Canadian Manufacturing’s top 5 quotes from the quarter, 2024
by Sadi Muktadir
Interviews with manufacturing leaders reveal new areas of focus as businesses try and stay competitive amid inflation, trade regulations and other issues.
Engineer showing a computer microchip on motherboard background. Electronic circuit board with processor. Source: Adobe
Canadian Manufacturers are focused on staying competitive through trade missions, new strategies to secure talent, and advanced technologies in their manufacturing processes. One of they key themes of the quarter remains the burgeoning electric vehicle supply chain, with not only the Cdn. government making it a key focus through announcements, but company’s like Stantec, and Honda Canada making announcements around battery plants in Canada.
Manufacturing continues to evolve across all sectors, and Cdn. business leaders are exploring ways to stay on top through technology, talent, and hard work.
These and other trends are evident in Canadian Manufacturing’s top 5 quotes from the quarter.
“Manufacturers are aware of the cleantech focus in Canada and abroad,” says Ian Chan. “Companies are setting ESG goals and exploring ways they can transition to meet their sustainability goals. It may not be immediately feasible to go all the way, but they’re putting capital investments into research and incremental improvements.”
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— Ian Chan, Stantec Principal based out of B.C. on the new direction many manufacturers face when it comes to building facilities and plants, and how they’re trying to stay competitive in the market.
“We’re going on a number of trade missions with the government which we find are helpful because we don’t always have an established market presence in some regions. Going with the federal government sort of gets us in the door, gives us a seal of approval for those other governments, and helps us get the meetings that we need.”
— Ohad Arazi, CEO of Clarius Mobile Health, speaking on the benefits of partnering with the government, and having its support on a trade mission as it attempts to scale up across Asia with its medical device.
“North America is willing to try things that Europe isn’t, so in that sense, it’s definitely much better being here. We’re excited to grow in Canada and we haven’t had any roadblocks in that regard. We feel like the North American market is more amenable to scaling up and it’s precisely why we came to a region with such a strong manufacturing footprint.”
— Ian Redman, Project Director at Loop Technology compared the North American market to the less risk-averse European one, excited for the Canadian appetite to try new things across advanced manufacturing.
“We’re trying to make manufacturing sexy again. The work has to be interesting to the new generation of workers. Every business has to take it upon themselves to make their work more interesting and attractive to compete against the tech and software industries.”
— Jarred Knecht, President at Promark Electronics speaking at NGen’s N3 Summit, on how to attract top-end talent to manufacturing roles, and the challenge business leaders face in making their industry appear lucrative to the new generation of workers.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a regulatory challenge per say, but we’d like to establish a more conducive ecosystem. FedDev and the provincial government in Ont. has been huge with its contributions towards us and helping start-ups with its advanced manufacturing challenges, but there are opportunities with IP programs and a more streamlined tech transfer process in universities that we can jump on.”
— Avinash Persaud, ventureLAB’s VP of the Hardware Catalyst Initiative, on how we can improve the hardware and semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure in Canada, and create a more conducive environment for advanced manufacturing start-ups to grow.
