Earlier this month (June 2020) Manitoba Aerospace Inc (MAI) joined with the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) to work towards remediating the damage that COVID-19 has caused to the Aerospace Sector.  To this end, a letter from MAI was published calling for support for the aerospace industry.

The aerospace sector in Manitoba is a high-value sector, it generates $2.5 billion in revenues, employs over 5,800 highly skilled people, and contributes over $900 million towards the province’s Gross Domestic Product.

Coupled with the MAI letter was a set of recommendations from AIAC itself calling on the federal government to implement a long-term aerospace sectoral strategy, particularly in view of the damaging effects that COVID-19 is having on the sector.

The six key recommendations which AIAC has made all point to making aerospace a key part of Canada’s economic recovery plans. AIAC’s recommendations are as follows:

  1. Develop a pragmatic and proportional plan to allow people to begin flying again.
  2. Adapt Canada’s job retention program and liquidity measures to support employees in industries that will take longer to recover.
  3. Rapidly expand government support for green technologies to enable the decarbonization of key sectors, particularly transportation and aviation.
  4. Establish a new long-term investment bank to support and foster essential manufacturing supply chains through the market transformation ahead.
  5. Advance public procurement projects, particularly in defence and space projects, to help stimulate and sustain high-tech supply chains through the difficult months ahead.
  6. Establish a Canadian sector strategy for aerospace that includes civil, defence and space.

Canada’s aerospace industry is a significant piece of our economic infrastructure.  The aerospace sector produces $31 billion in revenues, supports nearly 215,000 jobs and contributes over $25 billion to Canada’s Gross Domestic Product. The vast majority (80%) of this sector’s manufacturing output is exported. This value has trended upwards for the better part of the last decade.

The global effects of COVID-19 are concerning; both the IMF and World Bank have reported that 3% to 5% contraction in the world’s GDP will take place in 2020. Recovery projections and synopsis from many informed sources indicate this will be a long-term process (see graph below).

Figure 1:

The preceding graph shows the effect of COVID-19 on the both the advanced and emerging/developing economies. A divergence is indicated at the arrival of the pandemic (in Q1 2020) with regular growth projections begin waylaid by events related to COVID-19.   

To see the full letter from MAI, follow this link: Online Letter from MAI  

To see AIAC’s Aerospace Sectoral Strategy, follow this link: AIAC Recommendations for a Long-Term Sectoral Strategy.

To see AIAC’s recommendations regarding Canada’s economic recovery plans, follow this link: https://aiac.ca/aiac-releases-aerospace-recommendations/