Canadian Cities Seek Manufacturing Innovators

Way back in 2014, additive manufacturing and the IIoT were still in their infancy, traditional manufacturing remained somewhat cyclical, and The Conference Board of Canada issued a scathing report titled “How Canada Performs: Innovation.” The report compared innovation -- on a relative basis -- among Canada, its provinces, as well as 16 peer nations.

The report ominously concluded: “With few exceptions, Canadian companies are rarely at the leading edge of new technology and too often find themselves trailing global leaders.”

Let’s be clear. There is no room to dissemble when that type of statement is made. Canada as a nation, as well as the industries based here, were not innovating and spending at a level necessary to be competitive.

A few trips around the sun later and a few cities have figured it out. If you fund it, they will come.

Winnipeg was one of the first cities to make manufacturing lemonade from our economic lemons. The Peg’s new advanced manufacturing economy is the result of federal government investments through the National Research Council’s advanced manufacturing program, which includes an 80,000-sq.-ft., $60 million advanced manufacturing research and applied technology centre.

In early August the federal government, along with locally based industry leader StandardAero and education institution Red River College, announced millions of dollars of more investment for the Winnipeg area with the goal of creating well-paying jobs and skills development. Through the Western Diversification Program at Red River College, these funds will expand the Centre for Aerospace Technology & Training (CATT) and create a new space at the college’s Notre Dame campus, dubbed the Smart Factory.

“The government of Canada is committed to ensuring manufacturing and aerospace sectors remain a source of well-paying jobs in Manitoba,” said Navdeep Bains, minister of innovation, science, and economic development. “By expanding the technological capabilities at Red River College, we are helping to align the needs of industry with the expertise of post-secondary institutions.”

Other municipalities – and private sector businesses based there -- need to make this same kind of commitment.

Just one example is Waterloo, Ont., which also has gone down this path with a specific 3-D leaning. The University of Waterloo received almost $9 million to establish the Multi-scale Additive Manufacturing Lab, through FedDev Ontario’s Investing in Commercialization Partnerships initiative.

By taking these first few steps out of the primordial manufacturing soup, the industry can stop swimming in place and begin to walk. It’s manufacturing evolution.