CME releases report providing provincial strategy to support Ontario’s manufacturing sector

The Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) organization has released its Ontario Manufacturers’ Platform for Prosperity, which outlines a provincial strategy to try and restore Ontario’s manufacturing sector to a leading position. This plan, which is based on three pillars – workforce, business costs, and scale-up – is described by CME officials as being “crucial to Ontario’s prosperity and to ability to stay competitive.”

“Ontario has been lagging for several years despite it being Canada’s largest manufacturing province, accounting for 45 per cent of the country’s manufacturing output and about 50 per cent of its manufacturing exports,” CME said in an April 22 news release. “With a slow decline in investment since the early 2000s and little growth in exports, the erosion of Ontario’s industrial competitiveness is having a direct impact on manufacturers’ ability to grow.”

A recent survey by CME showed that 82 per cent of manufacturers are experiencing labour shortages, and that the high cost of doing business in Ontario is also causing limitations.

CME listed a “2 % challenge” – for Canada to secure two per cent of OECD manufacturing investment by the end of the decade, and for Ontario to get its fair share of this activity – $18 billion annually. To accomplish the challenge, CME says, the three pillars of its Platform for Prosperity need to be addressed are:

• Labour shortages/get manufacturers the workers we need;
• Lower the cost of doing business; and
• Support business scale-up and investment.

“The manufacturing sector is critical to Ontario, and we need to act decisively to re-establish our leading position,” said CME president and CEO Dennis Darby. “Following consultations with our members, we have identified solutions to help Ontario’s manufacturers reclaim their rightful place on the world stage and to create a strategy that will enable Ontario’s manufacturing sector to grow and thrive. However, for manufacturers to be ready to meet the challenges ahead, we need the provincial government to be a true partner.”