<strong>Written By:</strong> Rural
<strong>Date:</strong> 2007-07-03 14:48:26
<a href="/article/114826435-239100-jobs-gone-for-good">Article Link</a>

"In the manufacturing sector it is very serious because we are finding a perfect storm," Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said in an interview.

From the beginning of 2004 until the end of May, Canada has lost 239,100 manufacturing jobs or almost 192 every day, according to Statistics Canada. Of those job losses, 148,000 were in Ontario.

Last week, Goodyear announced that its Collingwood hose manufacturing plant is closing, throwing 165 people out of work.

It is the second devastating blow to the Georgian Bay community where Alcoa Wheel Products recently announced it is shutting down its plant, which employs 330 people.

Automakers are among the hardest hit. CAW president Buzz Hargrove said the thousands of jobs being lost in the auto sector are "gone for good" and he holds out no hope that the Conservative government will take any steps to reverse the trend of offshore vehicles overwhelming the Canadian market.

In Windsor, for example, 17,000 auto assembly and parts manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past two years. Oshawa has also lost 7,000 parts manufacturing jobs in the last 12 months.

"It is a crisis ... it's the downsizing of the middle class," Hargrove said.

More:
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/article/231591">http://www.thestar.com/News/article/231591</a>









[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on July 5, 2007]

   

Bah! We don't need to manufacture stuff, do we? We're just hewers of wood. Heaven forbid we make our own furninture. Better to ship the raw logs to the US, they can turn them into wood to ship to China, and we can buy our stuff back as finished product cheaper than we could make it for!

Go NAFTA!



(sarcasm is only one of my specialties)

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

   

All this has been predicted, to the letter, 20 years ago.

When dear, Mulroney was interviewed by John Gray of the Toronto Star in June '83, this is what he said about "free trade":

"This country could never survive with the policy of unfettered free trade. I'm all in favour of eliminating unfair protectionism where it exists. This is a separate country. We'd be swamped. We have in many ways a branch plant economy in certain important sectors. All that would happen with that kind of concept would be the boys cranking up their plants throughout the US in bad times and shutting their branch plants in Canada. It's bad enough as it is"

Similar sentiments by Messrs.Clark, Wilson, Crombie and Gamble during the '83 leadership campaign.

A year later, the day after he was elected, Brian was on his way to Regan to get his orders and came back an enthusiastic free trade supporter.

In 1988, when Mulroney was reelected by 43% of the voters and the FTA was not even signed yet, but sure to pass, Gillette was the first corporation to close its factories in Toronto and Montreal, with 600 job losses.

I threw out all my Gillette products then and never bought any again. So, why do Canadians still support that first rat to jump from the sinking ship? The stores full of their products, now probably made in China.

Ed Deak.

   

Two days ago I went to the grocery store for supplies among them a box of toothpicks. When I got home I put everything away, and as I picked up the toothpicks, I found that they were made in China!!!!! WTF !, don't we have enough wood in Canada????? Last Christmas I gave all my grandchildren money because it's the only thing I could find that was made in CANADA!

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frenchy

   

The funny part of that is - the company that prints Canadian money is US owned.

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

   

Reminds me of an on air scuffle I got into with a local call in show host about 10 years back.

I said that it's better to "Buy Canadian", his reply was to say that if he can get it made cheaper overseas than from Canadian workers "being paid 18 dollars an hour", he'd do it.

Right about then I recall he cut me off and killed my line, then proceeded to attack my position without my being able to defend it.

Nice people, Right wingnut globalists.

I have yet to lose a fair fight with one.

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If George W. Bush and Tony Blair are really Christians, then pork and shrimp are Kosher.

   

Sarcasm or not, it is interesting that just a few miles south of the auto parts plants mentioned at Collingwood used to be a vibrant furniture industry! The making of quality Maple and Pine furniture has been a long tradition in this area going back to the 1800s, no longer. Over the last two or three years all but a few small plants have closed. In this area the only jobs to be had are "Professional" or "food services", young folk wishing to stay in the area dont stand a chance, and neither do those laid off from these plant closures!

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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp

   

Sorry guys, dont know what happened there!

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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp

   

Fixed 2 repeat posts.

You might have hit 'reload' while you were submitting, or 'Back' after submitting.

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

   

There are a couple 'furniture manufacturers' around here too, but they mostly consist of assembly lines that put together the pre cut and formed pieces from China together.

Everything comes in as parts, they just glue it together, spray some stain and it's out the door.

Or, you can go to a carpenter. Good work, good product, but there aren't many around.

It's really sad that not only are we losing these sorts of industries, but we are losing the skill sets too. Once these jobs go, the expertise also gets 're-trained' and lost.

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

   

I think that we could restart the forum section which showed Canadian
companies that we can buy from. Perhaps we need to really highlight 'this is
Canadian made', wherever we can find it. I remember when Albertan's had to
be careful buying made in the east wood products, because it is so dry in
Alberta as compared to Ontario, Quebec or the Maritimes. If you weren't
careful with the new wood it would crack, so you had to use alot of oil on it
etc. But now if our wood comes back to us from China, it must be treated
somehow so that climate doens't affect it. Of course the other side of that
story is, -if it cracks you'll have to replace it, which may be more of the plan.
Nothing is meant to last.

Perhaps we should start getting creative and start a real marketing campaign
to market ourselves, as both workers and consumers?

Good article Rural, thanks for posting it. Gets the mind going.

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"aaaah and the whisper of thousands of tiny voices became a mighty deafening roar and they called it 'freedom'!"' Canadians Acting Humanely at home & everywhere

   

As I keep on repeating, blame the universities for teaching this crap as "economics".

Just as the witch burners of the middle ages, the slave holders, the destroyers of ancient civilizations, the suicide bombers of today, have been quoting scriptures, claiming their crimes were "divinely ordained".

Until neoclassical market economics continue to rule the world, we shall be going down to self destruction in the name of "globalized wealth creation".

Ed Deak.

   

“Perhaps we need to really highlight 'this is Canadian made', wherever we can find it.”

Great idea, but I’m not sure we really want to know, I suspect it would be a VERY short list. As Dr C says we could find many products ASSEMBLED in Canada and we can still find at least some stuff GROWN in Canada. Now even “organic” food is coming from overseas where the controls are lower or non existent, “organic” is not the same as fresh when dealing with other than LOCAL suppliers.
The amount one can do to change things is minimal but supporting local businesses is probably more effective than trying to change things from the top down. Trouble is many of us (think of those folks just laid off) are forced to consider price and availability before looking for “Made in Canada”.
I could go on at great length on this subject, the loss of Canada’s ability to produce “value added” goods and the influx of cheap “food” from outside the country whilst our workers and farmers can’t make a living really gets me going. I may have to work up an “opinion” article, er…….. rant, on this, must do much digging for facts to back up my opinions first. LOL.


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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp

   

I certainly wouldn't deny where the 'blame' belongs...but after the
blame...then what?

I prefer not to stay in the who's done what to whom and move on -after we
know what the problem is and who's behind it then I desire solutions. So
these jobs are gone for good. The economists and their theory's are behind
the mentality that has created this destruction. We live with the result. So
what can we do to change our situation?

So while I agree with Rural, a made in Canada list might be short, but even a
short one might bring this matter to the awareness of our fellow Canadians.
Pointing out the difference between assembled in Canada and made in
Canada. Saying did you know? Here's the list.

I look forward to your opinion article Rural.

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"aaaah and the whisper of thousands of tiny voices became a mighty deafening roar and they called it 'freedom'!"' Canadians Acting Humanely at home & everywhere

   

I'm working on it, especialy after just seeing the ultimate insult in a local store. The Canadian Flag................
Made in China!

Wot the H.....

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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp