What the Auto Industry Means to Niagara

This Article was posted a year ago but the information is so good  it is worth sharing again.

The Industry

  • The St. Catharines-Niagara region is a key part of Canada’s auto industry, home to General Motors’ in-house engine, transmission and component facilities; and several independent auto parts plants.
  • Major employers in the region include: General Motors, Tora, Brunner Manufacturing, Spencer ARL.
  • Workers at General Motors built 535,590 engines, 300,000 transmissions, and thousands of other auto parts in 2014.
  • The industry produced automotive products worth $2.5 billion in the St. Catharines-Niagara region in 2014 (or $7 million per day).

Jobs and the Local Economy

  • The auto industry directly employs 2,900 people in the St. Catharines-Niagara region.
  • Thousands more jobs are created to supply the industry in steel, plastics and other manufacturing sectors, and services. More jobs are created by the spending power of auto workers’ paycheques.
  • Auto workers’ paycheques contributed $183 million to the St. Catharines-Niagara region economy in 2014 (or $500,000 per day).
  • The major original equipment manufacturing jobs in the region stimulate an estimated 13,000 additional jobs throughout the economy.

Supporting our Community

  • In 2014, St. Catharines-Niagara region auto workers paid $48 million in income, payroll and sales tax (or $131,000 per day), to support vital public services like health care, education, employment insurance, public pensions and social services.
  • Most auto workers own their homes, and auto worker households in the St. Catharines-Niagara region supported $12 million in municipal taxes in 2014 (or $32,000 per day), helping to pay for local services.
  • Auto workers’ fundraising efforts also directly support community organizations such as the United Way, women’s shelters and food banks.

Vital for us All

  • Unifor supports good jobs in the auto industry, which are vital for us all.

Sources

Vehicle Production: Ward’s Automotive, Reference Center.

Engine and Transmission Production: Company sources.

Employment: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, custom data for selected Census Metropolitan Areas; Unifor estimates for Ingersoll and Woodstock; Statistics Canada, Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, CANSIM Table 281-0023.

Production Value: Statistics Canada, Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, CANSIM Table 304-0014.

Spin-off Employment: Hill, Kim, Debra Menk, and Adam Cooper. (2010). Contribution of the Automotive Industry to the Economies of all Fifty States and the United States. Ann Arbor: Center for Automotive Research.

Earnings: Statistics Canada, Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, CANSIM Table 281-0026.

Exports: Statistics Canada, Industry Canada, Strategis Trade Data Online.

Income Tax: Unifor calculations, average personal income tax at selected income levels: Canadian Tax Foundation. The Finances of the Nation. Selected years.

Sales Tax: Unifor calculations: Statistics Canada, Survey of Household Spending, CANSIM Table 203-0022; Statistics Canada, Revenue, Expenditure and Budget Balance, CANSIM Table 380-0080; Fraser Institute, Canadian Tax Simulator, 2015.

Payroll Tax: Employee contributions to the Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance, 2014 rates.

Property Tax: The Fraser Institute, Canadian Tax Simulator, 2015.