The low productivity of Canadian companies threatens our living standards

[daftandbarmy]

Huge wages for lower skilled labour, and well meaning but self-destructive environmental and other policies, also kill businesses and therefore local jobs.

The bigger businesses, many of them internationally diversified, will go elsewhere until the conditions change.

In the meantime, you can push burgers at the A&W if you like, go on EI or Welfare, or ask Greta if she's hiring

PG Pulp union president blames B.C.'s forestry policies for mill closure​

Job losses could take $30 million out of local economy

The president of the local representing unionized workers losing their jobs as the result of Canfor’s decision this week to close its Prince George Pulp division blames the move on “failed forestry policy.”

“Starting with the Liberals when they changed the forests code to recently the old-growth deferrals to recently the caribou habitat stuff, which has directly impacted Canfor and Canfor Pulp because that’s right in their fibre basket and taking that wood away has definitely put pressure on them,” said Chuck LeBlanc, Local 9 president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada (also known as the Len Shankel local).

“Two years ago, lumber prices went through the roof and now they can’t even produce it and make up the costs. On top of that, we have five million cubic metres of raw log exports shipped overseas. That’s (the annual output of) eight to 10 sawmills and it affects the pulp mills after that and it’s happening year after year. We need to change what we’re presently doing, otherwise we’re going to lose a lot more jobs in this area.”

Some of those job losses will be absorbed through early retirement packages, but the economic impact on the city will be huge, just in lost salaries alone. LeBlanc said all 300 mill employees make at least $100,000 annually and that works out to a minimum of $30 million in lost wages.

“It was a surprise, but it wasn’t a surprise,” he said.“I think the writing was on the wall. We’ve got five big pulp mills (three in Prince George, two in Quesnel) that consume a lot of fibre and something had to give. You always hope it’s not going to be your mill but here we are now. It’s a big loss to this community. You’re looking at probably a thousand job losses by the time everything shakes out, from contractors and suppliers and you name it, just people out shopping downtown, it will be a large impact to the Prince George area.”

LeBlanc said the union and the company have been meeting to discuss adjustment plans and what government programs are available to support the affected workers and he’s been focusing on getting that information out to his membership.

PG Pulp union president blames B.C.'s forestry policies for mill closure

Job losses could take $30 million out of local economy

www.princegeorgecitizen.com

 

[Spencer100]

Huge wages for lower skilled labour, and well meaning but self-destructive environmental and other policies, also kill businesses and therefore local jobs.

The bigger businesses, many of them internationally diversified, will go elsewhere until the conditions change.

In the meantime, you can push burgers at the A&W if you like, go on EI or Welfare, or ask Greta if she's hiring

PG Pulp union president blames B.C.'s forestry policies for mill closure​

Job losses could take $30 million out of local economy

The president of the local representing unionized workers losing their jobs as the result of Canfor’s decision this week to close its Prince George Pulp division blames the move on “failed forestry policy.”

“Starting with the Liberals when they changed the forests code to recently the old-growth deferrals to recently the caribou habitat stuff, which has directly impacted Canfor and Canfor Pulp because that’s right in their fibre basket and taking that wood away has definitely put pressure on them,” said Chuck LeBlanc, Local 9 president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada (also known as the Len Shankel local).

“Two years ago, lumber prices went through the roof and now they can’t even produce it and make up the costs. On top of that, we have five million cubic metres of raw log exports shipped overseas. That’s (the annual output of) eight to 10 sawmills and it affects the pulp mills after that and it’s happening year after year. We need to change what we’re presently doing, otherwise we’re going to lose a lot more jobs in this area.”

Some of those job losses will be absorbed through early retirement packages, but the economic impact on the city will be huge, just in lost salaries alone. LeBlanc said all 300 mill employees make at least $100,000 annually and that works out to a minimum of $30 million in lost wages.

“It was a surprise, but it wasn’t a surprise,” he said.“I think the writing was on the wall. We’ve got five big pulp mills (three in Prince George, two in Quesnel) that consume a lot of fibre and something had to give. You always hope it’s not going to be your mill but here we are now. It’s a big loss to this community. You’re looking at probably a thousand job losses by the time everything shakes out, from contractors and suppliers and you name it, just people out shopping downtown, it will be a large impact to the Prince George area.”

LeBlanc said the union and the company have been meeting to discuss adjustment plans and what government programs are available to support the affected workers and he’s been focusing on getting that information out to his membership.

PG Pulp union president blames B.C.'s forestry policies for mill closure

Job losses could take $30 million out of local economy

www.princegeorgecitizen.com

The Current NDP and their old industrial Union partners are in a dysfunctional marriage. If not outright abuse when they have government. The average rank and file member is already starting the checkout.

 

[CBH99]

Yes but this is a different issue to the productivity problem. Corporate Canada is very risk adverse, stemming all the way back the start with the United Empire loyalist etc. But part of the problem is the market to South and the ease of Capital. When a Canadian company gets to big there is not enough capital (human and money) in this country. The companies have to sell out. All look at the market problems like when Nortel then RIM at the top. Outside of financials what world beating companies are located here now? The biggest one of the only world class you and one most have never hear of Alimentation Couche-Tard. Others are ThompsonReuters, and Magna. That's it. You can have a class for Brookfield. But its still financial.

Here I will give you an example. One public company we compete with now has 80% of the Canadian market (We have like 1%) . They were (before covid) having a hard time to show growth the stock market wants. They can't get more dollars in their many market because they have most of them. At the time they were also 3 or 4 largest in the world because their Canada market concentration. At industry conferences I asked them (its a friendly fun indusrty mostly) Well when are you going to make the jump? What? The Jump to the US. They then look horrified and said never its too tough there (as they have had some past dealing in the US) One Americans fight harder and two we would never get away with what we do here, costumers and government wouldn't allow it. Telling me all this as his white snowflake jewelry on his lapel shone at me. LOL. Then just before COVID they made a deal to sell the whole to an international megacorp. Deal died because of COVID. But there is Canada in a nut shell. Protected by government and too timid to go big.

Mind boggling...

Too timid to try to enter a market with 320+ million people because they are afraid they might fail...

Even if they don't 'make it big' and take as much of a market share as they hoped, its not like sales would go down at all...


(Is Brookfield Canadian? My girlfriend's workplace was recently purchased by Brookfield via hostile takeover, and I was under the impression they were American?)

 

[Spencer100]

Mind boggling...

Too timid to try to enter a market with 320+ million people because they are afraid they might fail...

Even if they don't 'make it big' and take as much of a market share as they hoped, its not like sales would go down at all...


(Is Brookfield Canadian? My girlfriend's workplace was recently purchased by Brookfield via hostile takeover, and I was under the impression they were American?)

Brookfield is Canadian. It's the old Brascan. Started over a 100 years ago in San Paulo Brazil as Brazilian Traction light and Power.

Almost a trillion dollars under management.

 

[CBH99]

Brookfield is Canadian. It's the old Brascan. Started over a 100 years ago in San Paulo Brazil as Brazilian Traction light and Power.

Almost a trillion dollars under management.

Thanks for clarifying that for me. The impression I got from her work colleagues was they are all under the impression it’s American

 

[Brad Sallows]

I have no idea what status quo is, but the what-do-Canadian-companies-own question comes up repeatedly. A few decades about when worry about foreign acquisitions in Canada was enjoying a moment in the sun, one of the pieces of information that emerged was that Canadian companies were doing their own fair share of making foreign acquisitions elsewhere.

 

[Brad Sallows]

A (surprising?) UBI from Reason.com that might mean things are not entirely awful in Canada.

"Researchers at the Mercatus Center's RegData unit have found that the United States leads the industrial world in imposing command-and-control regulation instead of allowing markets to achieve desired outcomes. As of the end of 2021 (the last year analyzed), the United States had 1,094,447 regulatory restrictions in the Code of Federal Regulation. By comparison, in 2021, Australia had 238,528 federal regulatory restrictions on the books, and Canada had only 89,569."

 

[Eaglelord17]

A (surprising?) UBI from Reason.com that might mean things are not entirely awful in Canada.

"Researchers at the Mercatus Center's RegData unit have found that the United States leads the industrial world in imposing command-and-control regulation instead of allowing markets to achieve desired outcomes. As of the end of 2021 (the last year analyzed), the United States had 1,094,447 regulatory restrictions in the Code of Federal Regulation. By comparison, in 2021, Australia had 238,528 federal regulatory restrictions on the books, and Canada had only 89,569."

Lack of quantity of regulations doesn’t always mean lack of scope.

Those million regulations could all be relatively small in scope well our 89,569 could be massive in scope. Another thing to consider is that is just federal regulations, the provinces would have a significant amount of regulations for each province as well.

 

[Brad Sallows]

If the scope is egregious, businesses simply will choose not to operate within the scope. A significant problem for businesses is keeping of track of what applies - a problem large corporations that can afford legal departments are more capable of enduring. More regulations == more difficult to be confident of compliance.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Lack of quantity of regulations doesn’t always mean lack of scope.

Those million regulations could all be relatively small in scope well our 89,569 could be massive in scope. Another thing to consider is that is just federal regulations, the provinces would have a significant amount of regulations for each province as well.

Canada's regulations aren't perfect, but honestly they overall aren't bad, and the more recent ones are specifically trying to use plain language. If you read some of the older ones they can be pretty painful. The plus side with them being in both French and English is that French is much more precise so leaves less room for misinterpretation.

Don't forget in the US you have both federal and state regulations as well, and the ones I've seen have a ton of obfuscating legalese. I think it might be on purpose to a certain extent; if nothing else it further entrenches the necessity for lawyers and is a form of job protection for the profession and also makes it harder for normal people and small businesses to fight against it, so keeps the scales tilted for the big players (who are also big donors).

You also can't forget about municipal regulations and bylaws; those can be similarly confusing.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

In the early 2000's we had our national conference for our program. A very experienced Officer who was quite bilingual noted some of our arguments and took a deep look at both the English and French version of our Act and pointed out that some sections said totally different things. Eventually they had to issue policy on those sections to meld the two versions to a common thread, till the Act was changed. That being said the writers of the previous Acts assumed a level of intelligence by the people enacting it and gave greater latitude to the enforcement. The goal now is to remove discretion and make it so a trained monkey can do it by following the mapped out process. The problem with that is it does not accommodate regional differences.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

It is well known in certain circles that low productivity can be counteracted with high-minded rhetoric, and empty announcements.

Problem solved.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Translation: Yeah, we're pretty much screwed...

Economic Survey of Canada - 6 March 2023​

Global price pressures beset Canada’s economy just as unemployment was nearing record lows amid a strong recovery from the pandemic.

Policymakers face the challenge of reining in inflation without causing a recession. Strong revenues have reduced fiscal deficits even as the federal government has extended living-cost relief and announced measures to make housing and childcare more affordable.

But multi-year spending commitments will make it hard to sustain budget improvements without improved tax and spending efficiency.

Moreover, for Canada to escape years of weak investment and tepid productivity growth, reforms to improve the business climate are overdue.

The challenge is to lift living standards with minimal environmental impact. Canada aims to eliminate its net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Achieving this in a resource-intensive economy requires strong incentives to phase out fossil-fuel use and encourage energy saving.

To spur decarbonisation, the federal climate strategy deploys a mix of emissions pricing, green technology support and regulations.

The focus should turn now to improving mitigation tools so that they work better together while addressing remaining barriers to low-cost abatement.

Canada’s federal and sub-national governments must align efforts on delivering efficient and fair measures to reduce emissions and prepare communities for climate change.

https://www.oecd.org/economy/canada-economic-snapshot/

And then there's this:

More policy focus is needed on productivity-enhancing reform. Population increase, underpinned by high levels of immigration, will continue to be an important driver of growth in Canada’s economy in the years ahead. But long-term improvement in living standards will require higher productivity. Lacklustre productivity growth since 2015 saw gaps in per capita GDP widen between Canada and better-performing economies, including the United States. Reversing this trend, which coincided with weak business investment after the 2014 oil price collapse, demands reform efforts equal to those behind recent social policy advances. Removing barriers to trade between provinces would improve the business environment. Regulations and technical standards impede flows of goods and services across Canada’s internal borders as well as the performance of regional labour markets. Separately, stringent foreign ownership limits in network sectors – including telecommunications – directly restrict foreign direct investment. The rules should be reviewed.

Canada: five messages from the latest OECD Economic Survey

The latest Economic Survey finds Canada needs to tame inflation, further build fiscal buffers, strengthen productivity and prioritise the green transition.

oecdecoscope.blog

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Huh. I wonder what happened in 2015 to kill productivity….

 

[daftandbarmy]

Huh. I wonder what happened in 2015 to kill productivity….

 

[daftandbarmy]

More good news.... for government

B.C. businesses eating $6.5B in government-imposed costs over three years: report​

B.C. businesses are on the hook for billions associated with government-imposed costs, a report has found.

A Greater Vancouver Board of Trade report, Counting the Costs: Assessing Economic Challenges for Businesses in British Columbia, has identified a significant cost increase for businesses, amounting to nearly $6.5 billion between 2022 and 2024.

These cost increases include the corporate tax rate, the payroll tax imposed just prior to the pandemic, new paid sick leave, and the business portion of the escalating carbon tax.

Greater Vancouver Board of Trade president and CEO Bridgitte Anderson said small and medium-sized B.C. businesses are being disproportionately affected by higher interest rates and rising costs.

Those have amounted to a direct increase in costs directly imposed by governments of $6.5 billion between 2022 and 2024, she said.

“We’re calling on the government to take a sharp pencil to paper and look at ways to really reduce costs for businesses,” Anderson said.

“When it comes to the increasing cost of the carbon tax we’re saying like take some of those funds and really ensure we are putting it into innovation and make sure we’re driving clean energy … removing the PST from software and equipment would be really helpful,” she added.

“And also really importantly, increasing the (payroll) threshold for the Employer Health Tax to a threshold of $1.5 million, which would put it in line with other jurisdictions like Manitoba.”

The report broke down the cost total as follows:

• Net health taxes $4 billion
• Corporate income tax $1.6 billion
• Paid sick leave $1.2 billion
• Business share of carbon tax $515 million

Businesses are gaining around 873 million in savings related to SME tax rate and PST on non-residential electricity, the report said.

B.C. businesses eating $6.5B in government-imposed costs over three years: report | Globalnews.ca

The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade says significant government-imposed costs, amounting to nearly $6.5 billion, will be shouldered by B.C. businesses between 2022 and 2024.

globalnews.ca

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Of course I could play Devils Advocate of how much government and taxpayers pay to cleanup after many industries, who failed to ensure there were funds for such work.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Of course I could play Devils Advocate of how much government and taxpayers pay to cleanup after many industries, who failed to ensure there were funds for such work.

Mt Polley enters the chat

B.C. taxpayers on the hook for $1.2 billion in mine cleanup costs: chief inspector report | The Narwhal

Companies can operate mines in the province without any assurance they can cover the full costs of reclamation activities and a new annual report — which finds liabilities have grown to $2.8 billion — is emboldening calls for regulatory reform

thenarwhal.ca

 

[Spencer100]

I have no idea what status quo is, but the what-do-Canadian-companies-own question comes up repeatedly. A few decades about when worry about foreign acquisitions in Canada was enjoying a moment in the sun, one of the pieces of information that emerged was that Canadian companies were doing their own fair share of making foreign acquisitions elsewhere.

Canadian world class companies is it the lowest point in years.

Of course I could play Devils Advocate of how much government and taxpayers pay to cleanup after many industries, who failed to ensure there were funds for such work.

The entire wind farm business whistling we can't hear you in Ont.

When you drive on the 401 in southwestern Ont or else where start counting. Then for everyone x $1,000,000.00 for each one. That is a future unfunded liability to the ratepayers and taxpayers in Ontario. There is no accounting for removal of the turbines or towers. They have a 25 year life at this point. They may be able to extend.

 

[RangerRay]

Mt Polley enters the chat

B.C. taxpayers on the hook for $1.2 billion in mine cleanup costs: chief inspector report | The Narwhal

Companies can operate mines in the province without any assurance they can cover the full costs of reclamation activities and a new annual report — which finds liabilities have grown to $2.8 billion — is emboldening calls for regulatory reform

thenarwhal.ca

I used to live in the area and work in the area immediately surrounding the mine. The whole Quesnel Lake area was beautiful and not overrun with tourists. I was absolutely gutted by the destruction that occurred and am still floored that under BC’s regulatory system, no one could be held accountable.