AEM recently sponsored a C.D. Howe Institute luncheon, Made in Ontario: Infrastructure, Investment, and Industrial Strength, featuring the Honourable Todd McCarthy, Acting Ontario Minister of Infrastructure, as keynote speaker. The gathering brought together senior policymakers, industry leaders, and economic experts to address infrastructure investment and manufacturing competitiveness in Ontario amid uncertain economic and trade conditions.
AEM's Director of Government Affairs in Canada, Alexandre Mattard-Michaud delivered the opening remarks, emphasizing the critical role the equipment manufacturing industry plays in Canada’s and North America’s economy. In Ontario, the non-road equipment manufacturing industry sustains 60,000 jobs and contributes $9.4 billion to the province's GDP. Across Canada, the sector generates $54 billion in total output and supports 147,000 jobs, which are essential to helping build, power, and feed Canada and the world.
In his keynote address, Minister McCarthy outlined the importance of safeguarding free trade with the United States, strengthening Ontario's manufacturing capacity as a foundation for major infrastructure projects, advancing Canada's west-east energy corridor, and reducing interprovincial commercial barriers. Minister McCarthy's remarks reflected AEM's own policy agenda around infrastructure investment, manufacturing competitiveness, and trade resilience.
The C.D. Howe Institute, one of Canada's leading independent policy think tanks, served as an ideal forum for this conversation. The event facilitated meaningful policy dialogue to build further momentum around investment in critical infrastructure, catered to an audience of policymakers and key business leaders within Canada’s infrastructure and manufacturing ecosystem, including AEM member companies CMI Mulching and GINCOR Werx.
This luncheon builds on AEM growing advocacy in Ontario following the organization's inaugural Queen's Park Day, where Ontario Premier Doug Ford and provincial Ministers engaged with AEM member representatives on prioritizing trade resilience, infrastructure investment acceleration, permitting modernization, and resource development.
By convening at one of Canada's most influential policy forums, AEM ensured its members' concerns and competitive challenges reached the decision-makers shaping Ontario and Canada's economic future.
