Thank you, Madam Chair.
Committee members, thanks for the invitation to appear here today.
The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, or CVMA, represents Canada's leading manufacturers of light- and heavy-duty motor vehicles. Our membership includes Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Those companies have been operating in Canada for over 100 years and they're responsible for most of the auto production in Canada, having built over 100 million vehicles since 1945—the earliest records that we have. They're also the largest employers in the auto manufacturing sector, supporting 20,000 jobs, the majority of which are unionized.
Automakers are among Canada's largest private sector investors in research and development. In-house research spending by automakers in Canada topped $898 million in 2024, according to Statistics Canada, and that's up from $830 million in 2023 and is quadruple the $210 million spent a decade earlier.
CVMA members are constantly innovating with investments in electrification, autonomous driving and connectivity. Ford, GM and Stellantis have recently made investments in Canada, specifically for R and D, over the past decade. I'll give you three examples of some of the activity under way right now.
Ford operates three connectivity and innovation centres—one in Ottawa, one in Waterloo and one in Oakville. These have grown to 500 positions since 2017. It's all part of a $500-million investment by Ford into Canadian R and D operations.
In 2021, GM announced the opening of the Canadian Technical Centre McLaughlin Advanced Technology Track in Oshawa, which supports engineering, development and testing of advanced software and technologies. That institute employs more than 1,300 engineers and software developers across four locations in Ontario.
In Windsor in 1996, Stellantis opened the Automotive Research and Development Centre, or ARDC. That was a $30-million investment and the first partnership of its kind with a Canadian university linking the auto sector to academia. The total research spend there now is over $1 billion. There are six road-test simulators, proprietary software development and a range of R and D support facilities.
More recently, as part of Stellantis' multi-billion dollar investments in Canada, the ARDC is becoming the first battery lab in North America. That will add an additional 650 skilled engineering jobs to support electrification.
We welcomed budget 2025 and the SR and ED program enhancement that was included there. Increasing the expenditure limit to $6 million will make a tangible difference for companies that are considering R and D investments in Canada.
However, I'd like to leave the committee with a recommendation here today. There is an important component of auto R and D that is at risk right now, and it's due to CBSA changes to temporary vehicle import letter processes. The temporary import letter provides a mechanism for automakers to bring vehicles into Canada for testing and then return them to the United States. There is uncertainty right now around that program. Any delays, administrative burdens and new costs that are added to importing these vehicles for testing will put at risk Canada's role as a location of choice to do R and D in the automotive sector.
We've had months of engagement with CBSA, and no options have been presented to manufacturers for review and input. The current process is set to expire at the end of December, and at this point, there's simply not enough time for manufacturers to introduce a new process, so we're asking for an extension to the way that vehicles are currently imported into Canada. We have to make sure that the administrative burden is minimized and that there is an adequate transition time for any sort of new process that the CBSA introduces.
With that, I thank you for the opportunity to be here and I look forward to your questions.