Take Your Lawyer’s Advice … Do Business in Canada

Running a business is a difficult undertaking. Running a successful business is even harder. Owners and managers often face financial, human resource, and marketing crises before they can enjoy their first sip of morning coffee. Adding variables that are unique to Canada, such as inclement weather and hockey-related absenteeism, can make the job downright unenviable.

That’s why business owners need to rely on outside agencies to keep their operations running smoothly. All levels of government, academia, and private enterprise need to be in manufacturing’s corner to keep it strong across the country. Here’s a quick look at how they’re doing recently.

The Government. The big-talkers typically act like children fighting over the inheritance of a not-yet-deceased benefactor, but they’ve actually been helping out by reducing corporate taxation in recent years. The corporate tax rate in Canada (26.5 percent) is lower than western manufacturing powerhouses Germany (29.58 percent) and the U.S. (40 percent).

Academia. The big-thinkers may need a wake-up call. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills are degrading across the country, and those guiding the youth of today don’t yet realize the country needs more builders and fewer baristas.

Skills Canada has estimated that the country will be short 1 million skilled trade workers by 2020. This is alarming news when you consider that a recent Skills Canada poll showed that 60 percent of polled youth said their parents have not encouraged them to consider a career in trades, and 71 percent said guidance counselors had not brought up skilled-trades professions as a career path.

Private Business. The big-spenders may be our last, best hope. Even the lawyers are getting onboard. It’s always unexpected when lawyers do a good deed; it’s like finding money in the pocket of a coat not worn in months.

Our opinions of lawyers may stem from too many years of watching late-night commercials featuring ambulancechasing attorneys and slip-and-fall solicitors, but no matter the cause, we tend to think of lawyers in a negative manner.

Now, however, legal giant Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG), a company with its finger on the pulse of the intellectual property protection game, is touting Canada as a manufacturer’s dream spot.

It its recent “10 Reasons to Consider Entering the Canadian Market,” BLG cited a KMPG study that showed the costs of running a business here are the second-lowest among the 11 countries that it profiled in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. And, for the fifth consecutive year, the World Economic Forum rated Canada’s banking system as the world’s soundest.

Closer to BLG’s wheelhouse, the company also stated that Canada offers businesses effective intellectualproperty protection and enforcement, open competition, transparent government-procurement practices, and openness to high-skill immigration.

While they can’t all be good ones like Atticus Finch and Ben Matlock, these lawyers are OK by me.

About the Author
Canadian Metalworking

Joe Thompson

Editor

416-1154 Warden Avenue

Toronto, M1R 0A1 Canada

905-315-8226

Joe Thompson has been covering the Canadian manufacturing sector for nearly two decades. He is responsible for the day-to-day editorial direction of the magazine, providing a uniquely Canadian look at the world of metal manufacturing.

An award-winning writer and graduate of the Sheridan College journalism program, he has published articles worldwide in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, pharmaceutical, medical, infrastructure, and entertainment.