October’s Manufacturing Month celebrations delivered a good-news, bad-news story for the sector in B.C.
The good news, as Marcus Ewert-Johns pointed out during an October 27 BC Hydro innovation forum: manufacturing is an extremely diverse sector in the province. Its 12,000 companies and 750,000 employees are involved in everything from printing and food production to electronics and machinery.
The B.C. vice-president of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters also pointed out that it accounts for 63% of the province’s exports and provides one-third of all business taxes paid to the province.
The ailing Canadian dollar is helping make goods manufactured here a relative bargain in the wider world. But that weak dollar also raises the cost of investing in imported technological upgrades, and, as Ewert-Johns told conference attendees, too many B.C. companies failed to invest in that technology when the Canadian dollar was strong. The sector also faces a skilled labour shortage and a worsening leadership experience deficit as more baby boomer executives retire.
Add advanced robotics, collaborative platforms and other disruptive technologies to Canada’s traditionally timid approach to international competition, and the bad-news story for manufacturing gets worse.
As a Deloitte presentation at the same forum pointed out, 87% of Canadian companies surveyed by the professional services firm are not prepared for disruption from advanced technology, but 43% believe they’re more prepared than they are. A Vancity survey also found many small-business owners ill-prepared to compete and grow in the new world order: only 35% had a social media presence, and less than a third had a business plan.
Back to the good news: the province’s manufacturing sector, buoyed by the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other free trade agreements, has huge growth potential. Realizing that potential, however, will require something that most British Columbians have yet to embrace: a commitment to innovation, collaboration and ambition from shop floor to boardroom and throughout the B.C. legislature.
