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Industry Sectors

Canada excels in a wide range of sectors, as diverse as our vast country. As one of the world’s most competitive investment locations, Canada has regional clusters of excellence that give clear advantages to the sophisticated foreign direct investor seeking new opportunities. To attract the best and brightest, Canada has focused its policies, business incentives and university support around key industries.

Canada's Industry Strengths

  • Aerospace and Defence: In terms of market share, the Canadian aerospace industry ranks fifth in the world, behind only the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany.
  • Automotive: Canadian auto assembly plants are known worldwide for their top quality. For six of the last 10 years, two Canadian plants were rated best in the western hemisphere in the J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study.
  • Biopharmaceuticals: In 2010, Canada had the lowest costs in the G-7 for establishing and operating a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.
  • Business Services:Canada is the world’s third-largest exporter of engineering services, after the United States and the United Kingdom.
  • Chemicals: Nine of the top 10 chemical companies in the world have production facilities in Canada.
  • Digital Media:Canada is ranked #3 in the world for developing video games and is home to eight of the world’s top 10 video games publishers.
  • Environmental Technologies: Canadian firms are breaking new ground in fields such as waste management, water treatment and soil remediation.
  • Financial Services:Canada’s banking system is the soundest in the world and its world-class financial services professionals have attracted top firms from around the world.
  • Food Processing: KPMG’s Competitive Alternatives 2010 report rated Canada as #1 in the G-7 for its low food-processing costs.
  • Machinery and Equipment:Canada offers product development strengths in everything from engine production in the automotive sector to forging and extrusion manufacturing.
  • Medical Devices:Canada’s $7 billion medical devices industry is one of the largest in the world.
  • Plastics:Canada is a leader in research for producing plastic resins from biomass.
  • Renewable Energy
    • Bioenergy: Canada has excellent opportunities in biogas and waste-to-energy processes.
    • Solar Energy: Canada is a world leader in solar-power research, development and commercialization.
    • Wind Energy: With the world’s longest coastline, vast interior plains and multiple mountain ranges generating unparalleled wind resources, Canada is ideal for wind-power generation projects.
  • Software: In 2010, Software Magazine lists 38 Canadian companies among the top 500 global software companies. In terms of national percentage, this is second only to the United States.
  • Wireless Communications:Canada is attracting major global enterprises to undertake their NGN research and development activity here. These include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia.

Sector Value Propositions

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