Advanced Materials in Ontario

Innovation's secret ingredient

Ontario is a Hub for Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced materials are the secret ingredient of the world's most innovative products and Ontario's growing industries—automotive, advanced manufacturing, information and communications technologies, life sciences, packaging, aerospace and food products—have a huge appetite for them.

If you're looking to develop and manufacture advanced materials for North American and world markets, Ontario has a lot to offer.

A thriving advanced materials industry

World-leading companies and researchers along our Innovation Corridor, which stretches from Ottawa to Windsor, are producing revolutionary new super-alloys, ceramics, coatings and composites that allow manufacturers to make dramatic leaps in efficiency.

A global centre for advanced materials research

More than a dozen public, university and not-for-profit research labs across the province focus on creating high-performance materials:

• Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research
• CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory
• Centre for Advanced Polymer Processing and Design
• Centre for Automotive Materials and Manufacturing
• Centre for Manufacturing of Advanced Ceramics and Nanomaterials
• Centre for Advanced Materials Joining Research
• Centre for Imaging Research and Advanced Materials Characterization
• Institute for Aerospace Studies
• Institute for Chemical Process   Environmental Technology
• Institute for Microstructural Science
• Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute
• Nanofabrication Laboratory

A rich supply of raw materials

We are a North American leader in the production of key raw materials—minerals, chemicals and plastics—creating an integrated value chain for advanced materials manufacturing in Ontario.

Easy access to markets

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) rules allow goods to enter the U.S. and Mexico duty-free when 62.5% of their content is manufactured in Ontario.

Our road, rail and marine networks connect to the U.S. at 15 commercial border crossings. Marine shipments can reach world markets through the St. Lawrence Seaway. Our largest airport, Toronto's Pearson International, is serviced by more than 65 airlines that provide same-plane service to 43 cities in the U.S. and 42 cities abroad. Our international telecommunications links are state-of-the-art.

Support for innovation

Recognizing that innovation drives economic growth, the provincial government has committed $1.4 billion over four years to support Ontario-based R&D and its commercialization.

Publicly funded Ontario Centres of Excellence, such as Materials and Manufacturing Ontario, connect scientists with companies to commercialize research breakthroughs in advanced materials.

We also provide one of the most generous R&D tax incentive programs in the world. When tax credits are factored in, the real cost of $100 in R&D spending can be reduced to less than $41.

Compared to the United States, a much broader range of costs qualify for R&D tax credits in Ontario

Companies cover the full spectrum

Ontario is home to firms working in every aspect of the advanced materials industry. For example:

• Barrday Inc., Cambridge, designs and manufactures specialty textiles for applications ranging from body armour, fire suits and sporting equipment to industrial filters, flexible fuel tanks and high-performance sailcloth.

• Bodycote Materials Testing Canada, Mississauga, has expanded to five facilities in southern Ontario to keep pace with the demands for independent testing of advanced materials. This includes establishing one of the few laboratories world-wide that offers accredited independent testing of photovoltaic modules for the solar energy industry.

• Comtek Advanced Structures, Burlington, is an industry leader in structural and interior aircraft components made from advanced composite materials, Comtek recently doubled the size of its production facility.

• DuPont Canada, Kingston, has an innovative R&D facility that generates most of the company's major product breakthroughs. Recent innovations include nylon heat exchangers for automotive engines and home environments, and lighter, stronger, more flexible air bag fibres for crash protection.

• Novelis Inc., Toronto, a spin-off of Alcan Inc., is the world's largest aluminum rolled products producer. Research at the Novelis Global Technology Center in Kingston, Ontario, focuses on developing innovative aluminum products and surface treatments.

• The Xerox Research Centre of Canada, Mississauga, is developing printable organic electronics (POE) that could dramatically reduce the production costs of display devices such as LCDs and usher in a new generation of consumer electronic products.

Competitive business costs

Ontario is Canada's manufacturing and financial centre. A comprehensive international study by KPMG showed that business start-up and 10-year operating costs were lower in Canada than in any G7 country.

Key competitive factors include our combined (provincial and federal) general corporate income tax rate, which is 4 percentage points below the U.S. average, and health care benefits, which cost Ontario manufacturers about half what they cost their U.S. counterparts (6.8% vs. 13.2% of wages).

Skilled workforce

Manufacturing advanced materials demands highly skilled workers, and ours are among the best educated in the world.

A higher percentage of our workforce of 6.8 million has completed their post-secondary education than in any industrialized country, according to a study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Our 20 universities and 24 colleges of arts and applied technology produce more than 29,000 graduates a year in mathematics, engineering and sciences.

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