Buffalo makes its sales pitch to Canada’s manufacturing businesses

Buffalo is making a case for Canada’s manufacturing business.

The city, located just south of the Ont. border with access to both lakes Ontario and Erie, is making a push for Canadian companies during a time when American businesses can feel the pinch of lost cross-border commerce.

With tariffs continuing to exacerbate a trade war and many Canadian manufacturers exploring other regions for expansion and export opportunities, Invest Buffalo Niagara is continuing to showcase the region’s strengths.

Chief amongst them is its workforce, on display during a generous trip sponsored by Invest Buffalo Niagara.

At the Northland Workforce Training Center in Buffalo, Stephen Tucker, CEO, led a walkthrough of the various programs on display trying to prepare skilled workers for careers in manufacturing industries.

“We are the signature workforce initiative under the ‘Buffalo Billion’,” says Tucker, referencing the previous U.S. administration’s efforts to revitalize the region through an earmarked investment. “At that time, we were projecting the need to fill approximately 20,000 job openings in the advanced manufacturing and clean energy sectors.”

Tucker states that the need to fill those jobs comes from a problem that may be very familiar for Cdn. manufacturers as well.

“This is due to a retiring workforce. The manufacturing sector has an aging workforce and a non-existent pipeline of talent to fill those roles. People were not interested in, aware of, or had the skills to fill those positions,” he says.

While there are numerous Cdn. education institutions working in tandem with manufacturers to support advanced manufacturing careers, Stephen and the Invest Buffalo Niagara team presented other advantages for business owners considering the Buffalo region.

“We want to offer a career pathway to develop talent for the machining sector. I had a meeting with Moog Inc. yesterday, who mentioned that they need approximately 40-50 machinists in the next few years,” says Tucker.

Northland’s CEO was also asked about why certain programs, like their electrician program, or automotive technician program, saw more enrollment than the ones catered towards more direct manufacturing careers like CNC machining.

“The average student, the average father, the average mother, doesn’t know what a CNC machine does,” says Tucker, explaining the lower enrollment in manufacturing programs compared to some of the other programs on offer, saying, “They don’t know a skilled CNC machinist can make upwards of a $100K per year. People know what an electrician is, what an automotive technician is, they don’t know what a CNC machinist does.”

Invest Buffalo Niagara’s team also spoke to the needs in the region.

“The projects that we’re bringing in as well are needing more CNC machinists, both the manufacturers that are expanding and the ones that are coming into town as well,” says Rob Leteste, Director, Strategy Sector at Invest Buffalo Niagara.

Tucker was also asked why Cdn. manufacturers should consider investing in the region and a workforce outside of Canada.

“The salary and compensation in the region would be much more competitive here than in other places,” says Tucker. “We also work with manufacturers to innovate and tailor a program that suits their needs. Our program is so successful that Gov. Hochul is actually replicating the model to spread it across the state in various other cities.”

But Tucker was also forthcoming about some of the hiring challenges south of the border as well.

“We can fill machinist roles pretty quickly, especially if they’re level 1 or level 2 machinists,” he says. “If it’s level 3, it’s very difficult. There aren’t any that aren’t working. They have to be taken from other companies. That’s why I’m trying to build a pipeline that can provide that.”

This competitive advantage was backed up by at least one former Cdn. business that moved south of the border over the course of years.

Worksport Ltd., a manufacturer of tonneau covers that originally started in Ont. in 2011, announced the purchase of a Mississauga, Ont.-based headquarters in 2022 before ultimately moving the headquarters to the U.S. less than a year later.

“It was just more expensive to operate north of the border,” says COO Chris Bernaudo. “It was hard to find a manufacturing location that was convenient in Ontario, we would have had to go outside of a metropolitan area, resulting in a drive that would have been just as far as it takes to get here.”

Chris went on to mention key differences including the size of the available labour force in the U.S. as part of the decision to move from the GTA to Buffalo.

“Worksport has been an American company since 2014,” he says. “It’s not just about the market size, it’s about the labour. We can get comparable pricing in various areas, but you won’t get a comparable amount of people ready to work everywhere. There’s no inherent problem with Canada, it’s just smaller.”

When Worksport’s COO was asked about coming back to expand manufacturing operations in Canada again, he was clear.

“We already sell in Canada through dealers and distributors, and because of how big the U.S. market is we’re focused on that, but once that is set up, I will be working to bring an expansion back to Canada and Mexico as well.”

Also, as a part of the tour and showcase, another Cdn. manufacturer made the business case for why they moved south of the border.

Avanti Advanced Manufacturing is a Canadian manufacturer of custom injection molding products serving a number of markets from manufacturing operations in the Buffalo region.

“Our expansion to Buffalo was straightforward. We had an American customer who said that the product needed to be made in America. I was then faced with the decision to either move to the U.S. or lose that major client, so it was an easy decision to move,” says Jim Wei, President of Avanti Advanced Manufacturing.

Jim went on to add that part of the decision to set up in Buffalo as opposed to somewhere else in America was because key clients and customers remained in Ont., providing access to its original market as well.

Electrovaya Inc., a Canadian business headquartered in Mississauga, Ont. manufacturing battery systems in Buffalo, echoed Tucker’s sentiment of a lower cost of operations as part of the decision to set up in Buffalo as well.

“Cell production was moved from China to the U.S., and the cost of shipping all of that was very high at the time, but necessary. Our decision to move to this region was because of the cost of labour here, which is a lot cheaper than it is in Canada, and so is the cost of living,” says Lee Gilmore, General Manager at Electrovaya.

“We can find the same skills that we need here in Canada as well, but because the cost of living is so much cheaper in the area, the pay scale doesn’t have to be on the same level that it does have to be in Mississauga,” he added.

The Electrovaya executive also added that incentives from regional government authorities were also instrumental to the U.S. expansion.

At a time when Canadian manufacturers are exploring other key territories to diversify their supply chain, the U.S. continues to make a case for Canadian business.