Spoiler Alert: Manufacturing Is Good for the Economy

A new report from the Columbia Institute reports that British Columbia would see “significant” economic benefits from building its ferries locally. In another report, April has once again followed March.

Unless this was a truly inspired April Fools’ Day joke, I’m not sure it was necessary.

After all, we shouldn’t need a report hammering home the importance of manufacturing to our economy any more than we need a report telling us that hockey and Tim Hortons coffee are popular. But c’est la vie.

The story here so far is that several companies have responded to the open bid to build three new ferries for the province’s waterways: Vancouver-based Seaspan Shipyards, as well as companies from Norway, Germany, Poland, and Turkey. Concerns have been raised, however, about Seaspan’s ability to produce these vessels because of how busy the company currently is.

It’s a nice problem to have, and one that many manufacturers would love to share.

Others have opined—including a local newspaper—that the ferries should be purchased at the lowest cost, no matter where they are built. Keeping the price of this purchase low is important to the local taxpayers, but the big-picture benefits to the province should also be examined.

According to Charley Beresford, executive director of the Columbia Institute, these benefits include boosting the province’s economy by more than $378 million and support for 1,100 local manufacturing and construction jobs. Government debt, both provincial and federal, would also be reduced by almost $100 million.

“Offshoring this massive program benefits other countries while leaving British Columbia, Canada, and BC Ferries’ customers shouldering ongoing debt and costs,” said Beresford.

It seems that nearly everything in this country is regulated by the government in some manner. Is it time for our leadership to demand that these infrastructure projects be built locally? Or are governments already doing enough by creating programs like Ontario’s FedDev?

Since its creation in 2009, FedDev Ontario has invested more than $1.1 billion in southern Ontario to support businesses, manufacturers, organizations, and communities.

According to Gary Goodyear, minister of state for FedDev Ontario, this program has also resulted in additional investments of more than $1.5 billion from almost exclusively nongovernment sources.

“Through FedDev Ontario, we are committed to delivering programming that meets the needs of this region’s businesses, manufacturers, and communities, giving them the right tools they need to make big ideas happen,” said Goodyear recently. “As manufacturing is a major economic sector for Ontario and Canada, we know that we can do more to make it more competitive and productive so that it can once again be an important economic driver for prosperity.”

Economic driver for prosperity. Fine words. Let’s build on them.