Sweeney, Brendan and Greig Mordue (2017) The Restructuring of Canada’s Automotive Industry, 2005-2014 Canadian Public Policy, 43(S1): S1-S15.
Canada’s automotive industry underwent substantial restructuring between 2005 and 2014. This article by the APRC’s Brendan Sweeney and Greig Mordue draws on establishment-level data to examine these changes as they relate to both automotive assembly and automotive parts manufacturing. It also elucidates the limitations of using official government statistics to study the automotive industry. In addition to analyzing changes to the structure and composition of the industry, the data demonstrate that the industry employs far more people than are reported in official government statistics. Sweeney and Mordue conclude that improvements to data collection methods are important for policy-makers to develop effective supports for the automotive and other manufacturing industries.