<P> Central Canada is home to branch plants to all the major American and Japanese automobile makers and many parts factories owned by Canadian firms such as Magna International and Linamar Corporation . Central Canada today produces more vehicles each year than the neighbouring U.S. state of Michigan, the heart of the American automobile industry . Manufacturers have been attracted to Canada due to the highly educated population with lower labour costs than the United States . Canada's publicly funded health care system is also an important attraction, as companies are exempt from the high health insurance costs US firms pay, though they are offset by corporate health care taxes . </P> <P> Much of the Canadian manufacturing industry consists of branch plants of United States firms, though there are some important domestic manufacturers, such as Bombardier Inc...This has raised several concerns for Canadians . Branch plants provide mainly blue collar jobs, with research and executive positions confined to the United States . </P> <P> Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy--in 2009 net exports of energy products amounted to 2.9% of GDP . Most important are the large oil and gas resources centred in Alberta and the Northern Territories, but also present in neighbouring British Columbia and Saskatchewan . The vast Athabasca oil sands give Canada the world's third largest reserves of oil after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela according to USGS . In British Columbia and Quebec, as well as Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Labrador region, hydroelectric power is an inexpensive and relatively environmentally friendly source of abundant energy . In part because of this, Canada is also one of the world's highest per capita consumers of energy . Cheap energy has enabled the creation of several important industries, such as the large aluminium industries in British Columbia and Quebec . </P> <P> Historically, an important issue in Canadian politics is the interplay between the oil and energy industry in Western Canada and the industrial heartland of Southern Ontario . Foreign investment in Western oil projects has fueled Canada's rising dollar . This has raised the price of Ontario's manufacturing exports and made them less competitive, a problem similar to the decline of the manufacturing sector in the Netherlands . Also, Ontario has relatively fewer native sources of power . However, it is cheaper for Alberta to ship its oil to the western United States than to eastern Canada . The eastern Canadian ports thus import significant quantities of oil from overseas, and Ontario makes significant use of nuclear power . </P>

How much of canada's gdp is oil