Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters SMART Program

FedDev Ontario: Enhancing Productivity Across Southern Ontario

[Text on screen - Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters SMART Program, FedDev Ontario funding recipient]

Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters is one of Canada's largest and oldest trade associations.

[Ian Howcroft – President – Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Ontario]

About 85 percent of our members are small and medium-sized enterprises. FedDev has provided Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters with $40 million dollars in funding which includes the recently announced Prosperity Now Initiative that is to help companies deal with productivity but it’s tied to helping them expand global markets and supply chain opportunities. FedDev’s support has really helped southern Ontario manufacturers deal with productivity issues. It’s helped to create jobs and opportunities, creating a stronger manufacturing base for the future of the province.

To date, 434 small and medium-sized enterprises have received funding from our CME SMART program. One of our great success stories is Atlantic Braids.

[Switch to George Henderson – Director – Atlantic Braids, Chute-á-Blondeau]

Atlantic Braids is a leading Canadian manufacturer of braided rope and cordage products. We applied for the funding to replace some of our outdated equipment and increase our productivity in the high tech rope area. We have customers throughout the industrial sector, to marine, to agricultural and even the theatrical business. We received $32,000 dollars through the SMART program and that enabled us to purchase new equipment, to create 3 new jobs and to retain one other. We were able to increase our productivity by over 150% and help to satisfy our customers’ demands, as well as getting the product to them sooner.

[Switch to Ian Howcroft – President – Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Ontario]

The FedDev funds have helped us to invest in manufacturing in Ontario with great results. We’ve seen about 1,800 new jobs created and 5,000 jobs retained here in southern Ontario, and we expect that we’ll see a lot more jobs in manufacturing created and retained over the next two years.

Manufacturing is crucially important to the success of the Canadian economy: we have to do all we can to help grow manufacturing and take advantage of global opportunities, and that’s what FedDev investment in CME is helping us to achieve.

[Text on screen - www.FedDevOntario.gc.ca]

[FedDev Ontario identifier and Canada wordmark]