Saskatchewan’s manufacturing sector is clearly marching to its own beat but it seems a little off-key when compared to the rest of the country.
Manufacturing plants and factories has been serving as a stabilizer for Saskatchewan’s economy over the last few years – steadily generating exaggerated revenues disproportionate to the size of our economy. But now we seem to have fallen back into a more normal realm.
The latest figures show our manufacturers had the biggest slowdown of any province in the country in the past year. That was highlighted by February where sales fell almost 13 per cent compared to January, leaving us seven per cent behind last year.
StatsCan says the February decline can be attributed to a reduction in farm machinery and chemical production, not a surprise given that much of the inventory for this year’s crop would have been shipped to distributors by then.
And the decline was spread across the board. Both Saskatoon and Regina posted double-digit pullbacks in the 20 per cent range in February, the only cities to see double-digit reductions.
