Automotive News Canada - January 2021- v2 - 2

THE YEAR IN REVIEW AND A 2021 LOOK-AHEAD/P12, P14

JANUARY 2021 | VOL. 5, NO. 1 | AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA FOR BREAKING NEWS AND DIGITAL EDITION

Canadians sitting on stacks of cash to spend
By GREG LAYSON

D I G I TA L A N D M O B I L E E D I T O R

THE PANDEMIC'S SECOND WAVE
means it will likely be the spring, or
later, before conSALES ANALYSIS sumers return to
the dealerships en
masse. And when they do, expect a
sales boom, analysts say.

They've been saving all
through the pandemic,
and analysts say
explosive spending is
coming for big-ticket items
" There was early hope when the
vaccine was announced and start-

FILE PHOTO

for a long winter. "
Automakers sold 1.55 million new
vehicles last year, compared with 1.94
million in 2019. The 2020 volume is
the lowest since 2009, a year ravaged
by the global financial crisis. Fourthquarter sales for 2020, meanwhile,
were down almost six per cent compared with the same period in 2019.

SEE CANADIANS PAGE 18

Border
block

Rules meant to protect against
COVID-19 have also formed a wall
between countries doing business
By DANA FLAVELLE

TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

SOME CANADIAN AUTOMOTIVE
suppliers say they are losing
millions of dollars in new U.S.
business because of problems
getting clients, technicians
and other essential workers
across the Canada-U.S. border.
They blame inadequate
COVID-19 border rules and
unpredictable enforcement
by border guards, saying the
restrictions fail to recognize
the highly integrated nature
of the North American auto
industry.
" I've already lost 10 per cent
of my sales [in 2021] and am on the
verge of losing a third of our business
because our customer said: 'I'm traveling from South Carolina. If I can't
get in to see you, I can't give you the
contract,' " said Jonathon Azzopardi,
CEO of Windsor, Ont.-based Laval
Tool & Mold Ltd. and chair of the
Canadian Association of Mold
Makers (CAMM). " I get emails about

Kingston:
Expects an
aggressive
period of
growth.

ed rolling out, " said
Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian
Vehicle Manufacturers'
Association (CVMA),
which represents the
interests of the Detroit
Three in Canada.
" But the fact is,
we're in a significant
second wave. We're in

this every day from our members. "
Azzopardi said the situation has
worsened over the course of the pandemic.
A recent survey of 39 Ontario

tool and die and mold-making
businesses, as well as automation companies, showed that
69 per cent of respondents lost
U.S. contracts because of border issues, said Azzopardi.
Individual estimated financial
impacts ranged from $100,000 to
more than $5 million.
" The real root cause is the failure on the [Canadian] government's
part to think you can export goods
without the mobility of people across
the border, " Azzopardi said. " They
go hand in hand. The engineer, the
salesperson and the technician are
as important as the truck driver who
takes the goods across the border. "
If companies can't fill their order
books, they'll cut jobs, relocate or
even close, said Shelley Fellows,

Azzopardi:
chair of Automate
The
Canada, which repCanadian
resents industrial
government
automation suppliers.
incorrectly
Half the respondents
assumes
to a recent Automate
" you can
Canada survey comexport
plained they were expe- goods
riencing problems with without the
the border, she said.
mobility
The federal govern- of people
ment announced the
across the
border restrictions on
border. "
nonessential travel in
FILE PHOTO
March to prevent the
spread of COVID-19. The restrictions
have been extended throughout the
crisis and will remain in place until
Feb. 21.
" While these decisions have not
been taken lightly, we know that
they are necessary to keep Canadians
safe, " said a spokeswoman for Public
Safety Minister Bill Blair, whose
responsibilities include border services.
The government recognizes the

SEE FOR SUPPLIERS PAGE 18

Wage subsidy was key to keeping sector afloat in 2020
By JOHN IRWIN

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA

AUTO-INDUSTRY EMPLOYERS
who received the Canada Emergency
Wage Subsidy (CEWS) credit the program with averting economic disaster
during the pandemic's darkest period.
Steve Chipman, CEO of the
Birchwood Automotive Group in
Winnipeg, said his dealership group
used the CEWS for about two months

A new CRA webpage
shows the businesses
that took the benefit
to pay a portion
of staff salaries

in the spring. He said the program
helped pay to keep people on staff,
while also giving the group confidence
it would survive the crisis.

" We had gone down
the routes of [examining] different unemployment programs
and job-sharing programs. We never
needed to use those
Chipman:
CEWS helped because we were able
to tap into this fund. "
retain staff
Virtually every
during early
automaker, as well
days of
COVID-19.
as the country's largest auto suppliers and
FILE PHOTO

many dealership groups, received funding from the program, according to a
new government database.
The CEWS is designed to partially
cover wage costs for businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During
the program's rollout in the spring,
businesses needed to show a 30-per-cent
year-over-year drop in revenue for the
federal government to cover 75 per cent
of their employees' wages.

SEE GOVERNMENT PAGE 4

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Automotive News Canada - January 2021- v2

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