Still Ontario's auto industry continues to maintain its strength. Provincial auto production levels already are on par with those of Michigan -- last year, only 100,000 units separated the two. "We could become the largest automobile and truck producer in North America in the next couple of years," says Richards.
      In 2000, the Ontario automotive economy included 190,000 workers, more than 500 parts makers and 13 assembly plants. General Motors in Oshawa, Ford in Oakville and DaimlerChrysler in Brampton employ almost 23,000 in the Greater Toronto area (GTA) alone, an area in which automotive companies have invested more than $3.5 billion since 1992 ... and billions more since the automotive business hit the province in full force some 35 years ago. The GTA accounts for 58 percent of the country's total vehicle production, not to mention its role as a home to parts manufacturers.
      Why do they come? Proximity, lower taxation and labor availability, says Ljubica Sisko, marketing consultant for the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The rapidly sinking tax rates are grabbing headlines.
      "Adding together the provincial tax rate and the federal tax rate, we come up with a 34.12 percent corporate tax rate in Ontario, lower than any manufacturing jurisdiction in the United States," says Sisko. "This will actually decrease to 30.1 percent by 2005."


      The province's R&D tax credit programs are "the most generous of any of the G7 countries," she continues. That's because of a broader definition of R&D, which incorporates not only new product development, but also materials and process improvements. What's more, overall R&D spending is not obliged to keep increasing every year, as is often the case in the U.S.
      Recent projects in the province include:

• General Motors' Oshawa operation, slated to begin production of the Pontiac Grand Prix in summer 2002, with GM spending $192 million on the expansion.
• GM Defense is filling other niches with its London, Ontario, plant, which was recently awarded a huge tank contract by the U.S. Army that could be worth as much as $3.8 billion through 2008.
• In New Hamburg, Ontario Drive & Gear has opened a new 40,000-sq.-ft. (3,716-sq.-m.) manufacturing and administrative facility.
• At its award-winning Cambridge plant, Toyota broke ground in May on a 270,000-sq.-ft. (25,084-sq.-m.) expansion, investing around $128 million in a new paint facility for the Lexus RX300 SUV, which will start rolling off the line in 2003.