|
June 7, 2012
No wonder Tom Mulcair's comments on oil and gas were not taken kindly by Western
Canada premiers. Other than grain, the West has never had an economy that
depends on anything else but resource extraction.
Mulcair says that oil and gas exports have driven up the value of our dollar and
the result has been that our manufactured goods have been priced out of the
international marketplace: the so-called Dutch Disease. The politics may be
debatable but the facts are not.
As recently as 2001, Canada was self-sufficient in manufacturing. We exported as
much as we imported ($300 billion annually). Since then, 300,000 jobs have been
lost and our manufacturing deficit is $100 billion. Now we import goods from
China, Europe and Mexico. And since 2002, our dollar has increased by 60 per
cent. The two are arguably related.
Some say it's not exactly the Dutch Disease. A report from the Pembina
Institute, a resource think-tank originating in Alberta, agrees with Mulcair
that an oil-fueled dollar hurts other economic sectors but they prefer a
different name. "Canada has a unique strain of Dutch disease - oil sands fever,"
said co-author Dan Woynillowicz.
While Mulcair's comments have generated a lot of debate, it's his vision of
Canada as reflected by his comments that matters.
Prime Minister Harper has been clear about his vision. "We are an emerging
energy superpower," he said again to a Chinese audience in February this year.
"We want to sell our energy to people who want to buy our energy. It's that
simple." This vision benefits Western Canada but how does Central Canada fit in?
Well-paying jobs in the resource industry are a priority for Harper but not so
for manufacturing which has been hurt not only by our high dollar but by
government neglect. The PM has failed to protect manufacturing jobs in Canada
and he may pay a political price for his arrogance.
|
The abandonment of manufacturing in London, Ontario, is a prime example. The
U.S. owned Caterpillar Inc took over Electro-Motive in 2010 with no
government review through the Canada Investment Act that guarantees that the
takeover would be in the best interest of Canada. Despite record profits at
the plant and a productive, skilled workforce, Caterpillar locked-out
workers unless they accepted one-half the wages. When the union balked, the
plant was shut down and 420 workers were left unemployed; three times that
many lost in related jobs. Caterpillar intends to move the plant to Indiana
where wages are much less.
Can you imagine Japan, Germany or Korea tolerating the way Caterpillar
walked over Canada, wonders economist Jim Stanford: "where a global giant
buys an important and profitable industrial asset, no conditions attached,
and then attacks so aggressively the well-being of domestic workers and the
future of the factory itself?
Western premiers correctly state that when the resource sector creates
well-paying jobs that all Canada benefits through transfer payments to other
provinces. The same is true of our manufacturing sector. Why send unrefined
bitumen to other countries, exporting jobs, when it could be refined in
Canada says a frustrated former premier of Alberta, Peter Lougheed. "We
should be refining the bitumen in Alberta and we should make it public
policy in the province," he said in opposition to the Keystone X-L pipeline.
Mulcair offers a vision of Canada in which all Canadians work towards a
prosperous economy. That's what the leader of the opposition should do.
Voter choice between these two visions should be a worry for the Harper
Conservatives.
David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at
dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca
|
