Manufacturing in Ontario Works: Pupatello

(Canadian Manufacturing – Mike Ouellette)

Two concrete messages came from the Revitalizing Canadian Manufacturing conference held yesterday at the Ted Rogers School of Management.

The first is that Canada desperately requires a national manufacturing policy similar to the policies enacted by all of the countries we compete against. This policy should contain sector-specific planning and be devised to encourage investment in emerging markets, not the overly-commoditized, ailing markets of years past – those have already been lost.

“You can’t create wealth in an economy by spinning people’s debt. You eventually have to make something people want to buy,” said Jayson Myers, president and chief economist for the Canadian Manufactures and Exporters.

Jim Stanford, an economist for the Canadian Autoworkers Union, says such a policy must include something for all sectors of manufacturing, citing the federal focus on the oil sands as an impediment to progress. “Digging stuff out of the ground and selling it to someone else to process makes you a ‘swack’ of money up front but doesn’t further the knowledge base, which is inherently more useful,” Stanford said. Read more here.