AIA Canada on Right To Repair, Workforce and Tariffs

Stacey Miller: 0:12

Welcome to Autocare on Air, a candid podcast for a curious industry. I'm Stacy Miller, Vice President of Communications at the Autocare Association, and this is Traction Control, where we chat about recent news from the global to the local level and what it may mean to the industry featuring guests on the front lines. Let's roll. Welcome back to another traction control. I'm Stacey Miller. It is Apex 2025. And exactly one year ago, we sat in this seat with JF Champagne, president and CEO of AIA Canada. I also have with me today Emily Holpe, who is the VP, the VEP of government relations at AIA Canada. Welcome. Thank you for having us. Thank you. So excited. So excited to have you guys back in the studio. We have an updated setup. The podcast is doing great. And we have such a great relationship with AIA Canada. And the last we spoke, we talked a lot about right to repair. Because as you know, right to repair is a global issue. Everybody's hooked on right to repair. We're trying to get this passed, not just in the United States, but across the globe. And Canada has been making a lot of progress. And that was what our last podcast episode was on. So I thought one year later we would take a, we would take another trip and see, all right, where are we now? What's changed since the last time we spoke? And where does right to repair stand in Canada today? Well, so much has happened in the last 12 months.

I mean, we were here with you on your election night. We've since had a federal election ourselves, and we've made some major advancements on right to repair, like you say. So this time last year, JF was probably speaking about there were two bills we were trying to pass within the House of Commons. They were called C244 and 294. And these were two bills that were making suggested amendments to the Copyright Act. And it was to ensure that our members could bypass digital locks when it comes to accessing the diagnostic information they need to service and repair a vehicle. So after Apex, a few short weeks later, those two bills did pass. Wow. So that was significant, right? And the government and us, we saw that as a crucial building block towards actual right to repair legislation. Because the challenge is the two bills are an excellent first step, but they don't go far enough. Because of course, there's no mandated access to that data required by the automakers to our independent automotive service providers. And of course, there's no enforcement penalties if they don't comply. And so those are two key elements that we need to see in a right to repair framework nationally. But simultaneously, we've been working at it provincially. And I'll pass it to JF because there's some big advancements in the province of Quebec that we want to point to.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Which is so exciting because if you want to draw a parallel between the province of Quebec and Massachusetts, this is the first time we've been able to have a specific bill on right to repair that referenced the automotive sector that has been adopted and has now come into full force uh earlier this month on October 5th, 2025. So we now have, for the first time in Canada, a piece of legislation that really speaks to uh our uh right to repair needs for the industry. And what that does, it really is a modifications or an adaptation to the Consumer Protection Act. And so uh since the beginning of the month now, the Consumer Protection Agency in the province of Quebec has now released a series of information, a platform for information to consumers, but also people into the autocare sector. And uh we're now uh in the beginning of seeing people in the aftermarket able to submit a complaint to the the the uh consumer protection agency to say uh lack of access here. Uh automakers are mandated by law now to make available information that's needed for the diagnostic repair and maintenance of vehicles. That's very exciting. Um will tell exactly to what extent the consumer protection agency will uh issue fines and rulings in that in in that uh uh fashion. But uh we're very hopeful that we're gonna start to see a high level of compliance in the province as a result of that. Wow. So we don't know what the f what the penalties or the fines are gonna be yet in that case. They can yeah, they've been published. Uh but the um the agency have the right to apply those cumulatively. So it's not just one vehicle, it's two vehicles, and it's a repeat of. And so those could become quite expensive photomakers uh if they found to be uh in repeat of noncompliance. That's excellent. And I mean, what does that what does that reporting process look like? Like I imagine there's a hotline or a forum where you call and say, you know, I wasn't able to repair my car. Like, do we know what that looks like? It's directly with the agency, though they've outlined a whole process and it's all you know on their public website, and they actually it's either consumer because it really is about the consumer protection or a representative of, which could be someone working in a shop uh that makes and file that complaint through the agency, and there's a formal process they have to follow. It's just all on their website to do. That's great. That's great. That's and that's amazing progress. I love that you drew that parallel to Massachusetts because of course we're we're still educating the industry about what's going on in Massachusetts and Maine and federally, but there's still people that are unaware of the fact that we have a right to repair law in Massachusetts that did pass, and we're working on getting that of force. But unfortunately, it's been going through the appeal process. The automakers have been quite sticky with us.

Well, and it's precedent setting, like you say, it's so crucial for us now that we have a jurisdiction within our own borders to point to. Yes. And that's what we've now seen is other provinces are now interested from that consumer protection perspective, consumer fairness, affordability, the accessibility angle. So we're talking to all the provinces, different levels of conversations, but we're feeling really a strong interest from the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta. We're meeting with the province of Saskatchewan soon. And so we're gonna explore, like you, you know, at a provincial level, like you do at the state level, as well as at the federal level simultaneously.

I love I love the parallel between the countries because we learn a lot from each other. And I think that's what's so great about this partnership, right? Like we started in Massachusetts and then we went to Maine. Um, and then apparently right to repair laws have been introduced in some way or form across industries in every single one of the US states. And it sounds like Canada is well on its way to doing the same, and that's very powerful. You know, I was having a conversation with uh my counterpart, uh Stuart from from WWE in Australia. Yeah. And in sharing our past experiences of how valuable coming together uh globally to share experiences, yeah, there are differences for sure. Our systems are different, uh, but there's also so much that we have in common that we could share and learn from one another and you know, helping each other out. And I think that um the the the the ongoing successes that we are seeing are in large part the result of that collaborations globally. Yeah. What is one of your favorite takeaways globally from one of our partners in the right to repair battle? Because I love sitting in on those meetings and hearing, okay, here's how Australia really ramped up their grassroots. Okay, here's how the US is using really creative marketing to get the messaging out to the aftermarket, right? Like, what are some of your favorite takeaways from those right those meetings? To me, it's it's uh maybe the uh the the flip side of the coin, which is what are the expected behavior of the either you know OEMs or or dealership networks and you know how they're positioning themselves, because those position uh again are very similar uh globally, right? And so it gives you a bit of insights about what to expect in terms of a counterpoint or or um points of clarification you need to provide to support your actions.

And the open communication, the data sharing, the the the information we're able to share with one another is so significant. It is the talking points I take into my meetings with Canadian officials because they're very curious about what's happening around the world. And we are a little behind. We're a little behind Australia, the EU, South Africa. And so we're able to point to these jurisdictions where we have experts. They have we can point to their data. There, you know, Australia is the perfect example of being, you know, four years ahead with actual legislation in place. What have they gone through? What have been some of the challenges, the same arguments that we're hearing from the OEs? I was just in Washington at the legislative summit as a guest of yours for those meetings to sit in a room with, you know, your shop owners who are having the same challenges our shop owners are, turning away up to five customers a month to the dealers. I mean, again, I can because we share that border, we have Canadian and American drivers crossing that border thousands and thousands of times a day. How nice to point to a future idea of harmonized legislation between both countries that we're all fighting for the same thing.

You know, you mentioned something you're talking about um crossing the border between America and Canada. And it would I would be remiss if we didn't talk about heavy duty and rate to repair too. So those semi-trucks that are delivering the goods and services, I know it's a really weird situation right now with the tariffs. I don't think we want to get into all that. But um, on the heavy duty rate to repair side, are you guys sharing that message or hearing anything about that message at all in the industry? There hasn't been too much collaborative, to be honest. Uh our mandate at EI Canada does not include the heavy duty side of the of the industry. Um, but they have very much say, you know, face similar challenges uh for sure. And uh the current environment obviously is not helping out at all in that regard. Okay. Is there anything um that if you have any Canadian listeners on the Auto Care on Air podcast today, what can they do to be a partner to AIA or how can they help in the right to repair fight?

Absolutely. I invite them to visit righttorepair.ca. It's our one-stop shop that has all of the information they need on the issue. It also has a letter template. They can plug in their postal code, which is our version of a zip code, and they can find their local official and their contact information and send that template letter to their official saying, hey, this is an issue that matters to me as a small, medium-sized business owner. This is what matters to my customers in our writing. Get the attention of the local official because you know, JF and I have meetings all the time with officials, but bringing in that local angle is what seals the deal and what makes it really resonate with that member of parliament. And so I invite them to do that. Follow us on social media. They can stay engaged with all of our advocacy work. We're always looking to amplify our grassroots efforts because politics is local. So it's crucial that they get involved.

Absolutely. And those voices are the most important voices, right? We've seen time and time again throughout this issue, which has been spanning for quite some time, right? Since at least 2012. Um, you know, the more voices, the better. And parliament and legislators are looking for the voices, their constituents, right? They want to hear from real people. Absolutely. It's it's critical. Here we are representing our members. Uh, ultimately, they're the ones who are going to benefit uh and the consumers of our actions. And so they got to be part of that conversation. And when they do, it's amazing. You know, it I think you and I, Emily, have seen and sat in two meetings where you now have a real conversations about right to repair, how does it apply in a reality in the life of someone who's physically located in the writing of that member of parliament and could relate to so yeah, that's down the street of my my uh my wife or my kids are taking the cars to that particular location. I know the business. I now I understand the reality of your challenge, and that turns into additional cost, you know, uh lack of access and lack of accessibility. And so though those are magic moments. Yeah, absolutely. So with C um two, is it 244 and 94? Um, with those passing after Apex last year, what's next for those? Or are you now looking towards the future in getting, you know, additional bills for the enforcement and being able to man that? What can we look forward to? So, you know, obviously uh with Quebec, we're creating that precedent, and as Emily was pointing out now, we have other provinces showing interest to right to repair legislation through the lens of consumer protection. But the fact is we don't want a patchwork approach. We prefer obviously to have a federal solutions like the Repair Act uh to right to repair, and we continue our actions with a new government to advocate for uh what is essentially a standalone right to repair legislation and includes automotive at the federal level.

That's that's right. I mean, we have a new government since our election, but it's a fragile government. It's a minority government, which means that you know the stability is not there when you have a majority government situation. So that's why we're we're walking both pathways simultaneously, to see where opportunity rises. We want to move this forward. But always the focus is to have that federal leadership, a national perspective, you know? Excellent.

Well, I want to switch gears a little bit because rights repair is always at the forefront of our conversation. But AIA Canada is doing a lot of additional amazing work in the Canadian aftermarket. So um I think we want to talk a little bit about workforce development because that's also something that Autocare is really highly focused on building the pipeline, um, fueling the future of our industry, bringing really good talent in. And um, I want to hear what you guys are doing because I got I got so excited at the show, honestly, right down that hallway. I don't know if you guys saw it, but the Secret Service is here. I saw your photo. Oh my God. Um ASC, shout out to ASC for bringing the Secret Service here. And the Secret Service is here because they are hiring automotive technicians. So not only can you live in DC and work on Secret Service vehicles, which are like Chevy Suburbans and stuff like that, they're armored, they're really cool, they're super specialized, but you can travel with the president and the beasts, the big limo, and make sure that his vehicle stays running safely on all of the missions around the world. And I just think that is the most badass job. So I gotta promote that. Yeah, you you know, and I'll let Emily talk about our specific uh uh initiatives, but I would say that this what a great example where we can inspire the young generation to say this is a phenomenal industry that provides great rewarding opportunities. And I often say to people, I don't think we are great ambassadors for our industry. Um we need to be more in the forefront of telling uh our neighbors or family or cousins or uncles about uh the strength, the size, and the opportunity exists in the autocare sector. Um if you want to work on something cool, you're a gamer today, well, the vehicle is really the computer-owned wheel, and so much more technology is getting put into vehicles today as opposed to other traditional trade. If if your future calls for establishing yourself in a in a city, you know, I want to live in a highly dense dense uh city, one of the major center, or no, I guess you want to work uh in the rural areas. Well, you'll find that the aftermarket has opportunities in any places throughout North America, it doesn't matter big or small, uh, you could find yourself in a place where you'll find opportunities. And it's not just about being a great technician, but it's also working through this entire supply chain, power distribution, manufacturing, and all the like. And I have been astonished over the last 10 years to run into so many people that have been extremely successful in this industry. And we gotta be good ambassadors because I we should be able to attract many more people to this industry as a result of that. And you know, that's something that we're doing at AI Canada.

Yeah, and it's it's exactly that. It's the recruitment into the industry, and then it's ensuring that we are upskilling our actual technicians currently in the industry. So we're really proud to partner with the Ontario government, which is one of our provinces. We have been uh blessed with, you know, $3 million of funding. Um, so far, we're in our fifth round. We've just applied for sixth round. So fingers crossed. And that has allowed us to have our innovation and automotive training program with a handful of colleges around the province. This includes classes that recruit individuals who have just an interest in the industry. They're set up with over $1,000 of tools to get started. They're in the college classroom learning hands-on. And then it's also providing upskilling for EV training for ADAS, for those within the industry. And again, the reality is the future of the workforce is dependent on a partnership between industry, between government, and between stakeholders. And this is the perfect way of partnering all of that to say we all have a role to ensure that we have an excellent economy run by skilled tradespeople, the breadth of jobs available in our industry, that fuels the economy. Yeah. And that's what everyone's paying attention to.

Oh, I get so excited about this topic because obviously there's a real, there's a bunch of, there's a lot of thrust around it, right? Like we're seeing um technicians retiring, we're seeing a need for more people. There's a technician gap. Um, our wages are really good. We're like trying to figure out how to make this thing sexy. And I love what you said, JF, because there are so many different roles, and most people just don't really think about it, right? Like, I don't think I ever thought about what industry I was gonna go into until I really decided, you know, once I was in my career for a little bit, that I wanted to do something I was passionate about. Now, not everyone's passionate about automotive, but they don't realize, you know, automotive aftermarket can be a super resilient, super lucrative career, very recession resilient, you know, when the economy is bad, the aftermarket is good. That's my favorite thing to tell people who are looking for a job. So I am trying to get them in here. We're an essential service. Yes. And so even in the worst times, you know, pandemic being one of them, are people still working? And so, and to your point, we're very resilient, you know, against ups and downs in the economy. Um, we have spent an entire generation telling our children that if they wanted to have a career, they have to go to university. Right. And how it's gonna take maybe another generation to unwind a bit that mindset and says, no, it's it's not just about a path through university uh degree, but also uh rewarding careers in the trades. Um and so it's more and more I think we're getting that message out. And it's it's educating parents about those opportunities so they could also be inspiring their own children to pursue those those career and opportunities. Yeah. So you mentioned that um you guys are doing the programs at the college, at the collegiate level. I heard, and I want to hear your your um your thoughts on this, sorry, is that apparently you gotta get them involved younger. So they're saying you kind of get you got to get the kids more interested in automotive at a younger age to help kind of facilitate that level of thinking. You know, when you're a kid, you see something on TV and like, oh, I want to be an astronaut, oh, I want to be a marine biologist, and it's like, oh, I want to be a truck driver, or I want to be a technician, or right? So it's like fostering that at an even younger age is something that I'm hearing from our industry. We have to go to now the middle schools and figure out how do we get programs in middle schools to get them more interested to foster that kind of thinking. What do you guys think about going even earlier in the learning process? It it's um yes, uh, you know, guidance counselors is also another, you know, uh important uh aspect of that. Uh who are all, by the way, university graduates. So I think there's a bit of a bias there that that plays out. Um it's it's a big lift. It requires it back to our uh right to repair uh grassroot engagement. It needs this grassroot engagement of the local shops reaching out to the local school board. And they're all, I don't know about the US, but in kind of all organized slightly different. So it's really, really hard to do this this reach. But I think there's some value in what you're saying to uh increase the reach in that uh uh education about the opportunities that exist in our space. Yeah. It's really exciting. Absolutely. I'm like I'm literally sitting here like writing down little campaign ideas in my notebook. Like, are you a problem solver? You can work in product marketing. Are you a creative? You can work in brand marketing, right? Like I'm sitting, you know, behind the camera as part of the autocare team, and like Tom Ho is uh his team is responsible for these graphics that you see on the podcast, and everybody sees them like, oh my God, that's so cool. And I'm like, Yeah, don't you want to come like work in auto because you can do stuff like this and be super creative. And it's like, you know, it's not just designing a car or whatever you might think it is when you hear about working automotive. You think, oh, I gotta work at a dealer and sell a car. There's so much here.

Well, and that's what's so impressive with women in autocare. I was at the breakfast this morning. You were, you know, honoring your award champions. And it's like, that's something we need to tell little girls too. Look at the breadth of jobs available in an industry like ours that maybe they would have shied away from or just thought, oh, I don't fit in there. Yeah. And so, and look at how much that's grown. I think there was 450 of us this morning. Crazy. And I know that that's really seen growth over the last few years. Talk about another grassroots movement. There's power in the people spreading the word.

Were you there last year where we had um, we had the children's book at Women in AutoCare? I saw after. Shout shout out to Napa for that. That's the coolest part. Napa and Tech Force partnered on a book for little girls about girls who become automotive mechanics. And like my heart just like melted and I had to buy ten of them right away. It was the coolest thing.

So important.

We we've moved and come a long way, but there's so much more to do. Uh, I remain somewhat disappointed that today, you know, even today, um, the percentage of women pursuing, you know, trades is so small. And uh I think we'd all need to take stock of the fact that we have not yet been able to transform our way of working and providing an environment that's suitable for women to enter. Um and you know, our statistics remain dismal in this point that when we are able to attract these women to uh take a career in trade, sadly uh we lose them about four times the rate of others. Yeah, in Canada, the latest stats is um you know, very few are left five years after they enter the space because we're not creating the conditions to be able for them to feel that they're part of our industry. And so it's a bit of a failure of of uh industry leaders in that point. But again, m more is being done, and I think uh this is great, but uh we need to do even more. Do you think uh Leah, any immediate thoughts on what what we could do to be better at creating that environment for for women? We we gotta create an environment that is welcoming diversity, uh, that is adapting uh to the new reality. Um you have young, you know, young families. Uh it's a you know, being able to adapt the way that you structure your work that's not conducive just to men, but also to women. I have different dynamics and perspective. I I often find myself in this industry with many super women who are really, you know, being able to be able to dabble in professional work and families and and demands that are just put greater on women. And so are we in our shop in an environment creating the policies, the process that makes it easier for above to attract and retain women. That's such a great advice. I mean, we do a lot of work on this at women in autocare, and I feel so lucky that we're so progressive and create, you know, creating these environments, making sure there's, you know, flexibility in the work schedule, right? You can't just say you have to work a nine to five, right? Like you gotta drop kids off to school, pick them up, right? Even for just families who don't have children, maybe you're taking care of an elderly parent. There's all these different considerations that I think came to light after our lives changed after COVID. And the way we worked has never been the same since. So some people are 100% back in the office, some people are still fully working remote, there's hybrid, but like there's all these new working styles that didn't exist before. And there's a rigidity about certain parts of our industry that you know could could do with a little, you know, oil. If I'm doing a Wizard of Oz reference since we went to the sphere last night. A little oil in the tin man here. A little flexibility. You got it. Yeah. Um, anything else on workforce we want to we want to touch on?

I think just that, you know, in our industry, we struggle with uh with again retaining talent, just like so many within within Canada, within the US, but that there is opportunity. Like you were saying, with with an aging workforce, with the advancements of technology, I think someone 10 years ago who would have thought, oh, well, I'm not, you know, a mechanical guy. I'm I'm too techie. I can't be in this industry. Well, the future is ready for you. Just take a walk around Apex and see all the technology available. So I think it's just ensuring that again, partnering with educational institutions, talking about the opportunities, pushing that government for increased funding for skilled trades. We just had our federal budget yesterday. There is a promise and a commitment for a little bit more investment there. We're gonna push hard for that. That's great. That's really good news. And fingers crossed, yes, on the wood, for that. All right. I don't want to bring up the terrible T-word, but I would be remiss uh if I didn't. But um, I think geopolitics is so weird right now. I hate reading about it. It's so confusing to our members. Things change every single day. But I think the one thing that I want to state is what is happening in politics is not reflective of our aftermarket relationship across the border between US and Canada, right? Like we love each other, we're fantastic partners, we want to work together to make the most efficient supply chain possible. So anything we want to share on that front.

I mean, that's been the consistent message from the entire automotive industry since all this started happening. Yeah. I mean, North America is that we're on the same team. We want to work together. Absolutely. From an aftermarket perspective, the reality is we're dealing in unprecedented times and the unpredictable nature of the administration and the announcements are coming, that makes it challenging to do business. When we surveyed our members last, from a broad, you know, bird's eye view perspective, increased cost of doing business, cross-border supply chains issue. When it comes to increased costs, who does that get passed down to? The consumer, which then hurts Canadians, hurts Americans. I think, again, specific industries have been targeted in this battle, automotive included. We, like every industry in Canada, want to see resolution soon. We want to have a free trade agreement. We like, yeah, think about AIA and autocare. We love our partnership. We want that open communication. We want to continue. So we want to see some sort of resolution. We've in Canada launched officially the USMCA uh stakeholder consultations. What does Canada have to say about going into these negotiations? Um, but we have to see because, you know, just a couple weeks ago we were close to signing on the dotted line, and then one of our premiers unfortunately triggered the president in a negative way, and now we've gone back 10 steps. So monitoring it closely every day, wanting to protect our industries and hoping for a resolution in the future.

Yeah. Uncertainty obviously is not good for business uh on both sides of the border. Um, but in the same time, it speaks to how resilient is the automotive aftermarket. And so what we've seen from our members are are ways to adapt to that new reality, um, looking at alternative sources. And frankly, we also see it through the actions of the the Canadian government. So um now you're seeing an environment in which uh where we have had you know strong, close relationship and collaborations between Canada and US, now there's there's exploration of okay, how do we uh reduce uh interprovincial barriers between the provinces within Canada? So where before um maybe some of the trade was not as easy between uh provinces, now we're we're finding ways to optimize that. We're now exploring other places around the world, what is the EU other places, is to can we start to establish uh bilateral uh commerce to diversify our revenues? And uh the one piece that maybe people don't quite uh appreciate is that when the US administration imposed 100% tariffs uh on Chinese import related to EVs specifically, uh the Canadian government was very supportive of that and basically mirrored uh those tariffs in Canada as well. Now, for the first time in eight years, the Prime Minister of Canada sat down with his counterpart from China and they have agreed to re-establish uh more formal uh communication. And I would not be surprised if we start to see a bit of a reduction of the impact of those tariffs to China. So do are we gonna find ourselves with uh an emergence of a new uh supply of Chinese vehicle in the Canadian marketplace? That's something that I need to start to think about and plan into what does it mean for the automotive aftermarket if we go towards now a slightly different park of vehicle. Many years ago, our parks were a little different, and now we essentially really service and maintain a very similar park of vehicle, but a result of these tariffs and those barriers may create opportunities for the Kenya government to build these new relationships outside and again bring a different park of vehicle into the Kenya marketplace. Wow. And that's so interesting because we saw that happen in Latin America, right? They had influx of Chinese vehicles and now the parts inventory looks totally different. What you need to stock, what those replacement parts look like actually is still to be seen. They're trying to figure out are these um more economical vehicles going to have these parts replacements or are they throwaway cars? And it's it's still to be seen in that market because it's so new. So lots of considerations. Lots of considerations. Anything else on the the terrible tee front, the trade the trade and the tariffs that we want to mention?

Let's leave it there and cross our fingers.

I love that. I appreciate that. Just waiting with bated breath. We're gonna we're gonna get we're gonna get through this together, guys. Exactly. All right. Anything else that we need to talk about that we didn't that we didn't touch that we want to cut in here?

I like looking forward to the future. And if we're gonna start predicting things, like you know, thinking about where UVs are headed and things like that. I want to say that in the next five years, I hope we really go from just talking about right to repair to actually having enforceable legislation in place so that we can really get down to living the life of true consumer affordability, of true consumer access. America and Canada has a ton of population and rural areas. They need to be able to continue to have their vehicle service. All of that feeds into a better aftermarket and better competition, which is better for both countries. Better for everyone. So let's just say that's my prediction and hope for the future. Fantastic. I love that.

Emily and JF, thank you so much for joining me again on the show. Really fantastic information and really looking forward to seeing what's next. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Auto Care on Air. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so that you never miss an episode. And don't forget Don't forget to leave us a rating and review that helps others discover our content. Autocare on Air is a production of the Autocare Association, dedicated to advancing the autocare industry and supporting professionals like you. To learn more about the association and its initiatives, visit autocare.org.