Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing

Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing Helping to advance Ontario's manufacturing ecosystem using data-driven research.

After 11 years of supporting Ontario's advanced manufacturing ecosystem, the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing...
07/02/2026

After 11 years of supporting Ontario's advanced manufacturing ecosystem, the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing will be closing its operations. Founded by Paul Boothe and originally conceived as a 10-year initiative, the Trillium Network evolved into a leading source of research, analysis, and insight into a sector that remains critical to Ontario's innovation, productivity, and economic prosperity. Over the past 11 years, the Trillium Network has worked to improve understanding of the advanced manufacturing landscape, foster collaboration across stakeholders, and support informed decision-making through independent, data-driven research.

We're grateful to our funders, partners, Board members, staff, and industry stakeholders for their support over the past 11 years. Their support, expertise, and collaboration enabled the organization to deliver research, events, and initiatives that strengthened connections across Ontario's manufacturing ecosystem and advanced important conversations about the sector's future.

While the Trillium Network's work is coming to an end, the importance of Ontario's advanced manufacturing sector remains unchanged. Manufacturing continues to be a cornerstone of the province's economy, driving innovation, investment, exports, and high-quality jobs. The need for reliable data, objective analysis, and informed dialogue will continue as the sector adapts to new technologies, evolving supply chains, and global competition. We encourage our university and non-profit partners to pick up where we left off.

We are proud of the role the Trillium Network played over the past decade and remain confident in the future of advanced manufacturing in Ontario.

Thank you all for your support.

With defence investment dominating the headlines, there’s a new focus on Canadian defence manufacturing capabilities. So...
05/29/2026

With defence investment dominating the headlines, there’s a new focus on Canadian defence manufacturing capabilities. So where do those capabilities actually exist? We mapped it 😏 Have a look: https://trilliummfg.ca/initiatives/news/defencemap/

03/04/2026

Canada’s automotive industry—and economy in general—is facing disruption related to geopolitical shifts (to put it mildly). But a historian will tell you that disruption, no matter how painful, can bring opportunities. The last time the industry was this disrupted, we got the transformative Auto Pact.

Perspective can be so insightful. That’s why we invited Dimitry Anastakis, an expert on the history of Canada’s automotive industry, on a recent episode of Making it in Ontario to talk about what the car companies of Canada’s past can teach us about the future.

If you’re in need of a dose of optimism, it’s worth a listen: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/0ad0c5d0-b501-4542-b292-31230e41c84e/

02/26/2026

Is a nuclear-powered car on the horizon?

The Trillium Network isn’t suggesting that Canada should build one (though we’re not NOT saying that 🤔), but we do think Canadian nuclear companies should be part of the conversation about building a Canadian car company.

Hear more of our ideas about who should be involved in a Canadian car company in this recent episode of Making it in Ontario:

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/d90f6506-7d49-4596-a359-51f0390a981b/

The road behind is not the road ahead for the automotive industry in Canada.We’re entering the second half of a decade t...
02/02/2026

The road behind is not the road ahead for the automotive industry in Canada.

We’re entering the second half of a decade that has reshaped the automotive industry in a quiet but profound way.

The Trillium Network’s latest data bulletin looks at 10 years of Canadian passenger vehicle and light-duty truck production, assembly plant employment, and labour productivity.

Some of you are well aware just how much has changed. For others, it’s time to let go of long-held assumptions about the automotive industry in Canada.

The bulletin shows that:

➡️ Japan-based automakers Honda and Toyota assemble more than three-quarters of the vehicles made in Canada;
➡️ Union density fell to levels not seen in the industry since the 1920s; and,
➡️ Assembly plants that sit idle or operate below capacity are a major drag on productivity.

We welcome the much-anticipated federal automotive strategy. As our bulletin notes, we hope that the strategy incorporates the following three concepts:

📌 📌 Leverage Canada’s large market for vehicles (1.9 million in 2025, the 8th largest in the world) as a means to support automotive manufacturing;
Incentivize and reward those companies that have chosen to invest in and grow their manufacturing footprint in Canada (looking at you Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., Honda Canada ...); and,
📌 Invest in Canadian talent and production technology relentlessly and persistently as a means to maintain and develop competitive advantages.

Read the full data bulletin here: https://trilliummfg.ca/data-bulletin/the-road-behind-is-not-the-road-ahead/

St Thomas Proud York Link - York Region Economic Development London Economic Development Corporation County of Simcoe

01/29/2026

If we’re operating on the assumption that making a car in Canada is doable, then what should that car look like? If a Canadian car company is feasible, then what kind of car would be most feasible?

It’s a question we asked Dimitry Anastakis, an automotive historian and author of Dream Car, a new book about the history of the New Brunswick-built Bricklin SV1. To find out his answer, you’ll have to listen to this episode of Making it in Ontario, but here’s a teaser…

Dimitry thinks it should be the ‘Canada Goose of vehicles’ 🍁🪿

Check it out: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/0ad0c5d0-b501-4542-b292-31230e41c84e/

01/08/2026

Our latest report, Shifting Gears: The Potential for a Canadian Car Company, is getting a lot of buzz! If you’ve been too busy to read the report, here’s your chance to hear about it.

In the latest episode of Making it in Ontario, the report’s authors, Brendan Sweeney and Greg Keenan, unpack the findings and explain why we included a link for the Homer Simpson car in the show notes. 🤔

Have a listen to the full episode on our website, or wherever you get your favourite podcasts: https://trilliummfg.ca/podcast/

09/16/2025

When it comes to investment attraction, economic developers and the communities they represent work hard to build trust with potential investors. In some cases, the investors work equally hard to build trust with communities. When both sides come to the table eager to collaborate, that’s where magic can happen.

You’ve probably heard about PowerCo's $7 billion investment in St. Thomas. In a previous episode of Making it in Ontario, we heard the St Thomas Proud St. Thomas Economic Development side of the investment story from CEO Sean D**e. Now you can hear PowerCo Canada’s perspective from CHRO Norman Wickboldt, along with a deep dive into the company’s major recruitment campaign for its EV battery gigafactory in the coming years.

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/ea99fc37-01e3-4c9f-ab4a-55d79a596109/

09/12/2025

Canola has been a hot topic recently. Typically, we, the Trillium Network for *Advanced Manufacturing*, wouldn’t be weighing in on agriculture, but then claims were made that canola contributes more to Canada’s economy than automotive, steel, and aluminum combined. Come again??

We crunched the numbers and got vastly different results for the canola industry. Then we updated our figures for the automotive industry. How did they stack up?

Hear the apples-to-apples comparison and how we think the flawed canola numbers were produced in the latest episode of Making it in Ontario:

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a325bed2-1bdf-4928-a875-81a12a78f2cb/

09/11/2025

Industry and academic partnerships are important, but they can be challenging to get off the ground because each has different wants and needs. So how do we bring them together?

The Downsview Aerospace Innovation & Research (DAIR) Hub is all about fostering collaboration, so its executive director, Phil Arthurs, has some expertise on this matter. Take a listen to the clip and tune into his full episode of Making it in Ontario to learn why physical spaces for collaboration are key:

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/97c55f8f-24d9-4033-aa13-8becfec743e0/

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