The manufacturing sector in Saskatchewan was marching to its own drum as last year wound down.
Revenue figures for December of last year have just been compiled by Statistics Canada and they were down across the country as sales fell back in eight provinces. Saskatchewan and Newfoundland were the odd ones out by posting increases.
For Saskatchewan, manufacturing has been a strong performer for several years as our output is in demand these days. Revenues for the sector routinely exceed a couple billion dollars a month so it is big stuff in an economy the size of ours.
December’s two per cent increase over November in the province resulted in total growth of almost 26 per cent for all of 2022. Only Newfoundland and Labrador exceeded that mark while big market such as Ontario and Quebec were posting single digit increases.
But it was Regina that was the star performer last year as manufacturers in the Queen City posted sales increases of almost 38 per cent, which was number one among cities in the country, while Saskatoon factories saw revenue growth of almost 15 per cent, ranking it fifth ahead of Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
