Planes, trains and automobiles

As Canadians inhabit a vast nation, good transportation is essential to our livelihood. Distance is part of the Canadian mentality. We cover many kilometres commuting to work, flying coast to coast and vacationing in faraway places. The biggest defining achievement in our early years was the construction of a railway that ran the full breadth of the country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is of little surprise, then, that transportation equipment is critical to Canada's manufacturing success.

Canada's transportation equipment industry encompasses a wide variety of conveyances and parts: aircraft, cars, trucks, buses, mobile homes, trailers, boxcars and other rail vehicles, boats and ships. Together, these products make up a large share of Canada's export trade. In 2002, exports of these goods totalled $120 billion, up from $118 billion in 2001.

	Shipment of merchandise via airplanes Photo: Comstock

Though the transportation equipment industry is diverse, about two-thirds of its workers are employed in the automotive assembly and motor vehicle part and accessories groups. They are the highest-paid workers in the industry: by 2002, they earned $29.32 an hour, almost a quarter more than their counterparts in other transportation groups ($23.83 an hour).