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ambridge, Ontario,
come on down! You've just won a brand new car. Tell them about what they've won, Johnny.
      "The Toyota 2003 Matrix blends sports car performance, SUV versatility and compact affordability in a strikingly original package ..."
      OK, so the city of Cambridge didn't just visit Bob Barker on the Price is Right, but it probably felt like it had won the grand prize when Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) received the second new vehicle announcement from Toyota in less than a year. The Matrix announcement in January follows the Japanese automaker's April 2000 mandate for TMMC to build the Lexus RX300, a luxury sports utility vehicle. The RX300 is the only Lexus to be built outside Japan.
      The two vehicles will be produced at the existing 2.8 million-sq.-ft. (260,129-sq.-m.) facility, where Corollas and Solaras are currently built. By the time Corolla, Matrix and RX are on stream (Solara production will move to the Georgetown, Ky., plant), Toyota's manufacturing investment at TMMC will have grown by $415 million to $1.9 billion. Employment is expected to rise by 300 jobs when the vehicles are in full production.

      The two mandates by Toyota help explain the competitive advantages that Ontario offers. "You can produce good cars here more efficiently," explains Grahame Richards, assistant deputy minister, Investment Division of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT). "It takes less hours to produce a Toyota in Canada than it does in Kentucky. And they're getting the quality they want."
      Ontario also provides a balmy business climate to support the auto industry. Although Richards admits that the province doesn't expect to get any new assembly plants, Ontario will continue to maintain the ones already operating there. Currently the MEDT is working with Toyota to identify the parts co mpanies that it will need to work on the new models.
      Richards points out, too, that although the province does not provide the highly publicized incentive packages that the U.S. states tend to offer, it really has no effect on Ontario's ability to attract the auto industry. "I don't care what Alabama gives you, you're going to make more money here than you will there for the five-year period that you will receive the incentives, he says. "Our incentive package includes an available, highly skilled work force, and we will probably have one of the lowest corporate tax rates anywhere in North America by the year 2005."