Industry and Technology

Opening remarks

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the Canadian Association of Moldmakers and our members. CAMM represents Canadian mould-makers and a broader network of tooling, machining, automation and advanced manufacturing firms that support production across Canada and North America. I'm here today because the current U.S. tariff environment, particularly section 232, presents a serious and immediate concern for our sector and for Canada's manufacturing competitiveness. Our industry may not always be visible to the public, but it is foundational to modern manufacturing. Moulds, dies, fixtures and other precision tooling are the production tools required to manufacture products in automotive, aerospace, medical devices, packaging, consumer goods, construction materials and industrial equipment. Without tooling, manufacturing programs do not launch, production lines do not run and supply chains slow down. This is also an industry of real scale. Canadian mould-making exports approximately $7 billion annually to the United States. Approximately 75% of Canadian mould-making is in Ontario, within which Windsor-Essex is home to the largest cluster of…

Opening remarks

I am speaking to you in my capacity as an engineer, co-owner of PREXOR Optimoule, and member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Moldmakers. PREXOR is a Quebec-based company with over 40 years of expertise in the design and manufacture of high-precision moulds for strategic sectors such as the medical and defence industries. The manufacturing industry, including the mould-making sector, has been threatened with extinction for nearly 25 years due to direct and unfair competition from low-cost countries. These ongoing threats—and sudden ones in the case of the United States—continue to erode the sector. PREXOR, which employs only 30 people, is now the largest mould maker in Quebec, a position it attained following the successive closures of many of my peers. Our domestic capabilities are eroding, and our independence will be affected. Just as food self-sufficiency was established after the two world wars, manufacturing self-sufficiency is now a vital necessity. Sixty per cent of my company’s production is destined for the United States. Our customer base allows us to stay in business. With these new tariffs, our customers are increasingly uncertain about…

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Chris Vander Park. I'm the international business manager at Cavalier Tool & Manufacturing. I'm joined by Diane Ricci Woodiwiss, our chief financial officer. Cavalier Tool is a family-owned plastic injection mould manufacturer based in Windsor, Ontario. We have been in business for 50 years, designing and manufacturing precision plastic injection moulds—upstream tooling that enables production across automotive, commercial goods, agricultural goods, recreational vehicles, construction, aerospace and advanced industrial markets. Simply put, we make things that make things. We operate three facilities in Windsor, Ontario, with our third plant completing a major expansion in January 2025. That investment was based on the expectation of stability, long-term growth and continued participation in integrated manufacturing supply chains from January 2025 and beyond. We are proud to be part of Canada's advanced manufacturing base and highly integrated North American supply chain, built on cost, quality, reliability and predictable execution. Manufacturing depends on rules that are…

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Cyrus Jebely. I'm the founder and president of Cap-Thin Molds, a manufacturing company in Mississauga, Ontario. Good afternoon, members of the committee. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you with regard to the current Canada-U.S. business tariffs, and specifically section 232. Cap-Thin Molds is a major supplier of high-precision injection moulds, serving the food and beverage, medical and personal care industries. Our company has been significantly impacted by newly implemented U.S. tariffs affecting both our products and our services that we provide to our customers in the United States. To illustrate the real economic impact of this situation, I would like to share a concrete example of a recent project. A 72-cavity injection mould, valued at $900,000 U.S. and used to produce plastic caps for beverage packaging, was shipped to a U.S. customer back in November 2025. As a result of tariffs imposed on August 15, 2025, an additional cost of $35,000 U.S. was added to the cost of the project. Notably, the contract for this project had been signed prior to the announcement of these tariffs, making this cost entirely…

Opening remarks

We cannot accept a 15% additional cost on any of our jobs. Our margins are very tight. We are in a very competitive industry, and because of that, absorbing 15% is just not feasible. What happens here is that when the tool ships to the U.S., within 10 days we have to pay that tariff. Then I have to invoice our customers. I'm waiting for that, so it puts a lot of strain on us financially, because we have to monitor our cash flow.