Bombardier To Launch Russian Factory As Layoffs Hit Canada

MONTREAL - Bombardier Inc. says it's close to finalizing an agreement to start producing its Q400 propeller-driven airliners in Russia.

A deal to establish a joint venture with state corporation Rostec could lead to some 100 turboprops, valued at US$3.4 billion at list prices, being built for the Russian market.

Manufacturing's Decline A Bigger Problem Than Housing Bubble: BMO

Heinz shuts down its plant in Leamington, Ont., laying off more than 700 and ending a 104-year-long presence in the town. Three weeks later, Kellogg’s shuts down its plant in London, Ont., erasing 500 jobs. Days after that, drugmaker Novartis announces its pharmaceutical plant in Mississauga will shut down, taking 300 jobs with it.

Add it all up, and what you have is the largest medium-term threat to Canada’s economy, BMO chief economist Doug Porter said in a client note this week.

Canadian Manufacturing Down 3.1% In December

OTTAWA - A seasonal pause by Ontario's auto industry, combined with weakness in a broad range of other sectors, pushed Canada's manufacturing sales in December to the biggest month-to-month decline in nearly four years.

Statistics Canada said Friday that sales fell in 16 of 21 industries, representing 82 per cent of the manufacturing sector.

Canada's Economic Diversity Fading, Economist Says

Canada’s economic diversity is fading, according to a commentary released Wednesday.

“It’s likely that the early days of Confederation were one of the only periods where the percentage of investment dedicated to natural resource extraction was as high, or higher, than it is today,” Will van‘t Veld, an economist with Edmonton-based bank ATB Financial.

Bombardier Buys Casablanca Property For Aerospace Facility

MONTREAL - Bombardier says it has bought land in Casablanca's tax-free zone near the airport for its new manufacturing facility that is set to open next year.

The Montreal-based aircraft manufacturer said it signed a deal with Moroccan property holding and management company Midparc Investment S.A. for the land in a free zone in Nouaceur.

Bombardier Aerospace president Guy Hachey said the selection of the site for the manufacturing facility is "an important first step" in establishing the world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer in the North African country.

Canada Auto Industry Returning To Pre-Recession Norms, Minus Jobs

Canada’s battered auto and transportation sector is bouncing back to life, but jobs in the sector aren't, new data suggests.

In a note to investors on Thursday afternoon, Bank of Montreal economist Robert Kavcic observed that capacity utilization in the auto industry rose to nearly 81 per cent in the first-quarter, not far off the pre-recession level of 83 per cent.

High loonie causing harm says Mulcair

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said Saturday that parts of the country are paying a price for the prosperity enjoyed by natural-resource sectors such as the oil-sands in Alberta, because of the way they raise the value of the Canadian dollar.

"It's by definition the 'Dutch disease,'" Mulcair said Saturday on the CBC Radio show The House.

The "Dutch disease" is a reference to what happened to the Netherlands economy in the 1960s after vast deposits of natural gas were discovered in the nearby North Sea.

The resulting rise in its currency was thought to have caused the collapse of the Dutch manufacturing sector, and Mulcair said the same thing is happening in Canada.

"The Canadian dollar's being held artificially high, which is fine if you're going to Walt Disney World, [but] not so good if you want to sell your manufactured product because the American clients, most of the time, can no longer afford to buy it."

The Canadian dollar has traded higher or close to parity with the U.S. dollar for most of this year. Mulcair cited Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick as some of the places affected by the high loonie.

But Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen, who was also on the show, said Mulcair was being divisive in his treatment of the oilsands.

She called it "old-style politics; trying to pit one part of the country against another."

Original Article
Source: the province
Author: Postmedia News

Manufacturing recovery lacks crucial element: jobs

When Maple Leaf Foods Inc. announced it would close five aging meat plants in Ontario and replace them with a single high-tech mega-plant in Hamilton, the move meant a loss of 1,550 jobs.

The new plant, with its highly automated processes, would be able to produce as many or more hot dogs and sliced meats at a much lower cost, making it more competitive with multinational rivals, the company said.

Welcome to the brave new world of manufacturing in Canada, where sales and exports are finally recovering from the recession but jobs on the plant floor continue to disappear.

Manufacturing sales have regained most of the ground lost during the recession, according to Statistics Canada.

But only a third of the lost manufacturing jobs have come back, according to Dina Cover, an economist with TD Economics.

Manufacturing now represents just 10 per cent of all employment in Canada down from a peak of 16 per cent in 2000, she noted.

Oil sands fuel a new manufacturing boom – in Alberta

At the Pipeline Alley Café, a sign in the busy diner promotes its signature dish – the Pipeliner, a monster two-patty burger heaped with bacon, cheese and mushrooms, complete with fries, for less than $10.

They think big in Nisku, a sprawling industrial complex just south of Edmonton – and they think a lot about pipes, which are fitted here into configurations that, in labyrinthine complexity, overshadow even the local eatery’s layered burger.

In the pock-marked roads outside the café, truckloads of raw steel pipe rumble in, and intricately connected pipe modules roll out, most of them destined for the oil sands near Fort McMurray, 600 kilometres to the north.

In the past few decades, Nisku, with a work force approaching 15,000, has grown from flat moose pasture to the pipe fabrication capital of Canada – and the massive marshalling yard for the great oil sands supply chain.

As Canadian dollar rose over 10 years, 500,000 factory jobs died

As the loon flies
A study by BMO Nesbitt Burns today marks the 10-year anniversary of the beginning of the Canadian dollar's return to grace from its 62-cent lows, and the impact associated with the rise.

Over the same period, notes deputy chief economist Douglas Porter, almost 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, offset by increases in the nation's resource industries. Canada's current account balance has tipped into deficit and its trade balance has eroded dramatically. And for investors, this "tectonic currency shift has caused an earthquake for relative returns."

Going forward, Mr. Porter and others project the loonie ()will remain strong as the factors buoying the currency persist. Among them are the weakening of the U.S. dollar, strong commodities prices and Canada's fiscal standing.

"It was 10 years ago this quarter that the Canadian dollar finally awoke from a multi-decade period of weakness to find itself at a record low of less than 62 cents (U.S.)," Mr. Porter writes.

"It then proceeded to rocket ahead by more than 70 per cent in less than six years, before wobbling heavily in the ensuing financial crisis and then finally settling back around parity (neatly up 62 per cent from the 62-cent low).

McGuinty Oil Sands Backlash: Ontario Premier Tries To Clarify Position, Admits Surprise At Blowback

TORONTO - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty tried Wednesday to turn down the heat generated by his comments earlier in the week about preferring a lower dollar to a growing oil and gas sector in Western Canada.

McGuinty admitted he was "a bit surprised" by the extent of the blowback from his comments Monday, when he said Canada's high "petro-dollar" was bad for Ontario manufacturers and exporters.

"I think I should clarify ... we are very, very proud of the work that is being done by Canadians in every province and territory to strengthen our country," McGuinty told reporters.

"We have a strong sense of partnership with Canadians from coast to coast to coast."

The mea culpa wasn't enough for Alberta Premier Alison Redford. Her position is that the entire Canadian economy, and Ontario in particular, benefits from the oilsands.

She told an open-line radio show that she felt her province was owed an apology from the Ontario premier.

She suggested McGuinty's original comments were born out of the difficult financial situation his government is in.

'Made in Canada' is hard to find

The  words 'Made in Canada' on products are hard to find  these days, not impossible, but hard.

Call me a nationalist, but I try to employ my neighbours when exercising my purchasing power.  My husband and I finally took the plunge recently and bought a couch at Barrymore to last us until our 50th wedding anniversary.  The best part about it was that it’s manufactured not 10 km from my home. Even the men who delivered the sofa work for the company and treated that couch with the respect it deserved.

Curtains for the master bedroom are next on my list, but replicating the couch purchase for ready-made-drapes is proving impossible. I can find cosmetics, toiletries and local fashion such as Cake and Fresh Collective - but it’s difficult finding home décor products made on this side of the Pacific.

 If I could sew, life would be dandy, but the last time I made curtains, an elderly neighbour examined them and exclaimed, “Dear, they’re beautiful! Here, let me take them home and fix them.” And she did. They still hang in my daughter’s bedroom.

Canada Manufacturing: Loonie's Decade-Long Soar Means Factories Won't Be Coming Back, CIBC Says

The outlook is grim for Canadian manufacturing, as a strong loonie is expected to keep labour costs high, deepening the hollowing out of the industrial heartland and boosting regional income inequality in the years ahead.

In a briefing note to investors on Tuesday, CIBC World Markets predicted that a robust Canadian dollar would drive more factory jobs south of the border, as the U.S. and Mexico continue to be seen as more “cost-effective” places to manufacture everything from automobiles to rail cars.

“[B]eyond the one-time recovery from cyclically depressed demand, the factory sector’s growth prospects look to be seriously impaired by the structural hit from a strong Canadian dollar,” economists Avery Shenfeld and Warren Lovely maintained. “Notwithstanding recent gains in manufacturing, plants will continue to be lost to international competitors.”

In their analysis, the economists detail how the rebound in the loonie has transformed the economic landscape since it dipped to an all-time monthly low of 62 cents against the U.S. dollar a decade ago, before moving to parity and beyond in recent years.

McGuinty’s ungracious response to Premier of Alberta’s appeal for support on Keystone XL pipeline

Dalton McGuinty, the Premier of Ontario, should not have responded ungraciously to an appeal by Premier Alison Redford of Alberta for solidarity from Ontario and Quebec, in the course of her speech on Friday to the Small Explorers and Producers Association on Friday. In particular, she wants the Premiers of the two Central Canadian provinces to help articulate the importance of the Keystone XL pipeline to the country as a whole.

“If I had my preferences,” said Mr. McGuinty – using the subjunctive mood to express what grammarians call a contrary-to-fact hypothesis – “as to whether we had a rapidly growing oil and gas sector in the West or a lower dollar, I’ll tell you where I stand: with the lower dollar.”

But Mr. McGuinty cannot enforce his preferences. Such exercises of the imagination are futile. There is of course a correlation between the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar and foreign demand for Canadian commodities, and a higher dollar means that Canadian goods – both manufactured products and natural resources – are more expensive. No politician, or anyone else for that matter, can alter this relationship – though opinions may legitimately differ on how much Ontario and Quebec manufacturers benefit from Western Canadian oil and gas.

If Mr. McGuinty favours an intervention by the Bank of Canada to lower the value of the Canadian dollar, he should address himself to its Governor, Mark Carney. He can hardly expect Albertan companies to decline to sell their petroleum products beyond Canada’s borders, or to lower their prices in order to reduce the foreign demand for Canadian dollars.

Canadian premiers are bound to have their differences, but they should not treat interprovincial relationships as a dog-eat-dog, zero-sum game.

Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: editorial

Canada Manufacturing Jobs: Sales Are Back, But 200,000 Jobs Are Missing

Canadian manufacturing sales may have rebounded to near pre-recession levels, but the same cannot be said of manufacturing employment.

New figures released by Statistics Canada on Thursday show that December marked the fifth increase in manufacturing sales in six months, with sales rising to $49.9 billion -- not far off the $50.2 billion logged in October 2008.

Manufacturing employment, however, shows little sign of bouncing back: over the same period, says Statscan analyst Vincent Ferrao, the sector posted a net loss of more than 200,000 jobs; in January, total manufacturing employment was 11 per cent lower than it was in the fall of 2008.

The relatively weak employment numbers highlight the legacy of a downturn that evaporated hundreds of thousands of jobs, and quickened the pace of a fundamental labour market shift.

Angelo DiCaro, a national communications representative for the Canadian Auto Workers’ union, characterizes the gap between the rebound in manufacturing sales and employment as “tremendous.”

Manufacturing faces bleak future as Caterpillar plant closes down

The closing of a locomotive plant in London, Ont., by U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar comes as the latest blow to Canada's struggling manufacturing sector.

Facing new competition from low-cost countries, a sluggish economic recovery and no longer able to count on a weak loonie to create a cost advantage, the sector faces a tough future.

Michael Burt, director for industrial economic trends at the Conference Board of Canada, said the manufacturing sector has been improving since the lows of the 2008-09 recession, but noted it faced difficulties long before the downturn.

“Before the recession, we saw no growth in broad manufacturing activity for much of the last decade,” he said pointing to the rising loonie and China's growing role as the world's factory as two key factors.
Mr. Burt said there have been some areas of growth in areas such as food manufacturing, but the more traditional segments such as the auto-parts industry have struggled in the face of competition from places like Mexico.

“That's been because we are a higher-cost market. That's a function of the strengthening dollar and the unit labour costs in the industry.”

Canada Manufacturing Jobs Disappearing At Twice The Pace Of U.S.: Report

Canada lost industrial plants at twice the pace of the United States last year, a new report says.

Industrial Info Resources, a business intelligence group, reported on Friday that Canada saw 79 industrial plant closings in 2011, costing nearly 14,000 jobs, while the U.S. saw 430 plant closings and 63,000 jobs lost.

Given the relative sizes of the U.S. and Canadian economies, this indicates that the pace of industrial plant closings, as well as job losses, is about twice as high in Canada as in the U.S.

Ontario led the decline in industrial plants, shedding 33 of them for a total of 7,853 jobs lost, the report stated. Quebec shed 23 plants, costing nearly 3,000 jobs. Western Canada and Atlantic Canada lost fewer than 2,000 industrial plant jobs each.