In the past decades, employment in the manufacturing sector decreased in many industrialized countries, including Canada and the United States. This report presents some recommendations to reverse this trend in Canada.

On 10 March 2016, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (the Committee) agreed to concur in the first report from the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure, with the following recommendation:

That the Committee study and develop recommendations needed for Canada’s small, medium and large manufacturing industry and report back to the House:

1. identifying the manufacturing industry as a strategic sector for economic development;
2. reviewing the causes and consequences of manufacturing job loss;
3. reviewing ways to improve Canada’s manufacturing sector;
4. analyzing the state of industrial innovation across Canada, including
   1. Industry-Academic collaborations,
   2. Innovation Centres,
   3. Business Incubators and Accelerators,
   4. Innovation Funding Sources; and
5. proposing solutions that will strengthen the manufacturing sector as well as protect and promote manufacturing employment and training to fill skills shortages in the domestic labour force.

The Committee held 17 meetings on the subject in Ottawa, received 23 briefs, and met entrepreneurs from the manufacturing sector in Montreal (2 and 3 June 2016). The members would like to thank the witnesses who came before the Committee to discuss the problems affecting the Canadian manufacturing sector and propose solutions, as well as those who sent briefs to the Committee. The information they provided is essential to the future of this sector.

This report is organized as follows: Chapter Two demonstrates the strategic importance of the Canadian manufacturing sector, presents the causes of job losses in the sector, examines the employment situation in the manufacturing sector and some of its industries, and provides a profile of Canadian industrial innovation. Chapter Three examines the employee and entrepreneur skills that are necessary for Canadian manufacturing businesses, and analyzes the labour shortages affecting this sector. Chapter Four looks more closely at innovation and product commercialization. Finally, Chapter Five focuses on sources of financing and government assistance for the manufacturing sector.