I am going to look for a Leotek facility in Ottawa and visit it. I know it exists because 90% of streetlights in Ottawa are made by Leotek and the US/Canada border was closed for a long time and they have not reopened it yet to non-essential services such as importing streetlights. Also it is unrealistic to assume that all of them are imported because importing something is expensive and importing a streetlight or all 70,000 streetlights from California is even more expensive.

Have you tried contacting the distributors on this list?

That said, it's highly unlikely the Leotek would go to the expense of setting up a second North American facilty. Gone are the days when luminaire manufacturers would set up a second facility for the Canadian market like what GE, Westinghouse, LM/McGraw Edison, and Lithonia did back in the day. NAFTA pretty much killed off any incentive for the manufacturers to do that. The border is "closed" but only to "non essential" travel. Travel for work, including the delivery of all goods and services remains unrestricted without any requirements to quarantine. I've sent and received a lot of lighting stuff to and from the US through out the past year so the stuff does get through.

While yes importing stuff can be expensive, but the setup costs associated with setting up a new facilty, a new production line, and hiring local employees to staff said facility add up to way more than the costs associated with importing. 70000 streetlights might sound like a lot but you have to be thinking of making millions of them before a new facility would make economic sense.

Have you tried contacting the distributors on this list?

That said, it's highly unlikely the Leotek would go to the expense of setting up a second North American facilty. Gone are the days when luminaire manufacturers would set up a second facility for the Canadian market like what GE, Westinghouse, LM/McGraw Edison, and Lithonia did back in the day. NAFTA pretty much killed off any incentive for the manufacturers to do that. The border is "closed" but only to "non essential" travel. Travel for work, including the delivery of all goods and services remains unrestricted without any requirements to quarantine. I've sent and received a lot of lighting stuff to and from the US through out the past year so the stuff does get through.

While yes importing stuff can be expensive, but the setup costs associated with setting up a new facilty, a new production line, and hiring local employees to staff said facility add up to way more than the costs associated with importing. 70000 streetlights might sound like a lot but you have to be thinking of making millions of them before a new facility would make economic sense.

There is a Desdowd facility in Montreal: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/5150+Saint-Patrick+St.,+Montreal,+QC+H4E+4N5/@45.4666037,-73.5914928,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4cc9109197e8a101:0x9ca27007a2aa5b7d!8m2!3d45.4666!4d-73.5893041?hl=en&authuser=0 I'm pretty sure they build Leoteks there it looks like a plant. Nobody would import almost every streetlight they use especially a huge city like Ottawa. Ottawa is not a small town. Heck, it has more than millions of people living there and tons of roads. Trust me, No city in North America can afford to import most of their streetlights, that is just too much.

There is a Desdowd facility in Montreal: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/5150+Saint-Patrick+St.,+Montreal,+QC+H4E+4N5/@45.4666037,-73.5914928,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4cc9109197e8a101:0x9ca27007a2aa5b7d!8m2!3d45.4666!4d-73.5893041?hl=en&authuser=0 I'm pretty sure they build Leoteks there it looks like a plant. Nobody would import almost every streetlight they use especially a huge city like Ottawa. Ottawa is not a small town. Heck, it has more than millions of people living there and tons of roads. Trust me, No city in North America can afford to import most of their streetlights, that is just too much.

Toronto which is a even bigger city than Ottawa uses American Electric Lighting luminaires and those are made in Mexico. McCain traffic signals that are also used in the GTA are made in Mexico. A lot of cities import stuff like streetlights. Think about it this way, take a look around your room or go out to Walmart and see what's made locally in Canada and what's imported. You'll see almost everything is imported nowadays. The same goes for streetlights. The poles are locally made since it's still cheaper to make them here but the luminaires are mostly imported.

Do they use Autobahns in Toronto since they started converting to LED?

I have to ask, why? I don’t think there’s even a facility in Canada.

I'm sorta convinced there is because the border  of United States and Canada is closed to non essential travel and it is only open for medical and health supplies like food, gasoline for cars, vaccines, medications, masks, etc. I don't think that includes streetlights.

Also I don't think Ottawa can afford to import every streetlight used considering that there are more than 70,000 streetlights in Ottawa and the big but ever expanding size of the city. That's too much to import and the price would be way too high.

I live in Canada. I should know whether or not a facility like the Leotek facility in Canada exists because I live there.

I have to ask, why? I don’t think there’s even a facility in Canada.

At best I think they have a warehouse which means they still have to import the lights from elsewhere to stock it. Anyway as for the border issues, again if you read my original post, the border remains open for all goods and I've had no trouble importing stuff like various HID lamps and miscellaneous fasteners.