As the Detroit Three make fewer vehicles in Canada, Ottawa is looking abroad for potential automotive manufacturing opportunities.
A CBC article pointed to a new report from the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing at Western University that analyzes manufacturing in Ontario. The report found overall vehicle assembly in Canada fell from 2.3 million vehicles in 2016 to 1.2 million in 2025.
CBC also noted the drop is largely due to declining output from Ford, Stellantis and General Motors, whose share of Canadian production fell from 56 per cent in 2016 to 23 per cent in 2025, while Honda and Toyota rose from 44 per cent to 77 per cent.
The broadcasting company cited Trillium managing director Brendan Sweeney as saying: “There’s just this general long-term move away from Canada from U.S.-based automakers,” and described the trend as: “This has been 25 years in the making.”
Less U.S. manufacturing investment has resulted in Ottawa recently signing a memorandum of understanding with South Korean, with the hope that their OEMs could, someday, potentially assemble vehicles in Canada.
AutoTrader reported that the federal government is establishing a forum on Canada-Korea industrial collaboration and, per the Canadian Press, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said the agreement focuses on “economic prosperity and supply chain resilience.”
In a Government of Canada news release, Joly also said the new memorandum of understanding with Korea “positions Canada to lead in the next generation of automotive excellence.” The comment underscores Ottawa’s broader industrial goals tied to the Korea agreement, including deeper collaboration on EV and hydrogen mobility, batteries and critical minerals.
