Canadian Manufacturers Call for Swift and Sustained Action at National Supply Chain Summit

OTTAWA, ON, Jan. 31, 2022 /CNW/ - Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) Monday called on the federal government to immediately speed up immigration to address severe labour shortages, and detailed short and long-term solutions to ease supply chain bottlenecks, including striking 60-day sector specific task forces to deal with the most pressing issues.

For the longer term, CME urged the government to accelerate investments in critical trade infrastructure, to aggressively increase economic class immigration targets, and to work closely with the U.S. to remove protectionist policies that hurt integrated manufacturing supply chains.

CME made its recommendations at the National Supply Chain Summit, which was convened by the federal government to address the supply chain crisis and consider actions to address issues that are barriers to the country's economic recovery.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra led the four-hour session that was also attended by International Trade Minister Mary Ng, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough, Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan and Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.

Dennis Darby, CME President and CEO, was joined by more than 30 other representatives from industry including manufacturing, agriculture, and business.

"Manufacturers have been feeling supply chain pressures for months now as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Darby. "Omicron, natural disasters in B.C., and the trucker vaccine mandate, have all added to the crisis. We applaud the government for sitting down with industry to hammer out fixes to these problems."

At the summit, CME urged the government to continue working with industry by setting up dedicated working groups that would deal with these challenges, identify specific problems, and come up with solutions. Later, the government announced that it would indeed convene a task force and further meetings to arrive at solutions.

Darby also asked the government to immediately:

• ·The government strike sector specific task forces to identify supply chain problems, their solutions, and that the government will commit to implementing the task force recommendations; 
• Address all transportation bottlenecks and avoid policies that will aggravate them further;
• Speed up immigration into Canada to fill vacant jobs in manufacturing and other key sectors;
• Government assistance for manufacturers still struggling with the impacts of supply chain disruptions

In CME's most recent Business Outlook Survey of the sector published in December, 88 per cent of manufacturers said suppliers' delivery times were slower than the year before; 77 per claimed that attracting and retaining a quality workforce was their greatest challenge, and 47 per cent of them said supply chain disruptions were their biggest barrier.

"Bottom line, there are many things Canada must do to tackle the supply chain problem. But it all starts with a firm commitment from government to work with industry to resolve these challenges. One meeting is not enough, and we are glad to see the government plans to continue the discussion." concluded Darby.

QUICK FACTS

• The manufacturing sector represents more than 10% of Canada's gross domestic product.
• Manufacturers directly support more than 1.7 million jobs in Canada.
• The total manufacturing sales in 2019 surpassed $685 B.

SOURCE Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

Ady Stefan Calin, Manager, Communications & Branding, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, C: 514-293-3765 | [email protected] | @CME_MEC