OTTAWA — Despite government assurances that Canada's domestic auto industry can remain competitive by pivoting away from exporting vehicles to the United States and instead relying on exports elsewhere abroad, Industry Minister Melanie Joly was unable to say if the government had conducted economic analysis on this goal.
Testifying Monday before the House Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, Joly insisted that automakers had approached the government about exporting Canadian-made cars to global markets, but declined to name which companies.
Conservative MP Adam Chambers pressed Joly on whether her department had assessed the viability of opening up Canadian auto exports to regions like Asia, Europe, or the Middle East.
“Has your department done economic analysis on this business case?” Chambers asked. “Is there economic analysis the government has done that shows it’s viable for Canadian automakers to produce vehicles here to export them to Asia or Europe, as an example … or the Middle East?”
Joly initially attempted to deflect by referencing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent international trade missions, but eventually admitted that the government had not determined the business case.
“I get your point, but this is not up to the government to make that assumption,” she said. “If the companies want to do that and they’re proposing that, we will support them.”
Joly described Canada’s 90% export rate of domestically made cars to the U.S. as an “over dependency,” adding that some automakers are indeed looking at sending Canadian-made cars to other markets.
When Chambers asked if automakers themselves are approaching the government with export plans, Joly said “absolutely” but refused to provide details, citing business confidentiality.
Chambers countered that no automaker has testified before the committee or given media interviews claiming that exporting outside the U.S. is a viable business plan.
“I’m telling you that’s what we’re getting as information,” Joly insisted. “We have free-trade agreements with many different markets and basically countries around the world … of course we know that the auto sector is affected by the U.S. tariffs, we know we need to protect the auto sector and that is why we’ll fight for it in the context of the revision of the USMCA.”
