive work on self-driv- constant hunt for
announced it will cut 450
employees.
ing systems.
workers at its Oakville,
FILE PHOTO
The Detroit Three are
Ont., assembly plant, 40
the most visible players in
kilometres southwest
the tech shift, even if their r&d hiring
of Toronto, its Connectivity and
pales next to production-line layoffs as
Innovation Centre in Ottawa has 500

tech employees, with more hiring
expected. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles,
which plans to end the third shift at
its Windsor, Ont., minivan plant -
affecting 1,500 workers - employs
180 at its Automotive Research and
Development Centre in the city.
Smaller tech firms that have
entered the transportation space are
also playing key roles in the auto sector's only growth area.
Like Canada's tech-heavy universities, these companies and the public and private networks that support
them have caught the attention of
automakers seeking talent and ideas.
"In Toronto, there's an amazing
ecosystem where you have a lot of
start-ups and incubators and accelerators. They also work with us to bring
a lot of the advancements that we're
developing," LeBlanc told Automotive
News Canada.

NEW PLAYERS

General Motors' tech centre in Markham, Ont., is at the forefront of the automaker's shift to high-tech research and
development from traditional manufacturing. P H O T O : G M C A N A D A

The Ontario government counts
more than 200 companies in the
province working on connected and
self-driving vehicle technologies. How
many jobs this represents, however, is
harder to pin down.
Apple, for example, won't comment on the size of its Kanata, Ont.,
office around the corner from automotive software powerhouse BlackBerry
QNX, which also doesn't disclose its
employee count.
The growing high-tech automotive
sector is generating new players in
the supply chain, said Flavio Volpe,
president of the Automotive Parts
Manufacturers' Association (APMA).
"New technology providers are
waking up to automotive and joining the space. Over the last five years,
we started to see some real interest
from pure technology players, curious

Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - v2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - November 2019 - v2