News Article

Budget 2022: Canada’s Aerospace Industry Welcomes Increase in Defence Investments; Calls for Changes to Impending Tax on the Manufacturing of Aircraft

Published: April 7, 2022

OTTAWA (ONTARIO), April 7, 2022 – Mike Mueller, President and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association issued the following the statement today following the release of Budget 2022: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable:

“As the global aerospace and defence industry realigns to face new challenges and opportunities, our industry welcomes the government’s commitment to increase defence investments and renew its defence policy.

“Economic and geopolitical uncertainty highlight the need for Canada to secure and grow Canada’s aerospace industry for the benefit of our collective defence priorities. This should include finding efficient ways of reducing delays in the defence procurement process to improve competitiveness with our allies who have more streamlined, predictable and supported procurement processes allowing them to more swiftly respond to global threats.

“Canada needs a long-term national aerospace plan that renews the government-industry partnership, leverages our competitive advantages, supports our SMEs who are still struggling post-pandemic, and positions us to lead when it comes to the tremendous opportunities for Canada’s space sector.

“And finally, we must ensure policies do not do more harm than good. Case in point, the upcoming imposition of a federal tax on aircraft that will have a dramatic, negative impact on Canadian manufacturing, discouraging companies from buying Canadian made products, costing jobs, impeding domestic capacity and capability in the middle of a recovery period from COVID-19. No other jurisdiction imposes such a tax penalizing their own penalizing their own domestic aerospace industry.

“Our industry stands ready and committed to work together to achieve our shared objective of protecting and growing this industry’s highly-skilled workforce in every region of Canada, thus contributing to our nation’s overall economic recovery and success.”

About AIAC:

AIAC is the national association representing Canada’s aerospace manufacturing and services sector.  As the world’s ninth-largest aerospace industry, Canada’s aerospace sector contributes over $22B to the economy in GDP, exports over 75% of its output, and is ranked #1 in research and development (R&D) among all Canadian manufacturing industries. Canada’s aerospace sector directly and indirectly supports nearly 207,000 jobs in every region of the country.

www.aiac.ca